Do consumers care about morality? A review and framework for understanding morality's marketplace influence

There are many ways consumers' morality has been shown to impact their marketplace behavior. We present a theoretical framework for how to conceive of and study marketplace morality in an attempt to unify these disparate findings. First, we describe two common conceptualizations of marketplace morality: (a) the attribute-level approach (where a product attribute fits within a category that is normatively considered moral) and (b) the person-level approach (where consumers differ in the extent to which they dispositionally value morality). We then introduce a third conceptualization: (c) the attitude-level approach (where consumers differ in the extent to which they see their relevant attitude as based in their morality). Through this approach, we demonstrate morality's predictive utility for consumers' marketplace behaviors and help explain why other research could have found mixed evidence for its influence. Moreover, we use this approach to illuminate four contexts in which consumers' morality is more likely to influence marketplace attitudes and thereby impact their behavior: when the consumer's attitude is emotional, value-relevant, identity-relevant, and/or conceived in a negative valence. We conclude with a discussion of some of the unique challenges to attitude moralization in the marketplace as well as implications for managers promoting morally positioned purchases.