• Human Ecology Research
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.27-44
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• 2017

In our society, consumers and enterprises work in cooperation for the continuous development and growth of society as well as construct effective and ethical measures. One of the representative examples are customercentered management activities in corporations, social responsibility activities, and sustainable ethical consumption that show consideration for the consumer's environment. The ethical consumption behavior of consumers becomes a virtuous circle that influences other consumer's ethical decision making by creating an ethical consumption culture. Furthermore, the cost and effort to solve non-ethical consumption problems can be solved. This research aims at aspiring the perception of consumer's ethical consumption and finding measures to increase ethical behavior. This paper further investigated the consumer's ethical consumption behavior, personality traits, perception of consumption society, and ethical judgements. For the research, a structured survey was conducted on 300 university students in Seoul. SPSS ver. 21.0 and AMOS ver. 18.0 programs were used for statistical data analysis. The results indicated differences in variables that influence consumer's ethical consumption behavior (fair trade, boycotts, and environmentally friendly products). In particular, it was evident that ethical judgements (such as the agent, personality traits, and perception consumption society) have different direct and non-direct influences on ethical consumption behavior. Strengthening the management of factors that influence measures that increase university student's ethical consumption behavior in direct and non-direct ways, providing education and improving information are believed effective in increasing ethical consumption behavior.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.891-901
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• 2004

This study is to investigate the degree of consumers' non-ethical perceptions and behaviors, and to explore related variables such as demographic variables, idealism and relativism. The data used in this study were obtained by surveying 237 college students from 10th through 24th of October, 2002 in Kimhae city. We conducted a statistical analysis of the data, using percentiles, frequencies, means, t-test, ANOVA, and Multiple Regression. Consumers' non-ethical perceptions and behaviors were measured by modifying Consumer Ethics Scale(CES, Muncy & Vitell, 1992). The CES scale comprises 4 sub-factors: actively benefiting from illegal activity(CES1), passively benefiting(CES2), actively benefiting from questionable action(CES3), no harm/no foul(CES4). Average scores of consumers' non-ethical perceptions and behaviors marked below a mid-value, which means that most of the students are basically ethical. The related variable of consumers' non-ethical perceptions was idealism. The related variables of consumers' non-ethical behaviors were idealism and the amount of discretionary money. The results show that most of the participants are basically ethical as a consumer. However, the results related with the CES4 sub-factor which includes consumer attitudes toward copyrights of consumer softwares and music CDs tell us that they are relatively non-ethical. This claims an importance of consumer education to college students in regards to intellectual property.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.11 no.12
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• pp.63-69
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• 2013

Purpose - Ethical consumption is the action of buying one product over another with an ethical idea in mind. It has gained in popularity since the 1990s with more emphasis being put on the power of consumer actions to create social, economic, and environmental change. Ethical consumption involves boycotts of certain products or brands as well as purchases linked to ethical issues. Cause-related marketing (the buying behavior of ethical consumption) involves a for-profit and non-profit entity teaming up to promote a product at the same time as promoting a social cause. Each time a consumer buys that product, a donation is made by the for-profit entity to the non-profit entity supporting the specific cause. Cause-related marketing has become a tremendously popular type of ethical consumption in recent years owing to its reputation of allowing companies to "do well by doing good." This study examines how consumers' perception of cause and attitude influence their attitude toward a cause-related marketing campaign and attempts to suggest implications for marketers. Research design, data, and methodology - First, this study was designed to examine the consumers' perception factors (cause involvement, attitude for cause, attitude for company and brand familiarity) in order to determine whether these factors have significantly affected consumers' attitude toward a cause-related marketing campaign. Second, this study developed a structural equation model and tested it empirically using survey data from 223 individual respondents. Respondents were undergraduate students in Chungnam. They were shown an existing real campaign message of cause-related marketing, and then filled out a questionnaire. Data were analyzed with SPSS 20.0 and AMOS 17.0 programs. Results - The hypotheses were tested using factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The study's results showed that brand familiarity, attitude to the company and attitude to the cause significantly affected consumers' attitude toward the cause-related marketing campaign and performance. In particular, attitude to the cause was significantly related to attitude and performance of the cause-related marketing campaign. However, the hypothesis about cause involvement was not supported with the results indicating that cause involvement did not affect consumers' attitude toward the cause-related marketing campaign. The findings underline the importance of consumer perceptions of the cause and the company and their attitude to the cause. They point to the importance of individual differences that influence consumer perceptions of the cause, the company and brand familiarity. Also of importance is the consumer's attitude to the cause. Conclusions - The findings suggest some practical implications in designing and implementing cause-related marketing campaigns. It is important to enhance brand familiarity and create a favorable attitude to the company and attitude to the cause before designing cause-related marketing campaigns. The rising popularity of cause-related marketing has been attributed to its potential to cut through advertising clutter. The findings in this study suggest that marketing campaigns supporting a cause make a difference.