Consumer ethics continues to draw the attention of academicians and practitioners as a significant economic and social issue globally. Consumer ethics refers to moral principles that govern a consumer's behaviour. This literature review seeks to enrich the discourse on consumer ethics through a comprehensive and detailed review of 106 articles, covering 21 journals from 2010 to 2020. Through an examination of theories, contexts, characteristics, and methodologies used in consumer ethics research, our review (1) presents a comprehensive and up‐to‐date overview of the research in this field and (2) sets a future research agenda to spur scholarly research. We found studies have primarily relied on a single theoretical lens such as the theory of marketing ethics, planned behaviour, and neutralization theory. Further consumer ethics research focuses on advanced countries, with a narrow focus on developing countries. We have diagnosed the need to examine boundary conditions impacting consumer ethics. Finally, we provide actionable inputs to combat unethical consumer actions as well as promote ethical consumption.

PurposeAs a crucial counter-equivalent to business ethics, consumer ethics has emerged as a promising research domain for practitioners and academicians alike. Despite its pertinence for both industry and academia, little is known about the existing state of consumer ethics research. To address this limitation, a systematic literature review was conducted to identify key research themes, gaps in the extant literature and set the agenda for future research.Design/methodology/approachThis literature review is based on a sample of 81 research articles drawn from Scopus and EBSCO host databases and analysed on different classification bases, covering a period from 2004 to 2019.FindingsThe results reveal that pro-social behaviour has gained recent attention in consumer ethics research. Moreover, there has been a renewed focus to understand and mitigate the attitude–behaviour gap in ethical consumption. The authors also found that majority of the studies have been conducted in Europe and North America, in a single country context.Research limitations/implicationsConsumer ethics has significant economic and social consequences worldwide. Consumer ethics insights can help marketers and practitioners to devise strategies that minimize business losses due to unethical consumer behaviour, incentivize ethical consumption and align corporate social responsibility initiatives that draw consumer support.Originality/valueTo the best of our knowledge, this is the first major (systematic) review on consumer ethics after Vitell’s review of 2003. This review provides valuable directions for future research to carry this domain forward.

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the role of personal and affective factors in curbing unethical consumer behaviour (UCB). Specifically, this study scrutinizes how religiosity, consumer ethical beliefs (CEBs) and anticipated guilt influence UCB. Design/methodology/approach Using a survey-based approach, the author distributed offline and online questionnaires among students enrolled in a public university in Roorkee, India and analysed the data using structural equation modelling. Findings The results provide evidence that intrinsically religious individuals develop strong ethical beliefs, which can help them to refrain from unethical behaviour and adopt ethical conduct. Also, individuals prone to experiencing anticipated guilt show less inclination to commit unethical behaviour. Research limitations/implications This research presents significant theoretical and practical implications to facilitate academic understanding and managerial decision-making in the context of consumer ethics. Originality/value This research is one of the few empirical studies in the Indian context that simultaneously examines the antecedents and consequences of CEB.

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