Microsoft Word ConsumersEthics (Final ISB 17Feb16) UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business Luu Chi Nhan SELLECTED ANTECEDENTS OF CONSUMERS’ ETHICS AN EMPIRICAL STUDY[.]
UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business Luu Chi Nhan SELLECTED ANTECEDENTS OF CONSUMERS’ ETHICS: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY IN VIETNAM MASTER OF BUSINESS (Honours) Ho Chi Minh City - Year 2015 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business Luu Chi Nhan SELLECTED ANTECEDENTS OF CONSUMERS’ ETHICS: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY IN VIETNAM ID: 22120060 MASTER OF BUSINESS (Honours) SUPERVISOR: DR LE NHAT HANH Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2015 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Runnung head: SELLECTED ANTECEDENTS OF CONSUMERS’ ETHICS i UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business Luu Chi Nhan Mbus 3.2 Sellected Antecedents of Consumers’ Ethics: An Empirical Study in Vietnam Supervisor: Dr Le Nhat Hanh Ho Chi Minh City- Year 2015 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com SELLECTED ANTECEDENTS OF CONSUMERS’ ETHICS ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis could not have been completed without the timely and proper advice and support from a number of people around me First and foremost I would like to thank my supervisors Dr Le Nhat Hanh for her unsparing academic advice as well as moral support All constructive suggestions and insightful advice based on her admirable expertise and erudition always impressed me I am sure that this thesis would not have been possible without her support Many thanks go to my MBUS colleagues who have been unforgettable companions on our common journey I also extend my hearty thanks to the staff members of the International School of Business for their efficient service and support all these years My special thanks go to all the participant group of this thesis They played an essential role in carrying out the research for this thesis I appreciate their precious time and endeavour Last but not least, I have to earnestly thank my family for their unending moral support and affectionate attention to me at all times Words cannot express how grateful I am to my parents and my family Luu Chi Nhan Ho Chi Minh City, December 22, 2015 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com SELLECTED ANTECEDENTS OF CONSUMERS’ ETHICS iii ABSTRACT These have been wide range of critical questions about the role of ethics in today’s business and society Consumers are major participants in the business process and not considering them in ethics research could result in an incomplete understanding of that process With the increasing international trade, there is a growing need to increase our understanding of consumer ethics from different countries A report revealed that Southeast Asia has become Asia’s safe haven as China and India falter (NewsMax, 2012) As a result, more studies are needed to understand consumer ethical behaviour in Asian countries, particularly as a consequence of the prevalence of piracy and counterfeit goods (Ang et al., 2001; Chan et al., 1998; Lu and Lu, 2009) In Vietnam, around 81% of software used is pirated comparing to average 62% in Asia (Global Study, 2014) The general purpose of the present study was to contribute to the existing knowledge by getting a more thorough understanding of the why of consumer ethics, allowing marketers to predict unethical consumer behavior, and ultimately prevent consumers from taking advantage of the seller Particularly, this study investigates the possible effects of selfmonitoring, Machiavellism, and oppotunism on all dimensions of consumers’ ethical attitudes The sample is drawn from 340 Vietnamese has results in many significant findings For the dimension of ‘actively benefiting from illegal actions (ABIA)’, the result indicates positive relationship with self-monitoring and oppotunism but no relationship with Machiavellism As for ‘actively benefiting from questionable but legal actions (ABQA)’, the outcome shows a positive relationship with oppotunism and Machiavellism but no relationship with self-monitoring Same resuls found for ‘passively benefiting at the expense of the seller (PBEO)’, and ‘no harm, no foul actions (NHNF)’ In this study, literature on consumer ethics, self-monitoring, Machiavellism, and oppotunism as well as the introduction of Vietnam, are presented along with implications and recommendations for academic scholars, practitioners and the like LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com SELLECTED ANTECEDENTS OF CONSUMERS’ ETHICS iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF FIGURES vi LIST OF TABLES vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Research background 1.2 Research gap 1.3 Research objectives 1.4 Research scope 1.5 Research contributions 1.6 Research structure CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENTS 2.1 Theoretical background 2.2 Hypotheses development 16 2.3 Summary 17 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 18 3.1 Research Process 18 3.2 Measurement scales 18 3.3 Qualitative Research 22 3.4 Sampling method 24 3.5 Data analysis methods 24 3.6 Summary 26 CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS 27 4.1 Respondents’ demographic 27 4.2 Reliability Analysis 28 4.3 Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) 31 4.4 Multiple Regression Analysis 35 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com SELLECTED ANTECEDENTS OF CONSUMERS’ ETHICS v 4.5 Discussion of findings 43 4.6 Summary 44 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 45 5.1 Conclusion 45 5.2 Managerial Implications 45 5.3 Limitations and future research 47 REFERENCES 49 APPENDICES 59 APPENDIX A: Survey Questionnaire 59 APPENDIX B: Survey Questionnaire 62 APPENDIX C: Total Variance Explained of Independent Variables 66 APPENDIX D: Histogram, Scatter plot & Normal Regression of Dependent Variable 68 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com SELLECTED ANTECEDENTS OF CONSUMERS’ ETHICS vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1 Research model 16 Figure 3.1 Research Process 18 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com SELLECTED ANTECEDENTS OF CONSUMERS’ ETHICS vii LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1 The study’s hypotheses 17 Table 3.1 Scales of Consumer Ethics 19 Table 3.2 Scales of Self-monitoring 20 Table 3.3 Scales of Machiavellianism 21 Table 3.4 Scales of Opportunism 22 Table 3.5 Cronbach’s Alpha Reliability Coefficient 24 Table 4.1 Demographic Variables 28 Table 4.2 Reliability Statistics 29 Table 4.3 KMO and Bartlett's Test of Independent Variables 32 Table 4.4 Rotated Component Matrixa for Independent Variables 32 Table 4.5 Summary of EFA for Dependent Variables 34 Table 4.6 Correlations 35 Table 4.7 Coefficients tablea 36 Table 4.8 Model Summaryb for Dependent Variable: ABIA 37 Table 4.9 Coefficientsa for Dependent Variable: ABIA 38 Table 4.10 Model Summaryb for Dependent Variable: PBEO 39 Table 4.11 Coefficientsa for Dependent Variable: PBEO 39 Table 4.12 Model Summaryb for Dependent Variable: ABQA 40 Table 4.13 Coefficientsa for Dependent Variable: ABQA 41 Table 4.14 Model Summaryb for Dependent Variable: NHNF 42 Table 4.15 Coefficientsa for Dependent Variable: NHNF 42 Table 4.16 Summary of the hypothesis testing results 43 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com SELLECTED ANTECEDENTS OF CONSUMERS’ ETHICS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Research background Business ethics research has focused heavily on marketing exchange and participants within this process (Rawwas, Patzer, & Klassen, 2005; Liu, Zeng, & Su, 2009; Zhao et al., 2013), because marketing exchange is the focal point of most ethical problems in business (Vitell, Singhapakdi, & Thomas, 2001) Although the role of business ethics in the global economy has been thoroughly investigated (e.g., DeGeorge, 1993; Vogel, 1992), international consumer ethics has received growing attention In business, consumers are also the major participants (Vitell and Muncy, 1992) The importance of consumer ethical decision making has received considerable interest (e.g., Fullerton et al., 1996; Muncy and Vitell, 1992; Rawwas, 2003; Vitell et al., 1991) However, consumer ethics in Asian countries have been addressed less frequently (Ang et al., 2001; Chan et al., 1998; Erffmeyer et al., 1999; Rawwas, 2001; Rawwas et al., 1998; Thong and Yap, 1998) There were a few ethical studies targeting Indonesian markets (Rawwas, 2001; Sawono and Armstrong, 2001; Wu, 2001) In addition, although the ethical judgment of consumers in the United States and other industrialized countries has received considerable attention, consumer ethics in Asian-market settings have received less attention (e.g., Ang et al., 2001; Chan et al., 1998; Erffmeyer et al., 1999; Rawwas, 2001; Rawwas et al., 1998; Thong and Yap 1998) Vitell (2003) recommended additional cross-cultural studies Further research is warranted to examine ethical beliefs with more detail and cultural depth to examine the universality of consumers, or lack thereof, with respect to ethical beliefs On the eastern tip of the Indo-China peninsula in south-east Asia, Vietnam is one of the larger and more densely populated countries in the region Confirmed population figures are hard to obtain, but an estimate puts the Vietnam population in 2014 at 92.5 million, up from the 2012 estimate of 91.5 million and this impressive figure would make the country the 14th most populous on the planet or 46th most densely populated country on earth Moreover, this is one of the most diverse countries on earth when it comes to ethnicity splits and in fact, the Vietnamese government recognises no less than 54 ethnic groups within the country Furthermore, through the long years of the Vietnam War which have had some form of impact on the standard of living of Vietnamese This truth more or less affects Vietnamese consumers’ ethics on their daily practice LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ... thank my family for their unending moral support and affectionate attention to me at all times Words cannot express how grateful I am to my parents and my family Luu Chi Nhan Ho Chi Minh City,... socially appropriate behavior in order to modify one’s behavior accordingly (Snyder, 1974) In other words, ‘‘self-monitoring refers to the extent to which an individual looks internally or externally