How Do Ethically Minded Consumers Explain Intention-Behavior Gap? Barriers to Ethical Purchasing in Turkey

Abstract

Although consumers usually have positive attitudes and intentions towards purchasing ethical products, the rate of actual ethical purchasing behavior is relatively low. This research aims to identify barriers to ethical purchasing behavior faced by ethically minded consumers. In order to determine the factors that prevent behavioral intention from translating into actual behavior, a qualitative research was conducted. In-depth interviews indicate that ethically minded consumers face four different barriers in terms of ethical purchasing behavior, which are: (1) search difficulty and availability, (2) price, (3) skepticism, and (4) functional expectations. In addition to in-depth interviews, quantitative data was obtained from a larger sample (n = 349) of ethically minded consumers in order to understand the importance of identified barriers. Descriptive statistics of the responses to Ethical Purchasing Barriers Scale items confirm that ethically minded consumers need to overcome information search difficulty, low availability, high prices, low trust and insufficient functional features which are beyond individual factors and need to be solved at the institutional level.

Keywords:

• ethically minded consumer
• ethical product
• ethical purchasing
• intention-behavior gap
• barriers to ethical purchasing

JEL Classification Codes:

• M31
• M39
• Q56

Disclosure Statement

There are no relevant financial or non-financial competing interests to report.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Selin Köksal Araç

Selin Köksal Araç is in the Department of Business Administration on the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences at Cukurova University, Adana, Turkey. Serap Çabuk is also in the Department of Business Administration at Cukurova University. This work is derived from a PhD thesis written by the first author and supervised by the second author. The authors confirm that there are no relevant financial or non-financial competing interests to report. The authors would like to thank all non-governmental organizations and voluntary communities for their contributions to data collection process.

Serap Çabuk

Selin Köksal Araç is in the Department of Business Administration on the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences at Cukurova University, Adana, Turkey. Serap Çabuk is also in the Department of Business Administration at Cukurova University. This work is derived from a PhD thesis written by the first author and supervised by the second author. The authors confirm that there are no relevant financial or non-financial competing interests to report. The authors would like to thank all non-governmental organizations and voluntary communities for their contributions to data collection process.