Improving business innovation and research through the application of neuromarketing with ethics: a framework

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to analyse and to discuss the ethical issues in the field of research known as neuromarketing, a tool used to improve innovation in companies. It uses techniques available to neuroscientists, both newer and more sophisticated ones along with traditional ones, but now for new purposes. From the beginning, this new area has evoked discussions about ethical aspects related to the results presented. Despite the unrestricted controversy surrounding the theme, few studies have discussed ethical issues involved in this line of research in a pragmatic manner. In this sense, this paper seeks to analyse and discuss ethical issues in neuromarketing research through a literature review and the proposal for a framework of ethical mapping. This framework revealed the ethical implications that would be most prominent in certain research situations: the purpose of utilising neuromarketing techniques, organisational type, and industrial sector, among others.