The DOI matches its Crossref record; 67 of the 67 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
An Exploratory Study into the Factors Impeding Ethical Consumption
Open accessAbstract
Although consumers are increasingly engaged with ethical factors when forming opinions about products and making purchase decisions, recent studies have highlighted significant differences between consumers’ intentions to consume ethically, and their actual purchase behaviour. This article contributes to an understanding of this ‘Ethical Purchasing Gap’ through a review of existing literature, and the inductive analysis of focus group discussions. A model is suggested which includes exogenous variables such as moral maturity and age which have been well covered in the literature, together with further impeding factors identified from the focus group discussions. For some consumers, inertia in purchasing behaviour was such that the decision-making process was devoid of ethical considerations. Several consumers manifested their ethical views through post-purchase dissonance and retrospective feelings of guilt. Others displayed a reluctance to consume ethically due to personal constraints, a perceived negative impact on image or quality, or an outright negation of responsibility. Those who expressed a desire to consume ethically often seemed deterred by cynicism, which caused them to question the impact they, as an individual, could achieve. These findings enhance the understanding of ethical consumption decisions and provide a platform for future research in this area.
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“Regardless of consumers' positive attitude toward green products and their concern about the environment, the green products' market share stays limited to only 3% of the whole market (Bray et al., 2011).”
From The Influencing Factors of Consumers’ Purchase Intention toward Green Products: A Case of Consumers in Saudi Arabia (2022) · cites this paper as Bray et al., 2011
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Cites
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Cited by
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Exploring the gap between consumers’ green rhetoric and purchasing behaviour
Johnstone, M.-L., & Tan, L. P. (2015) · Journal of Business Ethics · doi:10.1007/s10551-014-2316-3 · Cited by 413
Jacobs, K., Petersen, L., Hörisch, J., & Battenfeld, D. (2018) · Journal of Cleaner Production · doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.07.320 · Cited by 330
Mohiuddin, M., Al Mamun, A., Syed, F., Mehedi Masud, M., & Su, Z. (2018) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su10051534 · Cited by 233
Effectiveness of lifestyle health promotion interventions for nurses: a systematic review
Stanulewicz, N., Knox, E., Narayanasamy, M., Shivji, N., Khunti, K., & Blake, H. (2019) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph17010017 · Cited by 206
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“shops without ethical diamonds or lacking in proof of traceability, time-consuming search process due to prioritisation of ethical concerns) which could have contributed to a consumer choice that was not aligned to Alex’s manifest ethical principles (Bray et al. 2011), if Alex were not so adamant about the importance…”
BackgroundInfluentialNeumann, H. L., Martinez, L. M., & Martinez, L. F. (2021) · Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal · doi:10.1108/sampj-11-2019-0405 · Cited by 134
Caruana, R., Carrington, M. J., & Chatzidakis, A. (2016) · Journal of Business Ethics · doi:10.1007/s10551-014-2444-9 · Cited by 123
Riskos, K., Dekoulou, P. (., Mylonas, N., & Tsourvakas, G. (2021) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su13126867 · Cited by 116
Florence, E. S., Fleischman, D., Mulcahy, R., & Wynder, M. (2022) · Journal of Social Marketing · doi:10.1108/jsocm-09-2021-0221 · Cited by 113
Segmenting consumers’ reasons for and against ethical consumption
F. Burke, P., Eckert, C., & Davis, S. (2014) · European Journal of Marketing · doi:10.1108/ejm-06-2013-0294 · Cited by 111
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Smith, A., & Johns, J. (2020) · Journal of Business Ethics · doi:10.1007/s10551-019-04318-1 · Cited by 48
Almohammadi, H. G., & Abdulghaffar, N. A. (2022) · Journal of Sustainable Development · doi:10.5539/jsd.v15n4p136 · Cited by 9
“Regardless of consumers’ positive attitude toward green products and their concern about the environment, the green products’ market share stays limited to only 3% of the whole market (Bray et al., 2011).”
Background
Metadata
- Authors
- Bray, J., Johns, N., & Kilburn, D.
- Affiliations
- Bournemouth University (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Johns, Nick
- Venue
- Journal of Business Ethics
- Published
- 2010-08-26
- Volume
- 98
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 597-608
- ISSN
- 0167-4544 (ISSN-L)
- 1573-0697
- OpenAlex
- W2021067430
- Cited by
- 891
- References
- 67
- Citations by year
- 2026: 32 · 2025: 64 · 2024: 72 · 2023: 68 · 2022: 74 · 2021: 88 · 2020: 97 · 2019: 71 · 2018: 70 · 2017: 54 · 2016: 53 · 2015: 53 · 2014: 43 · 2013: 24 · 2012: 16
- FWCI
- 49.47
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- Licence
- public-domain
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Journal of Business Ethics (publishedVersion)
- Bournemouth University Research Online (Bournemouth University) (submittedVersion, public-domain)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Environmental Sustainability in Business
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Consumer behavior in food and health
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Ethics in Business and Education
- Keywords
- ethical consumption, purchase behaviour, moral maturity, consumer cynicism, post-purchase dissonance, consumer guilt, ethical decision-making
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