Shaw 2002

The role of ethical obligation and self-identity in ethical consumer choice

Good article that probes at the roles of ethical obligation and self-identity. Do they affect intention directly or do they affect attitude, along with beliefs? The new model that is developed looks at how both may be possible - using SEM - structured equation modelling.
There are three distinct areas to look at: why include ethical obligation at all, why include self-identity at all, where they fit in re: attitude and intention.
The article looks at thee different steps. 1. TPB. 2. TPB plus ethOB and SELFID 3. how ethob and selfid affect attitude/intention.

Many variables have been proposed as additions to the theory of planned behaviour structure, and evidence exists to support the value of a measure of ethical obligation and self-identity. Furthermore, some research has suggested that ethical obligation may serve as an antecedent to attitude as well as intention. This paper presents findings from a large scale survey that highlights the usefulness of ethical obligation and self-identity in the prediction of intention. Additionally, the role of both these variables in the prediction of attitude is also suggested. This is examined within the 'ethical' context of fair trade grocery purchases. Methodological implications for further research are discussed. ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR Copyright of International Journal of Consumer Studies is the property of Blackwell Publishing Limited and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts)
Many variables have been proposed as additions to the theory of planned behaviour structure, and evidence exists to support the value of a measure of ethical obligation and self-identity. Furthermore, some research has suggested that ethical obligation may serve as an antecedent to attitude as well as intention. This paper presents findings from a large scale survey that highlights the usefulness of ethical obligation and self-identity in the prediction of intention. Additionally, the role of both these variables in the prediction of attitude is also suggested. This is examined within the 'ethical' context of fair trade grocery purchases. Methodological implications for further research are discussed. ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR Copyright of International Journal of Consumer Studies is the property of Blackwell Publishing Limited and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts)

Shaw

What am I trying to answer?
TRA has moved into TPB and now can include self-identity and ethical considerations.

The basic diagrams are fine - what exactly is perceived behavioural control?

At what point was it introduced?

What articles introduced ethical and self-identity variables?

As in Shaw and Shiu - do the new variables not influence attitude as well as intention?

How do we test this?

What are the two questionnaires for - 'elicitation questionnaire'?

Shaw et al. 2000

The Contribution of Ethical Obligation and Self-identity to the Theory of Planned Behaviour: An Exploration of Ethical Consumers

Whilst the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) has generated much research interest, many market researchers are divided over the addition of further constructs to the model. The TRA and its many modifications have been applied in numerious behavioural contexts, however, research to-date has neglected an emerging group of 'ethical' consumers. This paper outlines results from a recent survey of over 1400 UK consumers that applied the TRA to this complex area of decision making. Using readers to the 'Ethical Consumer' magazine, the study addresses issues involving proposed model modifications--specifically, the addition of control, ethical obligation and self-identity. Management implications of the findings are discussed, including the importance of understanding consumers' self-identification with ethical issues in marketing communications programmes; and the underlying potentional importance of ethical issues to mainstream consumer groups. Finally, the need to develop conceptually as well as practically robust techniques by using Structural Equation Modelling, which represents the next stage in this research, is outlined. ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR Copyright of Journal of Marketing Management is the property of Westburn Publishers Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts)
Whilst the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) has generated much research interest, many market researchers are divided over the addition of further constructs to the model. The TRA and its many modifications have been applied in numerious behavioural contexts, however, research to-date has neglected an emerging group of 'ethical' consumers. This paper outlines results from a recent survey of over 1400 UK consumers that applied the TRA to this complex area of decision making. Using readers to the 'Ethical Consumer' magazine, the study addresses issues involving proposed model modifications--specifically, the addition of control, ethical obligation and self-identity. Management implications of the findings are discussed, including the importance of understanding consumers' self-identification with ethical issues in marketing communications programmes; and the underlying potentional importance of ethical issues to mainstream consumer groups. Finally, the need to develop conceptually as well as practically robust techniques by using Structural Equation Modelling, which represents the next stage in this research, is outlined. ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR Copyright of Journal of Marketing Management is the property of Westburn Publishers Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts)

Key text which develops from TRA adding in PBC(perceived behavioural control) to give the TPB - theory of planned behaviour. Shaw believes there is a need to include more explanatory factors (ethical and self-identity)
Shaw outlines the 2 questionnaires (elicitation and main)
Unsure of what elicitation means (seems to just mean 'draws a response')
Explains how TPB adds to the explanation ahead of TRA, but the new variables explain even more.
The work includes an example of the questionnaire (appendix)

The Ethical Consumer

Chapter 9 of the Ethical Consumer brings a whole new area of research into play.

Deirdre Shaw has done a lot of work with ethical consumers and carried out large sacle surveys with ethical consumers (subscribers to the Ethical Consumer magazine) and more 'mainstream' consumers - supermarket shoppers.



There also appears to be two different ways to model the results. Need to dig deeper to understand the two models and speak to ECRA and Deirdre Shaw to get to the bottom of this.

Ajzen and Fishbein History

There was a movement to develop unidimensional scales - Likert.
This was used to measure all sorts of attitudes - war, blacks, birth control...
They seemed to offer a direct link between attitude and bahaviour.

Richard Lapiere (1934) did a breakthrough work with Chinese in US. Showed little link between attitudes and behaviours. Big discrepancy. Through all previous work into doubt.

From there various authors began to break down attitude into three parts
cognition (beliefs)
affect (feelings)
conation (actions)

However, even when they did break it down - there was still a strong link between attitude and behaviour, but does not explain why the link is sometimes weak.

The three pronged approach did not seem to bear fruit.

Consistency Theories

The idea that people search for consistency between their beliefs, attitudes and behaviour.

The most interesting thing however, was Festigers theory of cognitive dissonance. How people can sometimes not bring these things into equilibrium, or act in ways incongruent with their beliefs.

Recent developments

Due to the lack solid empirical work between attitude and behaviour the latest focus (1970) has been on "other variables"

Ajzen and Fishbein 1980

The key difference between Hunt + Vitell is that H+V deal with ethical issues.
Ajzen and Fishbein look at the attitude/behaviour relationship.

H+V look at the ethical judgement made as a combination of deontological and teleological evaluations . These judgements form intentions that then lead to behaviour.

With the Theory of Reasoned Action does not explicitly deal with ethics.

Personal Attitudes (based on beliefs)
Sujective norms (based on normative beliefs)

These peronal attitudes and sujective norms combine to give intentions and then behaviours.

Supervisor meeting Thursday 19th July

Overall - quite positive.
HG - look to the ICRT website - try to be available Oct 13-14th
HG - Simon Robinson of Leeds Met will be there - might be worth contacting him
HG - Let's look at Co-op - what exactly do they do/ask people? Get down to Manchester

Neither were convinced by Muncy -Vitell - not sure I am either.
Xavier said to look at Dunlop - what Mohammed did.
AR to email XF re Miller PhD

HG - Check out Journal of Vacation Marketing

XF - AR to email HC or Catherine re dates for submission for R1

HG - Walter Wehrmeyer - check him out

What are Discovery? - mentioned as high end RT company

Germany - stats on consumers - Reiseanalyse...

Mintel maybe in central reference libraries Manchester or leeds

Really need to get all over this scale s business.
Work on Satisfaction stuff
Get more involoved and find out some info from key people

Talked a little about overall strategy.
HG confident of getting TOs on board

Observation pretty much binned. Just catch them for 3 days at end of the tour - find 'hub' points to catch all the punters.

Focus on Aug 14/15 get something to Xavier.

TPB

Thinking about Theory of planned behaviour from Fennell / Harrision and a big focus is looking at attitudes - intentions - behaviour.

The biggest issue in TPB is linking all this together - especially when applied to ethical purchasing - one key difference is that in my study the purchase has already been made.
This investigation post-purchase puts a completely different spin on things.

Rawwas 1994

Consumer ethics: The possible effects of terrorism and civil unrest on the ethical values of consumers

Research investigating the consumer's ethical beliefs, ideologies and orientation has been limited. Additionally, despite the repeated call in the literature for cross cultural research, virtually no studies have examined the ethical beliefs and ideologies of consumers from cultures other than those in North America. This study partially fills this "gap" in the literature by investigating the ethical beliefs, preferred ethical ideology, and degree of Machiavellianism of consumers from Egypt and Lebanon. The results indicate that consumers in Lebanon, which has been torn by civil unrest and terrorism, tend to be more Machiavellian, less idealistic, and more relativistic than their Egyptian counterparts. Additionally, the Lebanese consumers tend to be more accepting of "questionable" consumer practices.

Uses the same Rawwas methodology

Fullerton 1996

Consumer ethics: An assessment of individual behavior in the market place

A national sample of 362 respondents assessed the ethical predisposition of the American marketplace by calculating a consumer ethics index. The results indicate that the population is quite intolerant of perceived ethical abuses. The situations where consumers are ambivalent tend to be those where the seller suffers little or no economic harm from the consumer's action. Younger, more educated, and higher income consumers appear more accepting of these transgressions. The results provided the basis for developing a four-group taxonomy of consumers which retailers should find insightful in assessing potential consumer actions in a variety of situations.

Brings in a new adapted version of MVQ
No startling conclusions

Rawwas 1998

A Cross-Cultural Investigation of the Ethical Values of Consumers: The Potential Effect of War and Civil Disruption

Past research has examined the ethical judgments of consumers in the U.S., but few studies have investigated such attitudes in foreign-market settings. The current study compares ethical attitudes of consumers in two countries (Ireland and Lebanon) which share a cultural similarity of ongoing war and terrorism. The findings reveal that both cultures exhibit low sensitivity to ethical issues. Furthermore, the findings show that the Irish consumers are less sensitive to consumer ethical practices, less idealistic, more relativistic, and more Machiavellian than Lebanese consumers. The authors recommend that other researchers need to further investigate this perplexing issue because ethics is a research topic which often discourages survey respondents to be candid.

Usual methodology from Rawwas

Rawwas 1996

Consumer ethics: An empirical investigation of the ethical beliefs of Austrian consumers

Business and Marketing ethics have come to the forefront in recent years. While consumers have been surveyed regarding their perceptions of ethical business and marketing practices, research has been minimal with regard to their ethical beliefs and ideologies. In addition, no study has examined the ethical beliefs of Austrian consumers even though Austria maintains a unique status of political neutrality, nonalignment, stability, economic prosperity and geographical proximity to the East- and West-European countries. This research investigates the relationship between Machiavellianism, ethical ideology and ethical beliefs of Austrian consumers. The results indicate that Austrian consumers are mostly "situationists" who, while rejecting moral rules, judge the ethics of a behavior by the consequences and outcomes of the situation.

Same methodology as ever for Rawwas

Bateman 2002

Framing Effects Within the Ethical Decision Making Process of Consumers

There has been neglect of systematic conceptual development and empirical investigation within consumer ethics. Scenarios have been a long-standing tool yet their development has been haphazard with little theory guiding their development. This research answers four questions relative to this gap: Do different scenario decision frames encourage different moral reasoning styles? Does the way in which framing effects are measured make a difference in the measurement of the relationship between moral reasoning and judgment by gender? Are true framing effects likely to vary with the situation? and Are true framing effects likely to vary by gender? The conclusions reached were that (1) different scenario frames encourage both types of reasoning, but rule based moral reasoning is dominant regardless of frame, (2) accounting for formal equivalency in the measurement of true framing effects is likely to enhance the interpretation of studies in moral reasoning and judgment, (3) True framing effects are more likely to occur in situations with low to moderate perceived ethicality, and (4) true framing effects are not likely to vary by gender. Explanations as to why these results occurred are discussed.

All about Framing effects - how they can influence reasoning and behavioural preferences.
Need to go back to this article when re-framing situations.

Chan 1998

Ethical Beliefs of Chinese Consumers in Hong Kong

In recent years, there has been increased awareness of unethical consumer practices in Asian countries. Asian consumers have gained a bad reputation for buying counterfeit products, such as computer software, fashion clothing and watches. In 1993, the estimated losses to US software companies due to Chinese counterfeiting stood at US $322 million (Kohut, 1994). The present study uses a consumer ethics scale developed by Muncy and Vitell (1992) to investigate consumers' ethical judgments from a Chinese perspective. The result shows that consumers in different cultures utilize similar rules to assess the ethicality of a given situation. However, findings also show certain cultural elements that are unique in influencing Chinese consumers' ethical judgments. The results also indicate the need for the continued development of and investment in consumer education in Asia.

Uses MVQ on studies form Hong Kong - and also uses the MUncy-Vitell method of looking at allignment with business etc.
No particularly interesting findings.
Interesting that they do not modify MVQ at all.
Need to have a really close look at the buyer/seller dyad. There must be more than buyer vs seller - what about society???? environment???

Polonsky 2001

Consumer Ethics in the European Union: A Comparison of Northern and Southern Views

There is a growing interest in understanding consumer ethical actions in relation to their dealings with firms. This paper examines whether there are differences between Northern and Southern European Union (EU) consumers' perceptions of ethical consumer behaviour using Muncy and Vitell's (1992) Consumer Ethics Scale (CES). The study samples 962 university students across four Northern EU countries (Germany, Denmark, Scotland, The Netherlands) and four Southern EU countries (Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece). Some differences are identified between the two samples, which might question the ability of organisations to consider the EU as one homogeneous market.

employs MVQ (known here as CES) to look at North v South using uni students.
No earth-shattering results

Muncy 1998

Materialism and Consumer Ethics: An Exploratory Study

As the issue of marketing's social responsibility grows in significance, the topic of materialism surfaces. While many marketing efforts encourage materialism, the materialism that is encouraged may have negative societal effects. An understanding of the effects of materialism on individuals, families, society, etc., is important in evaluating whether or not it is socially irresponsible for marketers to encourage materialism. However, the adequate empirical work has not yet been done on the overall effects of materialism. The current paper asks and addresses one important empirical question in this area. Do consumers who are more materialistic have different ethical standards than those who are not? Empirical evidence is presented which would indicate that materialism is negatively correlated with people's higher ethical standards as consumers. The implications for this in understanding social responsibility are discussed.

not particularly relevant - looks more at materialism and it link with ethics
a strong link is found and the authors discuss where causality may lie.

Erffmeyer 1999

An Empirical Investigation of Japanese Consumer Ethics

One of the gaps in the current international marketing literature is in the area of consumer ethics. Using a sample drawn from Japanese consumers, this study investigates these individuals' reported ethical ideology and their perception of a number of different ethical situations in the realm of consumer behavior. Comparisons are then made across several demographic characteristics. The results reveal differences which provide theoretical support for expanded research in the area of cross-cultural/cross-national consumer ethics and highlight the need for managers to consider possible differences in the ethical behavior of consumers when entering a new international market. In addition, this study extends current knowledge in international marketing ethics by utilizing a research design and survey instruments similar to previous studies on consumer ethics.

Excellent article - uses MVQ - EPQ- MACH IV for Japnaese consumers
brings in the new ideas of looking at the scales as independent variables(MACH IV, EPQ) and dependent variables (MVQ)
also uses a diagramatic scale with machiavellian - relativist - idealist

Mentions that Mach, relativism, idealism, are designed to reflect the consumers ideological mindset p40

Wheeler 1995

Tourism Marketing Ethics: An Introduction

Good introduction into tourism marketing ethics - really why it has come about and different angles on it. More a case of why things like "green" tourism or "alternative tourism" have come into being.
Initially touches on some literature outside of the tourism field but then goes back into tourism and makes reference to TOs and some campaigns.
Asks the key question of why companies market ethical products - because they are good? or because they want to tap into a changing market?
No really useful specifics.

Rawwas 2001

Culture, personality and morality

very much focused on the X-cultural aspects of EC.
Looks at a number of different countries and their cultures
Uses Hofstede's idea of PDI (power distance) and UAV (uncertainty avoidance) and other kinda indexes to type to group the features of foreign cultures.
Uses MVQ, MACH, Forsyth
Very much with marketing in mind - how companies can make more money by understanding consumers.

Rawwas 1998

Do Consumers' Ethical Beliefs Vary With Age? A Substantiation of Kohlberg's Typology

Compares three age-groups of consumers in terms of their ethical perceptions, Machiavellianism, relativism and idealism. Hypotheses; Method; Results and discussion; Implications.
Compares three age-groups of consumers in terms of their ethical perceptions, Machiavellianism, relativism and idealism. Hypotheses; Method; Results and discussion; Implications.

Excellent - the usual methods applied to three age groups - kids, teenagers, adults.
Trying to look at whether morals develop with age (Kohlberg)
Uses MVQ, MACH IV, Forsyths EPQ
Very useful study
Very similar to my hypothesis with 3 groups - three TOs

Singhapakdi 1999

A cross-cultural study of consumer perceptions about marketing ethics

Abstract Given the ever-increasing globalization of economies, growing numbers of marketing firms are expecting more of their profits to be derived from international sales. Global competition is ferocious; thus, developing long-term partner relationships often becomes a significant competitive advantage. Corporate ethics are of pivotal importance in global business, though globalization also complicates ethical questions, because an individual's culture affects his/her ethical decision making. Failures to account for the effects of differences in consumers' culturally-based ethical values will hinder a marketer's efforts to expand internationally. Compares consumers from Malaysia and the USA in terms of their perceptions of marketing ethics situations, their attitudes toward business and salespeople, and their personal moral philosophies. The survey results reveal some significant differences between the consumers from these two countries. ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR Copyright of Journal of Consumer Marketing is the property of Emerald and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts)
Abstract Given the ever-increasing globalization of economies, growing numbers of marketing firms are expecting more of their profits to be derived from international sales. Global competition is ferocious; thus, developing long-term partner relationships often becomes a significant competitive advantage. Corporate ethics are of pivotal importance in global business, though globalization also complicates ethical questions, because an individual's culture affects his/her ethical decision making. Failures to account for the effects of differences in consumers' culturally-based ethical values will hinder a marketer's efforts to expand internationally. Compares consumers from Malaysia and the USA in terms of their perceptions of marketing ethics situations, their attitudes toward business and salespeople, and their personal moral philosophies. The survey results reveal some significant differences between the consumers from these two countries. ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR Copyright of Journal of Consumer Marketing is the property of Emerald and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.

study comparing US and Malaysia - very focused on marketing and the cross-cultural aspects thereof.
Looks at moral intensity - no harm/social pressure
Also uses Forsyth to look at relativism/idealism
Interesting that the scenarios used to test ethics are much more extended than MVQ. See appendix
Not quite sure how relevant.

Wilkes 1978

FRAUDULENT BEHAVIOR BY CONSUMERS

The article examines U.S. consumer attitudes towards fraudulent consumer behavior and considers some reasons for its increase. The article presents the results of a field study assessing consumer attitudes about the seriousness of fraudulent behavior and rationale for consumer dishonesty. The article discusses the aspects of fraudulent behavior studied, the difference in attitudes and behavior, consumer thoughts on appropriate responses to fraud, and the rationale for dishonesty. Several charts illustrating data results are presented. The article concludes that many consumers fail to take consumer fraud seriously and calls for additional research on consumer social and cultural values.
The article examines U.S. consumer attitudes towards fraudulent consumer behavior and considers some reasons for its increase. The article presents the results of a field study assessing consumer attitudes about the seriousness of fraudulent behavior and rationale for consumer dishonesty. The article discusses the aspects of fraudulent behavior studied, the difference in attitudes and behavior, consumer thoughts on appropriate responses to fraud, and the rationale for dishonesty. Several charts illustrating data results are presented. The article concludes that many consumers fail to take consumer fraud seriously and calls for additional research on consumer social and cultural values.

You can tell this is a seminal work - quite basic, and focuses very much on the 'fraud' side of things
Does however provide a great list of situations which led to MVQ.
Very applied and goes as far as providing suggested solutions to the problem of fraud.

Rawwas 1995

Consumer ethics in cross-cultural settings

Useful from methological point of view
uses MACH, MVQ, and forsyth (idealism, relativism)
Also makes changes to MVQ to suit the specific study.
Could be very useful.
This is the Northern Ireland v Hong Kong study

Al-Khatib 1997

Consumer ethics: a cross-cultural investigation

Top article - exactly what is required. Compares Egyptian and US consumers using MACH, Forsyth, and MVQ.
Some great research questions, very relevant to me and what I want to look at.
Solid lit review and chronology of the development of these scales.
Explains the approach well.
Need to look at more closely

Ang 2001

Spot the difference: consumer responses towards counterfeits


Not particularly useful article - does not really go into the areas I need to look at - very much an in-depth look at conterfeiting, but with no useful application to what I want to look at.
Kinda skips the real ethic backbone.
Applied to the counterfeit industry and perhaps useful for it.

Dodge 1996

Consumer transgressions in the marketplace: Consumers' perspectives

A national sample of 532 consumers was assessed on 15 different scenarios that reflect questionable behaviors by consumers. The results indicate that consumers are ethically predisposed as they generally express little tolerance for behavioral transgressions on the part of the customer. Factor analysis identified two latent dimensions for the scenarios: direct economic consequences and indirect economic consequences. Respondents expressed greater intolerance of those actions that comprise the indirect economic consequences factor. One-way analysis of variance identified several instances where age, gender, education, and income were related to specific responses. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Interesting article in the sense that it moves slightly away from Vitell and uses Fullerton 1996 situations.
The end result is slightly bizarre in that the consumers are more questionning of indirect than direct economic-consequences.
Good critique of methods used - why use a likert scale, why some consumers may give more extreme answers.

Vitell 2003

Consumer Ethics Research: Review, Synthesis and Suggestions for the Future

This manuscript reviews and synthesizes most of the major research studies in the area of consumer ethics that have appeared since 1990. It examines both conceptual and empirical works with an objective of encouraging researchers to pursue research in the consumer ethics area. Toward this end, the paper also suggests directions for future research.

Key text - review of literature post 1990. Looks at all the important study from th context of the Hunt-Vitell model. Explains things very clearly.
Useful point of reference for the whole development of the field.
Need to list and collate the articles.

Swaidan 2003

Consumer Ethics: Determinants of Ethical Beliefs of African Americans

This study explores the ethical ideol-ogies and ethical beliefs of African American consumers using the Forsyth ethical position questionnaire (EPQ) and the Muncy-Vitell consumer ethics questionnaire (MVQ). The two dimensions of the EPQ (i.e., idealism and relativism) were the independent constructs and the four dimensions of the MVQ (i.e., illegal, active, passive and no harm) were the dependent variables. In addition, this paper explores the consumer ethics of African Americans across four demographic factors (i.e., age, education, gender, and marital status). A sample of 315 African American consumers was used to explore these relationships. Results confirmed that consumers who score high on the idealism scale are more likely to reject questionable consumer activities, but there was no relationship between relativism and consumers' rejection of questionable activities. Older, more educated and married consumers rejected questionable activities more than younger, less educated and single consumers. Gender did not have any significant relationship to consumers' ethical orientation.

Excellent article - very in-depth explanations of concepts - EPQ/MVQ - explains why I might need to look at both.
The variable in this study in Afro-Amerians, whereas my study will be about ethical tourists, I guess.
Strong leads to other articles.
Need to get down to real brass-tacks. Do I want to test for ehtical ideology as well as how consumers would react in different situations?
By going one step deeper - ethical ideology - relativism vs idealism - I can hurdle some of the issues surrounding the diversity of my sample group.

vitell 1997

Ethical Decision Making in Marketing: A Synthesis and Evaluation of Scales Measuring the Various Components of Decision Making in Ethical Situations

The authors present a comprehensive synthesis and evaluation of the published scales measuring the components of the decision making process in ethical situations using the Hunt-Vitell (1993) theory of ethics as a framework to guide the research. Suggestions for future scale development are also provided.

I need to go into this a bit deeper - provides a comprehensive overview of all articles 1981-1993 in ethics-related journals.
Gives an opportunity to delve into some of the literature, but the danger is that a lot of this is not relevant. eg. business related or not consumer specific.
need to go through and pick up terms not familiar with.

Rallapalli 1994

Consumer ethical beliefs and personality traits: An exploratory analysis

The present study examines the relationships between consumers' ethical beliefs and personality traits. Based on a survey of 295 undergraduate business students, the authors found that individuals with high needs for autonomy, innovation, and aggression, as well as individuals with a high propensity for taking risks tend to have "less ethical" beliefs concerning possible consumer actions. Individuals with a high need for social desirability and individuals with a strong problem solving coping style tend to have "more ethical" beliefs concerning possible consumer actions. The needs for achievement, affiliation, complexity and an emotion solving coping style were not significantly correlated with consumer ethical beliefs.

Does not add a great deal to previous Vitell work - gives another good review of literature - with particular focus on Wilkes (1978)
Brings in Personality Traits as a variable - but probably not something I would want to look at.
Perhaps need to consider the statistical side of things when digesting these articles.

Vitell 1992

Consumer ethics: An empirical investigation of factors influencing ethical judgments of the final consumer

Business and marketing ethics have come to the forefront in recent years. While consumers have been surveyed regarding their perceptions of ethical business and marketing practices, research has been minimal with regard to their ethical beliefs and ideologies. This research investigates general attitudes of consumers relative to business, government and people in general, and compares these attitudes to their beliefs concerning various questionable consumer practices. The results show that consumers' ethical beliefs are determined, in part, by who is at fault in the unethical behavior (the seller or the buyer). The results also indicate that those with a more positive attitude toward business are less likely to engage in questionable consumer practices, but one's attitudes toward salespeople, the government and people in general arenot related to the consumer's ethical beliefs.

Think this is the initial development of the MVQ. Offers a good review of literature to date and how this study builds on it with a braoder scope and scale. Also introduces attitude towards certain things (gov, business) to add complexity to the work.
Good acknowledgment of the limitations of the work at the end.

Vitell 1991

Consumer ethics: An investigation of the ethical beliefs of elderly consumers

Business and especially marketing ethics have come to the forefront in recent years. While consumers have been surveyed regarding their perceptions of ethical business and marketing practices, research has been minimal with regard to their perceptions of ethical consumer practices. In addition, few studies have examined the ethical beliefs of elderly consumers even though they are an important and rapidly growing segment. This research investigates the relationship between Machiavellianism, ethical ideology and ethical beliefs for elderly consumers. The results indicate that elderly consumers, while generally being more ethical than younger consumers, are diverse in their eithical beliefs.

Uses 3 different scales - looks at Machiavellianism using MACH scale
EPQ - ethical position questionnaire - Forsyth - to look at typologies - a scale measuring idealism and relativism - produces 4 types depending on high or low on the two scales. high on ideals and relatism is 'Situationist'. high ideals, low relativist is absolutist, high relativist low ideals is subjectivist, low both is exceptionist.
MVQ is used in its usual way with different situations.
The sample were then put into their 4 types.
Trends were sought.
Conc - older people tended to be more ethical, but by no means uniform. They showed as more Machiavellian -contrary to popular belief.

Post-conference update

Friday 29th June I made my first conference presentation - at the Leeds Met student conference. I presented on my work so far. I think the presentation went well. I was consciously trying to make it accessible to the audience and think I was successful. It would be quite different in a more serious conference and with more solid findings.

Very useful none-the-less. Difficult to guage how honest peoples' feedback was, but it was all good, so I guess they can't all be liars.

The interesting points raised were regarding ethics of what I was doing. the consent from the companies and the University could be an issue.

And also the role of tour leaders was raised by Jakomijn van Wijk - I think this will have to be integrated into the research.

All-in-all very happy with how things went.