IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v191y2024i4d10.1007_s10551-024-05663-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ethical Pursuit or Personal Nirvana? Unpacking the Practice of Danshari in China

Author

Listed:
  • Charis X. Li

    (Grenoble Ecole de Management)

  • Xiao-xiao Liu

    (Xiamen University)

  • Jun Ye

    (Xiamen University)

  • Siyu Zheng

    (Xiamen University)

  • Songyin Cai

    (Xiamen University
    Sun Yat-sen University)

Abstract

The rapid economic growth and surge of consumerism in emerging markets have placed significant pressure on the environment and consumers. While well-researched ethical consumption remedies may be effective in the Western contexts, they may not be readily translatable in emerging markets due to institutional and socio-cultural differences. This research examines the popular practice of Danshari in China and investigates how this self-oriented practice leads to other-oriented ethical consumption behaviours. Using qualitative data gathered from online sharing and interviews, we unpack how Danshari practitioners question and reshape their relationship with possessions and consumption to enhance their self-concept clarity. This clarified and elevated self-concept, in turn, leads to ethical consumption behaviours. Unlike Western ethical consumption concepts that are driven by principles or ideologies, Danshari’s essence of detachment, self-orientation, and action focus resonate with traditional Chinese teachings, providing a pragmatist approach to cultivating ethical consumption behaviours in China. This research adds to the growing body of pragmatism-based ethics research, expands the discussion of the link between consumption and the self, and offers valuable insights into promoting ethical consumerism in emerging markets.

Suggested Citation

  • Charis X. Li & Xiao-xiao Liu & Jun Ye & Siyu Zheng & Songyin Cai, 2024. "Ethical Pursuit or Personal Nirvana? Unpacking the Practice of Danshari in China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 191(4), pages 675-695, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:191:y:2024:i:4:d:10.1007_s10551-024-05663-6
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-024-05663-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-024-05663-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-024-05663-6?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. Sarial-Abi, Gülen & Gürhan-Canli, Zeynep & Kumkale, Tarcan & Yoon, Yeosun, 2016. "The effect of self-concept clarity on discretionary spending tendency," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 612-623.
    2. John L. Lastovicka & Karen V. Fernandez, 2005. "Three Paths to Disposition: The Movement of Meaningful Possessions to Strangers," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 31(4), pages 813-823, March.
    3. Daniel Jaffee, 2010. "Fair Trade Standards, Corporate Participation, and Social Movement Responses in the United States," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 92(2), pages 267-285, 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. John L. Lastovicka & Nancy J. Sirianni, 2011. "Truly, Madly, Deeply: Consumers in the Throes of Material Possession Love," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 38(2), pages 323-342.
    6. Silvia Bellezza & Francesca Gino & Anat Keinan, 2014. "The Red Sneakers Effect: Inferring Status and Competence from Signals of Nonconformity," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 41(1), pages 35-54.
    7. Aaron C. Ahuvia, 2005. "Beyond the Extended Self: Loved Objects and Consumers' Identity Narratives," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 32(1), pages 171-184, June.
    8. McCracken, Grant, 1986. "Culture and Consumption: A Theoretical Account of the Structure and Movement of the Cultural Meaning of Consumer Goods," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 13(1), pages 71-84, June.
    9. Alex Hiller & Tony Woodall, 2019. "Everything Flows: A Pragmatist Perspective of Trade-Offs and Value in Ethical Consumption," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 157(4), pages 893-912, July.
    10. Michal Carrington & Andreas Chatzidakis & Helen Goworek & Deirdre Shaw, 2021. "Correction to: Consumption Ethics: A Review and Analysis of Future Directions for Interdisciplinary Research," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 168(2), pages 239-239, January.
    11. Carrington, Michal J. & Neville, Benjamin A. & Whitwell, Gregory J., 2014. "Lost in translation: Exploring the ethical consumer intention–behavior gap," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 2759-2767.
    12. Cherrier, Hélène, 2009. "Anti-consumption discourses and consumer-resistant identities," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 181-190, February.
    13. Belk, Russell W, 1988. "Possessions and the Extended Self," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 15(2), pages 139-168, September.
    14. Michal Carrington & Andreas Chatzidakis & Helen Goworek & Deirdre Shaw, 2021. "Consumption Ethics: A Review and Analysis of Future Directions for Interdisciplinary Research," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 168(2), pages 215-238, January.
    15. Veronika Andorfer & Ulf Liebe, 2012. "Research on Fair Trade Consumption—A Review," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 106(4), pages 415-435, April.
    16. Michal Carrington & Benjamin Neville & Gregory Whitwell, 2010. "Why Ethical Consumers Don’t Walk Their Talk: Towards a Framework for Understanding the Gap Between the Ethical Purchase Intentions and Actual Buying Behaviour of Ethically Minded Consumers," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 97(1), pages 139-158, November.
    17. He, Heping & Kukar-Kinney, Monika & Ridgway, Nancy M., 2018. "Compulsive buying in China: Measurement, prevalence, and online drivers," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 28-39.
    18. Price, Linda L & Arnould, Eric J & Curasi, Carolyn Folkman, 2000. "Older Consumers' Disposition of Special Possessions," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 27(2), pages 179-201, September.
    19. Deirdre Shaw & Robert McMaster & Terry Newholm, 2016. "Care and Commitment in Ethical Consumption: An Exploration of the ‘Attitude–Behaviour Gap’," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 136(2), pages 251-265, June.
    20. Pouryousefi, Sareh & Freeman, R. Edward, 2021. "The Promise of Pragmatism: Richard Rorty and Business Ethics," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 31(4), pages 572-599, October.
    21. Markus Giesler & Ela Veresiu, 2014. "Creating the Responsible Consumer: Moralistic Governance Regimes and Consumer Subjectivity," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 41(3), pages 840-857.
    22. Jeffrey York, 2009. "Pragmatic Sustainability: Translating Environmental Ethics into Competitive Advantage," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 85(1), pages 97-109, February.
    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. Smirti Kutaula & Alvina Gillani & Diana Gregory-Smith & Boris Bartikowski, 2024. "Ethical Consumerism in Emerging Markets: Opportunities and Challenges," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 191(4), pages 651-673, May.

    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. Smirti Kutaula & Alvina Gillani & Diana Gregory-Smith & Boris Bartikowski, 2024. "Ethical Consumerism in Emerging Markets: Opportunities and Challenges," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 191(4), pages 651-673, May.
    2. Robert Caruana & Sarah Glozer & Giana M. Eckhardt, 2020. "‘Alternative Hedonism’: Exploring the Role of Pleasure in Moral Markets," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 166(1), pages 143-158, September.
    3. Masset, Julie & Decrop, Alain, 2016. "“God, I have so many ashtrays!” Dependences and dependencies in consumer–possession relationships," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 94-109.
    4. Nieves García-de-Frutos & José Manuel Ortega-Egea & Javier Martínez-del-Río, 2018. "Anti-consumption for Environmental Sustainability: Conceptualization, Review, and Multilevel Research Directions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(2), pages 411-435, March.
    5. Alvina Gillani & Smirti Kutaula & Leonidas C. Leonidou & Paul Christodoulides, 2021. "The Impact of Proximity on Consumer Fair Trade Engagement and Purchasing Behavior: The Moderating Role of Empathic Concern and Hypocrisy," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 169(3), pages 557-577, March.
    6. William Sun, 2020. "Toward a theory of ethical consumer intention formation: re-extending the theory of planned behavior," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 10(3), pages 260-278, December.
    7. Graul, Antje R.H. & Brough, Aaron R. & Isaac, Mathew S., 2022. "How emotional attachment influences lender participation in consumer-to-consumer rental platforms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 1211-1217.
    8. Tan, Teck Ming & Makkonen, Hannu & Kaur, Puneet & Salo, Jari, 2022. "How do ethical consumers utilize sharing economy platforms as part of their sustainable resale behavior? The role of consumers’ green consumption values," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    9. Ferreira, Marcia Christina & Scaraboto, Daiane, 2016. "“My plastic dreams”: Towards an extended understanding of materiality and the shaping of consumer identities," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 191-207.
    10. Cerio, Eva & Debenedetti, Alain, 2021. "“Should I give it away or sell it?” A strategic perspective on consumers’ redistribution of their unused objects," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 581-591.
    11. Eva Cerio & Alain Debenedetti, 2019. "From dispossession to objects' reuse: trajectories and practices in the context of clothing," Post-Print hal-02135221, HAL.
    12. Elena Kossmann & Mónica Gómez-Suárez, 2018. "Decision-making processes for purchases of ethical products: gaps between academic research and needs of marketing practitioners," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 15(3), pages 353-370, September.
    13. Karin Brondino-Pompeo, 2021. "Mapping spheres of exchange: a multidimensional approach to commoditization and singularization," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 11(1), pages 81-95, June.
    14. Alex Hiller & Tony Woodall, 2019. "Everything Flows: A Pragmatist Perspective of Trade-Offs and Value in Ethical Consumption," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 157(4), pages 893-912, July.
    15. Zhang, Dengjun & Xie, Yifan, 2022. "Customer environmental concerns and profit margin: Evidence from manufacturing firms," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    16. Kutaula, Smirti & Gillani, Alvina & Leonidou, Leonidas C. & Christodoulides, Paul, 2022. "Integrating fair trade with circular economy: Personality traits, consumer engagement, and ethically-minded behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 1087-1102.
    17. D’Souza, Clare & Apaolaza, Vanessa & Hartmann, Patrick & Nguyen, Ninh, 2023. "The consequence of possessions: Self-identity, extended self, psychological ownership and probabilities of purchase for pet’s fashion clothing," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    18. Turunen, Linda Lisa Maria & Cervellon, Marie-Cecile & Carey, Lindsey Drylie, 2020. "Selling second-hand luxury: Empowerment and enactment of social roles," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 474-481.
    19. Donald R. Lehmann & Jeffrey R. Parker, 2017. "Disadoption," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 7(1), pages 36-51, June.
    20. Kim, Ha Youn & Kwon, Yoo Jin, 2017. "Blurring production-consumption boundaries: Making my own luxury bag," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 120-125.

    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:191:y:2024:i:4:d:10.1007_s10551-024-05663-6. 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.