Consumer Ethics - A Moving Target

8/8/2019 Consumer Ethics - A Moving Target

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consumer ethics a moving target

Kyoko Fukukawa

Bradford University School of Management

Literature Review

instituteofcustomerservice.com


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2 | consumer ethics a moving target Institute of Customer Service 2010

About this review

This review is part of a series of reports the Institute of Customer Service

will be publishing over the coming months. They have been compiled

by experts at some of the UKs leading business schools and focus on

subject areas chosen by the our Breakthrough Research Committee.

A literature review is a body of text that aims to review the current

knowledge on a chosen subject and or methodological approaches on a

particular topic. They offer readers an opportunity to bring themselves up

to date on a particular issue and explore wider reading material.


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Contents

Introduction 04

The nature of consumer ethics 06

The shifting terrain of consumer ethics09

How organisations can live with ethical challenge 13

Summary 18

References 20

About the Authors 25


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1 Introduction

Are customers always right and businesses best served by treating their

customers well? Certain precepts about the customer, not least that

the customer is always right, derive from consumerism as a dominant

paradigm for all market interactions and transactions. This has led to

norms of how organisations treat customers, the notion that marketing

activities should full consumer needs and that organisations needto secure consumers personal and social well-being1,2. Yet, should

this be the case even when the customer is wrong? What about when

consumers behave badly?

The signicance of the so-called dark side of consumer behaviour has

been recognised for some time3, yet consumer ethics remains a complex

and changing eld. For example, practices of retail fraud and piracy,

although technically illegal, are widespread and justied by some as the

exercise of consumer power. The idea that an action may be justiablebut counter to the law creates an ethical dilemma for consumers and

businesses alike.

The nancial implications of aberrant consumer behaviour are signicant.

In 2008, consumer theft in retailing was estimated at more than $43

billion worldwide, including $14 billion in North America and $18 billion

in Europe4. The cost of prevention is said to mount up to over $25.5

billion globally4.

In 2005, insurance fraud in the UK is estimated at 1-2bns5 and $30

billion in the USA6. Businesses may not seek to criticise the values

of consumers in public because of the perceived sovereignty of the

consumer and the basic fact that they underpin the generation of prot.

Nevertheless, while it may indeed be precarious for businesses to start

questioning whether consumers are right or wrong, it is vital (and well

worth their while) for businesses to pay closer attention to the various

ethical dilemmas and complexities at a consumer level. Focusing on the

dark side of consumer behaviour this paper offers an overview of key


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literatures on consumer ethics, and in particular examines:

the nature of consumer ethics

the shifting terrain of consumer ethics

how organisations can live with ethical challenges


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2 The nature of consumer ethics

Consumer ethics is dened as the moral principles and standards that

guide behaviour of individuals or groups as they obtain, use and dispose

of goods and services7.

Recently consumers appear to exercise their moral principles - be more

ethically minded - when making purchases. So we have seen an increase

in the sale and demand of fair trade and organic products (for example,

ethical consumerism8) and some consumers even attempt to punish

unethical organisations (for example, boycotting9). The contemporary

consumer further compliments the archetype of the sovereign consumer

- whose purchasing behaviour bears relation to the development of the

market place, provoking increased competition, especially where markets

fail, as in unethical practice10, 11.

However, we cannot assume consumers always behave ethically.Consumer attitudes towards ethical marketing reveal changeable,

even ckle consumer ethics. It has been observed, for example, that

despite Nikes ethically questionable engagement with child labour

in developing countries, consumers appeared to continue buying Nike

products12.

The ethics of the consumer can shift quickly. We might more accurately

describe the consumer as possessing a uid morality. Moreover, looking

critically at recent trends, it can be argued that so-called ethicalconsumers are potentially just consuming the status of being ethical.

Ethics become just one of many values consumers may purchase in

pursuit of consumer satisfaction13. While one may believe that consumers

are controllable and therefore responsive to marketing inputs, consumers

are consistently proved themselves unpredictable, contradictory and

unmanageable that they displayed many different faces and images14.

Given the complexity and subtleties of consumer ethics the dark side of

consumer behaviour has inevitably been given many labels and various


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attributions have been drawn out as a focal point for research. The

following terms identify some of the main critical denitions in frequent

use:

Unethical consumer behaviour - as related to the behaviour resulted

from a special case that consumers overturn the suitability of ethical

norms and in that its consequence violate broadly accepted principles

of morality15

Aberrant (or dysfunctional, fraudulent) consumer behaviour

behaviour in exchange settings which violates the generally accepted

norms of conduct in such situations and which are therefore held

in disrepute by marketers and by most consumers16. Related terms

include: dysfunctional customer behaviour17 and the fraudulent

consumer, for example, those returning goods on fraudulent grounds18

Consumer misbehaviour associated with the behaviour exercised by

the Jay-customer as those who deliberately act in a thoughtless or inan abusive manner, causing problems for organisations, employees, or

other customers19. Subsequent research has focused on inappropriate

behaviour20 ,21.

Retaliatory behaviour the customer seeks to get even with a service

or retail provider22,23. The concept is derived from customer complaints

and dissatisfaction and can relate to the exercise of civil liberties.

Taking account of these different perspectives, it is pertinent perhaps toaddress the behaviour in question as ethically questionable behaviour.

The point of which is to refrain from pre-empting any static or xed ethical

judgement. In other words, ethically questionable behaviour as a key term

serves to remind us of competing claims upon ethics, that ethicality rarely

achieves any clear consensus.

Examples of ethically questionable behaviour in consumption range from

behaviour harmful to business (such as returning goods after damaging

them or not liking the goods24) to illegitimate behaviour (shoplifting25,26,


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insurance fraud5 and more recent examples including software piracy27

and counterfeit goods28).

Similarly, considering the characteristics of the relationships between

public organisations and their beneciaries, the idea of ethically

questionable behaviour is applicable to explaining some forms of

fraudulent behaviour in the public sector such as tax evasion and benet

fraud. Consumer judgements for such a wide range of behaviour are

proven to vary. Only a small portion of consumers appear to have strong

ethical positions29,30, exhibiting their ethical belief that these behaviours

are wrong.

When facing various ethical dilemmas in their consumption situations,

consumers can nd some behaviour more acceptable than others

across different cultural settings: Austria29, other EU countries (Greece,

Italy, Portugal, Spain, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Scotland)31,

Australia32, Egypt33, Hong Kong34,35, Ireland35,36, Japan37, Lebanon36 and U.S

studies7,38,39

.

One extensive literature review on consumer ethics40 concludes that

consumers typically evaluate ethical dilemmas based on:

whether or not the consumer actively sought an advantage or was

basically passive

whether or not the activity might be perceived as illegal, and

the degree of perceived harm, if any, to the concerned organisation.

It is mostly the case that the behaviour is perceived as wrong as a result

of actively beneting from an illegal activity. Whereas, ethical judgement

towards behaviour actively beneting from a questionable action and

behaviour with no harm and no foul can be culturally contingent.


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3 The shifting terrain of consumer ethics

Factors inuencing ethically questionable behaviour depend on the

specic context but might include psychological and demographic

factors, social and cultural aspects, social and peer inuence, the

degree of possible harm to others, risk perception, opportunism and the

perception of fairness in relation to business41.

The characteristics of the exchange setting and marketing institutions

also inuence behaviour. These include types of products and services

offered, physical environment, type and level of deterrence and security,

attitude and conduct of marketing employees, public image of marketing

institution, and the conditions in the exchange environment that vary

across time16.

It is clear that businesses need to think about a more complex, shifting

picture of consumer decision-making. This can be illustrated by thefollowing three scenarios which each present a certain uidity of

consumer ethics. The emphases in each are different/dependent upon

whose ethics are most under scrutiny.

Scenario 1: claiming irrelevance

If I watch a television report about children working in a factory making

garments for next to nothing, the next day I may nd myself digging

around for bargains in a high-street clothing store. My heart may sink as I

grab the clothes but I easily justify buying cheap clothing since it is not myfault how they were made.

In this rst scenario the manufacturer is arguably more at fault than the

consumer. It is not the consumers responsibility to decide how a product

is manufactured and raw materials are sourced. So consumers may not

see the situation as their ethical dilemma (the level of ethical concern by

consumers is perceived to be relatively low). The consumers perception

may be that their actions in buying the products does not actively entail

doing anything wrong, even though choosing not to make the purchase

may equally be thought of as being laudable.


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Some consumers may therefore sense an ethical dilemma but do not

necessarily see the issues in black and white terms, as being simply

wrong or right. Generally speaking consumers have a much stronger

commitment to a comfortable life for themselves, which contrasts with

ethical consumers who are committed to pursuing a better society42.

Nevertheless, the time and effort required to act ethically and dutifully

can be perceived as just too much. Instead, consumers often prefer to

view the process of consumption as amoral, which helps avoid specic

moral issues (such those relating to the environment, the distribution

of wealth, civility, etc). So, for example, in green marketing literature

amoralisation refers to the denial of moral status for the environment, or

the avoidance of moral reection or attachment in relation to greening43.

Scenario 2: claiming insignicance

Typically consumers believe that software companies make excessive

prot from licensing agreements and upgrades. So why should I pay

more when I can easily make copies for free? While in reality this is aninfringement of copyright, the perception is that no one will lose out.

In this second scenario, despite the act of piracy being illegal, we nd a

case where apparently there is no harm done (in this case to the software

companies). Its as if there is no ethical concern raised.

Since there is no explicit market transaction involved in the situation,

it is difcult for the consumer to be aware of harmful consequences to

the distant software company (and possibly other consumers) duringthe course of action. The consumer is said to be simply economising

their time and money for their own convenience. While the long-term

implications may be recognised (such as the loss of revenue to software

programmers, etc), the immediate gain to the consumer is far more

attractive. After all, the loss of potential sales is perceived to be very small

and companies are thought to be making enough prot to absorb such

losses.


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In a similar fashion, the music industry also suffers from piracy, again

conducted by ordinary consumers (acting for their private needs),

who justify such an act by thinking that record labels and their artists

enjoy unreasonable prots and that minor infringement of copyright is

acceptable to this wealthy group44. The case of piracy can to some extent

relate to explanations of tax evasion, since similarly there is no market

transaction involved.

An individual can focus on their own short-term gains (in saving money

for themselves) by not reporting taxable income. There is the potential

for a similar no harm done effect since it can be argued the tax authority

will still gain revenues from many other taxpayers. The effect again relates

to the difculty to imagine or indeed suffer the pain of distant others

(such as inequality among citizens) and/or to recognise the long-term

implications of the act (for example, deterioration of public service).

Scenario 3: claiming redemption

On leaving a restaurant, having received very poor service, you nd youhave accidentally received too much change. Would you take the extra

money without saying anything? Many might say yes, it is totally justied.

In this nal scenario both parties can be said to be at fault. The behaviour

is justied on one level, since the customer felt the restaurant served

them inadequately for the money spent (corporate unfair practice).

When consumers perceive that businesses treat them unfairly, they may

be motivated to redress the imbalance if they are given an opportunity41,45.In the scenario of being undercharged, the customer is clearly aware their

behaviour would result in harm to the restaurant. However, in a trade-off

between the rightness of an action and the perceived unfairness of the

service provider, the customer can argue for the relative justice of not

owning up to the restaurants mistake in giving back too much change.

A case of redemption can again relate to the act of tax evasion and

perhaps in a much more morally aggressive form. Individuals who hold

to specic moral arguments can incline to follow self-chosen ethical


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principles. When laws violate these principles, they are ready to resist and

act according to their principles46. So, when those individuals perceive

their government polices to be unjust, they may choose not to pay tax as a

form of protest47.

Given the nancial implications at stake (noted above in the introduction),

it is clear that ethically questionable behaviour can have signicant

impact on the performance of organisations. Furthermore, a recent

study48 on consumer ethics makes the startling nd that up to 75% of

the respondents across the UK, US, France and Austria have engaged

in such behaviour at least once. Ethically questionable behaviour is

not the doing of criminals as such but ordinary consumers. However,

in accepting this shifting terrain of consumer ethics, managers can

appreciate the opportunities to improve the quality of business

operations.


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4 How organisations can livewith ethical challenge

Education and deterrence are two known common approaches to tackle

ethically questionable behaviour in consumption.

Education: this approach is effective to make ethical concern toward

a certain type of behaviour relevant to consumers. It helps to raise

consumer awareness and intolerance toward behaviours such as

claiming a refund on a good that was damaged by the consumer. Where

there are already signs of negative perception toward behaviours (for

example, shoplifting, tax evasion), education is likely to help reinforce

and/or deepen such a view.

It helps individuals develop an ability to exercise moral reasoning

using the concept of justice46. This type of programme development

has been noted of critical importance in achieving tax compliance as itprovides opportunities to appeal to individuals moral conscience and

strengthens social cohesion47.

Deterrence: this approach is effective in making consumers realise

signicant implications of their potential act. An example can be given

of a towel being taken from a hotel. In response to this behaviour

hotels often make a clear statement to the effect that the item can be

purchased as a souvenir, highlighting the fact that the item is known

by the hotel to be of value to hotel guests. Offering a price for the itemestablishes more clearly that taking it away from the hotel does indeed

constitute stealing.

This type of behaviour is often related to opportunism, so while the

consumer may see their actions as being wrong, there is a low risk of

being caught. So deterrence is more effective than education, since any

negative perceptions associated with the behaviour are not seen to be

of great concern to the individual consumer (since they can get away

with their actions unseen).


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Combined approach: in many practices education and deterrence

are combined to protect businesses from the impact of ethically

questionable behaviour. An example can be seen with piracy. The

prevalence of piracy gives consumers a sense of everyones doing it

which helps to legitimise the practice further.

Widespread education is needed to develop a greater ethical

concern, including awareness about intellectual property and the

harm that results in piracy, not only to organisations and individual

copyright holders but also to the consumers themselves (for example,

jeopardising the opportunity to benet from future development of

desired goods and the potential for inated prices to cover losses).

Deterrence can be used to reinforce these ideas. Policing the behaviour

serves as a further reminder that piracy is unethical and indeed illegal.

Such a combined method is used to try to break the friendly and

informal economy of software and music piracy.

However, neither education nor deterrence (or a combination of both)

works for the behaviour of consumers aware of the ethical dilemmas

and implications of their act, as described in scenario 3, of claiming

redemption. This kind of retaliatory behaviour (aimed to redress

imbalance) is motivated by consumer perception of corporate unfairness

which can develop through personal experience, hearsay and stories of

victims of common aggressive marketing tactics.

As a response, or to prevent such behaviour, businesses need to reduce

the number of opportunities for negative perceptions to develop towards

organisations or industries. There are three options to integrate ethical

concerns with specic corporate strategy: (1) strategic communication; (2)

marketing tactics; and (3) customer-business relations.

Strategic communication is important for all organisations in tackling

consumer perceptions of unfairness as consumers are known to seek

redress simply when they believe they have been overcharged49 or


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treated unfairly. For example, the insurance industry is often associated

with the idea that policyholders are overcharged for something that

is intangible. A particular problem for this industry is the fact that the

product is hopefully never realised you take out insurance against

something you hope will never happen. This means that increases in

policy payments are hard to justify or clarify which, in turn, can make

the industry more prone to the impact of the ethically questionable

behaviour of their customers, notably the exaggeration of an insurance

claim.

Policyholders have been known to take advantage of claims procedures

to get back what they feel has been owing to them following what

they believe are unacceptably high policy rates. Due to the specic

characteristics of industry, insurance companies may seek to co-operate

to improve consumer perception of the industry as a whole.

One concern is that consumers merely assess the fairness of businesses

based on their image of the company, rather than on detailedinformation and genuine performance indicators. In this respect, larger

organisations are often more vulnerable to ethically questionable

behaviour.

Well-established multinational organisations, for example, are

perceived as faceless global enterprises for which many consumers

have little sympathy. Even worse, consumers may believe these

corporate giants do not act fairly. The same applies to public

organisations which serve a variety of differing groups of citizens andtherefore have policies which may not necessarily satisfy interests of all

concerned.

So, when organisations realise they are seen in a bad light due to their

industry type and size, one course of action is to establish regular

communication aimed at reducing the apparent distance between

business and consumers and to create opportunities to gain direct

consumer feedback.


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Marketing tactics can play a signicant role in reducing the propensity

of ethically questionable behaviour. This can be done simply by

examining and revising product offerings and pricing structures. As

noted earlier, hotels and restaurants can employ promotional tactics

(such as selling souvenirs) to help customers to distinguish the

amenities that can and cannot be freely retained.

Price is another tactical domain that affects consumers willingness to

pay50. Consumers are unwilling to pay for unjustiable price increases

when the reason is thought simply to maximise prot51. It is important is

to offer a fair representation of how prices (or tax rates) adequately and

meaningfully reect what is on offer. Therefore its important to avoid

complex pricing structures and unexplained price increases.

Customer-business relations can go wrong on various occasions leading

to the perception of unfairness. For example:

- despite aiming to help customers, poorly trained in-store staff,

who lack adequate knowledge of the products and services on

offer, can end up giving misleading information which costs

customers time and money

- if something goes wrong with a product or service, customers

want help from the business where they made the purchase.

However, a signicant breakdown in trust occurs if customerservice staff, whether in-store, over the telephone or online, are

unsympathetic to the situation and dont try hard enough to

rectify matters

- customers quickly develop negative connotations of a business if

they are served by staff who are rude and abrupt.

Interactions between customers and business can critically inuence

customer evaluation of business. Customers can become frustrated


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because they are not able to obtain what is intended or disheartened

by an impersonal exchange with businesses52. Customers also evaluate

businesses based on their preference for or against the people who

directly engage with customers53. The failure or breakdown in customer-

business relations can quickly lead to a perception of unfairness, which in

turn can lead consumers to seek redress in one form or another.

Improving the performance of frontline service staff may not only help

to build positive relations between staff and customers, but also work

toward a establishing a more reliable partnership between consumers

and business. Where customers feel they are genuinely treated by

business, it can reduce consumer behaviour that may otherwise be at

best disconnected or at worst deceptive and damaging. The importance

of relationship management is also noted in the study of tax behaviour, in

particular suggesting that taxpayers trust in tax authorities has a critical

impact on tax compliance within a voluntary tax system54.

A UK insurance company revealed that after reviewing its claim process,customer satisfaction rates maintained and the number of claims was

halved after dedicated support was provided to claimants55. Providing

extra support may appear to be a drain on time and resources. However,

given the signicant nancial implications of ethically questionable

behaviour, we have to weigh up which is more protable: tackling

potential causes of aberrant behaviour or brushing it off as unavoidable

criminal/mischief act and bearing the costs.

Interestingly, or perhaps ironically, tackling the ethically questionablebehaviour of consumers seems to come back to the notion of businesses

being best served by treating their customers well. To nd the most

appropriate way of treating customers, it is vital that businesses come to

understand the uidity of consumer ethics, the subtleties of its varying

behaviours, the specicities of context and the importance of the inter-

relationship between customers and businesses.


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Summary

This report has discussed the nature of consumer ethics as being more

uid than static. Only a small proportion of consumers constantly apply

their ethical principles in practice but many others are inuenced by

a number of personal and situational factors at a given moment. The

complex nature of consumer behaviour has attracted various investigative

approaches and has provided various labels such as unethical and

aberrant behaviour.

Typically, these behaviours are questioned in terms of ethical contexts,

despite there being no a clear consensus regards to ethicality. In other

words it is not about making specic judgements over what is good or

bad, but instead trying to develop a picture of how different stakeholders

engage with one another and how their different needs and perspectives

relate and/or come into conict with one another.

Three ethical scenarios have been discussed to explore possible causes

and explanations for the behaviour. These scenarios illustrated cases

that consumers may behave in ethically questionable ways because:

1. they do not nd any ethical issues relevant to themselves (claiming

irrelevance); 2. while a consequence may be harmful to others it is

deemed insignicant or easily absorbed by rich organisations (claiming

insignicance); and 3 consumers are motivated to redress an imbalance

between themselves and organisations where practices are perceived as

unfair (claiming redemption).

Two approaches, education and deterrence, are known to minimise

the impact of ethically questionable behaviour and often in practice

these approaches are used in combination. The report also suggests

several opportunities for organisations to rethink their practices and

incorporate ethical concerns into specic corporate strategies (strategic

communication, marketing tactics and customer-business relations).

Diagram 1 summarises all the various aspects relating to the decision-

making process of ethically questionable behaviour in consumption.


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Diagram 1: The decision-making process of ethically questionable behaviour in consumption

Education Deterrence

Intention Behaviour Inuence upon an individual by: Demographic factors

Psychological factors

Social and cultural aspects

Social and peers

Perception of: Degree of possible harms to

others

Risk perception,

Opportunism

fairness in relation to business

Type of products/services

Physical environment

Type and level of deterrence/

security

Attitude and conduct of

marketing employees

Public image of marketing

institution

Conditions in the exchange

environment

Judgement

Whether or not the consumer

actively sought an advantage

or was basically passive.

Whether or not the activity

might be perceived as illegal The degree of perceived

harm, if any, to the concerned

organisation.

Corporate strategy

Marketing communication

Marketing tactics

Business-Customer relation

Justication by claiming Irrelevance

Insignicance

Redemption


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Bradford University School of Management

Bradford University School of Management is one of Europes

leading full-service business schools, regularly featuring in

league table rankings such as the Financial Times. Its graduates

have excellent career prospects and some of the highest employment rates

of any business school. The school focuses on business engagement, withstrong links to business and industry providing valuable student, graduate and

management development opportunities.

www.bradford.ac.uk/management

Dr Kyoko Fukukawa

Dr Kyoko Fukukawa is a senior lecturer in marketing at Bradford University

School of Management. She specialises in research on ethical decision-making

in consumption and business practices, and corporate social responsibility

(CSR). She recently co-edited a special issue of the Journal of Business Ethics onCorporate Identity, Ethics and CSR (2007, vol.76, no.1).

www.manag.brad.ac.uk/people/people.php?name=kfukukaw

About the Authors


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A research paper by Kyoko Fukukawa, Bradford University School of Management.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in an information-storage and retrieval system

or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without

written permission from the Institute of Customer Service, 2 Castle Court, St Peters Street, Colchester CO1 1EW.

Institute of Customer Service 2010 Design: DA Design www.daveallworthy.com

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