Virtue Ethics between East and West in Consumer Research: Review, Synthesis and Directions for Future Research

Authors: Guli-Sanam Karimova, Nils Christian Hoffmann, Ludger Heidbrink, Stefan Hoffmann (Journal of Business Ethics, 2020, 165: 255–275)

This literature review systematically synthesizes studies that link consumer research to differences and similarities in virtue ethics between the East and the West, with a focus on early Chinese and ancient Greek virtue ethics. These two major traditions provide principles that guide consumer behavior and thus serve as a background to comparatively explain and evaluate the ethical nature of consumer behavior in the East and the West. The paper first covers Eastern and Western theoretical and normative approaches of virtue ethics in the field of consumer research. The subsequent systematic literature review then synthesizes empirical works in this field. Since only a few papers adopt a cross-cultural consumer research perspective, one of the main aims of this review is to encourage scholars to pursue both theoretical and empirical cross-cultural consumer research on virtue ethics. To this end, the paper closes by suggesting some fruitful directions for future research to stimulate this relatively under-researched area.

Keywords: Ancient Greek virtue ethics, Cross-cultural consumer research, Early Chinese philosophy, East and West, Literature review, Virtue ethics

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04321-6