Do consumers care about ethics? A cross-cultural study

Abstract

Discussion towards an understanding about ethical and social responsible corporate behaviours has increased over last two decades. Both marketers and academicians emphasize the interest of the topic. Developed research has been focusing the understanding of a few organizational practices, but consumer’s dyad of the problem calls for further investigation. This work presents some of the main theoretical contributions about consumer ethics, emphasizing the way how purchase attitude may be influenced by consumers’ perceptions about firms’ behaviour. The study aims to fill two important gaps in the burgeoning literature on marketing ethics: by looking at the consumer side of the marketing exchange dyad, and comparing consumer perspectives on ethics across cultures. As such, levels of consumer ethical awareness and expectations, and their impact on purchasing behaviours are measured in the contexts of Portugal and Cape Verde, one of its former colonies in Africa. Both qualitative and quantitative analyses were developed.