Bringing Ethical Consumption to the Forefront in Emerging Markets: The Role of Product Categorization

Emerging markets are a growing force, and the resulting increase in wealth—especially among the middle class—promotes conspicuous consumption with potentially negative impacts for societal and environmental well-being. Efforts to encourage ethical consumer behavior in emerging markets often meet var...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of business ethics 2024-05, Vol.191 (4), p.777-792
Main Authors: Besharat, Ali, Nardini, Gia, Mesler, Rhiannon MacDonnell
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attributes
Business and Management
Business Ethics
Coffee
Conspicuous consumption
Consumer behavior
Consumers
Consumption
Economic incentives
Education
Emerging markets
Ethics
Fair trade
Management
Middle class
Original Paper
Philosophy
Quality of Life Research
Tea
Wealth
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Summary:Emerging markets are a growing force, and the resulting increase in wealth—especially among the middle class—promotes conspicuous consumption with potentially negative impacts for societal and environmental well-being. Efforts to encourage ethical consumer behavior in emerging markets often meet various forms of consumer resistance. One reason that ethical consumption may suffer in emerging markets is because consumers have difficulty considering ethical other-focused attributes, such as Fair Trade or eco-friendly options, especially if those attributes do not directly benefit the self. Our research demonstrates a simple way to encourage more ethical consumption in emerging markets, without economic incentives. In particular, when consumers see narrow (vs. broad) product categories, they are more likely to incorporate both salient (self-focused) and non-salient (other-focused) attributes into their decision. Thus, narrow product categories encourage consumers to consider ethical attributes to a greater extent than they normally would. This finding holds in private settings, across various product categories (i.e., coffee, tea, juice) and contexts (i.e., online and in the field), and in different emerging markets (e.g., India, South Africa, and Iran).
ISSN:0167-4544
1573-0697
DOI:10.1007/s10551-024-05667-2