Consumer ethics has increasingly attracted attention by academics and practitioners in recent years. Nonetheless, research so far has mostly focused on understanding consumer's ethical judgments and the associations between those ethics-related general attitudes and selected antecedents drawn from Hunt-Vittel Theory of Ethics. Nonetheless, evidence in practice raises more serious doubts about validity of ethical judgments as a measure of consumer ethics, reminding the attitude-behaviour gap that has been long discussed in the literature. On the other hand, as the ethical consumption turns to the mainstream market, there has been a question whether antecedents of consumer ethical behaviour widely investigated in the literature will exert the same influence on mainstream consumer behaviour. This chapter proposes a conceptual framework arguing for new approach to understand and measure ethical consumption. Implications and research directions are also provided.
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Amid recent proliferation of research on consumer ethics, a substantial body of consumer ethics research focuses on consumers’ judgements of questionable situations and drivers of those beliefs (e.g. Arli & Pekerti, 2016; Lu & Lu, 2010; Vitell, 2003; Vitell, Singh, & Paolillo, 2007). Nonetheless, those studies produce mixed findings, both in terms of the conceptualisation of ethical judgements and the direct associations between these judgements and their antecedents (Vitell et al., 2016). In reality, there exists a disparity between consumers’ concern about ethics and their actual behavior, e.g. a Nielsen survey reveals that 26% consumers indicate their desire for but only 10% acknowledge they purchase eco-friendly products (Nielsen, 2015b). Several researchers construe this issue as the attitude-behavior gap and argued consumer ethics had better be measured in terms of behaviors rather than beliefs or judgements (Carrington, Zwick, & Neville, 2016). Drawing on the theory of planned behaviour, Sudbury-Riley and Kohlbacher (2016) note that attitude is just one of predictors of behaviour and may not translate into behaviour, as such, ethical consumption has better be measured in terms of behaviour. Accordingly, the Ethically Minded Consumer Behavior (EMCB) scale has recently been developed in this direction by Sudbury-Riley and Kohlbacher (2016).
Because the EMCB scale conceptualises consumption choices made by consumers, Sudbury-Riley & Kohlbacher, 2016), for consumers to conduct ethically minded behaviour some degree of attention and awareness is required (Carrington, Neville, & Whitwell, 2010). Therefore, the potential impact of an individual’s mindfulness as a mechanism that activates an individual's attentiveness to external cues is a plausible possibility. Indeed, Papies (2017) proposes a conceptual framework for behavioural change interventions, which includes mindfulness training as a mechanism to change the consumer habit underpinning the attitude – behaviour gap. Furthermore, recent research finds mainstream ethical consumption is not usually rational and not driven by ethical attitudes and values, which have been well investigated in previous studies (Davies & Gutsche, 2016; Devinney, Auger, & Eckhardt, 2010; Eckhardt, Belk, & Devinney, 2010). For example, the exploratory, qualitative research of Davies and Gutsche (2016) also reveals that consumers buy into ethics out of their absorption of ethical habits, self-perceptions and socio-cultural dynamics, even though they have little knowledge about ethics. Since nearly half of our daily behaviour and most consumption behaviour are habitual (Wood & Neal, 2009), it can be a tough challenge for marketers to break consumers’ existing habits and gradually turn those habits into ethical ones. As such, the relationship between an individual’s mindfulness and his/her ethical consumption presents an interesting research opportunity, potentially providing a range of theoretical and practical implications. As such, this chapter aims to propose a conceptual framework incorporating mindfulness and ethical consumer behaviour. Theoretical and managerial implications are also discussed, followed by suggestions of empirical research.