The Role of Consumer’ Social Capital on Ethical Consumption and Consumer Happiness

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the components of consumer’ social capital which are social participation, social networking, and reciprocity and also analyzed how the social capitals possessed by consumers affect ethical consumption behaviors, and examine how ethical consumption behaviors affect consumer happiness. The samples were randomly extracted from a list of consumer panels registered with a multinational survey institute. Within the budget limit of this study, 2,000 persons were extracted considering the sample size. The main page of the questionnaire requested the subjects to answer to the question asking whether they had any experience in using ethical products or brands. Those who answered no were requested to quit answering the questionnaire. The total number of valid samples was 1,509. Social trust, social participation, and reciprocity, which are the components of social capitals, were found to have positive effects on eco-friendly ethical consumption behaviors, and social-economic-oriented ethical consumption behaviors. Eco-friendly and social-economic-oriented ethical consumption behaviors were found to affect consumer happiness. In additional analyses too, social capitals were found to affect the determination of consumer happiness to some extent. The findings of this study provide valuable information for the investigation of the causal relationships between the system of organization of the ethical consumption behaviors of consumers and the predisposing factors or outcomes of consumer happiness.

Purchase intention of fashion brand retailers: a journey through consumer engagement and happiness

“…The explanations academics give for this fact are that individuals are happier when they find some of the following factors in the products or services they have a demand for. Those factors are ethics, social responsibility, sustainability, ecology or freedom (Weingarten et al, 2023), attributes that are very present in consumers' eudaimonic happiness (Chia et al, 2023;Fei et al, 2022;Ramos-Hidalgo et al, 2022). It means that eudaimonic happiness becomes an essential intangible resource for increasing people's purchase intention (Wang and Hang, 2021).…”

The impact of perceived corporate social responsibility on consumer happiness and brand admiration

“…Within that context, this research will follow Diener (2000), Ryan and Deci (2001), Diener and Ryan (2009) and Pleeging et al (2021) and define happiness as a term that covers subjective wellbeing, present positive emotions, the general satisfaction with life, and the overall emotional and cognitive assessment of life. This definition of consumer happiness is subjective happiness that covers hedonic happiness, emotions such as joy associated with one's environmental engagement and eudaimonic happiness, a subjective sense of meaning in life (Chia et al, 2020;Fei et al, 2022). This definition accepts that subjective well-being's cognitive and emotional elements are interrelated; a person's assessment that something makes life meaningful and more satisfactory relates to their feelings (Ahuvia and Friedman, 1998;Diener, 2000).…”

“…Over the past decades, brands in various sectors are cultivating consumers' happiness by promising products and positive experiences that will make consumers happy (Mogilner et al, 2012;Fei et al, 2022). Designing business concepts for happiness can exceed hedonic pleasure and superficial value propositions and aim to be authentic and contribute to consumer happiness (S€ a€ aksj€ arvi and Hell en, 2013).…”

“…Ethical consumption is doing good, not benefiting from illegal things and environmental awareness in consumption (Vitell and Muncy, 2005). Ethical consumption is linked to solving social problems during consumption and influences consumer happiness (Fei et al, 2022). Similarly, Goo (2020) reported that ethical consumption consciousness positively influences life meaning and happiness.…”

“…Although ethics and CSR are distinct concepts, they share an apparent link . Examining hope, happiness, ethical consumption and CSR perceptions together will contribute to the literature because studies that focus on the influence of ethical consumption on happiness are scarce (Xiao and Li, 2011;Goo, 2020;Fei et al, 2022) and understanding the ethical aspects of consumer behavior is critical in marketing (Vitell and Muncy, 2005). Finally, the influence of consumers' diverse personal ethical perspectives was considered in the research model since highly diverse unique ethical perspectives must be examined as they are closely related to judgments and the CSR-happiness relationship, i.e.…”