Buyer reactions to ethical beliefs in the retail environment Barry J. Babin a, * , Mitch Griffin b , James S. Boles c a College of Business Administration, 306 JGH, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS 39406-5091, USA b Bradley University, Peoria, IL, USA c Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA Abstract Research into the ethical conduct of marketers is an increasingly popular topic. At the same time, a substantial amount of recent patronage theory has been devoted toward developing a better knowledge of roles played by shopping emotions evoked by various environmental cues. The study described in this manuscript attempts to blend these two research streams by investigating how interacting with a salesperson generates ethical perceptions that shape consumer emotions. Several hypotheses are developed and tested. They model the influence of three moral philosophical dimensions (moral equity, contractualism and relativism) on affective responses and future purchase intentions. Implications for marketing academicians and practitioners are discussed, and areas for future research are presented. D 2002 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Ethics; Shopping; Emotion; Equity 1. Introduction Is good ethics good business? Ethics theory often takes a more normative orientation, but this question linking mor- ality and performance, answered affirmatively, provides the best assurance that customers are treated with integrity. While ‘‘good ethics is good business’’ provides a benignant mantra for marketing educators, the copious research addressing ethics in marketing does not suggest widespread acceptance of this dictum (Robin, 2000). Where does the retailer fit into this equation? Ethics research pays relatively little attention to retail related phenomena compared with that given to marketing man- agement, marketing research, top executive decisions and business-to-business transactions. That research, which does address retailer ethics, primarily examines the issue by delving into the ethical beliefs of retail salespeople or managers (cf. Burns and Brady, 1996; Dubinsky and Levy, 1985). Clearly, the conflicting interests brought to the table in an exchange dyad play themselves out most often in a retail setting. However, a retailer’s customers’ ethical beliefs may affect performance most directly by either helping to build or endangering future sales. The present research focuses closely on the retail-selling dyad. We examine how a consumer’s ethical cognitions may serve as a defensive mechanism helping them avoid rela- tionships with potentially dubious retailers. More specif- ically, we integrate traditional patronage research with marketing ethics by exploring how ethical cognitions can alter shoppers’ emotions and future patronage intentions. A structural model is developed and tested, which relates consumers’ ethical perceptions of a retail-selling situation to (1) specific emotional outcomes and (2) relationship building in the form of future patronage intentions. The goals of this research include: (1) formally extending marketing ethics research into the retail-selling environment domain; (2) adding incrementally to our understanding of factors that shape atmospheric emotions; and (3) providing insight into more effective management of retail employees with an emphasis on long-term positive outcomes. 2. Conceptual background 2.1. Marketing ethics Much interest in marketing ethics is motivated by the basic premise that an employee’s unethical activities may have negative consequences for firm well-being by eroding consumer trust (Mascarenhas, 1995). Considerable market- ing ethics research has involved marketing employees’ 0148-2963/$ – see front matter D 2002 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0148-2963(02)00329-6 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-601-266-4629; fax: +1-601-266-4630. E-mail address: barry.babin@usm.edu (B.J. Babin). Journal of Business Research 57 (2004) 1155– 1163