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Ethical Consumers (ethical + consumer)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	50%
Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	50%

Selected Abstracts

Voluntary simplicity and the ethics of consumption

PSYCHOLOGY & MARKETING, Issue 2 2002
Deirdre Shaw
The increased levels of consumption that have accompanied our consumer-oriented culture have also given rise to some consumers questioning their individual consumption choices, with many opting for greater consumption simplicity. This link between consideration of actual consumption levels and consumer choices is evident among a group of consumers known as ethical consumers. Ethical consumers consider a range of ethical issues in their consumer behavioral choices. Particularly prevalent is voluntary simplification due to concerns for the extent and nature of consumption. Through the presentation of findings from two qualitative studies exploring known ethical consumers, the relationship of consumer attitudes to consumption levels, and how these attitudes impact approaches to consumer behavior, are discussed. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. [source]

Ethical consumers in search of markets

BUSINESS STRATEGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, Issue 4 2007
Peter Wheale
Abstract Research in ethical consumerism has concentrated on attempts to either categorize ethical consumers or to uncover their decision-making processes, but to-date there have been few investigations into the key ethical drivers behind the decision-making process. This study attempts to identify these ethical drivers within their particular product groups by means of a survey of self-proclaimed ethical consumers distributed via a questionnaire placed in the Ethical Consumer Magazine. The findings indicate that environmental issues are ranked above human rights and animal rights/welfare issues and that the ethical consumer considers the product groups to have differential importance ranging from the food products goods group, being the most strongly associated with ethical issues, to the ,brown goods' group (electric goods such as stereos and TVs), which proved to be least associated with these issues. An examination of the ethical drivers within each group suggests that ethical consumers consider each product group on the basis of its bundle of ethical attributes, with differing levels of importance placed on each ethical issue within the purchase decision. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source]

An exploration of values in ethical consumer decision making

JOURNAL OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR, Issue 3 2005
Deirdre Shaw
Abstract Consumer concern for ethical issues has been well documented across much of the developed world. Research on values is also prominent in the literature. Neglected in consumer behaviour is an understanding of the pertinence of particular values in ethical decision making contexts. This paper outlines the results of qualitative research, which explores those values pertinent to ethical consumers in decision making and the nature of their influence in grocery consumption contexts. A questionnaire was used to ascertain the dominance and nature of values influencing consumer decision making in this context. [source]

Voluntary simplicity and the ethics of consumption

Protecting the Environment the Natural Way: Ethical Consumption and Commodity Fetishism

ANTIPODE, Issue 3 2010
James G. Carrier
Abstract:, One of the ways that conservation and capitalism intersect is in ethical consumption, the shaping of purchasing decisions by an evaluation of the moral attributes of objects on offer. It is increasingly important as a way that people think that they can affect the world around them, including protecting the natural environment. This paper describes commodity fetishism in ethical consumption, and the degree to which this fetishism makes it difficult for ethical consumers to be effective both in their evaluation of objects on offer and in influencing the world around them. It looks at three forms of fetishism in ethical consumption: fetishism of objects, fetishism of the purchase and consumption of objects, fetishism of nature. [source]

Ethical consumers in search of markets

A sociological perspective of consumption morality

JOURNAL OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR, Issue 5 2007
Robert Caruana
This paper considers how a sociological perspective of morality can inform understandings of consumption. In light of recent research that identifies moral forms of consumption practice at a socio-cultural level (e.g. ,ethical consumers' and ,voluntary simplifiers') it is apparent that an important relationship between consumption, society and morality continues to be of relevance and interest to consumer research. However, research into ethical consumption, fair trade, sustainability, green consumption and more recently consumer citizenship presuppose certain assumptions about the moral nature of the subject at the centre of their investigations whilst not evidencing an explicit or coherent understanding of the underlying sociological conception of morality itself. Accordingly, there is a need for consumer researchers framing their studies at a sociological level to be clearer about the conceptual nature of morality and, moreover, how it relates in a meaningful way to the theoretical claims made in their research. In response, this paper examines the dominant paradigmatic conceptualisations that constitute a sociological perspective of morality. Particularly, it considers (1) how a number of key sociological perspectives on morality can locate streams of consumer research better than is currently the case, (2) how these perspectives suggest that current research into fair trade and ethical consumption invoke a certain type of morality whereas a broader concept is available and finally (3) how a pluralist sociological conception of morality will allow consumer researchers to reframe the types of questions they can ask and so too the types of answers they may find. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]