The Interplay between Gender, Ethical Attributes and Brand Loyalty: The Moderating Role of Shopping Motives

In recent years, there has been an increased consumer preference for ethical product attributes. This research aims to investigate the moderating influence of consumers’ shopping motives on the interplay between gender, ethical attributes preference, and brand loyalty. An online cross-sectional study was undertaken with 506 food consumers. Structural equation modelling was used to estimate direct, indirect, and moderating effects between the studied constructs and variables. We found that all the four investigated shopping motives (i.e., good atmosphere, low prices, high quality, and good assortment) moderate the relationship between gender and ethical attributes and that one shopping motive (i.e., good atmosphere) moderate the relationship between ethical attributes and brand loyalty. This research offers new insights into the consumer ethics and brand loyalty literature by describing a more fine-grained picture on how consumers develop preference for ethical attributes and how this preference, in turn, may influence brand loyalty.