Consumers ethical values

Concerns about social and ethical values among consumers of organic food... 

However, the usefulness of these studies is limited by the poor consistency found between reported attitudes and actual purchasing behaviour. Hence, research findings to date regarding the relationship between environmental concern and consumer behaviour have been equivocal (Roberts and Bacon, 1997). More recent studies have attempted instead to measure the relative importance of ethical and environmental concerns in comp2irison with other motivational factors. Results of these studies indicate that the majority of consumers do not feel concerned about the environment (Steptoe et al., 1995 Henson and Traill, 2000). Nevertheless, consumer concerns and motivational factors are linked through the consumer s value system. There is widespread agreement in the literature regarding the definition of values based on five conceptual precepts (Schwartz, 1992) ... 

The external stakeholders, e.g. customers and suppliers, typically careless about managerial competence but much more about technical competence the abiUly to produce goods and services of high quality and to deal effectively with the supply chain (Pirson and Malhotra 2008, pp. 11-12). Furthermore, Dobers and WoUf (2000) evaluated that the concept of environmental awareness in society. They indicated that consumers behave according to their ethical values, which would imply that they are more likely to purchase enviromnentally friendly products when these are available. 

McEachern M G and Schroder M J (2002), The role of livestock production ethics in consumer values towards meat , J Agric Environ Ethics, 15, 221-237. 

A recent survey in Scotland indicated that consumers appeared to delegate responsibility for ethical issues in meat production to the meat retailer or the government (Andersen et al., 2005). This was attributed to the fact that consumers did not seem to wish to be reminded about issues connected with the animal when choosing conventionally produced or organic meat (McEachern and Schroder, 2002). Moreover, organic meat was perceived as expensive, especially when consumers did not perceive a positive difference in quality. This resulted in some consumers being more interested in conventional meats with added-value features or from animals housed under improved welfare conditions rather than organic meat. 

---