Consumers' Punishment and Rewarding Process via Purchasing Behavior

While there have been many studies of the ethical behavior ofmanagers, little research investigated the ethical beliefs andideologies of consumers. Moreover, even less is known about therelationship between consumer beliefs and ideology and purchasingbehavior. The present study investigates the exte...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Nebenzahl, Israel D. (Author) ; Jaffe, Eugene D. (Author) ; Kavak, Bahtisen (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Springer Science + Business Media B. V 2001
In: Teaching business ethics
Year: 2001, Volume: 5, Issue: 3, Pages: 283-305
Further subjects:B Locus of control
B economic consequences
B moral expectations
B moral revenue
B Ethical Ideology
B Consumer ethics
B Moral Intensity
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
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Summary:While there have been many studies of the ethical behavior ofmanagers, little research investigated the ethical beliefs andideologies of consumers. Moreover, even less is known about therelationship between consumer beliefs and ideology and purchasingbehavior. The present study investigates the extent to whichconsumers punish or reward what they perceive as either a firm'sethical or unethical behavior. The research model was tested onsamples of Israeli and Turkish respondents. The results indicatethat personal economic benefit, ideology (idealism versusrelativism), economic cost to others and locus of control explainconsumer reaction to ethical, purchasing dilemmas. Moralexpectations did not influence whether a consumer would purchasein a store offering an unethical proposition. Apparently,material gain, if large enough, outweighs one's moralpredisposition. Idealists were found to be less likely topurchase in an unethical store situation. The Turkish respondentswere more concerned with economic cost to others than the Israelirespondents, apparently owing to cultural differences between thetwo groups. Finally, those respondents having higher internallocus of control were found to be more ethical.
ISSN:1573-1944
Contains:Enthalten in: Teaching business ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1023/A:1011445922260