소비자의 윤리적 소비행동과 관련요인 분석 = Consumers` Ethical Consumption Behavior and Related Factors

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Recently, there are enhanced social interest in ethical consumption and increase in consumers` ethical consumption behavior, both in Korea and in the world. Consumption is one of activities belonging to post-purchase process which is the last stage in 5-stage consumer buying decisionmaking consisting of problem recognition, information search, alternative evaluation, purchase, and post-purchase process. Ethical consumption is used broadly to include selection, purchase, and disposition as well as consumption of products or brands. Ethical consumption behavior is defined as selection, purchase, consumption, and disposition activities to perform his or her social responsibility according to a consumer`s personal and moral beliefs. In spite of increased interest and activities in ethical consumption, there have been very limited studies on ethical consumption. Because many studies to find and explain characteristics of ethical consumers have been basically qualitative studies, there is strong need for empirical studies dealing with ethical consumption behavior. The purpose of this study is 1) to examine consumers` levels of ethical consumption behavior and subcategories of total ethical consumption behavior, 2) to analyze the differences in ethical consumption behavior, based on socio-demographic variables, and 3) to find variables affecting ethical consumption behavior, among ethical value variables, psychosocial variables, and sociodemographic variables. Independent variables include an ethical value category, a psychosocial category, and a socio-demographic category. The ethical value category consists of universalism, benevolence, and self-direction. The psychosocial category includes materialism, altruism, perceived effectiveness, and self-identity. The socio-demographic category includes age, gender, marital status, education level, occupation, and so on. For the study, data collection was conducted by an outside research company and data were collected through internet survey questionnaires filled out by the sample of 1,000 adult consumers. The important results of this study are as follows. First, factor analysis extracted seven subcategories of ethical consumption behavior from items measuring ethical consumption behavior. The seven subcategories of ethical consumption behavior are community activity, moderation &simplicity, fair trade, boycott activity, positive buying, ethics in business transaction, and local consumption. The mean score of consumers` total ethical consumption behavior was 4.44 on a 7-point scale, which meant that respondents performed ethical consumption behavior at a little over the middle level. In comparison among subcategories, respondents gave the highest score(5.24) to ethics in business transaction and the second highest score(5.05) to moderation & simplicity. Respondents gave the lowest score(3.10) to community activity. Second, in terms of the socio-demographic category, there were significant effects of marital status, age, and education level on total ethical consumption behavior. Specifically, married people, people in 50s compared to those in 20s at age groups, and people who at least graduated from a college in comparison with people who only graduated from a high school showed higher levels of total ethical consumption behavior. In the subcategories of total ethical consumption behavior, the effects of socio-demographic variables were different. For example, while there were significant effects of marital status, age, education level, and occupation on community activity, there was significant effect of only age on fair trade. Third, in terms of an ethical value category, a psychosocial category, and a socio-demographic category, the results of regression analysis showed that all of the psychosocial variables (materialism, altruism, perceived effectiveness, and self-identity) and an education level significantly influenced total ethical consumption behavior. Especially, altruism, perceived effectiveness, self-identity, and people who graduated from a 2-year college in comparison with people who only graduated from a high school had positive effect on total ethical consumption behavior, but materialism had negative effect on total ethical consumption behavior. Fourth, in terms of the 7 subcategories of total ethical consumption behavior, significant variables were different. The psychosocial variables were generally more important than ethical value variables and socio-demographic variables. Ethical value variables had significant effects only on community activity, moderation & simplicity, and ethics in business transaction. The effects of a socio-demographic category were relatively small. Household mean income had significant effects on boycott activity, positive buying, ethics in business transaction, and local consumption. An education level had significant effects on moderation & simplicity, local consumption, and total ethical consumption behavior. Finally, investigation based on standardized regression coefficients indicated that the psychosocial variables were more important for ethical consumption behavior than ethical value variables and socio-demographic variables and that perceived effectiveness and altruism were the most important two variables. This study has significance in that this study was an empirical study on ethical consumption behavior using internet survey with 1,000 respondents residing in all area of South Korea. The seven subcategories of total ethical consumption behavior constructed from major previous studies and then extracted by factor analysis will be especially useful as an instrument to measure ethical consumption behavior in future related studies. The results of this study suggest many important things related to ethical consumption behavior to policy makers and practitioners dealing with consumer affairs and marketers. This study found and verified three major categories affecting ethical consumption behavior, 1) an ethical value category, 2) a psychosocial category, and 3) a socio-demographic category. Though the effects were different depending on total and each of the seven subcategories of ethical consumption behavior, generally ethical value variables and psychosocial variables were more important for ethical consumption behavior than socio-demographic variables, and psychosocial variables in general had highest effects on ethical consumption behavior especially in terms of contribution to ethical consumption behavior. This suggests that consumer education can be useful in the area of less materialism (humanism), altruism, perceived effectiveness, and self-identity to spread and enhance ethical consumption behavior and that to sell ethical products and brands, marketers should more focus on market segments appreciating less materialism, altruism, perceived effectiveness, and self-identity.

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