IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v140y2017i1d10.1007_s10551-015-2661-x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Consumer Response to Unethical Corporate Behavior: A Re-Examination and Extension of the Moral Decoupling Model

Author

Listed:
  • Kristina Haberstroh

    (Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel)

  • Ulrich R. Orth

    (Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel
    University of Adelaide
    University of South Australia)

  • Stefan Hoffmann

    (Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel)

  • Berit Brunk

    (Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel)

Abstract

This research replicates Bhattacharjee et al. (J Consum Res 39(4):1167–1184, 2013) moral decoupling model and extends the original along the dimensions of theory, method, and context. Adopting a branding perspective and focusing on the corporate domain rather than the public figures investigated by Bhattacharjee and colleagues, this research examines the proposition that consumers dissociate judgments of morality from judgments of performance to justify purchasing from companies deemed to act immorally. The original study is further extended by applying the model in a different cultural context and employing a more realistic stimulus to establish external and ecological validity. The results of the replication generally support the original findings, in particular, under conditions of higher product involvement, a theoretical extension.

Suggested Citation

  • Kristina Haberstroh & Ulrich R. Orth & Stefan Hoffmann & Berit Brunk, 2017. "Consumer Response to Unethical Corporate Behavior: A Re-Examination and Extension of the Moral Decoupling Model," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 140(1), pages 161-173, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:140:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1007_s10551-015-2661-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-015-2661-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-015-2661-x
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-015-2661-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pat Auger & Timothy Devinney & Jordan Louviere, 2007. "Using Best–Worst Scaling Methodology to Investigate Consumer Ethical Beliefs Across Countries," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 70(3), pages 299-326, February.
    2. Witkowski, Terrence H. & Wolfinbarger, Mary F., 2002. "Comparative service quality: German and American ratings across service settings," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 55(11), pages 875-881, November.
    3. Evanschitzky, Heiner & Baumgarth, Carsten & Hubbard, Raymond & Armstrong, J. Scott, 2007. "Replication research's disturbing trend," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 60(4), pages 411-415, April.
    4. Sen, Sankar & Gurhan-Canli, Zeynep & Morwitz, Vicki, 2001. "Withholding Consumption: A Social Dilemma Perspective on Consumer Boycotts," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 28(3), pages 399-417, December.
    5. Pierre Berthon & Leyland Pitt & Michael Ewing & Christopher L. Carr, 2002. "Potential Research Space in MIS: A Framework for Envisioning and Evaluating Research Replication, Extension, and Generation," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 13(4), pages 416-427, December.
    6. Witkowski, Terrence H. & Reddy, Sabine, 2010. "Antecedents of ethical consumption activities in Germany and the United States," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 8-14.
    7. Andrew John & Jill Klein, 2003. "The Boycott Puzzle: Consumer Motivations for Purchase Sacrifice," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 49(9), pages 1196-1209, September.
    8. Hoffmann, Stefan & Müller, Stefan, 2009. "Consumer boycotts due to factory relocation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 239-247, February.
    9. Ewing, Michael T. & Napoli, Julie, 2005. "Developing and validating a multidimensional nonprofit brand orientation scale," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(6), pages 841-853, June.
    10. Amit Bhattacharjee & Jonathan Z. Berman & Americus Reed II, 2013. "Tip of the Hat, Wag of the Finger: How Moral Decoupling Enables Consumers to Admire and Admonish," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 39(6), pages 1167-1184.
    11. Hubbard, Raymond & Lindsay, R. Murray, 2013. "The significant difference paradigm promotes bad science," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(9), pages 1393-1397.
    12. Eric Luis Uhlmann & Anthony Greenwald & Andrew Poehlmann & Mahzarin Banaji, 2009. "Understanding and Using the Implicit Association Test: III. Meta-Analysis of Predictive Validity," Post-Print hal-00516146, HAL.
    13. Boles, James S. & Johnson, Julie T. & BarksdaleJr., Hiram C., 2000. "How Salespeople Build Quality Relationships:: A Replication and Extension," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 75-81, April.
    14. Mittal, Banwari & Lee, Myung-Soo, 1989. "A causal model of consumer involvement," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 363-389, November.
    15. Easley, Richard W. & Madden, Charles S. & Dunn, Mark G., 2000. "Conducting Marketing Science: The Role of Replication in the Research Process," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 83-92, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Karoline Gamma & Robert Mai & Moritz Loock, 2020. "The Double-Edged Sword of Ethical Nudges: Does Inducing Hypocrisy Help or Hinder the Adoption of Pro-environmental Behaviors?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 161(2), pages 351-373, January.
    2. Jorge Matute & José Luis Sánchez-Torelló & Ramon Palau-Saumell, 2021. "The Influence of Organizations’ Tax Avoidance Practices on Consumers’ Behavior: The Role of Moral Reasoning Strategies, Political Ideology, and Brand Identification," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 174(2), pages 369-386, November.
    3. Septianto, Felix & Kemper, Joya A., 2021. "The effects of age cues on preferences for organic food: The moderating role of message claim," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    4. Valor, Carmen & Antonetti, Paolo & Zasuwa, Grzegorz, 2022. "Corporate social irresponsibility and consumer punishment: A systematic review and research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 1218-1233.
    5. Jin Ho Yun & Yaeri Kim & Eun-Ju Lee, 2022. "ERP Study of Liberals’ and Conservatives’ Moral Reasoning Processes: Evidence from South Korea," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 176(4), pages 723-739, April.
    6. Mukherjee, Sourjo & Althuizen, Niek, 2020. "Brand activism: Does courting controversy help or hurt a brand?," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 772-788.
    7. Julie N. Y. Zhu & Long W. Lam & Yan Liu & Ning Jiang, 2023. "Performance Pressure and Employee Expediency: The Role of Moral Decoupling," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 186(2), pages 465-478, August.
    8. Yu, Heyao & Legendre, Tiffany S. & Ma, Jing, 2021. "We stand by our brand: Consumers’ post-food safety crisis purchase intention and moral reasoning," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 79-87.
    9. Martínez-Ferrero, Jennifer & Ramón-Llorens, M. Camino & García-Meca, Emma, 2024. "CEO narcissism and ESG misconduct," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    10. Khalil, Mary & Septianto, Felix & Lang, Bodo & Northey, Gavin, 2021. "The interactive effect of numerical precision and message framing in increasing consumer awareness of food waste issues," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    11. Fehr, Ryan & Welsh, David & Yam, Kai Chi & Baer, Michael & Wei, Wu & Vaulont, Manuel, 2019. "The role of moral decoupling in the causes and consequences of unethical pro-organizational behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 27-40.
    12. Septianto, Felix & Tjiptono, Fandy & Kusumasondjaja, Sony, 2020. "Anger punishes, compassion forgives: How discrete emotions mitigate double standards in consumer ethical judgment," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    13. Sourjo Mukherjee & Niek Althuizen, 2020. "Brand Activism: Does Courting Controversy Help or Hurt a Brand?," Post-Print hal-03095886, HAL.
    14. Elizabeth A. Minton & Paige Gardiner, 2021. "The missing role of moral values in anti‐vaping messaging," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(3), pages 1040-1061, September.
    15. Lee, Joon Sung & Kwak, Dae Hee & Bagozzi, Richard P., 2021. "Cultural cognition and endorser scandal: Impact of consumer information processing mode on moral judgment in the endorsement context," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 906-917.
    16. Orth, Ulrich R. & Hoffmann, Stefan & Nickel, Kristina, 2019. "Moral decoupling feels good and makes buying counterfeits easy," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 117-125.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Francisco-José Cossío-Silva & María-Ángeles Revilla-Camacho & Beatriz Palacios-Florencio & Dolores Garzón Benítez, 2019. "How to face a political boycott: the relevance of entrepreneurs’ awareness," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 321-339, June.
    2. Tobias Hahn & Noël Albert, 2017. "Strong Reciprocity in Consumer Boycotts," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 145(3), pages 509-524, October.
    3. Henrike Andersch & Jörg Lindenmeier & Florian Liberatore & Dieter K. Tscheulin, 2018. "Resistance against corporate misconduct: an analysis of ethical ideologies’ direct and moderating effects on different forms of active rebellion," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 88(6), pages 695-730, August.
    4. Braunsberger, Karin & Buckler, Brian, 2011. "What motivates consumers to participate in boycotts: Lessons from the ongoing Canadian seafood boycott," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 96-102, January.
    5. Wassili Lasarov & Stefan Hoffmann & Ulrich Orth, 2023. "Vanishing Boycott Impetus: Why and How Consumer Participation in a Boycott Decreases Over Time," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 182(4), pages 1129-1154, February.
    6. Suzanne C. Makarem & Haeran Jae, 2016. "Consumer Boycott Behavior: An Exploratory Analysis of Twitter Feeds," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 193-223, March.
    7. Grzegorz Zasuwa, 2019. "The Role of Individual- and Contextual-Level Social Capital in Product Boycotting: A Multilevel Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-16, February.
    8. Orth, Ulrich R. & Hoffmann, Stefan & Nickel, Kristina, 2019. "Moral decoupling feels good and makes buying counterfeits easy," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 117-125.
    9. Scheidler, Sabrina & Edinger-Schons, Laura Marie, 2020. "Partners in crime? The impact of consumers' culpability for corporate social irresponsibility on their boycott attitude," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 607-620.
    10. James, Victoria K., 2010. "A socio-cultural approach to exploring consumer boycott intelligence: A commentary essay," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 63(4), pages 363-365, April.
    11. Zhongmin Wang & Alvin Lee & Michael Polonsky, 2018. "Egregiousness and Boycott Intensity: Evidence from the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(1), pages 149-163, January.
    12. Thanh Hoai Nguyen & Hai Quynh Ngo & Pham Ngoc Nha Ngo & Gi-Du Kang, 2018. "Understanding the Motivations Influencing Ecological Boycott Participation: An Exploratory Study in Viet Nam," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-17, December.
    13. Silvia Grappi, 2015. "Consumer boycott of companies implementing offshoring strategies," MERCATI & COMPETITIVIT?, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2015(3), pages 123-138.
    14. Wang, Zhongmin & Lee, Alvin & Polonsky, Michael, 2015. "Egregiousness and Boycott Intensity: Evidence from the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill," RFF Working Paper Series dp-15-06, Resources for the Future.
    15. Rakesh Sambharya & Martina Musteen, 2014. "Institutional environment and entrepreneurship: An empirical study across countries," Journal of International Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 12(4), pages 314-330, December.
    16. Annette N. Brown & Drew B. Cameron & Benjamin D. K. Wood, 2014. "Quality evidence for policymaking: I'll believe it when I see the replication," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(3), pages 215-235, September.
    17. Zyglidopoulos, Stelios C. & Georgiadis, Andreas P. & Carroll, Craig E. & Siegel, Donald S., 2012. "Does media attention drive corporate social responsibility?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 65(11), pages 1622-1627.
    18. Qi Sun & Fang Wu & Shanjun Li & Rajdeep Grewal, 2021. "Consumer Boycotts, Country of Origin, and Product Competition: Evidence from China’s Automobile Market," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(9), pages 5857-5877, September.
    19. Francisco J. Conejo & Lawrence F. Cunningham & Clifford E. Young, 2020. "Revisiting the Brand Luxury Index: new empirical evidence and future directions," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 27(1), pages 108-122, January.
    20. Nayeem, Tahmid & Casidy, Riza, 2015. "Australian consumers' decision-making styles for everyday products," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 67-74.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:140:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1007_s10551-015-2661-x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.