Based on attribution theory and regulatory focus theory, this paper discusses the influence mechanism of cause-related marketing on customers’ extra-role behavior and the moderating effects of customer promotion focus and customer prevention focus. The results show that egoistic cause-related marketing (ECRM) has a negative impact on customer extra-role behavior, while altruistic cause-related marketing has a positive impact on customer extra-role behavior. Customer promotion focus has a significant positive moderating effect on the negative impact of ECRM on customer extra-role behavior; customer (...) promotion focus also has a significant positive moderating effect on the positive effect of altruistic cause-related marketing on customer extra-role behavior. There is a significant negative moderating effect of customer prevention focus on the negative impact of ECRM on customer extra-role behavior, while there is a significant positive moderating effect of customer prevention focus on the positive impact of altruistic cause-related marketing on customer extra-role behavior. (shrink)

This study adopts moral reasoning strategies to investigate why consumers support companies involved in ethical transgressions. Drawing on several cases of real multinationals publicly involved in tax avoidance practices, it aims to demonstrate that moral rationalization and moral decoupling depend not only on how consumers perceive the magnitude of the transgression, but also on their individual differences, such as political ideology and brand identification. A quantitative study with a sample of 3989 consumers of five different focal brands was employed to (...) test a set of hypotheses. Findings reveal that moral decoupling directly explains purchase intentions. However, rationalization only explains behavioral intentions if it leads to a reduction in the perceived immorality of the action. Furthermore, the study reveals significant differences across personal values. Left-leaning individuals tend to rationalize less and decouple more when they perceive that the magnitude of the transgression as egregious. Interestingly, consumers who are highly identified with the brand are less affected by the transgression and tend to be more supportive toward the brand by engaging in rationalization mechanisms. (shrink)

Using an institutional perspective, this paper investigates how consumers in Western developed and Southeast Asian emerging markets respond to fashion brands’ moral transgressions and how consumers’ moral rationalization tendencies vary across the two markets. The study employs multimethod analyses, including cross-national secondary data from 12 countries and experimental data from 940 German and Vietnamese consumers. In a non-transgression context, the multivariate analyses show that Western developed-market consumers embrace higher ethical standards (Study 1A), tend to seek collective action against prevalent immoral (...) behaviors in society (Study 1B), and are more critical in evaluating fashion brand ethicality than Southeast Asian emerging-market consumers (Study 2). However, in a transgression context, the moderated mediation analyses reveal that consumers largely do not differ in their direct devaluation of fashion brand ethicality and subsequent price considerations (Study 3) across six transgression scenarios (i.e., worker abuse, child labor, racist advertising, weight discrimination, climate change, and environmental pollution). Interestingly, moral rationalization processes appear to be more frequent and consequential in the Southeast Asian emerging market, while they either do not occur or are significantly weaker in the Western developed market. The results provide theoretical and practical implications for ethical business practices in the fashion industry based on market differences in regulatory frameworks, cognitive considerations, and social norms. (shrink)

Although performance pressure has desirable consequences, there is evidence that it can produce unintended outcomes as employees tend to engage in dysfunctional and unethical behaviors to meet performance goals. Thus, the process through which employees think and behave unethically under performance pressure deserves more research attention. This study goes beyond the stress-appraisal perspective and investigates whether and when performance pressure influences individual work mindsets and behaviors from a moral reasoning perspective. Specifically, we contend that performance pressure is related to employee (...) expediency through moral decoupling. We further hypothesize dialectical thinking and moral identity to be the boundary conditions of the proposed relationships. Analyses of data from a field study in three waves provide support for most of the hypotheses. In particular, we find that moral decoupling accounts for additional variance after we control for the stress-appraisal effect of performance pressure on employee expediency. The study offers several contributions to the literature on performance pressure and unethical behavior. (shrink)

Scandals involving celebrities’ moral transgressions are common in both Western and Eastern cultures. Existing literature, however, has been primarily based on Western cultures. We examine differences between South Korea and the United States in consumers’ support for celebrities engaged in moral transgressions and for the brands they endorse. Across six studies, we find that Korean consumers show lower support for celebrities who engaged in moral transgressions. This effect occurs because Korean consumers have a stronger belief that an individual’s competence and (...) morality are interconnected. Thus, Korean consumers are less likely to separate their judgments of celebrities’ morality and competence in professional performance, thereby lowering support for the celebrities. Building on the proposed mechanism, we identify the moderating role of transgression relevance. When a moral transgression is relevant to the domain of the celebrity’s professional competence, the difference in celebrity support between the two countries is attenuated. This difference extends to the support for a brand endorsed by the celebrity transgressor when the brand retains the celebrity endorser, but not when the brand dismisses the endorser. (shrink)

Previous studies offer conflicting evidence on whether face consciousness, which is a Confucian cultural value, promotes (or inhibits) the ethical aspects of fashion consumption. Building on the theory of regulatory focus and Confucian virtue ethics, we reconcile this discrepancy by conceptualising face consciousness as two distinct face regulatory foci in Confucian culture, namely, gaining mianzi and avoiding losing lian. We argue that in Confucian society, the ethics of fashion consumption are delineated by the Confucian virtues of rén, yì and lǐ. (...) However, the two face regulatory foci have a dual moderating effect on individuals’ manifestation of these virtues. On the one hand, individuals who seek to gain mianzi desire a consistent social self-image; therefore, they will proactively follow Confucian virtues to adopt ethical fashion. In contrast, individuals who primarily seek to avoid losing lian are less interested in ethical fashion. On the other hand, when the unethical consumption of fashion goods is a group norm, the mianzi-oriented group members would behave less ethically and prefer a non-ethical fashion option, but the members who intend to avoid losing lian would be more likely to support ethical fashion. Our findings reveal how traditional Confucian virtues are linked to the ethics of fashion consumption. We discuss the implications of our findings for ethical fashion production, marketing and consumption practice in a Confucian society. (shrink)