RESEARCHING CPE

Researching Consumer Perceived Ethicality (CPE) of Companies and Brands

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Issues such as corporate social responsibility (CSR) and business ethics have increasingly taken centre stage in today’s society. While researchers agree that consumers react negatively/positively to companies they perceive as un/ethical, the actual question of what evokes such a negative or positive perception has not been investigated. To this day, little is known about how moral equity is generated and emerges in the consumer’s mind. This research shall redress this research imbalance. In order to better understand the link between un/ethical corporate conduct and consumer responses, the question of how ethical perceptions are formed and affected by corporate behaviour is of utmost importance. The planned research hopes to facilitate much-needed theory building and deeper insight into consumer reactions to corporate ethics, CSR, or corporate reputation efforts. Any subsequent research investigating notions of company and brand misconduct, scandal spillover effects, or, more generally, any facets of ethical consumption will benefit from this conceptualisation. The host institution (ESMT) was one of the very first schools in Germany to introduce a chair in Corporate Social Responsibility (held by the scientist in charge) and is therefore an ideal fit with the applicant’s work. With links to the Social Science, specifically Social Psychology, the project will be multi-disciplinary by nature. In addition to the acquisition of new conceptual knowledge, the project promises to considerably expand the applicant’s methodological and analytical skillset. Joining ESMT would allow the applicant to build a strong research network and by so doing enables growth and maturity as a scientific researcher. Given the high relevance of the research topic as well as ESMT’s close ties with the industry sector, the project presented hereafter has strong potential for dissemination among academics and business managers alike, whereby raising the profile of European academic research.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

An EU study investigated the reasons behind consumer impressions on the ethicality of certain businesses or brands. The study found the situation to be complex, with a bias towards recollection of negative information.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Today's consumers pay attention to companies' ethical credentials, and businesses market themselves accordingly. Yet, little is known about what causes positive or negative consumer impressions.

The EU-funded 'Researching consumer perceived ethicality (CPE) of companies and brands' (RESEARCHING CPE) project aimed to find out. Over two years from May 2012 to April 2014, the project studied how company behaviour affects CPE, expressed as a positive/negative scale.

Project work commenced with defining and 'operationalising' CPE, as a step towards two separate stages of quantitative analysis.

Phase one consisted of developing a valid scale for measuring CPE. However, as a literature review revealed no such existing scale, the project surveyed consumer understanding of the term 'ethical'. The investigation revealed that consumers' perceptions are based on evaluation criteria, summarised to six key themes. These cover adhering to the law, moral norms, good or bad market action, social responsibility, avoiding damaging behaviour, and evaluating positive and negative consequences. Subsequently, the team tested and refined the proposed CPE scale, and confirmed the results.

The second phase explored the dynamics of the CPE formation process, specifically how consumers resolve conflicts in the form of contradictory information and process new information affecting a known or fictitious brand.

Findings of the combined stages suggested a negativity bias when ethical impressions are formed, which is manifested by the fact that consumers cannot easily name ethical companies, but opposite examples are particularly memorable.

RESEARCHING CPE yielded a scale for measuring consumer perceptions of ethicality of companies or brands. Additionally, the project revealed some of the causes and factors contributing to the development of such perception.