Consumer Ethics

Consumer ethics

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1.0 Introduction

In a recent year, in the area of marketing ethics are involving the studies of consumer but most of the studies only identify consumer ethical perception regarding business and marketing practices rather than the perception of consumer ethics (Vitell, 1991). Consumer ethics have a great impact to the business world. Consumer tends to be unethical in exchange of getting benefit from other parties. When consumer behaves unethically, company usually has to bear the losses due to the unethical consumer’s behavior. Company will suffer from loses and profitability from the consequences of unethical consumer’s behavior (Stores, 2002).

In addition, when society neglects consumer ethics, society would be in chaos. The main reason that brings society into chaos is the standardized behavior of consumers or better known as the society norms would not exist (Tan, 2011). A society without the norms or ethics, consumers would not act rationally, and the society might experience moral breakdown (Durkheim, 1958). Therefore, a society that practice consumer ethics is very important to form a harmony society.

There are model that explain consumer’s ethical decision making but only Hunt-Vitell theory can applied into consumer’s ethical behavior. This theory explained that an individual’s moral philosophy or ethical ideology are the key factor in explaining the difference between the ethical judgments and behavior of individuals.

Consumer ethics deals with issues that related to moral behavior in consumer markets. This is because consumers are part of the business process, it is used to understand both underlying motivations for their propensities for buying ethical products and the reasons why some engage in unethical practices, which is helpful in curtailing many questionable practices. Consumer ethics deals with a variety of issues such as willingness to...