IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i19p8041-d421504.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ethically Minded Consumer Behavior, Retailers’ Commitment to Sustainable Development, and Store Equity in Hypermarkets

Author

Listed:
  • Irene Sánchez-González

    (Facultad de Ciencias Empresariales, Universidad Técnica de Machala, Vía Machala Pasaje, Machala 170517, Ecuador)

  • Irene Gil-Saura

    (Departamento de Comercialización e Investigación de Mercados, Facultad de Economía, Universitat de València, Avda, Tarongers s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain)

  • María Eugenia Ruiz-Molina

    (Departamento de Comercialización e Investigación de Mercados, Facultad de Economía, Universitat de València, Avda, Tarongers s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain)

Abstract

The present paper analyzed the influence of ethically minded consumer behavior on retailer’s commitment to sustainable development as perceived by the consumer, and their contribution to the chain of relationships “store equity–loyalty–word of mouth communication”, in the context of retailing. Responses from 317 hypermarket customers in Ecuador were analyzed. The model was estimated using the partial least squares technique. The results show the sustainable development actions implemented by retailers, together with perceived value, contribute significantly to store equity creation, which explains customer loyalty and, ultimately, positive word-of-mouth communication. However, the most concerned consumers of ethical aspects value the retailer’s efforts towards sustainability to a lesser extent. The findings of this research allow developing a series of implications for the managers of these establishments.

Suggested Citation

  • Irene Sánchez-González & Irene Gil-Saura & María Eugenia Ruiz-Molina, 2020. "Ethically Minded Consumer Behavior, Retailers’ Commitment to Sustainable Development, and Store Equity in Hypermarkets," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-17, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:19:p:8041-:d:421504
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/19/8041/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/19/8041/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Reinartz, Werner & Dellaert, Benedict & Krafft, Manfred & Kumar, V. & Varadarajan, Rajan, 2011. "Retailing Innovations in a Globalizing Retail Market Environment," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 87(S1), pages 53-66.
    2. Chaudhuri, Arjun & Ligas, Mark, 2009. "Consequences of Value in Retail Markets," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 85(3), pages 406-419.
    3. Atulkar, Sunil & Kesari, Bikrant, 2017. "Satisfaction, loyalty and repatronage intentions: Role of hedonic shopping values," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 23-34.
    4. Hyo Jung (Julie) Chang & Tun-Min (Catherine) Jai, 2015. "Is fast fashion sustainable? The effect of positioning strategies on consumers’ attitudes and purchase intentions," Social Responsibility Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 11(4), pages 853-867, October.
    5. Sheng-Hsiung Chang & Ching-Hsien Chou, 2018. "Consumer Intention toward Bringing Your Own Shopping Bags in Taiwan: An Application of Ethics Perspective and Theory of Planned Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-14, May.
    6. Nina Hampl & Moritz Loock, 2013. "Sustainable Development in Retailing: What is the Impact on Store Choice?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(3), pages 202-216, March.
    7. Oriol Iglesias & Stefan Markovic & Jatinder Jit Singh & Vicenta Sierra, 2019. "Do Customer Perceptions of Corporate Services Brand Ethicality Improve Brand Equity? Considering the Roles of Brand Heritage, Brand Image, and Recognition Benefits," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 154(2), pages 441-459, January.
    8. Mbaye Fall Diallo & Christine Lambey-Checchin, 2017. "Consumers’ Perceptions of Retail Business Ethics and Loyalty to the Retailer: The Moderating Role of Social Discount Practices," Post-Print hal-03185737, HAL.
    9. Mbaye Fall Diallo & Christine Lambey-Checchin, 2017. "Consumers’ Perceptions of Retail Business Ethics and Loyalty to the Retailer: The Moderating Role of Social Discount Practices," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 141(3), pages 435-449, March.
    10. Kessous, Aurélie & Boncori, Anne-Laure & Paché, Gilles, 2016. "Are consumers sensitive to large retailers' sustainable practices? A semiotic analysis in the French context," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 117-130.
    11. Gabriel April-Lalonde & Sara Latorre & Myriam Paredes & María Fernanda Hurtado & Fabián Muñoz & Ana Deaconu & Donald C. Cole & Malek Batal, 2020. "Characteristics and Motivations of Consumers of Direct Purchasing Channels and the Perceived Barriers to Alternative Food Purchase: A Cross-Sectional Study in the Ecuadorian Andes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-19, August.
    12. Mira Rakic & Beba Rakic, 2015. "Sustainable Lifestyle Marketing of Individuals: the Base of Sustainability," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 17(40), pages 891-891, August.
    13. Carrington, Michal J. & Neville, Benjamin A. & Whitwell, Gregory J., 2014. "Lost in translation: Exploring the ethical consumer intention–behavior gap," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 2759-2767.
    14. Muncy, James A. & Vitell, Scott J., 1992. "Consumer ethics: An investigation of the ethical beliefs of the final consumer," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 297-311, June.
    15. Stefan Markovic & Oriol Iglesias & Jatinder Jit Singh & Vicenta Sierra, 2018. "How does the Perceived Ethicality of Corporate Services Brands Influence Loyalty and Positive Word-of-Mouth? Analyzing the Roles of Empathy, Affective Commitment, and Perceived Quality," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(4), pages 721-740, April.
    16. Linda Gonzalez Lafaysse & Catherine Madrid, 2016. "Facebook and sustainable development: a case study of a French supermarket chain," Post-Print hal-03259514, HAL.
    17. Irene Gil-Saura & María Eugenia Ruiz-Molina & Géraldine Michel & Amparo Corraliza-Zapata, 2013. "Retail brand equity: a model based on its dimensions and effects," Post-Print halshs-01896828, HAL.
    18. Won-Moo Hur & Hanna Kim & Jeong Woo, 2014. "How CSR Leads to Corporate Brand Equity: Mediating Mechanisms of Corporate Brand Credibility and Reputation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 125(1), pages 75-86, November.
    19. Vicenta Sierra & Oriol Iglesias & Stefan Markovic & Jatinder Jit Singh, 2017. "Does Ethical Image Build Equity in Corporate Services Brands? The Influence of Customer Perceived Ethicality on Affect, Perceived Quality, and Equity," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 144(3), pages 661-676, September.
    20. Li Cai & Chaohua He, 2014. "Corporate Environmental Responsibility and Equity Prices," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 125(4), pages 617-635, December.
    21. Irene Gil-Saura & Maja Šerić & María Eugenia Ruiz-Molina & Gloria Berenguer-Contrí, 2017. "The causal relationship between store equity and loyalty: Testing two alternative models in retailing," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 24(2), pages 193-208, March.
    22. Jörg Henseler & Marko Sarstedt, 2013. "Goodness-of-fit indices for partial least squares path modeling," Computational Statistics, Springer, vol. 28(2), pages 565-580, April.
    23. Jin-Myong Lee & Hyo-Jung Kim & Jong-Youn Rha, 2017. "Shopping for Society? Consumers’ Value Conflicts in Socially Responsible Consumption Affected by Retail Regulation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-15, October.
    24. Sudbury-Riley, Lynn & Kohlbacher, Florian, 2016. "Ethically minded consumer behavior: Scale review, development, and validation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(8), pages 2697-2710.
    25. Anja Buerke & Tammo Straatmann & Nick Lin-Hi & Karsten Müller, 2017. "Consumer awareness and sustainability-focused value orientation as motivating factors of responsible consumer behavior," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 11(4), pages 959-991, October.
    26. Laure Lavorata, 2014. "Influence of retailers’ commitment to sustainable development on store image, consumer loyalty and consumer boycotts: Proposal for a model using the theory of planned behavior," Post-Print halshs-01764748, HAL.
    27. Lombart, Cindy & Louis, Didier, 2014. "A study of the impact of Corporate Social Responsibility and price image on retailer personality and consumers' reactions (satisfaction, trust and loyalty to the retailer)," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 630-642.
    28. Walsh, Gianfranco & Shiu, Edward & Hassan, Louise M., 2014. "Replicating, validating, and reducing the length of the consumer perceived value scale," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 260-267.
    29. Lavorata, Laure, 2014. "Influence of retailers’ commitment to sustainable development on store image, consumer loyalty and consumer boycotts: Proposal for a model using the theory of planned behavior," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 21(6), pages 1021-1027.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wang, Xing-Xin & He, Ai-Zhong, 2022. "The impact of retailers’ sustainable development on consumer advocacy: A chain mediation model investigation," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    2. Yating Tian & Qeis Kamran, 2021. "A Review of Antecedents and Effects of Loyalty on Food Retailers toward Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-18, December.
    3. José A. Gutiérrez & Áine Macken-Walsh, 2022. "Ecosystems of Collaboration for Sustainability-Oriented Innovation: The Importance of Values in the Agri-Food Value-Chain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-19, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wang, Xing-Xin & He, Ai-Zhong, 2022. "The impact of retailers’ sustainable development on consumer advocacy: A chain mediation model investigation," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    2. Antonio Marín-García & Irene Gil-Saura & María Eugenia Ruiz-Molina & Gloria Berenguer-Contrí, 2021. "Sustainability, Store Equity, and Satisfaction: The Moderating Effect of Gender in Retailing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-20, January.
    3. Pilar Fernández‐Ferrín & Sandra Castro‐González & Belén Bande, 2021. "Corporate social responsibility, emotions, and consumer loyalty in the food retail context: Exploring the moderating effect of regional identity," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(2), pages 648-666, March.
    4. Millissa F. Y. Cheung & W. M. To, 2021. "The Effect of Consumer Perceptions of the Ethics of Retailers on Purchase Behavior and Word-of-Mouth: The Moderating Role of Ethical Beliefs," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 171(4), pages 771-788, July.
    5. Henri Kuokkanen & William Sun, 2020. "Companies, Meet Ethical Consumers: Strategic CSR Management to Impact Consumer Choice," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 166(2), pages 403-423, October.
    6. Oriol Iglesias & Stefan Markovic & Mehdi Bagherzadeh & Jatinder Jit Singh, 2020. "Co-creation: A Key Link Between Corporate Social Responsibility, Customer Trust, and Customer Loyalty," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 163(1), pages 151-166, April.
    7. Andersch, Henrike & Arnold, Christian & Seemann, Ann-Kathrin & Lindenmeier, Jörg, 2019. "Understanding ethical purchasing behavior: Validation of an enhanced stage model of ethical behavior," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 50-59.
    8. Kim, Yeonshin & Hur, Won-Moo & Lee, Luri, 2023. "Understanding customer participation in CSR activities: The impact of perceptions of CSR, affective commitment, brand equity, and corporate reputation," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    9. Jose Ribamar Siqueira Junior & Enrique Horst & German Molina & Laura H. Gunn & Felipe Reinoso-Carvalho & Burcu Sezen & Nathalie Peña-García, 2023. "Branding in the eye of the storm: the impact of brand ethical behavior on brand commitment during the COVID-19 crisis in a South American country," Journal of Marketing Analytics, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 95-115, March.
    10. Seong Ho Lee, 2021. "Effects of Retailers’ Corporate Social Responsibility on Retailer Equity and Consumer Usage Intention," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-9, March.
    11. E. Chéron & L. Sudbury-Riley & F. Kohlbacher, 2022. "In Pursuit of Happiness: Disentangling Sustainable Consumption, Consumer Alienation, and Social Desirability," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 45(2), pages 149-173, June.
    12. Tian Zeng & Anne‐Françoise Audrain‐Pontevia & Fabien Durif, 2021. "Does corporate social responsibility affect consumer boycotts? A cost–benefit approach," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(2), pages 796-807, March.
    13. Yoganathan, Vignesh & Osburg, Victoria-Sophie & Akhtar, Pervaiz, 2019. "Sensory stimulation for sensible consumption: Multisensory marketing for e-tailing of ethical brands," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 386-396.
    14. Yu-Shan Huang & Shuqin Wei & Tyson Ang, 2022. "The Role of Customer Perceived Ethicality in Explaining the Impact of Incivility Among Employees on Customer Unethical Behavior and Customer Citizenship Behavior," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 178(2), pages 519-535, June.
    15. María Manuela Palacios-González & Antonio Chamorro-Mera, 2020. "Analysis of Socially Responsible Consumption: A Segmentation of Spanish Consumers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-15, October.
    16. Moser, Andrea K., 2016. "Consumers' purchasing decisions regarding environmentally friendly products: An empirical analysis of German consumers," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 389-397.
    17. Xisi Yang & Anja Weber & Anna-Katharina Grimm, 2022. "The effects of green consumer empowerment in advertising on corporate evaluations and purchase intention: the case of organic food," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 16(6), pages 1877-1909, August.
    18. Zimmer, Lukas & Swoboda, Bernhard, 2023. "Perceived corporate social responsibility effects across nations – The role of national institutions," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(3).
    19. Kumar, Prashant & Polonsky, Micheal Jay, 2019. "In-store experience quality and perceived credibility: A green retailer context," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 23-34.
    20. T. M. Rofin & Maheswar Singha Mahapatra & Biswajit Mahanty, 2021. "Impact of green retail operations on the profit of the manufacturer and the retailer under different pricing strategies," OPSEARCH, Springer;Operational Research Society of India, vol. 58(1), pages 125-143, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:19:p:8041-:d:421504. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.