Curbing unethical consumer behaviour: the role of religiosity, consumer ethical beliefs and anticipated guilt

• Date: 25 January 2023
• Pages: 340-361
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOES-06-2022-0127
• Published date: 25 January 2023
• Subject Matter: Economics,Social economics
• Author: Syed Masroor Hassan,Zillur Rahman

Curbing unethical consumer

behaviour: the role of religiosity,

consumer ethical beliefs and

anticipated guilt

Syed Masroor Hassan

Symbiosis Centre for Management Studies, Hyderabad, India, and

Zillur Rahman

Department of Management Studies,

Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, India

Abstract

Purpose –This paper aims to investigate the role of personal and affective factors in curbing unethical

consumer behaviour (UCB). Specif‌ically, this study scrutinizes how religiosity, consumer ethical beliefs

(CEBs) and anticipatedguilt inf‌luence UCB.

Design/methodology/approach –Using a survey-based approach, the author distributed off‌line and

online questionnairesamong students enrolled in a public university in Roorkee, India and analysedthe data

using structuralequation modelling.

Findings –The results provide evidence that intrinsically religious individuals develop strong ethical beliefs,

which can help them to refrain from unethical behaviour and adopt ethical conduct. Also, individuals prone to

experiencing anticipated guilt show less inclination to commit unethical behavi our.

Research limitations/implications –This research presents signif‌icant theoretical and practical

implicationsto facilitate academic understanding and managerialdecision-making in the context of consumer

ethics.

Originality/value –This research is one of the few empirical studies in the Indian context that

simultaneouslyexamines the antecedents and consequencesof CEB.

Keywords Consumer ethics, Consumer ethical beliefs, Religiosity, Anticipated guilt,

Unethical consumer behaviour

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

The relevance of consumer ethicsin business and social contexts is beyond doubt due to the

substantial costs that f‌irms, employees, customers and the environment suffer from

unethical consumer behaviour (UCB) (Agnihotri and Bhattacharya, 2019;Fombelle et al.,

2020;Vitell, 2015). Its worldwideprevalence across different sectors and industries presents

a formidable challenge for practitioners and policymakers to curb such behaviour (Kim

et al., 2022;Owusu et al.,2019;Rosenbaum et al.,2011). Studies have also reported a spike in

the frequency and range of UCB in recent years (Fombelle et al., 2020;Lee et al., 2018). The

fact that marketers often f‌ind it challenging to deal with unethical consumer practices

makes consumer ethics a key focus for both marketing practitioners and researchers

(Hassan et al.,2022). In addition,prior research has underscored the importance of consumer

ethics due to the realization that (a) consumersare an indispensable part of the seller–buyer

IJOES

40,2

340

Received15 June 2022

Revised15 November 2022

3 December2022

Accepted5 December 2022

InternationalJournal of Ethics and

Systems

Vol.40 No. 2, 2024

pp. 340-361

© Emerald Publishing Limited

2514-9369

DOI 10.1108/IJOES-06-2022-0127

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/2514-9369.htm

dyadic relationship, (b) UCB is widespreadand ubiquitous across industries (Fombelle et al.,

2020;Kim et al., 2022) and (c) supporting a truly ethical marketplace is crucial for taking

marketing transactions beyond short-term discrete exchanges to long-term relational

exchanges (Rao and Al-Wugayan,2005).

Customer ethics affects consumer perceptions of ethicality and ideas about what is

acceptable and unacceptable behaviour (Hassan et al., 2022). Companies operating

worldwide must understand consumer ethics across cultures as consumer behaviour

acceptable in one cultural context may be unethical in another (Han and Nam, 2019;Krautz

and Hoffmann, 2019). As a result, a greater grasp of consumer ethics is critical for

multinational enterprises’performance, particularly in emerging markets such as China,

India and Brazil, which are viewed as signif‌icantconsumer markets with promising growth

potential (Alon etal.,2010;Nielsen et al.,2018).

According to the Transparency International Report (2020), India’s position was 86

among 180 countries in the corruption perception index. It is a measure of the country’s

corrupt political scenario and could impact consumer behaviour (Agnihotri and

Bhattacharya, 2019). Furthermore, according to Statista, in 2022, the projected online TV

and movie revenue loss through a revenue loss through piracy in India stands at $3.08bn,

behind the USA and China. Thus, this empiricalresearch attempts to give insights into the

consumer ethical beliefs (CEBs) of Indian consumers and thereby focusses on the role of

religiosity, CEBs and anticipatedguilt in curbing UCB in the Indian context.

However, a review of themarketing ethics literature suggests that ethical issueslinked to

business organizations dominate while “consumer ethics research still has to catch up”

(Schlegelmilch and Oberseder, 2010). Thus, despite being a crucial cog in the seller–buyer

dyad relationship, limited studies have dealt with consumer ethics in the marketplace

(Swaidan, 2012;Vitell et al.,2018). Furthermore, while businesses face risingissues because

of UCB, academic research provides only a limited grasp of how to properly address such

behaviour (Daunt and Harris, 2012;Fombelle et al.,2020). This lack of attention and the

subsequent dearth of research in consumer ethics research may lead to an incomplete

comprehension of marketing dynamics (the acquisition, usage and disposal of goods and

services), which might eventuallylead to the formulation of ineffective marketing strategies

(Swaidan, 2012). Therefore, a better understanding of why some consumers behave

unethically can help practitioners devise strategies to curtail such (unethical) practices and

reinforce the long-lasting and mutually satisfying customer–f‌irm relationships. To f‌ill this

void in literature, the present study examines the role of religiosity, CEBs and anticipated

guilt in curbing UCB. The rationalefor examining the role of religiosity in restricting UCB is

in line with Hunt and Vitell’s (1986,2006) general theory of marketing ethics, which

recognizes religion as an essential personality trait that substantially inf‌luences CEBs and

emphasises that “unquestionably, an individual’s personal religion increases ethical

decision-making”and “the strength of religious beliefs might result in differences in one’s

decision-making process”(Hunt and Vitell, 1993, p. 780). Eminent psychologists have

pointed towards the signif‌icance of exploring religion to better comprehend human nature

and its role in their lives (Alsaad et al.,2020;Elhoushy and Jang, 2021;Junaidi et al.,2022).

As a result, several studies have called for incorporating the religiosity construct into

consumer ethics research (Casidyet al., 2016;Mokhlis, 2010;Schneider et al.,2011). Another

crucial area that has remained largely unexplored is the examination of emotions in the

context of consumer ethics.Recently, Vitell et al. (2013, p. 74) observed that marketing ethics

research has “overlookeda potentiallyimportant component of ethical decision-making, that

is of emotions.”According to Mills and Groening(2021) “the inf‌luence of anticipated guilt in

consumer interactions with f‌irms has received relatively little attention”(p. 385). Thus, this

Unethical

consumer

behaviour

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