Abstract
In accordance with societal norms and values, consumers readily indicate their positive attitudes toward sustainability. However, they hardly take sustainability into account when engaging in exchange relationships with companies. To shed light on this paradox, this paper investigates whether defense mechanisms and the more specific concept of neutralization techniques can explain the discrepancy between societal norms and actual behavior. A multi-method qualitative research design provides rich insights into consumers’ underlying cognitive processes and how they make sense of their attitude–behavior divergences. Drawing on the Ways Model of account-taking, which is advanced to a Cycle Model, the findings illustrate how neutralization strategies are used to legitimize inconsistencies between norm-conforming attitudes and actual behavior. Furthermore, the paper discusses how the repetitive reinforcement of neutralizing patterns and feedback loops between individuals and society are linked to the rise of anomic consumer behavior.
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Notes
This is also true for converging concepts such as corporate social responsibility (CSR) and business ethics, which will be used interchangeably in this paper. After all, consumers can hardly distinguish between these “twin ideas” (Hildebrand et al. 2011, p. 1353) but rather refer to the underlying principle of a responsible and sustainable approach toward society and the environment.
We would like to thank an anonymous reviewer for pointing us toward this distinction.
This normative character, however, is a rather flexible one and dependent on the consumer context (Chatzidakis et al. 2007). Therefore, in specific situations and referring to specific consumers, other factors such as personal norms and values might exert a stronger relative influence on intentions.
Some researchers might question whether such judgments can be made based on qualitative data. Nevertheless, the qualitative findings provide interesting pointers for future research.
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Gruber, V., Schlegelmilch, B.B. How Techniques of Neutralization Legitimize Norm- and Attitude-Inconsistent Consumer Behavior. J Bus Ethics 121, 29–45 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1667-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1667-5