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.

The Buddhist and Christian Perspectives on Business Ethics in Leading Chinese Business Practices

“…The practice of Buddhism in ethnic Chinese businesses is not opposed to accumulating money and purchasing properties in that it is only through self-supply in economics that it can help others in need (Du 2014). As such, the idea of 'benefiting oneself' and 'benefiting others' frequently appears in the Buddhist scriptures, an idea which happily coexists with a modern perception of ethical behavior: one enterprise should first run for its survival as benefiting oneself, and then benefit its employees, and thirdly devote itself to the betterment of society (Vallabh and Singhal 2014, Ratnayake and Jayawickrama 2015, Brown and Zsolnai 2018. One recalls that a disciple once asked Buddha how to benefit himself and benefit others.…”