IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/zag/market/v26y2014i1p45-57.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Double Standards in the Judgment of Consumer versus Business Unethical Behavior

Author

Listed:
  • Mindaugas Sinkevičius

    (University of Management and Economics, Lithuania)

  • Justina Gineikienė

    (Vilnius University, Lithuania)

  • Maik Huettinger

    (University of Management and Economics, Lithuania)

  • Benas Adomavičius

    (University of Management and Economics, Lithuania)

Abstract

Double standards in terms of individuals being more tolerant of questionable consumer practices than of similar business practices have been researched in several studies (e.g., De Bock, Vermeir & Van Kenhove, 2013; De Bock & Van Kenhove, 2011; Vermeir & Van Kenhove, 2008; DePaulo, 1987). However, a mismatch between the perceptions of a company’s corporate behavior and a consumer’s ethical behavior has scarcely been assessed from the point of view of individual differences on the consumer side. The purpose of the current study is to explore individual differences (optimistic versus pessimistic attitude towards business) in the use of ethical judgments regarding questionable conduct of a business versus that of a consumer. In other words, we investigate if the consumers who are positively disposed towards business are less critical of unethical corporate than of consumer actions. In our study, we compared the level of optimism with regard to businesses with attitudes towards business ethics (using the Perceived Role of Ethics and Social Responsibility scale (PRESOR) created by Singhapakdi, Vitell, Rallapalli and Kraft (1996)), and the attitudes towards consumer ethics (using the Consumer Ethics Scale (CES) by Vitell and Muncy (1992)). Research results indicate that the individuals having optimistic attitudes towards business are less likely to use double standards when it comes to (un)ethical consumer behavior, compared to (un)ethical corporate actions. Limitations and suggestions for further research are presented.

Suggested Citation

  • Mindaugas Sinkevičius & Justina Gineikienė & Maik Huettinger & Benas Adomavičius, 2014. "Double Standards in the Judgment of Consumer versus Business Unethical Behavior," Tržište/Market, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb, vol. 26(1), pages 45-57.
    • Handle: RePEc:zag:market:v:26:y:2014:i:1:p:45-57
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hrcak.srce.hr/file/182242
    Download Restriction: None
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. Tine Bock & Iris Vermeir & Patrick Kenhove, 2013. "“What’s the Harm in Being Unethical? These Strangers are Rich Anyway!” Exploring Underlying Factors of Double Standards," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 112(2), pages 225-240, January.
    3. John Tsalikis & Bruce Seaton, 2007. "The International Business Ethics Index: European Union," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 75(3), pages 229-238, October.
    4. Tine Bock & Patrick Kenhove, 2011. "Double Standards: The Role of Techniques of Neutralization," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 99(2), pages 283-296, March.
    5. Yuh-Jia Chen & Thomas Tang, 2006. "Attitude Toward and Propensity to Engage in Unethical Behavior: Measurement Invariance across Major among University Students," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 69(1), pages 77-93, November.
    6. Ramazan Kaynak & Tuba Sert, 2012. "The Impact of Service Supplier’s Unethical Behavior to Buyer’s Satisfaction: An Empirical Study," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 109(2), pages 219-226, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. 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).
    2. Tine Bock & Iris Vermeir & Patrick Kenhove, 2013. "“What’s the Harm in Being Unethical? These Strangers are Rich Anyway!” Exploring Underlying Factors of Double Standards," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 112(2), pages 225-240, January.
    3. 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.
    4. Sudbury-Riley, Lynn & Kohlbacher, Florian, 2016. "Ethically minded consumer behavior: Scale review, development, and validation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(8), pages 2697-2710.
    5. Peter Wheale & David Hinton, 2007. "Ethical consumers in search of markets," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(4), pages 302-315, May.
    6. Silvija Vig & Ksenija Dumicic, 2016. "Impact of commitment to business ethics to nonfinancial business performance," Interdisciplinary Description of Complex Systems - scientific journal, Croatian Interdisciplinary Society Provider Homepage: http://indecs.eu, vol. 14(2), pages 165-181.
    7. Ya-Hui Hsu & Wenchang Fang & Yuanchung Lee, 2009. "Ethically Questionable Behavior in Sales Representatives – An Example from the Taiwanese Pharmaceutical Industry," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 88(1), pages 155-166, April.
    8. Kwangho Jung & Seung-Hee Lee & Jane Workman, 2018. "Purchasing Counterfeits and Citizenship: Public Service Motivation Matters," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-15, December.
    9. Daunt, Kate L. & Harris, Lloyd C., 2011. "Customers acting badly: Evidence from the hospitality industry," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 64(10), pages 1034-1042, October.
    10. 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.
    11. Shubo Liu & Qianlin ZHU & Feng Wei, 2019. "How Abusive Supervision Affects Employees’ Unethical Behaviors: A Moderated Mediation Examination of Turnover Intentions and Caring Climate," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-14, October.
    12. Iris Vermeir & Patrick Kenhove, 2008. "Gender Differences in Double Standards," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 81(2), pages 281-295, August.
    13. Yuanqiong He & Junfang Zhang & Yuanyuan Zhou & Zhilin Yang, 2019. "“Monkey See, Monkey Do?”: The Effect of Construal Level on Consumers’ Reactions to Others’ Unethical Behavior," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 156(2), pages 455-472, May.
    14. Helmut Schneider & John Krieger & Azra Bayraktar, 2011. "The Impact of Intrinsic Religiosity on Consumers’ Ethical Beliefs: Does It Depend on the Type of Religion? A Comparison of Christian and Moslem Consumers in Germany and Turkey," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 102(2), pages 319-332, August.
    15. 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.
    16. Yu Yu-fan, 2013. "Researches on relationship between consumers? attachments and behaviors," E3 Journal of Business Management and Economics., E3 Journals, vol. 4(6), pages 139-143.
    17. repec:eme:srjpps:v:6:y:2010:i:2:p:490-508 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Vince Mitchell & George Balabanis & Bodo Schlegelmilch & T. Cornwell, 2009. "Measuring Unethical Consumer Behavior Across Four Countries," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 88(2), pages 395-412, August.
    19. Percy Marquina & Vincent Charles, 2021. "A Bayesian resampling approach to estimate the difference in effect sizes in consumer social responses to CSR initiatives versus corporate abilities," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(6), pages 1680-1699, November.
    20. Kyoko Fukukawa & Christine Ennew, 2010. "What We Believe Is Not Always What We Do: An Empirical Investigation into Ethically Questionable Behavior in Consumption," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 91(1), pages 49-60, February.
    21. John Tsalikis & Bruce Seaton, 2008. "The International Business Ethics Index: Japan," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 80(2), pages 379-385, June.

    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:zag:market:v:26:y:2014:i:1:p:45-57. 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: Tanja Komarac (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fefzghr.html .

    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.