Perceived Ethical Leadership Affects Customer Purchasing Intentions Beyond Ethical Marketing in Advertising Due to Moral Identity Self-Congruence Concerns

Niels Van Quaquebeke (), Jan U. Becker (), Niko Goretzki () and Christian Barrot ()
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Niels Van Quaquebeke: Kühne Logistics University
Jan U. Becker: Kühne Logistics University
Niko Goretzki: Kühne Logistics University
Christian Barrot: Kühne Logistics University

Journal of Business Ethics, 2019, vol. 156, issue 2, No 4, 357-376

Abstract: Abstract Ethical leadership has so far mainly been featured in the organizational behavior domain and, as such, treated as an intra-organizational phenomenon. The present study seeks to highlight the relevance of ethical leadership for extra-organizational phenomena by combining the organizational behavior perspective on ethical leadership with a classical marketing approach. In particular, we demonstrate that customers may use perceived ethical leadership cues as additional reference points when forming purchasing intentions. In two experimental studies (N = 601 and N = 336), we find that ethical leadership positively affects purchasing intentions because of customers’ concerns for moral self-congruence. We show this by means of both mediation and moderation analyses. Interestingly, the effect of perceived ethical leadership on purchasing intentions holds over and above the ethical advertising claims (e.g., cause-related marketing) that are commonly used in marketing. We conclude by discussing the possible ramifications of ethical leadership beyond its effects on immediate employees.

Keywords: Ethical leadership; Moral identity; Purchasing intention; Advertising; Marketing; Self-congruence; Ethics; Moral; Cause-related marketing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10551-017-3577-4

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