Browse > Article

An Exploratory Study on the Ethical Attitudes of Consumers in Consumption Situations;based on the Consumer Ethics Scale  

Jung, Hyo-Sun (Dept. Culinary Science and Arts, KyungHee University)
Yoon, Hye-Hyun (Dept. Culinary Science and Arts, KyungHee University)
Publication Information
Korean journal of food and cookery science / v.24, no.1, 2008 , pp. 1-10 More about this Journal
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the ethical attitudes of consumers in consumption situations by using the consumer ethics scale(CES). Self-administrated questionnaires were completed by 492 consumers, and the resulting data were analysed by frequency, chi-square, one-way ANOVA, factor analysis, reliability analysis, and cluster analysis. We found four different groups of consumers were identified according to their ethical attitudes in consumption situations: 1) the unethical onlooker consumer group, 2) the socialized unethical consumer group, 3) the ethical consumer group, and 4) the severely unethical consumer group. The unethical onlooker consumer group was most widespread prevalent among university students who were in their 20s and down or under, and who received spending money from their parents, and the socialized unethical consumer group was most prevailing prevalent among the higher educated consumers. The women who consumers slightly outnumbered men in an the ethical consumer group, slightly outnumbered the men who did, and many of the university-educated large income earners fell into this group consumed in that way as well. The severely unethical consumer group was quite uncommon among those who were at the age of 41 and up over, and not many of the higher educated people and larger income earners consumed in an the severely unethical consumer group, either. Thus, it's proven this study proves that in terms of the propensity to consume, the consumers' were different from one another in ethical attitudes and behaviors differ according to their demographic characteristics.
Keywords
consumer; consumer ethics scale; ethical attitude; consumption situation;
Citations & Related Records
연도 인용수 순위
  • Reference
1 Albers-Miller, N. 1999. Consumer misbehavior : Why people buy illicit goods. Journal of Consumer Marketing 16(3):273-287   DOI   ScienceOn
2 Al-Khatib JA, Dobie K, Vitell SJ. 1995. Consumer ethics in developing countries: An empirical investigation. Journal of Euro-Marketing 4(2):87-109   DOI
3 Ferrell OC, Skinner SJ. 1988. Ethical behavior and bureaucratic structure in marketing research organizations. Journal of Marketing Research 25(Feb):103-109   DOI   ScienceOn
4 Fleckenstein MP, Huebsch P. 1999. Ethics in tourism-reality or hallucination. Journal of Business Ethics 19(1):137-142   DOI   ScienceOn
5 Fullerton S, Kerch KB, Dodge HR. 1996. Consumer ethics: An assessment of individual behavior in the market place. Journal of Business Ethics 15(7):805-814   DOI
6 Rawwas MYA. 1996. Consumer ethics: An empirical investigation of the ethical beliefs of Austrian consumers. Journal of Business Ethics 15(9):1009-1019
7 Shin CY. 2004. Business ethics and consumer ethics in fashion industries. Sungshin Woman's University Doctor Theory pp.1-276
8 Swaidan Z, Rawwas MYA, Al-Khatib JA. 2004. Consumer ethics: Moral ideologies and ethics beliefs of a micro-culture in the US. International Business Review 13:749-761   DOI   ScienceOn
9 Rallapalli KC, Vitell SJ, Wiebe FA, Barnes JH. 1994. Consumer ethical beliefs and personality traits: An exploratory analysis. Journal of Business Ethics 13(7):487-495   DOI   ScienceOn
10 Song IS. 2005. A study on the ethical dimension and contents of consumption. Korean Society of Consumer Studies 16(2):37-55
11 Swaidan Z, Vitell GM, Rose GM, Gilbert FW. 2006. Consumer ethics: The role of acculturation in U.S. immigrant populations. Journal of Business Ethics 64(1):1-16   DOI   ScienceOn
12 Kelley SW, Ferrell OC, Skinner SJ. 1990. Ethical behavior among marketing research: An assessment of selected demographic characteristic. Journal of Business Ethics 9(8):681-688   DOI   ScienceOn
13 Polonsky MJ, Brito PQ, Pinto J, Higgs-Kleyn N. 2001. Consumer ethics in the European Union: A comparison of northern and southern view. Journal of Business Ethics 31(2):117-132   DOI   ScienceOn
14 Rawwas MYA, Swaidan Z, Oyman M. 2005. Consumer ethics: A cross-cultural study of the ethical beliefs of Turkish and American consumers. Journal of Business Ethics 57(2):183-195   DOI   ScienceOn
15 Ang SH, Cheng PS, Lim EAC, Tambyah SK. 2001. Spot the difference:Consumer responses towards counterfeits. Journal of Consumer Marketing 18(3):219-235   DOI   ScienceOn
16 Beltramini RF, Peterson RA, Kozmetsky K. 1984. Concerns of college students regarding business ethics. Journal of Business Ethics 3(3):195-200   DOI   ScienceOn
17 Rawwas MYA, Vitell SJ, Al-Khatib JA. 1994. Consumer ethics: The possible effects of terrorism and civil unrest on the ethical values of consumer. Journal of Business Ethics 13(3): 223-231   DOI
18 Chonko LB, Hunt SD. 1985. Ethics and marketing management: An empirical examination. Journal of Business Research 13(4):339-359   DOI   ScienceOn
19 Goolsby JR, Hunt SD. 1992. Cognitive moral development and marketing. Journal of Marketing 56:55-68
20 Al-Khatib JA, Vitell SJ, Rexeisen R, Rawwas M. 2005. Inter-country differences of consumer ethics in Arab countries. International Business Review 14:495-516   DOI   ScienceOn
21 Ruegger D, King EW. 1992. A study of the effect of age and gender upon student business ethics. Journal of Business Ethics 11(3):179-186   DOI   ScienceOn
22 Rawwas MYA, Singhapakdi A. 1998. Do consumers' ethical beliefs vary with age? A substantiation of Kohlberg's typology in marketing. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice 6(Spring): 26-38
23 Kim JH, Lee EH. 2003. Relationship between consumer non-ethics and interaction with salespersons. Journal of Korean Home Economics Association 41(5):165-178
24 Cui CC, Mitchell V, Schlegelmilch BB, Cornwell B. 2005. Measuring consumers' ethical position in Austria, Britain, Brunei, Hong Kong and USA. Journal of Business Ethics 62(1):57-71   DOI   ScienceOn
25 Fullerton S, Taylor D, Gosh BC. 1997. A cross-cultural examination of attitudes towards aberrant consumer behaviour in the marketplace: Some preliminary results from the USA, New Zealand and Singapore. Marketing Intelligence and Planning 15(5):208-212   DOI   ScienceOn
26 Vitell SJ, Lumpkin JR, Rawwas MYA. 1991. Consumer ethics: An investigation of the ethical beliefs of elderly consumers. Journal of Business Ethics 10(5):365-375   DOI   ScienceOn
27 Erffmeyer RC, Keillor BD, LeClair DT. 1999. An empirical investigation of Japanese consumer ethics. Journal of Business Ethics 18(1):35-50   DOI   ScienceOn
28 Dodge HR. 1996. Consumer transgressions in the marketplace: Consumers' perspective. Psychology on Marketing 13(18): 378-386
29 Kim JH. 2004. Consumers' non-ethics behaviors depending on their demographic characteristics. 한국생활과학회지 13(3):417-423
30 Muncy JA, Eastman JK. 1998. Materialism and consumer ethics: An exploratory study. Journal of Business Ethics 17(2):137-145   DOI   ScienceOn
31 Singhapakdi A, Rawwas MYA, Marta JK, Ahmed MI. 1999. A cross-cultural study of consumer perceptions about marketing ethics. Journal of Consumer Marketing 16(3):25-27
32 Swaidan Z, Vitell SJ, Rawwas MYA. 2003. Consumer ethics: Determinants of ethical beliefs of African American. Journal of Business Ethics 46(2):175-186   DOI   ScienceOn
33 Vitell SJ, Muncy J. 1992. Consumer ethics: An empirical investigation of factors influencing ethical judgments of the final consumer. Journal of Business Ethics 11(8):585-597   DOI   ScienceOn
34 Al-Khatib JA, Vitell SJ, Rawwas MYA. 1997. Consumer ethics: A cross-cultural investigation. European Journal of Marketing 31(11/12):750-767   DOI   ScienceOn
35 Je MK, Seo JH, Kim YO. 2004. College students' consumer non-ethics and related factors. 한국생활과학회지 13(6):891-901
36 Vitell SJ, Paolillo JGP, Singh JJ. 2006. The role of money and religiosity in determining consumers' ethical beliefs. Journal of Business Ethics 64(2):117-124   DOI   ScienceOn
37 Kenhove PV, Wulf KD, Steenhaut S. 2003. The relationship between consumers' unethical behavior and customer loyalty in a retail environment. Journal of Business Ethics 44(4):261-278   DOI   ScienceOn
38 Shin SH. 2000. 청년층 소비자들의 상거래 윤리에 관한 연구. 소비자학 연구 11(3):153-168
39 Whipple TW, Swords DF. 1992. Business ethics judgments: A cross-cultural comparison. Journal of Business Ethics 11(9): 671-678   DOI   ScienceOn
40 Kim YW. 2003. The impact of ethical ideology on ethical decisionmaking: A comparative study between Korean and American public relations practitioners. Korean Society for Journalism & Communication Studies 47(2):107-133
41 Rawwas MYA, Patzer GL, Vitell SJ. 1998. A cross-cultural investigation of the ethical values of consumers: The potential effect of war and civil disruption. Journal of Business Ethics 17(4):435-448   DOI   ScienceOn
42 Chan A, Wong S, Leung P. 1998. Ethical beliefs of Chinese consumers in Hong Kong. Journal of Business Ethics 17(11): 1163-1170   DOI   ScienceOn
43 Babin BJ, Griffin M. 1995. A closer look at the influence of age on consumer ethics. Advances in Consumer Research 22: 668-673
44 Lee SH. 2004. Consumers' purchasing behavior and consumer ethics on fashion counterfeits among Korean, Japanese and Hong Kong consumers. Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles 28(11):1438-1447
45 Rawwas MYA, Patzer G, Klassen M. 1995. Consumer ethics in cross cultural setting. European Journal of Marketing 29(7): 62-78   DOI   ScienceOn
46 Jones TM, Gautschi FH. 1988. Will the ethics of business change? A survey of future executives. Journal of Business Ethics 7(4):231-248   DOI   ScienceOn
47 Kenhove PV, Vermeir I, Verniers S. 2001. An empirical investigation of the relationships between ethical beliefs, ethical ideology, political preference and need for closure. Journal of Business Ethics 32(4):347-361   DOI   ScienceOn