Autonomy as license to operate: Establishing the internal and external conditions of informed choice in marketing

Abstract

The assumption that consumers voluntarily accept or decline marketing offerings provides the ethical justification that gives marketing as a social system its license to operate. Consumer autonomy is, therefore, the key ethical principle of marketing in capitalistic economies. However, even in domains with extensive regulatory frameworks and advanced market conditions, consumers are often ill-informed or underinformed. The resultant lack of epistemic confidence diminishes consumers’ ability to make informed choices. At the same time, consumers are by default exposed to promotional content designed to persuade them to accept marketing offerings. This threatens personal autonomy. We develop a concept of consumer autonomy which marketing regulations should protect and promote to enhance informed decision-making. We design autonomy to be robust in situations where individuals are exposed to persuasive attempts to influence them to choose a specific course of action. As such, our concept of autonomy is applicable to a range of contexts beyond marketing where it is necessary to balance external influences and individual autonomy.

True Consumer Autonomy: A Formalization and Implications

“…For instance, marketers might breach an ethical transparency principle, fail to respect consumers' dignity and rights, or coerce consumers into acting unethically (e.g., consuming unsustainable products). Marketing practitioners' ubiquitous efforts to influence consumer decision-making confirms autonomy's centrality to marketing ethics (Anker, 2020;Arrington, 1982;Crisp, 1987;Sunstein, 2016;Thaler & Sunstein, 2008).…”

“…Although personal autonomy pertains to all business disciplines, marketing may be the most criticized for violating consumers' autonomy (Hackley, 2009). Consumers value autonomy because it empowers them to make product-related decisions based on personal preferences (Anker, 2020). Ethical issues often arise when marketers violate consumer autonomy.…”

The Impact of Consumers’ Dynamic Browsing Modes on the Effect of In-Feed Native Advertising

“…Specifically, consumers in the convergent browsing mode need to freely choose and decide on the product they are interested in Novak et al (2003) and Björneborn (2008) . They prefer the implicit over the explicit ad persuasion because the implicit persuasion makes them feel that their decisions to click into the ads are self-induced and thus meet their needs for self-agency ( Anker, 2020 ). When the consumer’s need for self-agency is enhanced, it leads to greater purchase intention ( Bhattacharjee et al, 2014 ).…”

“…They prefer the explicit over the implicit ad persuasion because the action-induced explicit persuasion saves effort from the consumer to process the information and provides inspirations and expectations ( Novak et al, 2003 ; Lee and Suk, 2010 ). And when the consumer’s need for external agency is enhanced, it also leads to greater purchase intention ( Anker, 2020 ). Above all, we propose the following hypothesis: ( Figure 1 ).…”

Disruptive Events and Associated Discontinuities: A Macromarketing Prescription

“…Social marketers and public policymakers should establish a balance between their “power to change people and the legitimate demands of ethical transparency” (Spotswood et al 2012, p.167). Consequently, we recommend that social marketers and public policymakers create unified and in-depth System 2-friendly messages that ensure audience autonomy (via activation of critical engagement with presented information) (Anker 2020). Such messages can enhance audiences’ attitudinal certainty, especially to overcome alienation-related sentiments.…”