If a friendship with an applicant could interfere with a hiring decision, this is typically referred to as: A personal conflict of interest. An institutional conflict of interest. A financial conflict of interest. Research misconduct.

A personal conflict of interest.

Explanation:

A personal conflict of interest is a situation where an employee or even an employer becomes bias or has his/her loyalty questionable because the loyalty has to now compete between the firm's interests and the personal interests of the person being described here. A friend who is an applicant and can interfere with the hiring process is evidently a personal conflict of interest.

An institutional conflict of interest is when a company's interests or that of officials from the institution interfere with the company's research activities or business transactions.

The interests could be financial or non financial.

Financial conflict of interest arises when financial interests interfere with a firm's decision on some issues. Example of such issues are research activities or pollution control or health cleanup avtivities.

And research misconduct as it is, means any type of wrongful method/process followed during a research process. Could be misappropriation of funds, unethical methods of research, etc.

answer; correct answer is investing activity;