Exploring the Domains of Consumer Perceived Ethicality

This study explores whether the set of domains of consumers’ ethical beliefs is exhaustive, whether it fits a developing economy like India, and if different domains affect consumer perceptions and relationships with the company differently. It is a qualitative research, where data is collected on domains of origin of consumer perceived ethicality (CPE). The findings lead to segregation of CPE domains into domains of direct origin which have major effect on the consumer behavior, and domains of remote origin which hardly have any effect on the consumer behavior. The research further suggests some additions to the CPE framework, the first of them being about packaging in the ‘consumer’ domain. Second change is in the domain of ‘local community and business’. In addition the sub-domain of ‘location of headoffice or place of production’ does not seem to have relevance for the developing economies.