IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/buseth/v32y2023i4p1150-1169.html

Consumer ethics: An extensive bibliometric review (1995–2021)

Author

Listed:
  • Inés Küster
  • Natalia Vila

Abstract

Nowadays, consumer ethics represents a relevant field of review. There have been some attempts to conduct literature reviews; however, these have been few and incomplete. For this reason, this paper follows two main objectives: (1) to develop a performance analysis to measure the impact/perceptibility of academic production on consumer ethics (most cited authors, journals and themes) and (2) to visually present the scientific structure by themes of research in consumer ethics as well as its evolution along time. Using SciMAT software, a comprehensive thematic review is discussed. 568 scientific papers (2569 keywords and 8642 citations) were retrieved from the Web of Science from 1995 to 2021 (May). Our results show three main periods with two main research themes (consumer and corporate social responsibility), which remain relevant themes at the time. Also, some new themes that promote ethical consumption have gained weight or appear over time, some of which are linked to the marketing field (such as experiences, satisfaction, attitudes or privacy among others).

Suggested Citation

  • Inés Küster & Natalia Vila, 2023. "Consumer ethics: An extensive bibliometric review (1995–2021)," Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(4), pages 1150-1169, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:buseth:v:32:y:2023:i:4:p:1150-1169
    DOI: 10.1111/beer.12558
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/beer.12558
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/beer.12558?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Vallaster, Christine & Kraus, Sascha & Merigó Lindahl, José M. & Nielsen, Annika, 2019. "Ethics and entrepreneurship: A bibliometric study and literature review," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 226-237.
    2. Julie Pirsch & Shruti Gupta & Stacy Grau, 2007. "A Framework for Understanding Corporate Social Responsibility Programs as a Continuum: An Exploratory Study," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 70(2), pages 125-140, January.
    3. E.C.M. Noyons & H.F. Moed & M. Luwel, 1999. "Combining mapping and citation analysis for evaluative bibliometric purposes: A bibliometric study," Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 50(2), pages 115-131.
    4. Riquelme, Isabel P. & Román, Sergio & Iacobucci, Dawn, 2016. "Consumers' Perceptions of Online and Offline Retailer Deception: A Moderated Mediation Analysis," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 16-26.
    5. M.J. Cobo & A.G. López‐Herrera & E. Herrera‐Viedma & F. Herrera, 2012. "SciMAT: A new science mapping analysis software tool," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 63(8), pages 1609-1630, August.
    6. E. M. Murgado-Armenteros & M. Gutiérrez-Salcedo & F. J. Torres-Ruiz & M. J. Cobo, 2015. "Analysing the conceptual evolution of qualitative marketing research through science mapping analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 102(1), pages 519-557, January.
    7. 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.
    8. Laczniak, Gene R. & Murphy, Patrick E., 2019. "The role of normative marketing ethics," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 401-407.
    9. Kristof De Wulf & Patrick Van Kenhove & Sarah Steenhaut, 2003. "The relationship between consumers unethical behavior and customer loyalty in a retail environment," Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School Working Paper Series 2003-17, Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School.
    10. Kristen Bell DeTienne & Carol Frogley Ellertson & Marc-Charles Ingerson & William R. Dudley, 2021. "Moral Development in Business Ethics: An Examination and Critique," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 170(3), pages 429-448, May.
    11. M.J. Cobo & A.G. López-Herrera & E. Herrera-Viedma & F. Herrera, 2012. "SciMAT: A new science mapping analysis software tool," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 63(8), pages 1609-1630, August.
    12. Cobo, M.J. & López-Herrera, A.G. & Herrera-Viedma, E. & Herrera, F., 2011. "An approach for detecting, quantifying, and visualizing the evolution of a research field: A practical application to the Fuzzy Sets Theory field," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 146-166.
    13. M. A. Martínez & M. Herrera & J. López-Gijón & E. Herrera-Viedma, 2014. "H-Classics: characterizing the concept of citation classics through H-index," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 98(3), pages 1971-1983, March.
    14. del Barrio-García, Salvador & Muñoz-Leiva, Francisco & Golden, Linda, 2020. "A review of comparative advertising research 1975–2018: Thematic and citation analyses," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 73-84.
    15. Campbell, Colin L. & Heinrich, Daniel & Schoenmüller, Verena, 2015. "Consumers' reaction to fair trade motivated price increases," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 79-84.
    16. Roman, Sergio & Ruiz, Salvador, 2005. "Relationship outcomes of perceived ethical sales behavior: the customer's perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(4), pages 439-445, April.
    17. Hsiu-Hua Chang & Long-Chuan Lu, 2019. "Actively Persuading Consumers to Enact Ethical Behaviors in Retailing: The Influence of Relational Benefits and Corporate Associates," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 156(2), pages 399-416, May.
    18. 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.
    19. Rajshekhar G. Javalgi & La Toya M. Russell, 2018. "International Marketing Ethics: A Literature Review and Research Agenda," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(4), pages 703-720, April.
    20. Ferrell, O.C. & Harrison, Dana E. & Ferrell, Linda & Hair, Joe F., 2019. "Business ethics, corporate social responsibility, and brand attitudes: An exploratory study," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 491-501.
    21. Ramendra Singh, 2018. "Money, religiosity, and spiritual well-being: does it impact consumers’ ethical beliefs? Evidence from India," DECISION: Official Journal of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Springer;Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, vol. 45(3), pages 259-269, September.
    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. Yiwei Yuan & Li Zhu & Qiao Li & Jun Liu & Chao Liu & Chunhua Chen, 2026. "A Visualized Review of Research on Unethical Behavior in Organizations," Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(1), pages 48-74, January.
    2. Rohini R & Daly Paulose Meppurath, 2025. "Dimensions of ethical consumption: A systematic review and future outlook," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(2), pages 1892-1908, April.

    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. Juan Vidal & Ramón A. Carrasco & Manuel J. Cobo & María F. Blasco, 2024. "Data Sources as a Driver for Market-Oriented Tourism Organizations: a Bibliometric Perspective," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(2), pages 7588-7621, June.
    2. Gaviria-Marin, Magaly & Merigó, José M. & Baier-Fuentes, Hugo, 2019. "Knowledge management: A global examination based on bibliometric analysis," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 194-220.
    3. Mikel Alayo & Txomin Iturralde & Amaia Maseda & Gloria Aparicio, 2021. "Mapping family firm internationalization research: bibliometric and literature review," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 15(6), pages 1517-1560, August.
    4. Thamyres T. Choji & Manuel J. Cobo & Jose A. Moral-Munoz, 2024. "Is the scientific impact of the LIS themes gender-biased? A bibliometric analysis of the evolution, scientific impact, and relative contribution by gender from 2007 to 2022," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 129(10), pages 6023-6047, October.
    5. A. Velez-Estevez & P. García-Sánchez & J. A. Moral-Munoz & M. J. Cobo, 2022. "Why do papers from international collaborations get more citations? A bibliometric analysis of Library and Information Science papers," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(12), pages 7517-7555, December.
    6. Jiangang Shi & Kaifeng Duan & Guangdong Wu & Hongyun Si & Rui Zhang, 2022. "Sustainability at the community level: A bibliometric journey around a set of sustainability‐related terms," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(1), pages 256-274, February.
    7. Veronica Perez-Cabezas & Carmen Ruiz-Molinero & Ines Carmona-Barrientos & Enrique Herrera-Viedma & Manuel J. Cobo & Jose A. Moral-Munoz, 2018. "Highly cited papers in rheumatology: identification and conceptual analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 116(1), pages 555-568, July.
    8. Francisco Javier Blanco-Encomienda & Elena Rosillo-Díaz, 2021. "Quantitative evaluation of the production and trends in research applying the structural equation modelling method," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(2), pages 1599-1617, February.
    9. Yao, Ye & Du, Huibin & Zou, Hongyang & Zhou, Peng & Antunes, Carlos Henggeler & Neumann, Anne & Yeh, Sonia, 2023. "Fifty years of Energy Policy: A bibliometric overview," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    10. Alejandro Bengoa & Amaia Maseda & Txomin Iturralde & Gloria Aparicio, 2021. "A bibliometric review of the technology transfer literature," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 46(5), pages 1514-1550, October.
    11. Shashi & Piera Centobelli & Roberto Cerchione & Amit Mittal, 2021. "Managing sustainability in luxury industry to pursue circular economy strategies," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 432-462, January.
    12. Rojas-Lamorena, Álvaro J. & Del Barrio-García, Salvador & Alcántara-Pilar, Juan Miguel, 2022. "A review of three decades of academic research on brand equity: A bibliometric approach using co-word analysis and bibliographic coupling," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 1067-1083.
    13. Remedios Hernández-Linares & Soumodip Sarkar & Manuel J. Cobo, 2018. "Inspecting the Achilles heel: a quantitative analysis of 50 years of family business definitions," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 115(2), pages 929-951, May.
    14. Pereira, Vijay & Bamel, Umesh & Temouri, Yama & Budhwar, Pawan & Del Giudice, Manlio, 2023. "Mapping the evolution, current state of affairs and future research direction of managing cross-border knowledge for innovation," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(2).
    15. Jingyuan Yu & Juan Muñoz-Justicia, 2020. "A Bibliometric Overview of Twitter-Related Studies Indexed in Web of Science," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-18, May.
    16. Aroa Costa-Feito & Ana M. González-Fernández & Carmen Rodríguez-Santos & Miguel Cervantes-Blanco, 2023. "Electroencephalography in consumer behaviour and marketing: a science mapping approach," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-13, December.
    17. Forliano, Canio & De Bernardi, Paola & Yahiaoui, Dorra, 2021. "Entrepreneurial universities: A bibliometric analysis within the business and management domains," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    18. Dariel López-López & Antonio Serrano-Jiménez & Juan Gavilanes & Ferran Ventura-Blanch & Ángela Barrios-Padura & Carmen Díaz-López, 2023. "A Study on the Parametric Design Parameters That Influence Environmental Ergonomics and Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-30, April.
    19. Carmen Díaz-López & Alessandra Bonoli & María Martín-Morales & Montserrat Zamorano, 2021. "Analysis of the Scientific Evolution of the Circular Economy Applied to Construction and Demolition Waste," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-22, August.
    20. Muñoz Leiva, Francisco & Rodríguez López, María Eugenia & García Martí, Bárbara, 2022. "Discovering prominent themes of the application of eye tracking technology in marketing research," Cuadernos de Gestión, Universidad del País Vasco - Instituto de Economía Aplicada a la Empresa (IEAE).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:wly:buseth:v:32:y:2023:i:4:p:1150-1169. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/26946424 .

    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.