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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.

Using paper-based survey, the data collection took place in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2016, resulting in 1,702 young respondents in total.

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.

This study makes several contributions to consumer ethics research, especially whether young consumers’ ethical beliefs change or remain constant across time.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This is one of the first few studies exploring CSR in Indonesia.

Online digital piracy continues to rise globally. The issue is worsening among young people especially in the context of emerging markets due to lack of laws and regulations. Interestingly, emerging markets are also home to some of the highest religious followers. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of young consumer’s religiousness on their attitude and intention towards digital piracy which should negate their tendency to pirate.

Data were collected from Indonesia (N = 715) by means of questionnaires distributed to business students at two major (one public and one private) Indonesian universities. The sample consists of 289 (40.4 per cent) males and 426 females (59.6 per cent). The student sample contained a majority of people who were aged 18 to 24 years (94.1 per cent).

The current study shows that intrinsic religiousness is a strong predictor of attitude towards digital piracy, intention to commit digital piracy, perceived benefits of digital piracy, perceived likelihood of punishment and fear of legal consequences. Extrinsic (social) religiousness was found to have a negative impact on perceived likelihood of punishment and fear of legal consequences. The results of this study will have several important implications for managers and especially religious leaders on how to combat digital piracy.

This is one of the first few studies exploring the impact of religiosity among young consumers in Indonesia.

Religious doctrines generally encourage people to behave ethically. However, in daily life, individuals notice inconsistencies between religious beliefs and behavior, leading them to ask, in the context of commerce, why religious consumers would behave unethically. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of consumers' intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity on their ethical behavior. Specifically, the moderating effect of ethical ideology on the relationship between Indonesian consumers' religiosity and their ethics was examined by means of a survey.

The data derived from the questionnaire were complemented by convenience samples of Indonesians living in Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta (DIY) in central Java. The researchers distributed 600 questionnaires in two major shopping malls and several housing areas in the region, of which 467 were completed and returned, for an overall response rate of 77.8%.

The results indicated that the participants' intrinsic religiosity negatively impacted their ethical beliefs and was mediated by their idealistic ethical ideology. The present study also found that idealism had negative effects on three of the four dimensions of the consumer ethics scale (CES) (actively benefiting, passively benefiting and questionable behavior), while relativism had positive effects on two of the dimensions (passively benefiting and questionable behavior.

One limitation of the present study was that the analysis did not distinguish among the religions practiced by the respondents to the questionnaire.

This is one of the first few studies investigating the mediating role of ethical ideology in a religious society. This study contributes to the literature on these issues in theoretical and managerial terms by extending the Hunt-Vitell theory (1986) to the context of consumer ethics.

This study aims to investigate the influence of brand familiarity, consumer green consciousness (GC) and chronic regulatory focus on consumer attitudes, buying intentions and willingness to pay more for eco-friendly products in a comparison between eco-friendly and non-eco-friendly products among Generation Z consumers.

An experiment with a between-subjects design was conducted with 151 Malaysian Generation Z consumers.

When consumers are more familiar with an eco-friendly brand than a non-eco-friendly brand, their attitude toward, buying intention and willingness to pay more for eco-friendly products are significantly higher than for non-eco-friendly products. In contrast, such effects are not significant when consumers are more familiar with a non-eco-friendly brand than an eco-friendly brand. Hence, young consumers are more inclined to favor a familiar eco-friendly brand than a familiar non-eco-friendly one. Consumers with higher GC are willing to pay more than consumers with lower GC for products of a familiar eco-friendly brand. When consumers are less familiar with an eco-friendly brand, those with a higher chronic promotion focus (CPF) will have a more favorable attitude toward, and a higher intention to buy, eco-friendly products than those with a lower CPF.

Awareness of how these factors influence consumer purchase behavior can help retailers and marketers design and communicate specific messages to highlight their brand and product eco-friendliness in their marketing strategies. Doing so may increase familiarity with their brand and the demand for and purchase of their brand’s eco-friendly products.

This research explores the influence of an integrated model of brand familiarity, GC and CPF on consumer purchase behavior in the comparison between eco-friendly and non-eco-friendly products. This has not been clearly examined in previous research.

The purpose of this paper is to examine a three-way interaction between the two motivational orientations of religiosity (i.e. intrinsic and extrinsic) and recognition (in this study, an explicit expectation that behavior is recognized) on charitable behavior. Further, drawing upon the evolutionary psychology perspective, the status motive is predicted to mediate the predicted effects.

Three experimental studies were conducted using a 2 (intrinsic religiosity: low/high; measured) × 2 (extrinsic religiosity: low/high; measured) × 2 (recognition: yes/no; manipulated) between-subjects design to examine the predicted effects on likelihood to donate and donation allocations in two Asian countries, namely, Indonesia and Malaysia.

The results show that recognition increases charitable behavior among consumers with a high level of extrinsic religiosity but low level of intrinsic religiosity (Studies 1a, 1b and 2). Further, a status motive mediates the predicted effects (Study 2).

The present research provides a novel perspective on how marketers can purposively use recognition in charitable advertising to encourage charitable behavior among religious consumers – but only in Asia.

This paper presents the case for how a non-profit organization can develop charitable advertising for disaster relief in Indonesia (Studies 1a and 1b) and Malaysia (Study 2). The findings of this research could potentially be extended to other organizations in Asia or other countries where religiosity places an important role in consumer behavior.

This research shows the interactive effect between extrinsic religiosity, intrinsic religiosity and recognition can increase charitable behavior in Asia.

This study aims to examine and compare ethical perceptions between genders on various potentially unethical consumer situations in Indonesia and Thailand.

A survey was conducted by distributing self-administered questionnaires to a convenience sample of university students in two large cities in Indonesia and Thailand. There are 278 respondents in Indonesia 158 participants for Thailand. Most respondents aged between 18-24 years.

Indonesian youths were found to believe that “passively benefiting”, “questionable action” and “downloading” are more unethical than Thai youths do. The relationship between gender and consumer ethics is not consistent in Indonesia and Thailand. Female youths in Indonesia tended to be more ethical in four out of seven dimensions of Consumer Ethics Scales than their counterparts, while no gender differences were found in Thailand.

The results show the different consumer ethics between Indonesia and Thailand that may reflect cultural variations, where Indonesia is more multicultural than Thailand. The mixed findings of the gender differences may suggest that there are no intrinsic gender differences in consumer ethics. Further, the results also provide implications for educators and public policy makers in both countries to encourage more active roles played by universities in building ethical sensitivity among future leaders.

This is one of the few studies examining the impact of gender on consumer ethical behavior in Southeast Asian countries, where various unethical behaviors (e.g. buying and using pirated products) are prevalent.

The concept of grit has been receiving increased attention in recent years. Grit is a trait that enables individuals to persevere while facing challenges and obstacles in life, sometimes “winning at any cost”. The purpose of the study is to understand how ethical views may vary among different groups of people segmented on grittiness. Our key argument is that grittier segment is more inclined towards Machiavellian factors (amorality, desire for control, desire for status, distrust of others) and materialism.

Data derived from self-administered questionnaires completed by convenience samples of Indonesians living in Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta (DIY), a region commonly considered as the miniature of Indonesia. Turning to market segmentation tools (n = 467), we first segment people based on their level of grittiness and, subsequently, investigate each segment's perception towards various Machiavellian factors (amorality, desire for control, distrust of others) and materialistic attitudes.

The study identified three segments of grittiness: The Least Gritty (the Good), The More Gritty (the Bad) and The Most Gritty (the Ugly). The results of this study showed the dark side of grit. Individuals with higher grit traits are more likely to behave unethically which could be referred to as “bad” and “ugly”. To help them succeed, cheating and lying are more likely considered acceptable by gritty individuals compared to less gritty “good” individuals.

Merely focussing on grit–be it grit promotion or training–may produce individuals who achieve success at all costs and disregard ethical values. An implication from the study is not to discourage developing grit in individuals but instead to add and emphasise ethical components. This implication is especially critical for educators and managers developing grit as a part of their activities.

The results of this study will have important theoretical implications and managerial implications educators balancing the consequences of teaching grit, but also for managers interested in understanding employees' level of grit within their workplaces along with ethical considerations.

Brand origin (BO) has been suggested as an important determinant of brand evaluation and purchase intention. However, previous studies have indicated that consumers have limited knowledge and ability to recognize national origin of brands. The purpose of this paper is to assess brand origin recognition accuracy (BORA) and its relationships with brand evaluation and purchase intention in the Indonesian laptop market.

A convenient sample of 195 people in Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta participated in the survey. They were given a list of 18 laptop brands (four local and 14 foreign brands) and were asked to identify their actual national origins.

The study found that consumers are more likely to misidentify than correctly recognize a true BO. This limited ability also has contributed to the low BORA scores for both local and foreign brands. Brand evaluation was found to be positively correlated with purchase intention. However, the current study could only find partial supports for the relationship between BORA scores and brand evaluation as well as purchase intention.

Many Indonesian consumers are unaware of the laptops’ BO, whether it is foreign or local. Companies need to inform, educate, and/or remind consumers of their brand’s true origin and avoid being associated with a weaker country image. Furthermore, despite all four Indonesian laptop brand names seem to use non-Indonesian names, only one brand gains a slightly better brand evaluation from favorable misclassification. It may suggest that the effectiveness of foreign branding strategy in the Indonesian laptop market is debatable.

This is one of the few studies examining BORA in Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country and the largest laptop market in Southeast Asia.

The purpose of this paper is threefold: how companies perceive corporate social responsibility (CSR) and public relations (PR); how companies perceive the interconnection between these functions; and what factors contributing to their perceptions.

An interpretive qualitative study was employed, where semi-structured interviews with 34 members of PR and CSR departments and three top executives of three big mining (state-owned, private Indonesian, and multinational) companies in Indonesia were carried out. Archival data (e.g. newsletters, websites, and annual reports) were also utilized.

CSR and PR are perceived to be community relationship functions to gain and maintain organizational legitimacy from the communities and shareholders. Three factors shaping these functions: the social and political changes in Indonesia; the communities’ collective culture; and the nature of mining industry.

The current study focused on how companies interpret and enact their interpretations of their organizational environment. This study suggests further research into how the community and other stakeholders interpret the company’s activities and environment. This study also suggests further study on another type of industry.

The present study provides another approach to understanding how CSR and PR are constructed and enacted in an organization as well as to understanding the company’s justification in enacting particular CSR and PR functions. This study maintains the need to consider local values while keeping the global standard.