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Reactions to unethical consumer behavior across six countries
Abstract
Examining individual tolerance for unethical consumer behavior provides a key insight to how people behave as consumers worldwide. In this study, consumer reactions to 11 unethical consumer behavior scenarios are investigated using sample data from Austria, Brunei, France, Hong Kong, the UK, and the USA. Nationality is found to be a significant predictor of how consumers view various questionable behaviors. Gender is not a significant predictor, while age and religious affiliation are found to be significant predictors of consumer ethical perceptions. The study identifies distinct consumer clusters based on their perceptions of consumer unethical behavior. Implications of the findings are discussed and future research directions are provided.
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In the citing paper
“Despite much attention being given to the ambivalence in lenient return policies, no comprehensive research has been carried out, to the authors' knowledge, on the responses to return policies among consumers of different cultures (Wood,2001; Babakus, Cornwell, Mitchell, & Schlegelmilch, 2004).”
From Do good return policies work across cultures? Effect of lenient return policies on online shopper perceptions in Eastern culture (2013) · cites this paper as Babakus, Cornwell, Mitchell, & Schlegelmilch, 2004
In the citing paper
“However, there is no evidence to show that the consumers in developing countries practice fraud because they have no knowledge of unethical and questionable behaviors (Babakus, et al., 2004).”
From Do good return policies work across cultures? Effect of lenient return policies on online shopper perceptions in Eastern culture (2013) · cites this paper as Babakus, et al., 2004
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Research works printed but not linked: 21
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Cited by
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Yang, S. J., & Choi, Y. J. (2013) · Asia Marketing Journal · doi:10.53728/2765-6500.1519 · Cited by 2
Metadata
- Authors
- Babakus, E., Bettina Cornwell, T., Mitchell, V., & Schlegelmilch, B.
- Affiliations
- University of Memphis (US)
- Vienna University of Economics and Business (AT)
- Venue
- Journal of Consumer Marketing
- Publisher
- Emerald
- Published
- 2004-06-01
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 254-263
- ISSN
- 0736-3761 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2078353412
- Cited by
- 140
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 15.51
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Consumer Marketing (publishedVersion)
- WU Research (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Ethics in Business and Education
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Consumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and Identification
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Consumer behavior in food and health
- Keywords
- unethical consumer behavior, cross-cultural comparison, consumer clusters, nationality effects, gender differences, age differences, religious affiliation, consumer ethics
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