Unethical Consumer Behaviors

Unethical Consumer Behaviours

Introduction

The past decade has seen many internationally debated scandals that have raised several questions of ethics in business. There has been a considerable increase in the research that has been conducted on ethical concerns (King, 2011). A large literature is available debating on the topic of ethics on the seller side. Yet, research on consumer ethics is a new thing. Consumers are a vital channel member of the business chain, and the ethics research would be incomplete if we dispose the question of ethics from the consumers' side (Carrington et al., 2010). The aspects of consumer behavior such as acquiring, using and disposing the goods and services, all have the aspects of ethics deeply rooted in them. These unethical practices followed by a section of consumers can be shoplifting, deshopping, changing price tags, not returning the change that the cashier has mistakenly given more, wardrobing etc (Brinkmann & Peattie, 2008).

Discussion

Consumption is a special socio-cultural phenomenon that occurs and the man begins to be realized in the very early stages of its history. The phenomenon of consumption - is extremely complex and constantly evolving phenomenon. Besides the values ??of the consumer, there is a set of principles by which develops and operates this phenomenon. Ethic has always been, on the one hand, the product of the projection of the existing system of social relations of a particular society, and on the other - the actualization of philosophical and religious ideas of his time. Consumer ethics implicitly always reflect the structure of a particular society (De Pelsmacker, Driesen & Rayp, 2005).

The problem of deshopping exists for all retail stores. Consumers adapt this misconduct by buying a product, using it and returning it back to store claiming the product is faulty or other invalid reason. The consumer intentions may ...