The social economics of ethical consumption: Theoretical considerations and empirical evidence

By Martha A. Starr. 2009

161 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Recent years have seen rising discussion of ethical consumption as a means of stemming global warming, challenging unsavory business practices, and promoting other pro-social goals. This paper first lays out a conceptual framework for understanding the spread of ethical consumption, in which heterogeneous preferences and sensitivity to social norms feature centrally. It then presents empirical evidence from a well-known nationally representative survey on factors associated with tendencies to buy ethically. It is found that, ceteris paribus, people are more likely to buy ethically when others around them do too, consistent with a role of social norms in promoting ethical-consumption behaviors.

Subfields: Information Systems and Management, Marketing, Strategy and Management

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/3429ee30d1cb75820332c9b7d835df12a6abb90f

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Information Systems and Management

1. Andrew Smith
2. Heidi Winklhofer
3. Adamantios Diamantopoulos
4. Christian M. Ringle
5. Marko Sarstedt
6. Sabrina Helm
7. Detmar W. Straub Jr.
8. Paul A. Pavlou

In Marketing

1. Diana Gregory‐Smith
2. Andrew Smith
3. Heidi Winklhofer

In Strategy and Management

1. Andrew Smith

Citations in the corpus

• Emotions and dissonance in ‘ethical’ consumption choices (2013, background): “The term ‘ethical consumption’ incorporates an ethical/moral dimension, where the hedonic function and/or product utility are, to some extent, subordinated by concerns about right and wrong and consequences of consumption acts (Starr, 2009).”