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Although research demonstrates the importance of ethical product attributes for consumers, a prior study has not examined the role of consumption target (i.e. self-purchases vs gift-giving) on consumers’ preference for products with ethical attributes. Notably, consumers’ preference for quality can differ between self-purchases and gifts, and the presence of ethical attributes can impact product quality perceptions. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the presence of ethical attributes alters decision-making in a gift-giving context using perceptions of product quality as an explanatory variable for these differences.

One field study and two controlled experiments test the proposed hypotheses. The experiments were conducted across different product categories and samples.

Results showed that the presence of an ethical attribute leads to higher purchase intentions for products in a gift-giving context compared to self-purchase. Perceived quality mediates this effect. Further process evidence through moderation, including resource synergy beliefs, support the findings. This paper discusses the theoretical, managerial and societal implications of these results.

Although care was taken to select products to enhance generalizability, the studies presented here are limited to two products. Further, although the present research includes a field study with actual charity-related purchases, the role of time pressures is not explicitly explored. Finally, the role of brand-self connections is not explored in the current research. The ability for a donor to integrate the mission of a charity into their self-perception or the potential for social normative influences to impact behaviors remains open for exploration.

Charities are facing increasing pressures to raise sustainable funds to support their missions. The research provides guidance to marketers and fundraisers in the non-profit sector that allows them to direct more focused fundraising appeals to donors and adapt their fundraising efforts to create a fit between their audience and fundraising appeals.

This research demonstrates that consumption target (purchasing for the self versus purchasing for others) is a vital contextual factor that influences customer preference for ethical attributes. These results complement the extant literature by exploring the underlying mechanism behind consumers’ responses to the ethical attributes in the case of self-purchase and other-purchase. The underlying effect is supported theoretically by resource synergy beliefs.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how and when a reputation for corporate social responsibility (CSR) can deter dysfunctional consumer behaviors (DCBs) such as shoplifting or negative word-of-mouth (WOM) in response to firm failures. The authors predict that congruency of the CSR activities and the basis for the firm failure (e.g. environmental protection, environmental harm) provides protection for firms while incongruency (e.g. environmental protection, social harm) does not. The authors base this prediction on the process of retroactive attribution and sense-making.

Across two studies the research finds support that a reputation for CSR can deter consumer dysfunctional behavior. Study 1 uses an experimental design with a Mturk sample, and a behavioral outcome using an overpayment situation, to examine when consumers will act honestly and recognize overpayment. Study 2 uses secondary data, across three novel data sources (Google trends data, an existing data set of consumer perceptions of CSR and Factiva to uncover press coverage of negative firm events). Study 2 examines how CSR reputation impacts consumers’ participation in negative WOM in response to firm failures.

Study 1 finds support for CSR congruency as a protection mechanism against dysfunctional behavior in response to negative events. The authors find that dysfunctional behaviors in conditions of congruency, while incongruent and a control condition do not provide such protections. Study 2 supports these findings using Google trends data in the form of online negative WOM. The authors find that when firms are known for their social performance, negative events in the social domain result in significantly lower levels of negative WOM.

The current paper makes the novel prediction that consumers will use a current negative event (corporate social irresponsibility) to re-evaluate previous CSR. Thus, in contrast with prior research, the authors argue that a negative event is not affected by previous CSR but that previous CSR is affected by a negative event. Furthermore, the authors posit that the congruency between the transgression and previous CSR moderates consumer perceptions, such that incongruent CSR and transgression contexts lead to increased DCBs through consumers’ retroactive sense-making process.

This paper aims to explore the factors influencing the purchasing patterns of eco-friendly cosmetics and beauty care products among female customers in Mauritius. It also investigates upon the relative significance of these factors in predicting the preference to buy and recommend eco-friendly cosmetics and beauty care products to others.

The paper applies the data reduction technique by using exploratory factor analysis on a sample of 150 female consumers and condenses a set of 35 attributes into a list of eight comprehensible factors influencing the purchasing patterns of eco-friendly and beauty care products among females in Mauritius. Multiple regression analysis was also conducted to investigate upon the importance of the eight dimensions in influencing the behavioural intentions of females to purchase eco-friendly products and their likeliness to engage in referral for eco-friendly products.

The factor analysis identified that the purchasing patterns for eco-friendly cosmetics and beauty care products is influenced by a combination of eight factors namely: “women lifestyles, self-image health and economic considerations”, “ethical consumerism among females”, “pharmacological essence of green cosmetics and beauty care products”, “visual appeal and physical cues in cosmetic stores”, “price-conscious decisions and effective promotion”, “belief on ethical claims in green messages”, “brand image and usage experience” and “sales representatives and social influences”. The results of the regression analysis have also suggested that the behavioural intention and referral of female customers is primarily derived from one predictor factor related to “women lifestyles, self-image, health and economic conditions”.

In terms of marketing strategies, cosmetic and beauty care organisations should promote greater ethical concerns among female customers through effective green advertising messages. Greater emphasis should be placed on the pharmacological essence of green advertising. Cosmetic executives should also focus on health-related benefits while marketing cosmetics and beauty care products.

The paper aims to fill up the significant gap in the literature on purchasing patterns for eco-friendly cosmetics and beauty care products among female customers. This study remains one of few research work designed to address different factors influencing the purchasing patterns for green cosmetics and beauty care products in the context of developing countries such as Mauritius. Yet, it would serve as a roadmap for cosmetics and beauty care companies to understand the factors impacting on purchasing patterns of eco-friendly cosmetics and beauty care products in similar contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the effectiveness of the cognitive-affect behavior (CAB) model and the theory of reasoned action (TRA) model as well as their extended forms (with product knowledge) in predicting everyday green consumption among non-Hispanic White and Hispanic consumers.

Survey data from a convenience sample of 249 non-Hispanic Whites and 425 Hispanic adults were used to test the two models through structural equation modeling analyses.

While all tested models explained green consumption in both samples adequately, the basic TRA and the TPB (extended TRA) models were superior to the basic and extended CAB models. Including product knowledge further enhanced the predictive power of the two basic models.

Self-reported surveys are subject to social desirability bias in the reporting of intentions and actual purchases of green products. Future research may attempt to collect data on actual green purchases. The selection of a general consumption context is limited in distinguishing between high- and low-involvement products. Future research should test the relative effectiveness of these models among specific green products with different levels of involvement.

Marketing and strategic communication programs should focus on increasing consumers’ positive attitudes about purchasing green products and promote green purchase intentions using intention-generating promotional tactics. This paper also stresses the need to increase consumers’ concrete knowledge about green products to drive actual purchase behavior.

This paper can help communicators to further promote green consumption for routinely purchased consumer goods, which will ultimately enhance a healthier and more sustainable environment.

This paper extends the literature about green consumption, providing insights about the relative effectiveness of two widely accepted consumer behavior models. It implies that some models excel over others in terms of their explanatory power across consumer populations regardless of socio-demographic differences. It also stresses the importance of specifying explicitly behavioral control variables in green consumption research and provides a viable basis for the development of strategic marketing.

The success of the efforts for green building depends largely on integrating such approaches with building design education. However, most of the existing studies on green building have focused on the technical issues, while its socio-cultural and educational aspects have been less examined. In order to alleviate the problem, this paper presents an international workshop that explores how green building design can be taught in a global teamwork project using a green building assessment system, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) checklist as a framework and examples of vernacular architecture as precedents. The results of an empirical survey reveals a gap between students' general learning about green building in a developing and a developed country and suggests that a collaborative project experience may facilitate bridging the gap and exchanging technical and cultural information related to sustainability.

This study aims to develop and empirically test a comprehensive framework in which to understand the determinants of guests’ behavior to use green peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodation in the UK P2P context by emerging the theory of planed behavior, environmental commitment theory and the value-belief-norm (VBN) theory into one model.

Adopting a quantitative approach, the present study proposes an integrated model integrating theory of planed behavior, environmental commitment theory and the VBN theory and subsequently tests the model using structural equation modeling data analysis. Data collected from 721 respondents were analyzed through (AMOS) to test the proposed model.

The results indicate that our integrated framework demonstrates a favorable level of prediction power for guests’ behavior, which verified the superiority of the suggested framework. Furthermore, the findings verified the moderating impact of guest attributes on guests decision regarding the booking process.

This study contributes to the existing theory and practice by offering important insights about determinants of guests’ behavior to use green P2P accommodation in the UK P2P context.

This research was the first to explore the determinants of guests’ behavior to use green P2P accommodation in the UK P2P context.

Proactive firms recognize that environmental and social issues are sources of competitive advantages, but whatever the motivation, organizations face challenges when implementing sustainable practices. For small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), sustainable practices have stemmed from multinational corporations (MNC), but SMEs cannot adopt sustainable practices from the knowledge and experiences of large corporations because the two entities differ critically. This study introduces an integrated model of employee adoption of sustainable practices in SMEs. It is based on five behaviors to select practical areas to which SMEs can make internal changes to achieve sustainable practices and the benefits gained from them. The theory of planned behavior is used to extend employee adoption of sustainable practices to SMEs.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Whatever the product or service, whatever the organization, these days corporate social responsibility is an essential part of doing business. Not having a strategic plan for acting in a socially responsible manner, and letting your customers know what you are about, is an open invitation to competitors to muscle in on your enterprise.

The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to digest format.

Research examining corporate social responsibility (CSR) demonstrates a relatively consistent level of positive support by consumers. However, CSR is poorly defined and little is known about the mechanisms by which this response occurs. This paper seeks to understand how consumers define CSR and how it can enhance the overall value proposition for consumers.

The value typology developed by Sheth et al. is integrated with qualitative data to enhance understanding of these value paths. Interviews were conducted with consumers through the heart of the current recession, when consumers were particularly aware of value when making purchase decisions.

The way in which CSR manifests itself determines consumer support. CSR can provide three forms of value to consumers: emotional, social, and functional. Each of these enhances or diminishes the overall value proposition for consumers. Further, value created by one form of CSR can either enhance or diminish other product attributes.

The current research helps managers understand how CSR can create value for consumers. As a result, managers can better position products in order to enhance overall value. Further, practitioners can match the value with which consumers identify from CSR to the dominant value driver in their product category.

This study highlights that CSR includes a range of activities with differential means of adding value to consumers.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive historical review of the role of the Federal Reserve in retail payments in the USA.

It reviews the literature on the role of the Federal Reserve and assessments of its involvement.

In addition to its oversight and operational role, the Federal Reserve has conducted R&D and facilitated technology adoption. It has provided effective competition to the private sector without subsidies.

The Federal Reserve has served the public interest and private networks have benefited from the “visible hand” of government.

Migration to electronic payments will likely change its role from an operator to setting standards for safety and security.

The historical review provides context against which the future strategy of the Federal Reserve may be assessed.