Questions On Ethical Consumer Behavior

2. Literature Review
The purpose of literature review is not only for reviewing a current knowledge of the interested issue, but also used to emphasize the importance of the topic by providing an evidence (Ridley, 2012). Thus, critical analysis on previous studies is needed in order to provide a profound knowledge of the field.

The objective of this chapter is to present a clear understanding of ethical consumption to the reader. Since the main objective of this studies is “to explore an influence of price on ethical buying behaviour in clothing industry of cross cultural populations between two countries”, to achieve this objective, this chapter will start with providing a definition of ethical purchasing. Then, it will provide the concept of ethical consumption, and also issues within the industry. The gap between customer’s ethical concern and their actual practice will be discussed afterward.

2.1 Definition of Ethical Purchasing
Up until this day, the meaning of ethical purchasing, also known as ethical consumption, has been defined by many experts. However, a detailed and generally accepted meaning has not yet been defined. Before providing the meaning of ethical consumption, it is necessary to understanding the meaning of ethic. As translated by Cambridge Dictionary (2015), ethic means ‘a system of accepted beliefs that control behaviour, especially such a system based on morals’. Thus, ethical consumption can be defined as a behaviour of customer who have ethical concern on purchasing decision. As described by Cooper-Martin and Holbrook (1993, p.113 as cited in Bray et al., 2011) ethical consumption is ‘decision-making, purchases and other consumption experiences that are affected by the consumer’s ethical concerns’, a...

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...ctices as their source of competitive advantages (Straughan & Roberts, 1999; Pedersen & Neergaard, 2006). To illustrate, Innocent, a 100% natural juices and smoothies producing company which ethically sourcing their raw materials and practicing many other CSR activities, seems to be a very successful and has been placed as a market leader in their product segment (Datamonitor, 2007).

In consumer’s point of view, as suggested by Shaw and Shiu (2002), apart from price and quality, ethical issues are another factors that customers consider when purchasing goods. Recently, consumers are more interested in ethical issues than before, and usually reflect their concern through ethical purchasing (De Pelsmacker & Janssens, 2007). For example, in UK, there is a rising in ethical consumption. As shown in figure 2.1, spending in ethical activities was consistently increase.