IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/endesu/v23y2021i9d10.1007_s10668-020-01191-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Motives of ethical consumption: a study of ethical products’ consumption in Tunisia

Author

Listed:
  • Zohra Zinoubi Ghali

    (Saudi Electronic University (SEU)
    University of Tunis)

Abstract

Consuming ethical products has become a fundamental behavior for the protection of people’s lives and the environment, discussions on ethical consumption have become more common, and ethical issues are the subject of several academic studies that seek to enhance our understanding of consumers’ ethical behavior and their motives for making buying choices. This paper is developed in this context. It aims to study some of the motives for ethical consumption. The focus is mainly on environmental concerns, social value and, lasting involvement in ethical products. For the empirical study, this paper utilized a survey of 320 Tunisian consumers of ethical products. Data were analyzed using the Structural Equation Modeling method to test the reliability and validities of constructs, as well as model fit and the structural model. The findings indicate that Tunisian consumers purchased ethical products, first because they were concerned about protecting their health, second because they wanted to participate in the preservation of their environment, and finally because they sought higher social status. This study seems relevant because it is among the earliest of its kind to be developed in a developing market (Tunisia), where the market for ethical products is still in its nascent stage. It is also one of the rare studies that contribute to knowledge of the relationship between the consumers’ social status and ethical consumption. Additionally, its findings may provide significant insights for marketers in developing countries to formulate effective communication strategies aiming to enhance ethical consumption while focusing on its benefits for the health, environment, and social status of consumers.

Suggested Citation

  • Zohra Zinoubi Ghali, 2021. "Motives of ethical consumption: a study of ethical products’ consumption in Tunisia," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(9), pages 12883-12903, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:endesu:v:23:y:2021:i:9:d:10.1007_s10668-020-01191-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s10668-020-01191-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10668-020-01191-1
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10668-020-01191-1?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. Magdalena Öberseder & Bodo Schlegelmilch & Verena Gruber, 2011. "“Why Don’t Consumers Care About CSR?”: A Qualitative Study Exploring the Role of CSR in Consumption Decisions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 104(4), pages 449-460, December.
    2. Gianluigi Guido & M. Prete & Alessandro Peluso & R. Maloumby-Baka & Carolina Buffa, 2010. "The role of ethics and product personality in the intention to purchase organic food products: a structural equation modeling approach," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 57(1), pages 79-102, March.
    3. Long-Chuan Lu & Chia-Ju Lu, 2010. "Moral Philosophy, Materialism, and Consumer Ethics: An Exploratory Study in Indonesia," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 94(2), pages 193-210, June.
    4. Webster, Frederick E, Jr, 1975. "Determining the Characteristics of the Socially Conscious Consumer," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 2(3), pages 188-196, December.
    5. Eric Campoy, 2001. "Méthodes d'équations structurelles : recherches et applications en gestion," Post-Print hal-00156181, HAL.
    6. Webb, Deborah J. & Mohr, Lois A. & Harris, Katherine E., 2008. "A re-examination of socially responsible consumption and its measurement," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 91-98, February.
    7. Muncy, James A. & Vitell, Scott J., 1992. "Consumer ethics: An investigation of the ethical beliefs of the final consumer," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 297-311, June.
    8. Jean-Noël Kapferer & Gilles Laurent, 1985. "Measuring consumer involvement profiles," Post-Print hal-00786781, HAL.
    9. Ramla Mezghenni & Salma Zouari, 2016. "Concern for the Environment in Terms of Waste Sorting Behavior," SAGE Open, , vol. 6(4), pages 21582440166, October.
    10. repec:dau:papers:123456789/3444 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Sandrine Costa & Lydia Zepeda & Lucie Sirieix, 2014. "Exploring the social value of organic food: a qualitative study in France," Post-Print hal-01506305, HAL.
    12. Katayoun Zafari & Gareth Allison & Catherine Demangeot, 2015. "Practising conviviality: social uses of ethnic cuisine in an Asian multicultural environment," Post-Print hal-01563009, HAL.
    13. Christine Gonzalez & Michaël Korchia & Laetitia Menuet & Caroline Urbain, 2009. "Comment les consommateurs socialement responsables se représentent-ils la consommation ? Une approche par les associations libres," Post-Print hal-02055042, HAL.
    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. Zohra Ghali-Zinoubi, 2022. "Examining Drivers of Environmentally Conscious Consumer Behavior: Theory of Planned Behavior Extended with Cultural Factors," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-17, July.
    2. Zohra Ghali-Zinoubi, 2023. "Online Retailers’ Perceived Ethics and Consumer Repetitive Purchases Under the Moderating Role of Reputation: A Commitment-Trust Theory Perspective," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, November.
    3. Sajjad, Aqsa & Zhang, Qingyu & Asmi, Fahad & Anwar, Muhammad Azfar & Bhatia, Meena, 2024. "Identifying the motivating factors to promote socially responsible consumption under circular economy: A perspective from norm activation theory," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    4. Takumi Kato & Katsuya Hayami & Kenta Kasahara & Minami Morino & Yui Ikuma & Ryosuke Ikeda & Masaki Koizumi, 2023. "Environmental vs. labor issues: evidence of influence on intention to purchase ethical coffee in Japan," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-10, December.

    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. Magdalena Öberseder & Bodo Schlegelmilch & Patrick Murphy & Verena Gruber, 2014. "Consumers’ Perceptions of Corporate Social Responsibility: Scale Development and Validation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 124(1), pages 101-115, September.
    2. Barbara Culiberg, 2015. "The Role of Moral Philosophies and Value Orientations in Consumer Ethics: a Post-Transitional European Country Perspective," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 211-228, September.
    3. Long-Chuan Lu & Hsiu-Hua Chang & Alan Chang, 2015. "Consumer Personality and Green Buying Intention: The Mediate Role of Consumer Ethical Beliefs," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 127(1), pages 205-219, March.
    4. María Manuela Palacios-González & Antonio Chamorro-Mera, 2020. "Analysis of Socially Responsible Consumption: A Segmentation of Spanish Consumers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-15, October.
    5. Louis, Didier & Lombart, Cindy & Durif, Fabien, 2021. "Packaging-free products: A lever of proximity and loyalty between consumers and grocery stores," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    6. Michael P. Schlaile & Katharina Klein & Wolfgang Böck, 2018. "From Bounded Morality to Consumer Social Responsibility: A Transdisciplinary Approach to Socially Responsible Consumption and Its Obstacles," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 149(3), pages 561-588, May.
    7. Toti, Jean-François & Diallo, Mbaye Fall & Huaman-Ramirez, Richard, 2021. "Ethical sensitivity in consumers’ decision-making: The mediating and moderating role of internal locus of control," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 168-182.
    8. Carmen Berné-Manero & Marta Pedraja-Iglesias & Pilar Ramo-Sáez, 2017. "Socially responsible markets involved in the consumer-organization identification process," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 14(2), pages 179-196, June.
    9. 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.
    10. Paolo Antonetti & Stan Maklan, 2014. "Feelings that Make a Difference: How Guilt and Pride Convince Consumers of the Effectiveness of Sustainable Consumption Choices," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 124(1), pages 117-134, September.
    11. José Javier Pérez-Barea & Ricardo Espantaleón-Pérez & Peter Šedík, 2020. "Evaluating the Perception of Socially Responsible Consumers: The Case of Products Derived from Organic Beef," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-24, December.
    12. Elodie Gentina & L. J. Shrum & Tina M. Lowrey & Scott J. Vitell & Gregory M. Rose, 2018. "An Integrative Model of the Influence of Parental and Peer Support on Consumer Ethical Beliefs: The Mediating Role of Self-Esteem, Power, and Materialism," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 150(4), pages 1173-1186, July.
    13. Urša Golob & Klement Podnar & Mateja Kos Koklič & Vesna Zabkar, 2019. "The importance of corporate social responsibility for responsible consumption: Exploring moral motivations of consumers," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(2), pages 416-423, March.
    14. Yanping Gong & Jian Li & Julan Xie & Long Zhang & Qiuyin Lou, 2022. "Will “Green” Parents Have “Green” Children? The Relationship Between Parents’ and Early Adolescents’ Green Consumption Values," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 179(2), pages 369-385, August.
    15. Irina Cojuharenco & Gert Cornelissen & Natalia Karelaia, 2011. "One person in the battlefield is not a warrior: Self-construal, perceived ability to make a difference, and socially responsible behavior," Economics Working Papers 1292, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    16. Denni Arli & Fandy Tjiptono, 2014. "The End of Religion? Examining the Role of Religiousness, Materialism, and Long-Term Orientation on Consumer Ethics in Indonesia," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 123(3), pages 385-400, September.
    17. Xinming Deng, 2012. "Understanding Consumer’s Responses to Enterprise’s Ethical Behaviors: An Investigation in China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 107(2), pages 159-181, May.
    18. Hyemi Lee, 2019. "Understanding Ethical Consumers Through Person/Thing Orientation Approach," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 158(3), pages 637-658, September.
    19. Sudhanshu Gupta & Richa Agrawal, 2018. "Environmentally Responsible Consumption: Construct Definition, Scale Development, and Validation," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(4), pages 523-536, July.
    20. Ramla Mezghenni & Salma Zouari, 2016. "Concern for the Environment in Terms of Waste Sorting Behavior," SAGE Open, , vol. 6(4), pages 21582440166, October.

    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:spr:endesu:v:23:y:2021:i:9:d:10.1007_s10668-020-01191-1. 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.