Effects of moral cognitions and consumer emotions on shoplifting intentions

Abstract

Empirical results verify the notion that emotions are important in explaining the aberrant consumer act of shoplifting. Age appears to moderate the relative effect of beliefs and emotions in a shoplifting scenario. Although adult consumers' moral beliefs provide more explanatory power in their shoplifting decision calculus, emotions are more important in explaining adolescent shoplifting behavior. Specifically, adults' behavioral intentions to shoplift are affected by their moral beliefs, with attitude toward the act of shoplifting serving as a partial mediator of these effects. College‐aged respondents are largely influenced by beliefs concerning the moral equity of shoplifting. In contrast, both beliefs and emotions influence adolescents significantly, with emotions, specifically fear and power, having a greater impact. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Who Approves Fraudulence? Configurational Causes of Consumers’ Unethical Judgments

“…Besides classifications, prior research reveals that shoplifting is likely to be influenced by a variety of factors. Causal antecedents include social/peer group pressures (Cox et al 1990(Cox et al , 1993, personality traits (Babin and Babin 1996;Egan and Taylor 2010), consumers' financial situations (Moore 1984), norms Punj 1993, 2004), and deterrence factors such as the likeliness of being caught (Cole 1989).…”

“…Education has the potential to improve moral development, to strengthen ethical constraints, and to facilitate the unlearning of misbehaviors (e.g., Babin and Babin 1996;Fullerton and Punj 1997). The configurational causes that this study identifies may help educators develop campaigns by pointing to four relevant sets of factors underlying consumers' unethical judgments toward corrupt behaviors and by describing their configurational effects.…”

Dealing with customer misbehaviour

“…Among the wide range of different types of misbehaviour faced by frontline employees that is reported in the literature we find customer rage and violence (Grove et al, 2004), shoplifting (Babin and Babin, 1996), vandalism (Goldstein, 1996), sexual harassment (Gettman and Gelfand, 2007), drunkenness (Bitner et al, 1994), and illegitimate customer complaints (Reynolds and Harris, 2005). What is also reported is a growth in the number of violent incidents against frontline employees (Huefner and Hunt, 2000;Nelms, 1998;Rose and Neidermeyer, 1999), as well as increased aggression (Gabriel and Lang, 1997).…”

“…Babin and Babin, 1996;Bitner et al, 1994;Harris and Reynolds, 2004;Reynolds and Harris, 2006). Existing research on customer misbehaviour has mostly been occupied with understanding the background causes and triggers to customer misbehaviour and consequences for organizations and employees (Fisk et al, 2010).…”

Resurrecting an Abandoned “Standpoint”: An Exploratory Application of W. I. Thomas’ Abandoned “Four Wishes” and the “Definition of the Situation” to Adolescent Shoplifters’ Cases

“…The use of self-reports to study American shoplifting is common (e.g., Babin & Babin, 1996;Klemke, 1982;Lasky, Jacques & Fisher, 2015) and useful as it can capture the non-distorted essence of shoplifting behavior not measured in arrest and official court records, and they also uncover the attitudes, values and explanations that are crucial to Thomas' theories. This is a method that allows for the distinct "angle of vision" that is vital to sociology and "locates intentionality and action to individuals' character and personality, and to the actions that flow from them" (Epstein, 2005, p. 448).…”