Manifestation of Ethical Consumption Behaviour through Five Precepts of Buddhism

Abstract

Consumption is an essential everyday process. By very nature, it is a means of expressing our moral identities and an outlet for ethical obligations. In more recent years, ethical aspects of consumption have come under greater scrutiny with the emergence of ethical consumption discourses, and are currently associated with a range of consumer behaviours and responsible business practices. To this end, religion is considered an undeniably powerful and concurrently the most successful marketing force that can shape the ethical behaviour, yet under-investigated in consumption practices despite the Corporate Socially Responsibility provoked ethical behaviour. Ethical consumption practices are regularly characterised as consumption activities that avoid harm to other people, animals or the environment where basic Buddhist teachings become more pertinent and practiced in Buddhist communities. This Chapter aims to conceptualise the importance of religious beliefs in ethical consumer behaviour and present the findings of a study that explored whether and how ethical consumerism is reflected through Five Precepts of Buddhism [i.e. (1) abstain from taking life, (2) abstain from stealing, (3) abstain from sexual misconduct, (4) abstain from false speech, and (5) abstain from intoxicants that cloud the mind]. The content of the Chapter contributes to the theory and teaching in the marketing discipline by linking how religious beliefs enhance ethical consumerism that remains largely unexplored.

Seeing A Buddhist Doing Business: An Interview with Sudhamek AWS

“…Buddhist theory on anicca (impermanency) is the idea that gives us the description about the reality of life and how to deal with it. It is not wrong to put in the effort to sustain good work as long as possible (Ratnayake & Jayawickrama, 2015;Vallabh & Singhal, 2014). On the pragmatic level, good business must consider the wellness of the employees; the quality of life and the quality of working life (Kassim & Zain, 2016;Michalski, 2014).…”