Shopping for Society? Consumers’ Value Conflicts in Socially Responsible Consumption Affected by Retail Regulation

Jin-Myong Lee, Hyo-Jung Kim and Jong-Youn Rha
Additional contact information
Jin-Myong Lee: Department of Consumers’ Life Information, Chungnam National University, 99 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34134, Korea
Hyo-Jung Kim: Department of Consumer Science, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Korea
Jong-Youn Rha: Department of Consumer Science, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Korea

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 11, 1-15

Abstract: Consumers have a dual role as economic actors who purchase products and as citizens comprising society. Thus, consumers may experience conflict between pursuing personal values (i.e., low price and high quality) and social values (i.e., equity and common good). In addition, these choices can be affected by governmental regulation of retail markets. This study aimed to identify consumer perspectives toward socially responsible consumption (SRC) in the choice of grocery store format and to investigate actual store choice behavior across consumer groups with those different perspectives while considering the role of retail regulation. For this purpose, we conducted a Q methodological study in which 30 South Korean consumers rank-ordered 40 statements regarding SRC. After performing Q factor analysis using PQ-Method software, we classified four distinctive consumer groups: “ethical conformist”, “market liberalist”, “ambivalent bystander”, and “internally conflicted”. After investigating similarities and differences between these consumer groups, we found major criteria for understanding consumer perspectives to SRC such as the priority of values pursued, the experience of a value-action gap, and internal conflicts in the decision-making process.

Keywords: socially responsible consumption; value conflict; retail regulation; Q methodology; South Korea (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/11/1968/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/11/1968/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:11:p:1968-:d:116621

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().