Consumers' Punishment and Rewarding Process via Purchasing Behavior

While there have been many studies of the ethical behavior of managers, little research investigated the ethical beliefs and ideologies of consumers. Moreover, even less is known about the relationship between consumer beliefs and ideology and purchasing behavior. The present study investigates the extent to which consumers punish or reward what they perceive as either a firm's ethical or unethical behavior. The research model was tested on samples of Israeli and Turkish respondents. The results indicate that personal economic benefit, ideology (idealism versus relativism), economic cost to others and locus of control explain consumer reaction to ethical, purchasing dilemmas. Cultural differences between the two populations studies also contributed to an understanding of different behavior outcomes.