Ethical Consumption - Indiana University

RCCPB Working Paper #36
October 2014
Chinese Consumers’ Ethical Consumption:
Between Intent and Behavior
Deng Xinming
IU RCCPB Visiting Scholar &
Associate Professor
School of Economics & Management
Wuhan University
[email protected]
©Research Center for Chinese Politics and Business, 2014
Abstract
Consumers' ethical shopping behavior is very complicated. There is an apparent gap between
intent and actual behavior. Through two approaches the paper analyzes the factors preventing
consumers from translating their stated ethical intentions into actual ethical buying behavior. The
first type of data draws on in-depth interviews and identifies 6 personal consumer and 5 shopping
situational factors impeding the transformation from consumer’s stated ethical intentions into
actual ethical behavior. The second dataset is based on questionnaires from 1,000 consumers to
test the adaptability of those personal and situational factors identified in the interview data, and
investigates the moderating effects of these factors on the relationship between intentions and
behavior. The findings show that among those personal factors, moral maturity, economic
rationality, buying inertia, cynicism, and ethical cognitive efforts all have a significant moderating
role on the relationship between ethical intentions and action. All of the situational factors
moderate the relationship between intention and action. Finally, the paper develops an overall
theoretic framework for consumers’ ethical decision-making process, which can provide insight
into how to motivate consumers to support a firm’s ethical behavior and to transfer this kind of
support into truly positive purchasing behavior.
Dr. Deng Xinming is a visiting scholar at the Indiana University Research Center for Chinese
Politics & Business (RCCPB) and Associate Professor in the School of Economics and
Management at Wuhan University, Wuhan, China. Prof. Deng may be reached at
[email protected].
Introduction
In recent years, ethical consumption has been growing rapidly (Bray, Johns, Kilburn, 2010;
Berry&McEachern, 2005; Davis, 2006). In 2007, growth in global sales of products endorsed by
the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (2007) had reached 47%. A longitudinal study
by the Co-operative Bank reports that sales of ethical goods rose between 2004 and 2007 at
around 12% a year, reaching￡35.5 bn in 2007 (Clavin, 2008).
However, empirical evidence suggests that while increasing numbers of consumers have
absorbed and are motivated by the values of ethical consumerism, a change in consumption
behavior is much less apparent (Carrington, Neville, Whitwell, 2010; Chatzidakis et al., 2007;
Arvola et al., 2008; Vermeir and Verbeke, 2008). When facing the cash register, stated intention
of ethical consumption seldom translate into actual purchasing behavior (Auger and Devinney,
2007; Carrington, Neville, Whitwell, 2010; Belk et al., 2005; Carrington and Attalla, 2001; Shaw
et al., 2007). For instance, Roberts (1996) and Simon (1995) determined that although consumers
do have a sense of ethical responsibility, no more than 20% engaged in true ethical consumption in
the last year. It was no wonder that Macalister (2007) pointed out directly that such growth
patterns undoubtedly show great potential, but that sales in this area still represent less than 6% of
the overall consumer market of some ￡600 bn. As a matter of fact, the above statements fully
demonstrate that the consumers’ ethical shopping process is very complicated (Nicholls &Lee,
2006; Kim et al., 1997; Bray, Johns, and Kilburn, 2010). Further, in exploring consumer’s
responses to a firm’s ethical actions, Deng (2012) found that about 44% of consumers will
respond to companies’ ethical actions positively. However, only 12% of them will produce real
purchasing action, which means that nearly 32% of consumers will say one thing but do another.
In fact, the gap between intentions and behavior has far-reaching effects on enterprises’
ethical marketing activities. The development of cultures surrounding ethical and/or moral
consumerism will inevitably attract the attention of enterprises seeking to meet the demands of all
stakeholders, including ethical consumers (Carrington, Neville, Whitwell, 2010; Polonsky, 1995).
Therefore, marketing strategies with ethical orientation are widely being adopted to tap into
potentially profitable ethical market segments and to promote the ethically responsible and
environmentally sustainable credentials of products, brands, services and/or corporations
(Carrington, Neville, Whitwell, 2010). However, if firms make production and investment
decisions simply based upon consumers’ ethical purchase intentions, costly failures would likely
result. Therefore, understanding the ethical decision-making process, especially the gap between
what ethically minded consumers intend to do and what they actually do at the point of purchase,
and understanding how to close this gap are an important academic, managerial and social
objectives. Although studies about ethical consumption in recent years have clearly increased in
1 number, they have seldom paid attention to the factors leading to this gap (Bray, Johns, Kilburn,
2010; Auger, Devinney, 2007; Carrington, Neville, Whitwell, 2010, etc.). Though a few scholars’
studies did explore this issue such as Areni & Black (2008), and Carrington, Neville, & Whitwell
(2000), their study was still at the exploratory stage and based only on qualitative methods. This
article attempts to make a contribution to ethical decision-making theory in the Chinese context
based
on
the
combination
of
qualitative
and
quantitative
data.
Understanding
the
intention-behavior gap of ethically minded consumers offers a rich marketing platform on which
to build an effective strategy. Only when corporations understand these issues can they take more
initiative in relevant marketing activities and be more purposeful in the implementation of ethical
marketing strategies.
Literature Review
Ethical decision-making is a very important issue in the field of corporate ethics. The
emergence of a large number of theoretical models has promoted the development of descriptive
ethics (empirical ethics) (Jones, 1991; Rest, 1986; Trevino, 1986; O’Fallon & Fallon, 2005).
These models are almost based on the four-stage theoretical framework of ethical decision-making
proposed by Rest (1986), and have mainly verified the influencing mechanism of personal factors,
such as moral cognition and demographic characteristics (e.g. gender and education level et al.),
and the effect made by environmental factors including moral code, moral climate and moral
culture on corporate ethical decision-making.
However, within the field of ethical consumerism, theory development is still at its early
stages (Carrington et al., 2010). An established and widely accepted theoretical framework for the
decision making of ethical consumers is yet to be developed (Fukukawa, 2003), among them, the
models most frequently applied and modified to understand the purchase decision-making process
of the ethically minded are the theoretical frameworks of “reasoned action” (Fishbein & Ajzen,
1975) and “planned behavior” (Ajzen, 1991; Chatzidakis et al., 2007; De Pelsmacker & Janssens,
2007; Vermeir & Verbeke, 2008). Because the theory of reasoned action can’t account for those
behaviors without volitional control, Ajzen (1991) proposed the theory of planned behavior (TPB),
positing that behavioral intention will be expressed in behavior only under volitional control. In
their modifications to the TPB, scholars within the ethical consumerism field have sought to
include the influence of ethics, morals and values in this attitude–intention–behavior framework.
For example, Shaw and Clarke (1999 ) developed theoretical models that include the influence of
internal ethics (personal values) on intentions, and did so within the context of fair trade; Arvola et
al. (2008) included moral norms to predict purchase intentions of organic food; Vermier and
Verbeke (2008) integrated the role of personal values within the purchase intentions of sustainable
2 food. These studies have tended to accept the theoretical assumption that an individual’s intentions
will directly determine their actual behavior (Fukukawa, 2003). This assumption, however, has
been widely criticized as an oversimplification of the complex transition from intentions to action
(Bagozzi, 2000; Morwitz et al., 2007).
Furthermore, empirical studies in the field of consumer behavior more broadly suggest that
purchase intentions do not translate literally into purchase behavior (Morwitz et al., 2007). Not all
consumers will support the corporate ethical marketing activities, for example, Sen and
Bhattacharya (2001) find that consumers will think poorly of products that announce positive
social responsibility information; Smith and Stodghill (1994) found that many consumers would
question firms’ real intention of doing good, considering their charitable behavior as
business-interests-oriented, call them “corporate hypocrites” and rejecting their products.
In essence, it took a long time for scholars to recognize that intention is an inferior “predictor”
for behavior, and observe that this kind of distance is of great importance for explaining,
predicting, and influencing consumers’ behavior (Bagozzi, 1993). Up to now, particularly in the
study of ethical consumerism, there has not been sufficient cognition on this distance (Auger,
Burke, Devinney, & Louviere, 2003; Belk et al., 2005; De Pelsmacker et al., 2005). Auger and
Devinney (2007) think that to investigate consumer’s ethical purchase intention accurately, one
must inspect both the personal characteristics and consumption environment simultaneously. For
instance, some scholars definitely point out that the bias of consumers’ ethical purchase intention
is not only because that consumers want to adhere to social expectation (Auger & Devinney, 2007;
Carrington & Attalla, 2001); but also from the mistaken evaluation of future specific consumption
environment (Carrington et al., 2010). When purchase intention transforms to actual purchase
behavior, individuals interact with the consumption environment, which in turn influences
consumers’ decision-making process (Phillips, 1993).
In addition, some scholars have explored the question of attitude-intention-behavior gap of
consumer decision-making in their ethical decision-making models. For example, Ferrell and
Gresham (1985) proposed a contingency model which emphasize that ethical decision-making
processes start from the social or cultural environment that generate ethical problems; when faced
with ethical problems, individual’s decision-making is affected by personal factors(knowledge,
values and attitude), important relationship (differential contact and role definition), as well as
opportunities. Trevino (1986) proposed a person-situation integrationist model, considering that
both personal factors (such as ego strength, locus of control, et al.) and situational factors (such as
immediate working background, organizational culture, and the nature of work) will moderate the
relationship between cognitive appraisal and behavior. Moreover, situational factors also have a
direct impact on cognitive appraisal. Ferrell, Gresham and Fraedrich (1989) find that ethical
3 judgment can directly influence ethical behavior, and that the factors which influence ethical
decision-making contain important relationship, personal factors, situational factors and
opportunities. The scholars mentioned above point out the effects of consumers’ individual
characteristics and specific consumption situation when investigating the factors influencing
individual ethical decision-making; however, these are all from the single perspective. Meanwhile,
much of this research has focused primarily on the seller side of the buyer/seller dyad, and
relatively few studies have examined ethical issues in the marketplace from the perspective of
consumer ethics (Vitell, 2003). So, in order to examine the purchase decision-making mechanism
of ethical consumption, particularly the deep factors that influence the ethical purchase
intention-behavior gap, this paper will conduct two studies by referring to the ethical
decision-making models in ethical marketing mentioned above to integrate the two perspectives,
including the consumer-personal and shopping-environment levels. It means that we focus on not
only the influence of individual characteristics on purchase intention-behavior gap, but also the
influence of specific purchasing situations on ethical purchase decision-making process. Study 1
primarily recognizes the influencing factors that lead to intention-behavior gap through qualitative
method of in-depth interview; then, through large-scale questionnaire survey, study 2 further tests
the recognized factors in study 1 and investigates the moderating effect of each factor on the
relationship between intention and behavior. In following, we will develop an integrated
theoretical framework of consumer ethical decision-making process, aiming at enriching and
promoting the development of the theory of ethical consumerism.
Study #1: Qualitative Interviews
Research approach and Data collection
Qualitative methods are considered be most helpful to examine those situations where
claimed attitudes and actual behavior diverge (Belk et al., 2005) and where a real-life context is
important (Sinkovics et al., 2005; Sykes, 1990). Given this, in-depth interviews with consumers
seem to be the most advisable method, as they enable researchers to gain a more accurate and
clear picture of a respondent’s position or behavior (Ghauri and Gronhaug, 2002) and to clarify
and calmly elaborate on interesting answers.
However, since the investigation of ethics-related topics is subject to social desirability bias,
great care must be taken when collecting data (Brunk, 2010; Mohr et al., 2001; Oberseder et al.,
2011). Hence, to reduce social desirability bias, we took measures as follows: Firstly, face-to-face
interviews are seen as a good approach to minimize self-presentational concerns (Wooten and
Reed, 2000) and to reduce the pressure on the interviewees to “do and say the right thing” (Bristol
and Fern, 2003); Secondly, we tried as much as possible to lead the interviewees to a quieter place
4 in order to make them feel comfortable. Moreover, a semi-structural interview is conducted to
produce a relaxing and trustful atmosphere; Thirdly, Before the interview, the respondents were
advised that the focus of the research was to investigate their opinions and beliefs and that there
were no right and wrong answers to the interview questions; Lastly, as for some particularly
delicate questions, the projective technique was used, asking our respondents to interpret the
behavior of other consumers (Fischer, 1993).
The Sample
To gain a diverse and interesting interviewee selection, we employed theoretical sampling,
meaning that we chose consumers who could inform us about the research problem addressed in
this study (Creswell 2007; Glaser and Strauss, 1967). In the meantime, we also tried to gather a
balanced sample in terms of consumption habits. Hence, our study selected consumers with
different shopping habits, ranging from price-conscious to quality shoppers. Moreover, we chose
those consumers with diverse backgrounds with regards to demographic criteria such as age,
gender, level of education, occupation, and marital status.
A total of 40 respondents were interviewed, and among them, two respondents answered
several phone calls during the interview, thus affecting the interview quality; another respondent
had to finish some work during the interview and had to stop the interview early. Besides these,
there were two respondents who said they had no ethical intentions, but could provide the
interviewer with their actual ethical shopping behaviors. Because this seldom happens in reality,
we thus exclude them in our sample. Therefore, there were 35 respondents as our valid interviews.
The whole interviews were carried out from mid-August to early October in 2011. Each interview
lasted from 30 minutes to 1 hour.
Findings
How Consumers respond to firms’ ethical products
Among 35 respondents, nearly 62% of them stated notable ethical intention, but not any
actual purchasing behavior. 8% of respondents “walk their talk”, meaning that they not only
declare their preference for ethical goods, but also make an effort to actively ethically consume. In
addition, 30% are indifferent to the enterprise’s ethical activities. This result fully proved some
scholars’ opinions about “intention-behavior gap of ethical consumption”, and in reality, there
exists consumers with ethical commitments, but their ethical buying willingness does not
necessarily convert into practical ethical purchasing behavior. (Auger, & Devinney, 2007; Belk et
al., 2005; Carrington, &Attalla, 2001; Jobber, 2000; Shawetal, 2007). Then, what are the factors
impeding the translation from buying intentions to actual purchasing behavior of ethical
consumers? This is just what we’ll investigate in the following sections.
Consumer characteristic variables
5 During the interviews, respondents seem to be aware of the relevance between personal
morality and ethical purchasing, and persist in saying that they are bound to participate in ethical
purchase as much as possible. When the interviews go further, however, a contradiction between
words and behavior emerges. Though respondents state that they have a responsibility to take
action, they give many excuses to explain why it is difficult to buy ethical products. For example,
they question the quality of ethical product; dislike enterprises “doing good things” to marketing
themselves; and consider it hard to distinguish ethical products. Some even claim that they don’t
have enough ethical consciousness and only give support to ethical consumption at the emotional
level.
Moral maturity. According to Kohlberg (1969), moral maturity will particularly have an
impact on consumer behavior. Forte (2004) suggests that, when making ethical decisions, a
person’s moral maturity has a significant relationship with a personally formed sense of control.
Those who have an external locus of control tend to believe that an ethical dilemma is beyond
their control, while those with an internal locus of control are more likely to make ethical
decisions under the condition of neglecting conflicts and social rules pressure (Singhapakdi, &
Vitell, 1991). For instance, during the interview, we found many respondents did mention that
they couldn’t accept buying pirated products. On the contrary, others held the view that, even you
insist on buying genuine goods, there are a number of consumers who will still buy pirated. The
former believe that their behavior will have an effect (internal locus of control), whereas the latter
propose the change of their consumption pattern has no influence at all. This example illustrates
that how to use the external locus of control to prove the existing purchase behavior reasonable
(Singhapakdi, & Vitell, 1991). Therefore, consumers who have more moral maturity with an
internal locus of control will be increasingly willing to consider the influence of their own private
consumption behavior on issues of social ethics and thereby attempt to bring about social change
through their purchasing behavior (Webster 1975; Muncy, and Vitell 1992).
Quality consciousness. In the interview, we found out that, partly because of respondents’
distrust on the quality of ethical products, a number showed great interest in ethical products, but
that they still didn’t make an actual purchase, Some respondents, for example, hold the viewpoint
that there was trade-off relationship between corporate social responsibility behavior and
enterprise ability, such that the social responsibility behavior weakened the company’s ability to
provide the best products, while the enterprise’s behavior of using resources in social
responsibility activities would reduce resource inputs in terms of increasing work efficiency. This
seems to verify Folkes and Kamin’s (1999) perspective to a certain degree, they believe that moral
behavior does not take the place of product quality and that ethical marketing responsibility
behavior also can not offset the effect of low-quality products on the consumer. Thus, the
6 perceived quality of ethical products is a strong influential factor in the process of ethical
decision-making (Bray, Johns, Kilburn, 2011).
Price sensitivity. When being interviewed, price was always mentioned by respondents. This
indicates that compared with ethical value, what they care more about is financial value, especially
when buying food or other daily goods. One of them once said, “When shopping in the
supermarkets, I don’t take ethical goods into account at all, because you consume them every day,
and you should save money as much as possible”. After consumers have purchased ethical
products, once they have to pay the higher price, they may experience a notable disparity between
pre-purchase and post-purchase process. For instance, a respondent told us ever, “Sometimes I do
feel like buying some particular ethical goods. For example, there were internet friends who
launched an activity called ‘buying up Wanglaoji1’ after Wenchuan Earthquake in 2008. When I
entered the store, however, I found the price for me was too high.”
Buying inertia. Besides quality and price of products we are always focusing on, compared to
consumers’ commitments to ethical purchase, some respondents seemingly stick more to their own
buying inertia. Assuming that consumers are facing a non-price sensitive shopping situation, they
will not choose buying ethical products at once as expected. Though price and quality are
prominent, purchasing inertia is a stronger barrier to consumption, as it ultimately prevents any
change in consumption patterns. At first, price is believed to be the key impeding factor in ethical
consumption. But when requested to neglect it, consumers are apparently influenced by their
buying inertia. In the interview, we found out that we had to admit that consumers’ loyalty to
certain brands would always make them be less likely to make an ethical option. A lot of branded
goods have been accepted by consumers, though these products were not reasonable at the ethical
level.
Cynicism. In our interview, many respondents expressed their disappointment with so-called
“ethical image” of corporations to show that it was reasonable for them not be willing to buy
ethical products. They argued that corporations’ statement of supporting philanthropy was yet just
“making a show of it” in terms of social responsibility behavior, or simply promoting itself, and
the true goal is to gain their own commercial interests. In the meantime, consumers showed
another form of “cynicism”. They hold the viewpoint that ethical behavior of some enterprises do
not matching their economic ability, which doesn’t satisfy consumers’ expectations on them. In
our interview, for example, some respondents angrily mentioned that after the earthquake of China
in 2008, many companies with big size (e.g. Wanke) and overseas enterprises (e,g. Dell) donated
1
Wanglaoji is a famous beverage brand in China. In the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake of China, the Wanglaoji
Company made a quick response to this disaster and donated 100 million RMB, which triggered some consumers
to launch an activity named “buying up Wanglaoji”.
7 too little money for the earthquake and responded very slowly.
Ethical cognitive efforts. In essence, when Boulstridge and Carrington (2000) investigated
consumers’ responses to ethical and unethical marketing activities, they found that most
consumers did not have enough information to identify whether an enterprise had ever been
engaged in ethical activities or not. In addition, consumers seldom take the initiative to seek
relevant ethics information regarding production when shopping—they simply rely on label
information as guidance (Carrington and Attalla 2001). Just as the findings of Dragon
International (1991) suggest, only 26% of respondents could identify the names of socially
responsible enterprise clearly, while only 18% of them could pick out “the least responsible”
enterprise. In fact, in our investigation, a number of respondents admitted honestly that they are
not provided with enough information to help making a decision ethically. Thus, in reality, society
has created very captious mature consumers who have achieved a high level of education, but it
would appear that the knowledge possessed by these so-called ‘‘mature consumers’’ can not/does
not lead them to buy ethical type products (Deng, 2012).
Situational Variables
According to the literature review, the gap between intention and behavior is not solely
caused by the cognitive process of ethical consumers. Some of them will confront a situation
outside of their subjective control that has “a notable effect on current behavior” (Belk, 1975). In
the field of consumer behavior, purchasing surroundings refer to physical and social factors that
consumers will confront in their purchasing process, which is a special kind of environment
mixing with people’s emotions and cognitions (Bryce, 2003). These factors may play an impeding
or promoting role in the transformation from buying intentions into purchasing behavior.
Physical surroundings. Physical surroundings refer to the physical features of marketing
environment which could be readily identified, including tangible factors that take up rooms (e.g.
store address, product placement, inventory information, visibility of competing products and
accessibility of price comparison, etc.) and intangible factors that don’t take up space (e.g. color,
flavor music and lighting etc.). Just as Beatty and Ferrell (1998) found, factors such as the
convenience of a shopping place, the placement of products, pleasant flavor and beautiful colors
will have an impact upon consumers’ product perception. Thereby consumers’ cognition of
products is stimulated and they then make actual purchasing actions. In the interview, we actually
find that physical surroundings do play an important part in the transformation of consumers’
ethical buying intentions into actual behaviors. For example, many respondents said, “Of course, I
would like to buy ethical goods, but I will not walk a long way to purchase ethical products. And
what’s more, it seems impossible to pick out a certain ethical product with difficulty from lots of
goods on the shelf when I arrive at shopping places.” It somewhat seems to indicates that only
8 when there’s no increase on extra cost of ethical consumption (e.g. information recognition of
ethical products and inconvenience of shopping), will their purchases become more ethically
oriented.
Social surroundings. Social surroundings refer to the influences that other people or social
norms have upon consumers in their consumption, such as opinions of their friends or colleagues,
expectations of families, and the social mainstream values (Belk, 1975; Bryce, 2003). Pool (1998)
suggests that consumers have motivations of following group norms because they may think that
the behavior of others (especially people who are important for them) are appropriate. Particularly
in some uncertain situation, people tend to obtain information from the society about how to
behave. As a matter of fact, we do feel that respondents really care about what others may think
about their consumption behavior in our interview. For instance, some respondents told us,
“Personally I pretty much support ethical consumption, but most friends around me don’t care
much about this. If I pay too much attention, I will be regarded pedantic and asocial.” Another
example is that a respondent once said, “I think ethical consumption is the issue that only
middle-aged and old people should consider, but for us born after the 1990s, fashion is the most
important factor that matters. If I pursue so-called ‘ethical consumption’, my friends will
definitely laugh at me.” Even there’s no pressure from relatives and friends, indeed, the contact
with shopping guides is dispensable for consumers when they are in the shopping mall.
Consumers will unwittingly listen to marketing personnels’ advice in their purchase of goods, and
these advice and suggestions can improve consumers’ value perception (Hawkins, &Roger, 2003).
For instance, some respondents said, “Sometimes I really choose ethical goods purposely when
shopping, but if strongly recommended to buy other favorable competing products by shopping
guides, I can’t block my temptation to buy them.”
Time. When consumers feel urgency in shopping, they won’t spend much time in collecting
enough information to choose products. Some consumers admitted honestly that they had no time
to consider the ethical associations of their purchasing behavior because they often were in a hurry
in the supermarkets or shopping malls. As Titus and Bradford (1996) pointed out, time pressure
and information burden may actually undermine the consumer’s ability to make an accurate
judgment on product quality. Thus, we think in the shopping environment, consumers’ perception
of information, time, and other factors without volitional control will significantly influence their
ethical shopping decision-making.
Shopping task. Shopping task means the specific reason or purpose for consumers to buy
goods, i.e., purchasing a commodity is for their own use, sharing with family, or to give to others
as a gift (Belk, 1975; Bryce, 2003). We find, in our interview, that under the conditions of
different shopping purposes, consumers also have various opinions about choosing different
9 grades, price, and brands of products. For example, some consumers hold the idea, “If I’m going
to buy things to give people as a gift, what I firstly consider the quality and grade. While for my
own use, I think I’ll focus on ethical factors possible. That’s great!” Some other respondents said,
“Ethical goods are perfect. For example, organic food is too expensive for me to buy, but for my
parents, of course I’ll buy them. They can prolong life, of course.” Thus, shopping tasks or
purposes can influence consumers’ value perception of the ethical goods, thereby impeding or
promoting the transformation from ethical buying intentions into purchasing behavior.
Current status. This refers to temporary emotions (e.g. anxiety, hostility and excitement) or
status (e.g. holding cash, shortage of products or a sudden rise in price) of consumers in the actual
consuming context (Belk, 1975; Bryce, 2003). This will change consumers’ emotions, and further
influence their understanding of the value of products. In the interview, we find that even if
current status has some contingency, corporations can’t neglect its impeditive effect on the
transformation from ethical intentions into purchasing behavior. When consumers enter into
shopping places, there exist many kinds of casual factors affecting consumers’ ethical buying
decisions. For instance, they may find it impossible to get their desired ethical goods immediately;
or their money is not sufficient to actually purchase ethical goods. As is stated by a respondent,
“Once I really wanted to buy ‘Wanglaoji’ after seeing the activity of ‘buying up Wanglaoji’ in
internet. However, when I entered the shopping mall, I was told that they had been sold out.”
Another respondent said ever, “To be honest, some products with the concept of green and
environmental consumption are so expensive. I always hesitate to spend so much money on
them.”
Study #2: Quantitative Data
Data Collection and Sampling
This part of the research took a sample survey in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Wuhan,
Chengdu and Qingdao during March-July 2012. In order to improve the questionnaire recovery
and guarantee the response quality, we used face-to-face method and collected questionnaires on
the spot. At the same time, because researchers don’t know the interviewees and the survey is
conducted anonymously, it is hard for researchers to ask interviewees to spend some time
answering the questionnaires, in order to reduce the probability of being rejected, we provide
some gifts worth RMB 15-20 for every interviewee. We delivered 1,200 questionnaires and
received 1,093, after the consistency check, we delete 64 and finally keep 1,029 valid ones, so the
recovery is 91.08% and the valid rate is 85.75%.
Variable Measurement
We adopt the following method to develop consumer characteristic variables and situation
10 variables which can moderate the relationship between consumer ethical purchase intention and
behavior in the Chinese situation: (1) In-depth interviews (study 1). We collect and conclude
specific items through the deep interview in study 1, and select items that are mentioned in the
interview more than 10 times, among them 12 items are about consumer characteristics and 8
items are about situation; (2) Referring to related extant researches and questionnaires. We refer to
the definition and measurement of consumer characteristic variables (Carrington, Neville, &
Whitwell, 2010; Deng, 2012) and situation variables (Carrington, Neville, & Whitwell, 2010;
Blythe, 2003) which influence the ethical purchase intention-behavior gap in previous literature,
after modifying them, we get 4 items about consumer personality and 5 items about situational
factors. Combining these items and those obtained from interview, we get an initial questionnaire
consisting of 16 items about consumer characteristic and 13 items about shopping situation; (3)
Assess and modify the initial questionnaire. Again, following the deep interview steps in study 1,
we choose 20 respondents (both of these respondents and the 40 respondents in study 1 didn’t
participate in the subsequent formal survey) to assess the degree to which the content described by
the items of initial questionnaire are conform to the reality, then we adjust the expression to make
them understood more easily. By synthesizing these feedback, we delete 4 items and finally get a
measurement scale consists of 25 items.
In the formal investigation, we use the 25-items scale to measure the factors which can
influence the ethical purchase intention-behavior gap. Respondents make self-assessment based on
the 5-point Likert-type scale (0=strongly not degree; 1=not degree; 2=neutral; 3=agree; 4=
strongly agree). In order to test the reliability and validity of the scale, we conduct an exploratory
factor analysis (EFA) for the samples. The results (as shown in Table 1 and Table 2) of EFA show
that: (1) among the factors of consumer characteristic, there are 5 factors whose eigenvalues is
greater than 1, among them “quality consciousness” and “price sensitivity” identified in study 1
merge into one factor named “economic rationality” in EFA; (2) among the factors of shopping
situation, there are 4 factors whose characteristic root is greater than 1, among them “current state”
and “time perception” identified in study 1 merge into one factor named “current state” in EFA; (3)
factor loading of each item is greater than 0.5; (4) the variance explained by each factor is more
than 70%; (5) the reliability of items of each factor is greater than 0.8.
In addition, the dependent variables in this paper involve ethical purchase intention and
behavior. The measurement of ethical purchase intention is conducted through 2 items: “I will buy
ethical products next time” “I will consider preferentially buying ethical products next time”.
Respondents make assessment based on the 5-point Likert-type scale (0=strongly not degree;
1=not degree; 2=neutral; 3=agree; 4= strongly agree). The measurement of ethical purchase
behavior is conducted through the item “In your memory, how many times have you bought
11 ethical products?” Respondents make assessment based on the 5-point Likert-type scale (0=not at
all; 1=quite a little; 2=relatively few; 3=relatively many; 4=quite a lot).
Table 1: Component Loadings for Five-Factor Solution
Principal Component Loading—Five-Component Solution
Personal factors
Component
Moral maturity Cronbach’s Alpha:0.921
1
2
3
4
5
I always ethically consume
0.779
0.171
0.255
0.446
0.446
I always recommend my friends to buy ethical products
0.723
0.149
0.097
0.184
0.184
I always resolutely resist unethical products
0.697
0.245
0.119
0.281
0.281
I always recommend my friends not to buy unethical products
0.771
0.248
0.149
0.111
-0.001
I mainly consider cost-performance ratio when buying goods
0.111
0.709
0.122
0.165
0.216
I mainly consider brand awareness when buying commodities
0.261
0.687
0.209
0.132
0.289
I mainly consider shopping convenience when buying goods
0.142
0.745
0.322
0.198
0.177
I will not change familiar brands easily when buying goods
0.048
0.023
0.645
0.023
0.111
I like to go to the shopping mall I usually go when buying goods
0.111
0.098
0.721
0.098
0.218
Corporate can’t has help-self motivation when doing charities
0.298
0.048
0.244
0.676
0.218
Large corporate must undertake much more ethical responsibility
0.023
0.21
0.087
0.809
0.321
0.047
0.285
0.176
0.166
0.634
0.216
0.181
0.385
0.378
0.709
0.177
0.133
-0.007
0.299
0.772
Economic rationality Cronbach’s Alpha:0.881
Buying inertia Cronbach’s Alpha:0.903
Cynicism Cronbach’s Alpha:0.928
Ethical cognitive effort Cronbach’s Alpha:0.876
I am certain to make clear whether the corporate is genuinely
“philanthropy”, or false “philanthropy”
I am certain to identify the ethical information of products
I would like to go to many stores or supermarkets to look for my favorite
ethical products
Total variance explained = 73.2%; KMO = 0.887; Bartletts Test Chi-sq =5679.2, p = 0.000
Table 2: Component Loadings for Four-Factor Solution
Principal Component Loading—Four-Component Solution
Situational factors
Component
Physical surroundings Cronbach’s Alpha:0.865
1
Stores or supermarkets should display the ethical products in such positions which
can easily catch the eye
Stores or supermarkets selling ethical products should have good sites
Stores or supermarkets selling ethical products should have good promotion
atmosphere
2
3
4
0.709
0.377
-0.092
0.364
0.711
0.176
0.231
0.144
0.687
0.201
0.008
0.309
0.231
0.703
0.211
0.254
0.092
0.643
0.067
0.061
Social surroundings Cronbach’s Alpha:0.877
Most family members/ friends/neighbors/colleagues around me promote ethical
consumption
The government/media network/consumer groups often call on to buy ethical
products
12 consuming ethical products is a prestigious affair
0.309
0.807
0.321
0.343
If the products are for gifts, quality and grade are the main consideration
0.071
0.021
0.665
0.087
If the products are for self-use, ethical factor will be considered when purchasing
0.085
0.109
0.671
0.113
0.023
0.337
0.446
0.801
-0.147
0.092
0.184
0.721
0.064
-0.119
0.281
0.734
Shopping task Cronbach’s Alpha:0.890
Current status Cronbach’s Alpha:0.901
When I go to stores or supermarkets, if commodities are suddenly out-of-stock or
rise in price, I will change my idea temporarily
I am an impulse buyer, and the shopping mood will dominate my purchase choice
I am too busy, so that I don’t have much time to identify ethical and unethical
products when I am shopping in stores or supermarkets
Total variance explained = 69.9%; KMO = 0.903; Bartletts Test Chi-sq =6413.9, p = 0.000
Findings
Correlation analysis
The correlation between consumer characteristic variables and buying intention and
behavior. The findings figure out that quality consciousness and price sensitivity are significantly
negatively correlated with buying intention, and weakly negatively associated to purchasing
behavior. This result indicates that in reality, there are quite a few consumers that express their
willingness to make ethical purchases, but the reality is that ethical marketing responsibility is not
the most important standard in their purchasing decision process—what they are truly concerned
about are economic factors, such as price, quality, brand, and convenience (Boulstridge, and
Carrington, 2000; Ulrich, &Sarasin, 1995). In addition, the result also suggest that moral maturity
is significantly positively correlated with ethical buying intention, while ethical cognitive efforts
and cynicism have significantly positive correlation with buying intention. This finding is
somewhat surprising. However, after further finding that a significant positive correlation exists
among moral maturity, ethical cognitive effort and social cynicism, we finally make a reasonable
explanation that the more moral maturity the consumers have, the more ethically cognitive efforts
they pay, which will further make consumers more cynical. For example, consumers may perceive
that the fairness degree of most Chinese companies’ ethical activities is not high and more often is
actually “show” charitable behavior base on the helping-self motivations, causing consumers to
questioning and boycott the product, and thereby preventing the transformation from ethical
intentions into behavior. Meanwhile, the findings reveal that buying inertia has a significantly
positive correlation with quality consciousness and price sensitivity but negative correlation with
ethical buying intention and behavior. This result figures out that consumers’ main shopping
decisions are still more concerned about the quality and price of products and ethical consumption
has not yet become a shopping habit. Thereby, shopping inertia acts as a strong barrier to
consumers’ the purchasing behaviors since it finally prevents the change of ethical consumption
13 pattern.
The correlation between situational variables and buying intention and behavior. The results
suggest that only social surrounding has a significantly positively correlation with buying
intention and behavior. This finding is essentially accordance with China's collectivist culture.
Compared with Western consumers’ attention on their rational calculation, Chinese consumers
tend to follow the impact of social norms, obeying the expectations of others, group and
themselves. This is because satisfying social expectations can create good feelings and sense of
belonging. As is argued by scholars such as Li and Wu (2009), people are affected by group
mainly because they need to avoid uncertainty, create sense of belonging, keep the satisfying
relationship with group and realize the maximization of their own value. Therefore, individuals’
behavior intention can be easily affected by group pressure within a culture situation such as in
China, which is particular about group orientation and social harmony.
Table 3: Pearson correlation coefficient of variables
Variables
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
1 Buying intention
2 Buying Behavior
0.63***
3 Moral Maturity
0.41**
4 Economic Rationality
5 Cynicism
－0.28***
－0.45
6 Buying Inertia
7 Ethically Cognitive Efforts
8 Physical surroundings
9 Social surroundings
0.39***
－0.31
*
***
－0.44
**
0.12
0.37
**
－0.11
－0.13
－0.51
**
0.33**
0.02
－0.36
**
－0.12
0.34**
0.09
0.11
0.37
***
0.10
0.37***
－0.05
0.15
－0.09
0.12
0.13
0.15
0.09
0.18
0.11
0.08
0.06
0.19
0.04
*
0.11
0.08
0.13
0.17
0.05
0.04
0.06
0.08
0.11
0.14
0.51
**
10 Buying tasks
0.12
0.11
0.03
0.27
11 Current status
0.05
0.06
0.08
0.12
* p<0.1；** p<0.05；*** p<0.01
The Moderating effects of consumer personal and situational variables
In the regression analysis, purchasing behavior is seen as dependent variables, and the
demographic statistics indices are control variables. In model 1, model 2 and model 4, the finding
indicates that ethical buying intention has a significantly positive effect on ethical purchasing
behavior. In reality, however, ethical buying intention of consumers will not be necessarily turned
into ethical purchasing behavior. So what are those factors moderating the relationship between
ethical buying intention and behavior on earth? To figure it out, we introduce the interaction terms
between consumer personal and situational factors and shopping intention into model 3, model 5,
and model 6, aiming to further investigate the moderating effects of consumer personal and
situational variables on the relationship between ethical buying intention and behavior. The
14 0.12
finding in model 3 and model 6 indicates that, as of those consumer personal variables, the
relationship between buying intention and behavior is negatively moderated by economic
rationality of the consumers, which demonstrates that even though quite a few consumers express
their willingness to make ethical purchases, but the reality is that ethical marketing responsibility
is not the most important standard in their purchasing decision process—what they are truly
concerned about are economic factors, such as price, quality, brand, and the shopping convenience,
among others. At the same time, there exists a significantly negative moderating effect of buying
inertia on the relationship between intention and behavior, implying that in real shopping context,
though some consumers have made commitments to ethical consumption, under the influence of
buying inertia, it is still likely for them not to “walk their talk”, that is to say they are still inclined
to buy those products without much ethical reputation, but with high consumer brand
identification. Thus the findings in Table 4 indicate as well that both ethical cognitive efforts and
cynicism will moderate negatively and significantly the relationship between intention and
behavior, indicating that though those consumers with higher moral maturity are willing to input
greater ethical cognitive efforts, their cynicism trait finally impedes the transformation from
ethical buying intention to actual behavior. This conclusion is interesting and the explanation we
can provide is that in Chinese context, consumers will question the motivation of ethical activities
and the fairness of companies after they put enough cognitive efforts. What’s more, they may
think that companies are just making use of philanthropy as a “show” to accomplish their
marketing objectives (Smith, &Stodghill, 1994; Yeo, 2003).
Next, we will investigate the moderating effects of situational factors on ethical intention and
behavior. The results in model 5 and model 6 show that situational factors can really help explain
why the gap between buying intention and actual purchasing behavior comes into being. We
discover that physical surroundings significantly has a positive moderating effect, which suggests
that physical surroundings serves as an important factor impeding the transformation from ethical
buying intention into purchasing behavior. This is because the physical characteristics of ethical
products’ marketing environments are not so obvious that it will increase some extra cost of the
ethical purchase. Or to be more precise, these consumers do take ethics into account, but
compared with ethical factors, they care more about fast-identified physical characteristics of
marketing environment such as shopping convenience and the visibility of competitive goods
(Boulstridge, &Carrington, 2000; Ulrich, &Sarasin, 1995).
In addition, the results indicate that social surroundings has a significantly negative
moderating effect on the relationship between intention and action, indicating that consumers will
be less likely to transform their ethical buying intention into actual purchasing behavior if they are
more aware of following social norms. The findings show that ethical consumption hasn’t a
15 mainstream behavior of society in Chinese context; at least it has not been accepted commonly by
most consumers. Therefore, how to build an ethical consumption culture and atmosphere remains
an unanswered question. In the meantime, Table 4 reveals that shopping task has a significantly
negative moderating effect, which means shopping task or purpose is a significant factor to
impede the transformation from ethical intention into actual behavior. This conclusion coincides
with some scholars’ points including as Belk (1975) and Bryce (2003). They both believe that,
with different purposes of purchasing goods, consumers will buy different commodities and
brands significantly. For example, the quality of food bought for their own use is apparently
different from that is used to treat others; similarly, if the gifts are for friends, we always do our
best to pursue tastes, brands and high-level grades. Finally, it is found that current status has a
negative moderating influence as shopping task does, which means the terminal shopping
atmosphere and environment are the key factors influencing the successful transformation from
intention to action as well. And this issue is just ignored by those firms who are trying to provide
ethical products. Just as the opinion of Kotler (1978), he asserted that consumers’ emotional
reaction would be provoked by shopping sites, terminal display, and marketers’ operational
atmosphere. Though such emotional reaction is temporal, customer perceived value will be
controlled instantly.
Table 4: The Moderating effects of personal and situational variables
Variables
Buying Behavior
Model 1
***
Intercept
0.131
Buying Intention
0. 445***
Model 2
0.229
Model 3
**
0.234
**
Model 4
0.199
**
0.398***
Model 5
Model 6
**
0.237**
0.433***
0.498***
0.276
0.406***
0.476***
0.043
0.054
0.076
Economic Rationality
－0.045
－0.065
－0.041
Cynicism
－0.067
－0.065
－0.079
Buying Inertia
－0.126
－0.062
－0.099
0.021
0.030
0.037
0.234**
0.209***
－0.223**
－0.287**
－0.331**
－0.312**
－0.288**
－0.266**
－0.254**
－0.298**
Personal Variables
Moral Maturity
Ethical Cognitive Efforts
Buying Intention
×Moral Maturity
Buying Intention
×Economic Rationality
Buying Intention×Cynicism
Buying Intention
×Buying Inertia
Buying Intention
×Ethical Cognitive Efforts
Situational Variables
16 Physical Surroundings
Social Surroundings
0.016
0.009
0.264*
－0.034
0.044
－0.205***
0.078
0.069
0.049
0.177***
0.234**
－0.248***
－0.188***
－0.253**
－0.184**
0.181**
0.198**
0.113
0.145
Shopping Task
Current
Status
Buying Intention
×Physical Surroundings
Buying Intention
×Social Surroundings
Buying Intention
×Shopping Task
Buying Intention
×Current Status
Gender
0.122
0.112
0.101
**
0.123
0.175**
0.348
Occupation
0.112
0.309***
0.356***
0.289***
0.256***
0.331***
Income
0.112
0.309***
0.324***
0.267***
0.276***
0.299***
Education Level
0.176
0.288***
0.297***
0.356***
0.203***
0.198***
Adj. R2
0.511
0.587
0.609
0.477
0.621
0.790
F value
11.199
7.887
9.996
***
10.443
***
0.208
**
0.121
***
0.286
**
Age
**
0.324
*
7.889
***
12.006***
* p<0.1；** p<0.05；*** p<0.01
An Overall Ethical Decision-Making Framework
Based on the description above, a generalized framework of consumer ethical buying
intention-behavior can be developed, with the aim of providing an in-depth description of the
processes and mechanisms causing ethical buying-intention gap (shown in Figure 1). In our
research, the disparity between ethical buying intention and behavior is not only determined by
characteristics of ethical consumers, some consumers may meet some uncontrollable shopping
situations, which have an apparent effect on current consuming behaviors (Belk, 1975; Carrington,
Neville, Whitwell, 2010). Results in this study indicate that moral maturity is the key factor
leading to ethical buying intention, but this kind of intention will not necessarily be converted into
actual purchasing behavior because the relationship between ethical buying intention and behavior
is influenced by some moderating factors. In the aspect of consumer characteristics, buying inertia,
cynicism and ethical cognitive efforts will significantly moderate the relationship between ethical
buying intention and behavior, which mainly lead to consumers’ ethical purchasing gap. This
conclusion suggests that in real shopping situations, though some consumers make commitments
to purchase goods ethically, they will buy some products of widely-accepted brands that are not
reasonable in ethics because of their buying inertia; the moderating effect of ethical cognitive
efforts and cynicism demonstrate that consumers who have more moral maturity will make more
17 efforts to ethical cognitive efforts, however, some cynical consumers will perhaps feel a low level
of fairness of most Chinese corporations’ ethical activities. And what’s more, in most cases, they
will use philanthropy as a “show” based on help-self motivation, which will eventually prevents
transforming ethical buying intention into actual purchasing behavior.
At the situational level, all variables including physical surroundings, social surroundings,
shopping task, and current status have significant moderating effects on the relationship between
ethical buying intention and behavior. The results show that when consumers who own ethical
buying intention enter into a real shopping place, they may find that the physical characteristics of
ethical products such as the recognition of information and shopping convenience are not obvious,
which may result in extra efforts or cost for consumers to accomplish their purchase, and
furthermore, lead consumers to give up buying ethical products. The significantly negative
moderating influence of social surroundings suggests that Chinese ethical consumption hasn’t
been the mainstream, and thereby government and corporations should construct a certain culture
and atmosphere of ethical consumption. Meanwhile, we find that current status has a significantly
negative moderating influence, which means that terminal shopping atmosphere and environment
can mainly have an impact on the transition of ethical buying intention into purchasing behavior.
However, such a factor is always neglected by corporations that offer ethical products. Just as
pointed out by Kotler (1978), the emotional response of consumers can be stimulated by shopping
places, terminal display and atmosphere controlled by marketers, and even if such emotional
responses are temporal, it will predominate the value recognition of customers immediately.
Situational Contexts
Physical
Buying
Current Status
Consumer Personality
Moral
Purchasing
Buying
Cynicism
Ethical Cognitive
Economic Rationality
Social Surroundings
Surroundings
18 Purchasing Behavior
Figure 1 Ethical consumption: from intention to behavior
Conclusions
andstands
Implications
Notice： Dotted arrow
for moderating effects,
which is mainly focused in this study.
The aim of this paper was to explore why consumers will not “walk their talk” when making
an ethical purchasing decision in the Chinese context through the use of a in-depth interviewing
method (study 1) and big-scale questionnaires (study 2) to probe in depth the factors preventing
consumers from translating their stated ethical intentions into actual ethical buying behavior. This
problem is really important, as only when the enterprise understands this issue will it exercise
more initiatively held marketing ethics activities and possibly be more purposeful in implementing
an ethical marketing strategy. The main conclusions are as follows.
Firstly, in Chinese context, consumers exhibit an obvious gap between buying intention and
actual behavior in their purchase of ethical goods. The findings indicate that nearly 62% of
consumers address themselves in one way but behave another, thereby meaning that they have
stated an obvious purchasing intention but do not actually buy ethical products; 8% of them can
“walk their talk”, namely, claiming that they tend to buy ethical goods, and eventually, can
exercise ethical buying actively. Additionally, there exist 30% of consumers who don’t care much
about ethics and are indifferent to ethical consumption, and say honestly that they still mainly
consider more about economic factors such as the quality, price and brand of products rather than
ethics.
Secondly, the formation of ethical buying intention-behavior gap is simultaneously affected
by consumer characteristics and situational factors. The findings suggest that such consumer
characteristic factors as quality consciousness, price sensitivity, buying inertia, cynicism and
ethical cognitive efforts, as well as situational factors like physical surroundings, time perception,
social surroundings, buying task and current status will have a significant moderating influence on
the relation between buying intention and purchase behavior.
Thirdly, the influencing mechanism of consumer characteristic factors is as follows:
consumers who possess more moral maturity will have more intention to buy ethical goods. In
actual purchasing situation, however, though they do make a promise to buy ethical products, it is
possible for them eventually not do as they have stated before due to their buying inertia.
Meanwhile, the more moral maturity they own, the more ethical cognitive efforts they are willing
to input. However, those consumers with cynicism may feel that corporations’ ethical activities are
unfair, that so-called ethical activities are just to ‘‘making a show of it’’ for selfish reasons,
thereby impeding the transformation from stated ethical purchasing intentions into actual buying
19 behavior.
Fourthly, the influencing mechanism of situational factors is as follows: consumers owning
ethical purchasing intention may find that the physical elemental characteristics (such as the
identification of information, the shopping convenience, and etc.) of corporations’ marketing
ethical products are not obvious when they go into the shopping mall, thereby causing extra
ethical efforts or cost that consumers have to pay, and eventually urging consumers to give up
buying ethical goods. Meanwhile, the ethical consumption in China still hasn’t been the
mainstream, and advice or suggestions from other people will sometimes lead to consumers’
violating their initial ethical intentions, and not buying ethical products. In addition, time pressure
under modern fast-paced life and the overflow of information make consumers have less time to
make rational considerations of the ethics. At the same time, some causal factors such as the
different buying tasks or purposes, as well as the current emotion or status of consumers are also
critical factors mainly resulting in consumers’ not walking their talk.
There are also important implications of this research on corporate marketing practices. Some
scholars generally hold the idea that intention is undoubtedly a reliable proxy variable for actual
behavior in the discussion of ethical attitude-behavior gap of ethical consumers (Newholm, 2005;
Shaw et al.,2007). Therefore, what most studies mainly focused on is the relationships and
disparities between attitudes and intentions of ethically minded consumers, yet rarely pays close
attention to the critical gap between ethical intentions and buying behavior (Carrington, Neville,
Whitwell, 2010). This article attempts to bridge this gap, aiming to promoting the understanding
and development of ethical consumerism. This research provides a number of insightful
suggestions on how to close the gap between buying intention and actual behavior, and further
formulate efficient ethical marketing strategies.
Firstly, the firm should pay a great deal of attention to the implementation of ethical
marketing strategies. The findings of this study confirm that nearly 58% of consumers will
produce ethical purchasing intention and around 13% will make real purchasing response as
support for the enterprise’s ethical activities. This result clearly indicates that consumers will still
link a firm’s excellent ethical performance with their positive product and social image. Therefore,
enterprises should care about the existence of this specific portion of the consumer population, and
when actively implementing ethical marketing strategies, they should carry out marketing
communications targeted at these consumers as a means to create more market opportunities. In
the meantime, when implementing ethical marketing strategies, the firm should not be too
optimistic and take for granted that consumer’s stated ethical purchasing intention would be
20 definitely translated into an actual purchase. The findings confirm that though 58% of consumers
will have intention to purchase ethical goods, their intention will not be necessarily translated into
actual purchase. To some degree, we think this 58% of consumers will play the key role of
“middle voters”, and their intention may therefore be converted into actual purchases or
indifference to ethics, respectively. As of the concrete conversion direction, it will undoubtedly
depend on firm’s ethical marketing strategies.
Secondly, enterprises should try to advocate and lead a trend of ethical consumption through
such media as TV, internet, and etc., or the means of using product image speaker. Just as
mentioned in this study, when shopping ethical goods, Chinese consumers have a strong
conformist mentality. The findings confirm that social surroundings have a significant moderating
influence on the relationship between ethical purchasing intention and actual action. Hence,
enterprises could lead a ethical consumption culture and atmosphere through the medias (such as
TV, internet, and etc.) which could be accessed by consumer usually. In the meantime, Chinese
consumers have a serious face consciousness, to cater to their face needs, firms could use such
marketing strategy as product image speakers to lead an ethical consumption atmosphere, aiming
to let people imitate them actively, and further advocating ethical consumption.
Thirdly, corporations should focus on the retail terminal construction of ethical products,
aiming to help consumers readily achieve (rather than impede) the transformation from ethical
buying intention into purchasing behavior. This could be done by assisting those ethically minded
consumers to image the concrete purchasing situation and their corresponding behaviors, which
will activate their ethical intensions in the shopping aisle and at the cash register. For instance,
using a combination of out-of-store and in-store visual media to remind consumers and shoppers
of their ethical intentions (e.g. remember to buy recycled toilet paper and you really want that!)
can help them impede their automatic shopping, and thereby evoke their ethical purchasing
intentions and change their buying inertia. Meanwhile, firms can make the most use of some
subtle hints of shopping situation to influence consumers, such as arranging the store staff in the
aisle to interact with the in-store ethical consumers; selling the products to ensure their visibility
comparing to competitive products; using price promotion strategies to give the product a trial;
using some visible thing to symbolically and effectively communicate the ethical quality of
products with consumers.
Fourthly, corporations are supposed to focus on the disclosure of social responsibility
report/information. Consumers, in reality, do require more information to make a better ethical
judgment. If they have thought about ethical factors before making purchasing decisions, they
need to be able to easily compare different ethical behavior and products of different companies.
21 Research suggests that the important reason why some consumers don’t feel like making an effort
on ethical cognition is that they are facing much more information burden or cost when making an
ethical choice. Besides, there exists a number of wrong information rather than right one in reality
to inspire consumers to make purchasing decisions ethically. Therefore, if corporations could
publish their social responsibility information/report regularly, the cost of identifying information
for consumers would be cut down, which would help consumers to make the right ethical choices.
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