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1 – 10 of 83Denni I. Arli and Fandy Tjiptono
In the past few years, companies have made significant contributions towards Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) as a strategy to improve business image. Nonetheless, many of…
Abstract
Purpose
In the past few years, companies have made significant contributions towards Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) as a strategy to improve business image. Nonetheless, many of these strategies have been unsuccessful because companies have failed to recognise the importance of consumers’ ethical beliefs and their religiosity in forming their perception towards CSR. Thus, the purpose of this study is to explore the level of importance of consumers’ ethical beliefs and social responsibilities (CnSR) and to examine the impact of consumers’ religiosity and ethical beliefs on CnSR.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were derived from a sample of undergraduate and postgraduate students at three large universities (i.e. one public and two private universities) in Yogyakarta, Indonesia (N = 416). Indonesia is the largest Muslim population in the world.
Findings
7The study found that consumers value social responsibilities differently and that not all dimensions are important. Moreover, consumer ethical beliefs and religiosity significantly influence CnSR. The results of this study will contribute to the debate on consumer ethics and social responsibility research.
Research limitations/implications
The current study has some limitations which, in turn, provide avenues for future research. The research context (one city in one country) may limit its generalizability. Future studies may focus on more cities and/or cross-country sections (developed versus developing countries) as well as use non-student populations.
Practical implications
Companies operating in Indonesia need to respect and value religiosity in Indonesia. Collaborating with a faith-based institution may help improve the effectiveness of CSR programmes launched by companies.
Originality/value
This is one of the first few studies exploring CSR in Indonesia.
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Denni I. Arli and Jack Cadeaux
The aim of this study is to explore drivers of corporate community involvement (CCI) initiatives and the challenges faced by companies in measuring the social impact of their…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this study is to explore drivers of corporate community involvement (CCI) initiatives and the challenges faced by companies in measuring the social impact of their initiatives in Australia.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted semi-structured interviews with various corporate social responsibility (CSR) or CCI managers from Australian companies and their not-for-profit (NFP) partners. The final sample consists of 27 managers from a mix of industries.
Findings
The study shows that stakeholder's salience may have an impact on CCI activities, especially in the area of measurements and reporting activities. Moreover, while some companies have attempted to measure the social impact of their initiatives, a large number of companies have not. This is all the more surprising given the recent focus in marketing on accountability and measurement. The results show three challenges: lack of interest, lack of resources and lack of consensus. Subsequently, the authors offer some research propositions to underline these challenges.
Originality/value
This study focuses on CCI which is one of the most visible parts of corporate social responsibility (CSR). It draws on interviews with various managers in charge of companies' CSR or CCI.
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Mamta Soni, Sunny Dawar and Amit Soni
Global warming and drastic environment fluctuations have given rise to worldwide emergency, demanding to discover the most unexplored area in the field of social responsibility…
Abstract
Purpose
Global warming and drastic environment fluctuations have given rise to worldwide emergency, demanding to discover the most unexplored area in the field of social responsibility that is, consumer social responsibility (CnSR). This study aims to define the novel term “CnSR” and its antecedents to accomplish long-term sustainability. An in-depth analysis is executed to discover key antecedents, and proposed tool validation is implemented with the help of the big size of consumer population.
Design/methodology/approach
Primary data are collated using consumer responses, and reliability statistics were analyzed implementing Cronbach's alpha, and factor analysis is performed for required validation.
Findings
Probing existing research, CnSR was mostly correlated with consumers’ ethical and moral behavior. The present work proposes a unique tool which has successfully revealed a broader approach resulting in four vital antecedents: environmental orientation (EO), ethical and moral disposition (EMD), spiritual orientation (SO) and orientation toward shared consumption (OSC). Cronbach's alpha is adopted to determine internal consistency of the survey and has showed precision of 0.953 which affirms accuracy of the proposed tool.
Research limitations/implications
Splitting of EO using factor analysis into environmental oriented preference (EOP) and recyclable oriented preference (ROP) has indicated further required inputs for better understanding.
Practical implications
Sustainable issues were limited to corporates in the form of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. Present work demands consumer awareness about their consumption consequences and fix their responsibility to achieve long-term sustainability.
Originality/value
The present study is the first to identify the antecedents of CnSR and effectively demonstrates a tool for the same.
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Haroon Iqbal Maseeh, Shamsun Nahar, Charles Jebarajakirthy, Mitchell Ross, Denni Arli, Manish Das, Mehak Rehman and Hafiz Ahmad Ashraf
The purpose of this study is to explore and identify the privacy concerns of smartphone app users pertinent to app usage.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore and identify the privacy concerns of smartphone app users pertinent to app usage.
Design/methodology/approach
Adopting a qualitative phenomenological approach, the authors conducted semi-structured interviews with app users to explore the app users' privacy concerns.
Findings
Credibility concerns, unauthorised secondary use and vulnerability concerns are the three major privacy concerns of app users, under which these concerns have sub-concerns, i.e. popularity, privacy policy, stalking, data sharing, hacking and personal harm.
Practical implications
The findings are useful to app marketers, app developers and app stores. App marketers, app developers and app stores can use the findings to understand and properly address app users' privacy concerns, thereby increasing the apps usage.
Originality/value
By exploring the privacy concerns of app users, the authors' study extends the literature and provides a theoretical development of individuals' privacy concerns in the context of a widely used technology, i.e. smartphone applications. Accordingly, this study contributes to the consumer privacy literature.
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Rafi M.M.I. Chowdhury, Denni Arli and Felix Septianto
This study aims to examine how religiosity influences brand loyalty toward religiously positioned brands (Chick-fil-A, Forever 21, etc.) when these brands engage in morally…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine how religiosity influences brand loyalty toward religiously positioned brands (Chick-fil-A, Forever 21, etc.) when these brands engage in morally controversial actions.
Design/methodology/approach
Study 1 investigates how religiosity affects brand loyalty when religiously positioned brands engage in religiousness-related vs nonreligiousness-related morally controversial actions. Study 2 examines several psychological processes (reactance, forgiveness and moral decoupling) as mediators of the effects of intrinsic religiosity and extrinsic religiosity on brand loyalty for controversial religious brands.
Findings
Study 1 demonstrates that religiosity leads to positive brand loyalty for religiously positioned brands in the case of both religiousness-related and nonreligiousness-related controversies. Study 2 reveals that intrinsic religiosity (extrinsic religiosity) leads to brand loyalty through moral decoupling and forgiveness, but not through reactance, when religious brands engage in religiousness-related (nonreligiousness-related) controversies.
Research limitations/implications
This research focuses on the effects of religiosity on brand loyalty for morally controversial religious brands but does not examine the effects of religious affiliation (Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, etc.). The samples include only US residents.
Practical implications
Religious positioning of brands can engender brand loyalty for consumers with high levels of intrinsic religiosity and/or extrinsic religiosity, even when these brands engage in morally controversial actions.
Originality/value
This research shows that religiosity affects brand loyalty for morally controversial religious brands and demonstrates that psychological processes used by consumers to justify support for morally controversial religious brands depend on type of religiosity (intrinsic vs extrinsic) and type of controversy (religiousness-related and nonreligiousness-related).
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In the debate whether ethics should be separated from religion or otherwise, few have investigated the impact of religious beliefs and ethical ideologies on consumer ethics. Thus…
Abstract
Purpose
In the debate whether ethics should be separated from religion or otherwise, few have investigated the impact of religious beliefs and ethical ideologies on consumer ethics. Thus, the purpose of this study to investigate the influence of consumers’ religion, moral philosophy and generational cohort on their perception toward various consumers’ ethical behavior practices.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses sample from three different cohorts (Generation Y, Generation X and Baby boomers) in Australia. The final numbers of respondents are 251. Male and female respondents are almost equal in number (52 and 48 per cent, respectively). Most participants are single (56 per cent), and 24 per cent are married. The age cohorts are Gen-Y (70 per cent), Gen-X (16 per cent) and Baby boomers (14 per cent). In terms of religion, 46 per cent of the respondents were identified as Christian or Catholic, whereas 42 per cent reported having no religion.
Findings
The results show that religiosity had the strongest effect compared to moral ideologies and generation cohorts. It can be assumed that at least for religious consumers, when two ideas collide between religion and ethical ideologies, religious principles may supersede ethical ideologies. The study offers several implications for marketers, educators and public policy makers.
Research limitations/implications
The current study has several limitations, especially the use of convenience sampling that may limit the generalizability of the findings. Consumers in Australia may behave differently from general consumers or other cohorts with regard to their ethical judgments.
Originality/value
This is one of the first few studies exploring consumer ethics in Australia. We may conclude that in some ethical situations, religion will supersede ethical ideologies. Accordingly, it is important not to remove religion from ethics education, especially for religious consumers.
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Denni Arli, Fandy Tjiptono, Hari Lasmono and Dudi Anandya
The Millennial generation accounts for 27 per cent of the world’s population. These numbers highlight the current and future impact of Millennials on world economies, and they are…
Abstract
Purpose
The Millennial generation accounts for 27 per cent of the world’s population. These numbers highlight the current and future impact of Millennials on world economies, and they are arguably the most powerful consumer group. Interestingly, Millennials are also the least religious generation. Hence, there is a need to investigate further how they view the world from an ethical and religious perspective and whether their beliefs evolve over time. Therefore, the purpose of this study is, first, to compare and contrast any changes in ethical beliefs across time. Second, the study will compare and contrast any changes in religiousness across time, and finally, it explores the effects of consumers’ religiousness on ethical beliefs across time.
Design/methodology/approach
Using paper-based survey, the data collection took place in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2016, resulting in 1,702 young respondents in total.
Findings
The results show that consumer ethics remain constant across time. Therefore, without intervention, individuals’ ethical behavior will remain unchanged. The results also indicate that Millennials understand the boundary between legal and illegal behavior. However, when the boundary becomes unclear, such as in situations in which they see no harm, downloading pirated software and recycling, Millennials were unsure and their religiousness affected their subsequent behavior. The study makes several contributions to consumer ethics and the impact of religiousness on ethical beliefs.
Originality/value
This study makes several contributions to consumer ethics research, especially whether young consumers’ ethical beliefs change or remain constant across time.
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The purpose of this study is to show that the spread of conspiracy theories has resulted in many tragic incidents, such as January 6 Insurrection at the US Capitol Building…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to show that the spread of conspiracy theories has resulted in many tragic incidents, such as January 6 Insurrection at the US Capitol Building. Interestingly, many of the conspiracy theory followers are religious individuals. In response to this phenomenon, this study will investigate the impact of religious (un)beliefs on consumer ethics. Secondly, this study will investigate the mediating role of conspiracy theory on consumer ethics. Finally, this study will investigate the moderating role of ethical ideology (i.e. relativism) on the relationship between consumers’ (un)belief (e.g. religiosity and atheism) and consumer ethics.
Design/methodology/approach
Overall, 328 participants living in the USA (32% female and 68% male) were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) in exchange for financial compensation.
Findings
The results show the negative impact of a belief in a conspiracy theory. These conspiracy beliefs can skew any individual irrespective of their beliefs or unbelief. Religious leaders, policymakers and educators need to keep this in mind when designing a campaign to reduce unethical behavior. Everyone is prone to conspiracy theories.
Originality/value
This is one of the first few studies exploring the impact of belief in conspiracy theories on consumers’ ethical beliefs. There are still limited studies investigating whether conspiracy beliefs lead individuals to engage in unethical behavior.
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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the importance of religiosity in consumer ethics. This objective will be achieved by investigating the impact of intrinsic and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the importance of religiosity in consumer ethics. This objective will be achieved by investigating the impact of intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity on consumer ethics, and segmenting consumers’ religiosity and explore differences between each segment.
Design/methodology/approach
The surveys were distributed to undergraduate students, their friends and members of their immediate families, through a large public university in Australia. Of 700 paper questionnaires, participants returned 651. Incomplete surveys with too many missing values were removed from the sample. Of these, 517 were usable, yielding a response rate of 74 per cent. Singles accounted for 53.9 per cent of the sample, followed by married people (26.8 per cent). Of the respondents, 49.9 per cent were men. The majority of respondents were between 18 and 24 years old (52 per cent), followed by 15-34 years (16.4 per cent). Finally, most respondents had an income level of less than $20,000 (36.6 per cent) followed by $21,000-$40,000 (20.5 per cent) and $41,000-$61,000 (19.7 per cent). Overall, despite being dominated by younger consumers, the sample is relatively representative of the entire adult population of Australia.
Findings
The results show that both intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity had an impact on consumers’ ethical beliefs. Moreover, the results show significant differences between the two segments studied. The religious segment was more likely than the non-religious segment to reject various unethical beliefs, but no significant differences were found in the behavioural dimensions of recycling and doing good deeds.
Originality/value
This is one of the first few studies to explore the impact of religiosity on consumer ethics in Australia. The results of this study have several implications for academic researchers, religious leaders and managers working in the area of consumer ethics.
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The plague of unethical practices in global businesses has sparked much research on the role of ethics in today’s business and society. One of the most effective tools to…
Abstract
Purpose
The plague of unethical practices in global businesses has sparked much research on the role of ethics in today’s business and society. One of the most effective tools to understand consumers’ motivation and behaviour is segmentation. Hence, the purpose of this study is segment ethical consumers based on consumer-ethics variables (i.e. actively benefiting, passively benefiting, questionable behaviour, no-harm, recycling and doing good).
Design/methodology/approach
Using a sample from the general population in Australia (N = 517), a TwoStep cluster analysis was conducted using baseline consumer ethics psychographic measures. The analysis resulted in three distinct segments: “The Good Samaritans”, “The Mainstream Ethical Consumers” and “The Unethical Consumers”.
Findings
The results clearly reveal that segments do exist among consumers in regards to their ethical beliefs. The study shows that a large percentage of consumers are ethical, there is also a segment consisting of unethical consumers.
Research limitations/implications
The study shows that only a small percentage of consumers are highly ethical (i.e. The Good Samaritans). This shows an opportunity for educators and public policy makers to push the “Mainstream Ethical Consumers” to become the “Good Samaritans”. The Good Samaritans are consumers who will go above and beyond to be ethical and more likely to do good toward the society.
Practical implications
Unethical consumers comprise a unique segment where researchers, educators and public policy makers need to focus on when addressing unethical consumer behaviour in the society.
Originality/value
This is one of the first few studies to segment consumers based on the consumer ethics scales. By understanding different segments within consumers, the results of this study will assist researchers, managers and public policy makers address unethical behaviour in society.
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