The Myth of the Ethical Consumer

Books with compact looks and colorful covers need not be easy to read. The Myth of the Ethical Consumer is perhaps no different. Moreover, and prior to reading the book, I was taken in after watching the charming video from the DVD that accompanies this book. But surely, I must congratulate Devinney, Auger, and Eckhardt for creating this erudite and thought‐provoking monograph.

The book is organized into seven chapters and six appendices. The chapter numbers and titles are:

1. 1.

   The appeal and reality of ethical consumerism;

2. 2.

   Social consumerism in the context of corporate responsibility;

3. 3.

   Are we what we choose? Or is what we choose what we are?

4. 4.

   Ethical consumers or social consumers? Measurement and reality;

5. 5.

   Rationalization and justification of social (non‐) consumption;

6. 6.

   The ethical consumer, politics, and everyday life; and

7. 7.

   Tastes, truths, and strategies.

The authors point out that consumers' willingness to pay for a product is influenced by their perceptions about the processes through which firms produce the product. Consumers are said to get pure social value when they see worth in specific aspects of production, not because it helps them infer product quality or user image enhancement, but simply because they think that it is correct or good.

Consumer social responsibility (C_NSR) may also be an appealing concept to firms. Using simple economic analysis, the authors show that corporate social responsibility without consumer social responsibility may help redistribute value but not create new value.

C_NSR is said to be manifest when a consumer:

• •

  donates and/or protests for social causes;

• •

  states opinions on social causes; or

• •

  buys or shuns products in the marketplace on the grounds of social causes.

Empirically, the authors demonstrate several findings, including that consumers may not accept products that sacrifice functional features for social features, demographics of consumers may not help predict purchases of products with social features, existence of social “segments” may not be product independent, preferences for products with social features may not be country specific, and consumers may justify their inconsistent (read “unethical”) purchase behavior by using economic rationales, by pointing out their non‐violation of legal grounds, or by favoring the opportunity of livelihood for any exploited stakeholders.

Normatively, the authors provide the following guidelines for enhancing C_NSR in practice (p. 180‐1): “focus on the behavioral outcome, not the reason for the behavior”, “focus on the ties and interactions with functionality”, “engage in small‐scale experimental steps that allow the consumer both to learn and to co‐produce”, and “utilize persuasion and reinforcement to link behavior back to motivations”.

The book has some shortcomings. Chapter‐wise summaries could have been provided. Using one repeatedly instead of both the labels – ethical consumerism and social consumption – could have been prudent. Panels “b” and “d” of Figure 2.2 have been provided with the same caption and may confuse readers. A slightly different set of captions is provided in Table II.I. Chapter 4 is interesting but lengthy. The tone of the book is somewhat cynical and dismissive at times, but this may nevertheless be a hallmark of reporting path‐breaking research.

This book is of relevance to consumer researchers, marketing managers, as well as social activists. Consumer researchers will like this book very much for it touches the raw nerve: Is there a way to resolve the attitude‐behavior gap? It is interesting to note how the research reported in this work is claimed as more real than prior work on the subject. Marketing managers would like to know from this book how they can target socially conscious consumers across the world. This book reports on the analysis of data collected from different countries such as Australia, China, Germany, India, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, and the USA. Social activists may want to read this book as they will be told the state‐of‐the‐art situations prevailing across selected countries with respect to social issues. Some social issues are found as having more currency than others. And by the way, did I say that there are ample quotations in this book to take on seasoned readers?