Effects of Information About Firms’ Ethical and Unethical Actions on Consumers’ Attitudes

Abstract

Three experiments examined the manner in which consumers are influenced by information about firms’ ethical behaviors and product attribute information when forming attitudes toward the firm. Confirming principles drawn from evaluations of individuals, results showed that a superior product attribute enhances attitudes toward ethically behaving firms more than toward unethically behaving firms. Furthermore, consumers’ attitudes toward superior products differed depending on the type of ethical behavior enacted by the firm—whether refraining from unethical behavior or acting prosocially. However, when a product attribute was inferior, firms’ ethics had less impact.

How Sustainability Ratings Might Deter ‘Greenwashing’: A Closer Look at Ethical Corporate Communication

“…Most empirical studies indicate a strong negative impact of a company's alleged irresponsible acts (e.g., child labour, human rights violations, air and water pollution) on attitudes toward the firm (Murray and Vogel, 1997;Folkes and Kamins, 1999), as well as on attitudes toward the product and purchase intentions (Murray and Vogel, 1997;Vanhamme, 2004, 2005). Mohr and Webb (2005) demonstrate the asymmetric impact of societal practices on consumers' perceptions, as suggested by Creyer and Ross (1997).…”

Creating Consumer Confidence in CSR Communications

“…Therefore, they may be willing to help the environment from getting worse (by avoiding environmentally "bad" products"), but less willing to help the environment to improve. This is also reflected in a study by (Folkes and Kamins, 1999), which showed that consumers are more influenced by negative information about CSR than by positive information.…”

Young Consumers’ avoidance towards Public Bus Services of urban areas in Bangladesh

“…In their study, Lee et al (2009) have also stated that consumers avoid brands and services that they find morally inappropriate to adopt mainly due to country of origin effect and brand hegemony. However, Folkes and Kamins (1999) [15] confirmed that, socially accepted moral practices undertaken by a inferior quality service provider does not have much influence on the minds of the consumers. The same notion was confirmed by the respondents as they did not talk about country of origin or brand hegemony.…”