The Myth of the Ethical Consumer Hardback with DVD

Front Cover
Cambridge University Press, Jul 29, 2010 - Business & Economics - 240 pages
Do consumers really care where products come from and how they are made? Is there such a thing as an 'ethical consumer'? Corporations and policy makers are bombarded with international surveys purporting to show that most consumers want ethical products. Yet when companies offer such products they are often met with indifference and limited uptake. It seems that survey radicals turn into economic conservatives at the checkout. This book reveals not only why the search for the 'ethical consumer' is futile but also why the social aspects of consumption cannot be ignored. Consumers are revealed to be much more deliberative and sophisticated in how they do or do not incorporate social factors into their decision making. Using first-hand findings and extensive research, The Myth of the Ethical Consumer provides academics, students and leaders in corporations and NGOs with an enlightening picture of the interface between social causes and consumption. A half-hour documentary capturing interviews with consumers in eight countries is included on an accompanying DVD.

From inside the book

Contents

1 The appeal and reality of ethical consumerism
1
2 Social consumerism in the context of corporate responsibility
16
3 Are we what we choose? Or is what wechoose what we are?
37
4 Ethical consumers or social consumers? Measurement and reality
64
5 Rationalization and justification of social nonconsumption
117
6 The ethical consumer politics and everyday life
137
7 Tastes truths and strategies
166
Appendix 1 Description of country choices and participant sampling
188
Appendix 3 Latent class finite mixture modeling
201
Appendix 4 Semistructured interview guide used in all countries
203
Appendix 5 The logic of bestworst scaling
206
Appendix 6 Australia omnibus social economic and political preference study
209
Notes
216
References
219
Index
232
Copyright

the MORI poll and ethics scales
195

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2010)

Pat Auger is Associate Professor of Information Systems and e-commerce and Director of the Executive MBA Program at the Melbourne Business School, The University of Melbourne. He has published extensively in leading academic journals in a variety of disciplines including information systems, marketing, business ethics, and strategy. Giana M. Eckhardt is Associate Professor of Marketing at Suffolk University, Boston. She has published widely on issues related to consumer behavior in China, branding, culture and globalization in Asia, and consumer ethics. Her research has been funded by and won awards from the Sheth Foundation and the Marketing Science Institute.

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