Abstract: The successful cases of“generating profits with righteousness”in the marketing practice of Chinese enterprises go beyond the explanatory scope of the existing marketing theories that focus on pursuing maximum economic profits. Using the classic grounded theory method, this paper selects three companies as samples that can still achieve counter trend growth in traditional marketing failure scenarios to propose and construct the concept and dimensions of“ethical marketing”. Research has shown that adhering to an organic holistic worldview, ethical marketing conceptualizes the relationships between people, between people and society, and between people and nature into three core dimensions: coexistence of human relationships, adherence to social norms, and coexistence of ethical relationships. Ethical marketing not only breaks through the limitations of green marketing, ethical marketing, and other aspects of business level, subjectivity, and individuality, but also realizes the creative transformation and innovative development of ethical thinking in the field of marketing in the context of Chinese culture, promoting the collaborative coexistence of employees, enterprises, society, and nature.

Key words: ethical marketing, grounded theory, making profits with righteousness, ethics