Consumers' intention toward buying ethically produced products in Bangladesh

Abstract

PurposeWhile many companies begin to promote ethically produced products, much remains to be known about consumers' buying intention toward these products. This paper attempts to integrate the theory of planned behavior and the Hunt–Vitell theory of marketing ethics to explore the buying intention toward ethically produced food products in a developing economy.Design/methodology/approachData were collected through a questionnaire survey in Bangladesh. Structural equation modeling technique was used to test the research model.FindingsResearch findings showed that deontological evaluation and teleological evaluation have significantly positive effects on perceived behavioral control and subjective norm. Perceived behavioral control, subjective norm, attitude, hedonic and utilitarian value have significantly positive effects on buying intention toward ethically produced foods.Originality/valueThe results are practically and theoretically meaningful because the integrated model holds well explanatory power to predict consumers' intention toward buying ethical foods and thereby understand consumers' ethical decision-makings.