Ethical segmentation of consumers in developing countries: a comparative analysis

Abstract

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The purpose of this study is to segment the consumer Gulf market based on actionable and strategy yielding marketing variables (i.e. ethical orientations, trust, opportunisms and Machiavellianism). Design/methodology/approach -Consumers from Saudi Arabia, Oman and Kuwait were asked to complete a survey which incorporated scales to measure consumers' ethical beliefs, Machiavellianism, ethical orientation, opportunism, trust, as well as demographic classification questions. Specifically, every attempt was made to have a broad distribution across the demographic categories of gender, age and education. Participation in the study was restricted to citizens of their respective nations. Local "data captains" were selected in each nation and trained in data collection techniques by two of the study's authors. Of the 598 questionnaires distributed, a total of 365 usable surveys were yielding an overall response rate of 61 percent. A multistage clustering approach was incorporated in order to identify the unique ethical consumer segments.

East Meets West: A Meta-Analytic Investigation of Cultural Variations in Idealism and Relativism

“…Al-Khatib, Vitell, and other investigators, in a series of studies conducted in different nations, have explored how consumers respond when they benefit at the expense of others or as a result of morally questionable or illegal activities. This work finds some differences among the nations investigated, but in studies conducted in Egypt (Al-Khatib et al, 1995), Romania (Al-Khatib et al, 2004), the U.S. , Saudia Arabia (Al-Khatib et al, 2005), Austria (Rawwas, 1996) and Japan (Erffmeyer et al, 1999) idealistic individuals tend to respond negatively to situations where consumers take advantage of a retailer's error, whereas relativists are more lenient. Al-Khatib et al (1995), for example, found that Egyptians who were more idealistic reacted more negatively to situations, where some might benefit but others are harmed, but individuals who endorsed a more relativistic ethics position found such situations to be more tolerable.…”

Effects of ethical ideologies and perceptions of CSR on consumer behavior

“…The literature indicates that ethical ideology is an important variable in the ethical decisionmaking process of consumers, influencing their judgments on the socially responsible activities of businesses and affecting their purchases (Al-Khatib et al, 2005;Panwar et al, 2014). …”

An exploratory investigation of aberrant consumer behaviour in Libya: a sociocultural approach

“…Cross-cultural studies have shown that consumers' predispositions towards, and engagement in, ACB differ across societies (Rawwas, 2001;Al-Khatib et al, 2005); moreover those differences reflect cultural, economic, religious, legal and social contexts (Al-Khatib et al, 1997;Rawwas et al, 1998;Rawwas, 2001;Fisher et al, 2003). Yet most studies exploring ACB have been conducted in the UK (Tonglet and Bamfield, 1997;Gill et al, 2002;Harris and Reynolds, 2004) and USA (Krasnovsky and Lane, 1998;Al-Rafee and Cronan, 2006;Goles et al, 2008) and therefore reflect the fact that "A long tradition in consumption studies has developed in Western, economically developed, societies by scholars whose backgrounds are rooted in the Western tradition of thought" (Jafari et al, 2012, p. 3).…”

“…Al-Khatib et al (2005), for example, found that despite common social, cultural, religious and economic environments in Arabian Gulf countries, differences existed in relation to ethical beliefs and orientations. This supports the work of Alajmi et al (2011), who found that, contrary to Hofstede's (2005) claim of homogeneity in Arab cultures (Itim International, 2009), more differences than similarities exist between, for example, Kuwait and Egypt, in terms of power distance and uncertainty avoidance which could influence attitudes towards societal norms and ethical behaviour.…”

“…Unsurprisingly, most of the few studies to explore ACB in Muslim countries call for further research (e.g. Rawwas, 2001;Al-Khatib et al, 2005;Dabil, 2009). This, combined with the negative impacts ACB has on business and society and a lack of conceptual development concerning managing and preventing ACB, prompted the research reported here.…”