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Relationship between consumer ethics and social rewards-punishments in Mainland China

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  • Baochun Zhao
  • Zhilong Tian

Abstract

With the increasing concern on the efficient measures to restrain consumer's unethical behaviours such as purchasing and using piratical software in a global market, it is necessary to explore the role of social rewards-punishments in consumer's ethical decision-making. This paper studies the relationship between social rewards-punishments and consumer ethics through an empirical investigation with 535 useful questionnaires gathered in Mainland China. The findings indicate that in this market, consumers' perception of social rewards-punishments influences their ethical judgement significantly in different consumption situations. Moreover, the soft dimension of social rewards-punishments plays constantly a positive role in the ethical decision-making, but the hard dimension functions with two-side roles: positive in the definitely unethical situations but negative in the possibly unethical situations. Diverse roles of different dimensions of social rewards-punishments in ethical decision-making are correlated with consumption situations and consumers' individual variables. Some valued implications for business practices are offered together with suggestions for the future research.

Suggested Citation

  • Baochun Zhao & Zhilong Tian, 2009. "Relationship between consumer ethics and social rewards-punishments in Mainland China," International Journal of Business Innovation and Research, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 3(1), pages 52-69.
    • Handle: RePEc:ids:ijbire:v:3:y:2009:i:1:p:52-69
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    Cited by:

    1. Yongbo Sun & Jiajia Zhang, 2019. "Acquiescence or Resistance: Group Norms and Self-Interest Motivation in Unethical Consumer Behaviour," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-25, April.
    2. BaoChun Zhao & ShanShan Xu, 2013. "Does Consumer Unethical Behavior Relate to Birthplace? Evidence from China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 113(3), pages 475-488, March.

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