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A Moral Competency Approach to Ethical Consumption

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Capitalism encourages people to buy things they do not need. This can potentially diminish self-regulation, a character strength that supports moral behavior(Baumeister & Exline, 2002). Ethical consumers make an effort to reject marketing, but there is often a gap between their espoused values and their choice-related actions (Bray, Johns, & Kilborn, 2011). Leveraging a strength-based approach (Sekerka, Comer, & Godwin, 2014), we examine consumer resistance strategies (Dholakia, 2000) by applying moral competencies to consumers’ ethical decision-making path. A model is presented illustrating how moral competencies support decisions “not to buy,” coupled with suggestions for future research in adult moral development.

Author(s):

Leslie Sekerka    
Menlo College
United States

Petra Kipfelsberger    
University St. Gallen
Switzerland

Richard Bagozzi    
University of Michigan
United States