Consumer Ethical Decision Making in Pakistan

Abstract

In a typical retail setting, consumers face numerous situations that involve ethical decision making. The situations may range from choice between pirated and patent registered products to use of others’ membership card to order a product. The literature on consumer ethics is growing in size and popularity since 1990’s however the consumer ethics literature and ethical decision making is an under research area in developing countries like Pakistan. The purpose of the study is to examine the ethical decision making process using general theory of marketing ethics and linking it with theories of moral intensity, moral philosophy, neutralization techniques and self-conscious emotions. The study is positivist in nature that involves data collection on a scenario based questionnaire, from 726 retail consumers in Pakistan through online and field survey. The study uses descriptive statistics, correlation, reliability analysis, exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modelling to analyze the data. The results confirm that consumers in Pakistan have a positive influence of moral intensity on their self-conscious emotions. Social anxiety is found to play a positive role in both samples whereas private self-conscious emotions are found to be effective in only online survey. It is found that consumers’ self-conscious emotions may or may not lead to the development of neutralization techniques by them. However, the use of neutralization techniques is found to be positively associated with ethical judgement regardless of its harmful and harmless ethical dimensions. The consumers scoring high on moral intensity, moral philosophy and self-conscious emotions are found to be more considerate in their ethical judgement that in turn positively influences their behavioural intentions. The study is first of its kinds that has linked rational and non-rational aspects and contributes towards the literature on consumer ethical decision making by incorporating moral, emotional and neutralization dimensions at large and in the context of developing countries specifically Pakistan. The study recommends the launch of educational programs and awareness campaigns highlighting importance of ethical conduct plus rules and regulations to safe guard businesses from delinquent behaviour of retail consumers