The Hierarchy of Ethical Consumption Behavior

Abstract

Consumers need to move to more sustainable/ethical behavior. Previous research has explored changing consumption with most studies concentrating on specific aspects of sustainable/ethical consumption. This study uses a full range of citizen defined ethical choices. Applying Rasch modeling to consumers' reports of ethically motivated consumption choices, a hierarchy of ethical choices is created. This hierarchy of ethical consumption choices allows the application of stages of change theory to progress consumers up the hierarchy of ethical choices, with implications for public policy, pressure groups and consumers.

Conscientious consumers: a relationship between moral foundations, political orientation and sustainable consumption

“…The SEM (see behaviours and subsequent paths to mid and deep green behaviours. The 'levels' or interconnected 'types' of sustainable behaviour found in this study align with recent research suggesting consumers engage in similar types of sustainable behaviour on a continuum from less committed through to more committed forms of sustainable behaviour as they progress up a hierarchy of ethical consumption choices (Wooliscroft, Ganglmair-Wooliscroft and Noone 2013). The present study suggests that as liberals engage in more 'light green' sustainable consumption behaviours they may be more likely to progress through further sustainable behaviours on the continuum, whilst this may be more difficult to initiate for conservatives.…”

“…The present study suggests that as liberals engage in more 'light green' sustainable consumption behaviours they may be more likely to progress through further sustainable behaviours on the continuum, whilst this may be more difficult to initiate for conservatives. However, if conservatives can be encouraged to participate in relatively 'easy' behaviours that align with their moral worldview, Wooliscroft et al's (2013) theory of hierarchical progression would suggest they too will gradually adopt more committed sustainability behaviours. This is an interesting avenue for further research.…”

Macromarketing and the Systems Imperative

“…Baker et al 2015; Conejo and Wooliscroft 2020; Fajardo, Shultz, and Joya 2019; Jagadale, Kadirov, and Chakraborty 2018; Shultz 2012; Sredl, Shultz, and Brečić 2017), and applying systems to particular marketing phenomena (e.g. Conejo and Wooliscroft 2015; Kadirov 2018; Redmond 2013; Wooliscroft, Ganglmair-Wooliscroft, and Noone 2014). While there is an obvious need and accelerating trend to embrace the systems approach when studying macromarketing phenomena, there remains much work to do (Wooliscroft and Ganglmair-Wooliscroft 2018), to understand complex and chaotic systems, and to improve those systems via markets, marketing, policy and consumption for the sustainable well-being of society and the world.…”

Employee Proactiveness to Engage in Sustainable Consumption Leading to Societal Benefits

“…In our research, we use international entrepreneurial orientation to uncover the entrepreneur (Lumkin, 2011;De Mattos & Salciuviene, 2017) who could have high or low propensity to engage with responsible and sustainable consumption depending on moral identity dimensions that could be manifested through different types of international entrepreneurial orientation in engaging with responsible and sustainable consumption. We posit that highly proactive, innovative Millenials would have a tendency to manifest higher engagement in sustainable consumption within the three key areas responsible for the highest proportion of CO2 emissions: food, mobility and housing, while less proactive employees will be less willing to engage with responsible and sustainable consumption, but using theory of hierarchical progression (Wooliscroft et al, 2013in Watkins et al, 2016 enabling simple steps of collaborative learning in online video games could gradually move those employees to higher engagement with responsible and sustainable consumption within the three key areas responsible for the highest proportion of CO2 emissions: food, mobility and housing.…”