Measuring consumers’ perceptions of business ethicality on price, product, and service domains

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine consumer perceptions across various countries, and uses content analysis in order to compare individual countries’ perceptions of ethicality over three business domains: price, product and service. Design/methodology/approach The data encompasses measurements from 18 countries including the USA and countries in Eastern and Western Europe, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and the gross national income purchasing power parity were explored to explain the differences in focus between countries. Findings The results indicate that Mexico and Argentina place a higher focus on price, while Russia, China and India place a greater focus on the product element. In terms of ethical perceptions of service, only Brazil places high focus on this domain. The results indicated that uncertainty avoidance was significant for five of the six countries focusing on price, suggesting that price provides a level of certainty and therefore less ambiguity. Originality/value The importance of this study is based on the idea that consumer trust is vital to the efficient running of economic activity.