In fair markets, there is no unfair business! And no ethical consumption?
(A2019-9386)

AUTHORS

Anna Jasinenko, HHL - Leipzig Graduate School of Management; Fabian Christandl, Fresenius University of Applied Sciences; Timo Meynhardt, HHL - Leipzig Graduate School of Management

KEYWORDS

fair market ideology; ethical consumer behavior; public value

ABSTRACT

Even though there is a visible development towards more ethical consumer behavior, many consumers seem to neglect their ethical responsibility within markets. We argue that this neglect might be based on consumers’ ideologies concerning the market. Past research found ideologies to build a major motivational and cognitive base for people’s behavior. In our research, we focused on the fair market ideology that captures consumers’ system justification of markets. Specifically, we assumed that consumers who indulge in higher levels of the fair market ideology would neglect unethical information about corporations or products to further reinforce their market justification and would, therefore, consume less ethically. Three empirical studies confirmed the initial hypothesis that the fair market ideology has a major impact on ethical consumer behavior.