Understanding ethical consumer decision making : the relationship of perceived sustainability and perceived efficacy in ethical consumption

• Autor(a) principal: Franke, Jonathan
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/29167
• topic: CSR; Green; Sustainable; Ethical consumption; Consumer perceptions; Purchase intention; Efficacy; Sustainability; Locus of control; Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Sociais::Economia e Gestão

Businesses hope that consumers reward their corporate social responsibility with higher brand loyalty and increased willingness to pay. Yet, contrary to these expectations recent research has revealed that in certain situations consumers shun ethical products as they assume a trade-off between ethicality and performance. To understand more about how ethical consumption decisions are made, this thesis analyzes the impact of perceived sustainability and perceived efficacy on purchase intentions under the moderating influence of locus of control (LOC). To this end, a quantitative experimental study was conducted via an online survey in the category of laundry detergents. Respondents were shown either a laundry detergent with an environmental message or with a message promoting functionality. The data does not support that there is an overall negative effect of sustainability on perceived efficacy; however, it suggests that there is a cross-over interaction effect with LOC: People with an external LOC assume that there is a trade-off between sustainability and efficacy whereas respondents with an internal LOC actually perceive products to have a better performance when they are sustainable. We also find that LOC moderates perceived sustainability. Both variables have a direct impact on purchase intentions, yet, perceived efficacy has a stronger influence. We conclude that businesses should use LOC in their customer segmentation strategy and aim to strike a balance in communicating the green appeal of the product while highlighting its performance at the same time.