Deviant Consumer Behaviour : A Qualitative Exploration
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Transcript of Deviant Consumer Behaviour : A Qualitative Exploration
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Deviant Consumer Behaviour: A Qualitative Exploration
Paula DootsonBBus(Hons), BBusQueensland University of Technology
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Presentation Overview
Literature Review Methodology Results Implications
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Literature Review
Deviant consumer behaviour: Behaviour that is against the law, a regulation, or violates generally accepted norms of conduct (Elliott, Ageton & Canter, 1979; Fullerton &
Punj, 1993; Gibbs, 1981; Kaplan & Lin, 2000; Laub & Sampson, 2001; Moschis & Cox, 1989).
Stream of research: behaviour classifications
Wilkes (1978)
Muncy and Vitell (1992) – Consumer Ethics Scale (CES)
1. Proactively benefiting at the expense of the seller (reporting a lost item as ‘stolen’ to an insurance company to collect the money)
2. Passively benefiting at the expense of the seller (Not saying anything when the waitress miscalculates the bill in your favour)
3. Deceptive practices (Using an expired coupon for merchandise)
4. No harm/no foul (Installing software on your computer without buying it)
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Literature Review
Post Muncy and Vitell (1992) – descriptive research on Consumer Ethics Scale
Demographics: age, gender, income (mixed results)
Machiavellianism
Ethical Ideology: idealism, relativism
Religiosity: intrinsic, extrinsic
Behavioural intentions
Cultural comparisons
How do consumer define right and wrong consumption behaviours?
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Why do we care??????
Need to understand what influences perceptions – enables companies to challenge “incorrect” perceptions
Helps understand what informs the type of justification consumers use to enable them to perform behaviours they know are wrong, but do them anyway
Informs more effective deterrence strategies
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MethodologyPURPOSE Explore consumer perceptions of right and wrong
METHOD Interviews with card sort activity
SAMPLE 29 participants, males and females living in Australia over 18yoPurposive and snowballing
ANALYSIS Thematic analysis using Nvivo software
LIMITATIONS Cross-sectional,culturally homogenous
Age Males Females Total
18-34 5 4 9
35-50 4 5 9
51-66 5 4 9
67+ 1 1 2
Total 15 14 29
Table 1. Sample demographics
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Results
DefinitionOfficial classification
Perceived prevalence
Perceived fairness
Perceived outcomes
Perceived risk
Values
Ease of justification
Figure 1. Defining acceptable, questionable, and unacceptable consumption behaviours
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(1) Official Classification
Official Classification refers to the law, policy, codes, and regulations of an exchange setting.
When defining acceptable and unacceptable behaviour, participants took into account the official classification of the behaviour, however the weighting placed on it varied among behaviours.
“It’s [the law is] almost like implicit …in how you think what is right and what is wrong… the start starting ground, that…probably categorises stuff straight
away, and then it’s—you can kind of like deviate from that or like apply to that depending on the context.” (#10)
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Example: Illegal downloading of TV shows
ACCEPTABLE
QUESTIONABLE
UNACCEPTABLE
(1) Official Classification
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(2) Perceived Prevalence
Perceived prevalence of the behaviour was suggested to infer social norms, and social support for the behaviour.
Conflict arose when prevalence of a behaviour contradicted its official classification, shifting the behaviour from ‘unacceptable’ to ‘questionable’ categories
“I think trying to encourage someone to do it would be easier than trying to discourage because I think there’s the kind of societal view that hey everyone
does it.” (#9)
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Example: Illegal downloading of TV shows
ACCEPTABLE
QUESTIONABLE
UNACCEPTABLE
(2) Perceived Prevalence
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(3) Perceived Fairness
Perceived fairness refers to how fair an individual perceives a behaviour to be in response to an unfair consumption situation.
This includes, but is not limited to, pricing, and consumption constraints.
“I would make a judgment myself as to why that [hotel policy] has been stipulated, why only two people could stay in there, and I’d make my judgment on that. If I felt there was no real reason why they should stipulate that, then I’d be
quite happy to have four people going in there [but saying there are only 2].” (#1)
“Well if you’re not going to provide service I’m going to go take a different route to get something I want.” (#3)
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Example: Illegal downloading of TV shows
ACCEPTABLE
QUESTIONABLE
UNACCEPTABLE
(3) Perceived Fairness
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(4) Perceived Outcomes
Perceived outcomes refer to the outcome of performing a behaviour as it (a) affects themselves and (b) others involved.
“…you tend to think that organisations can handle it more, like maybe they’ve got some funding set aside to handle things that you might do … individual people don’t generally have any kind of protection against that. And then
there’s just the perception I suppose that companies don’t really have a human face…It’s being able to personally identify people that magnifies everything.”
(#5)
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Example: Illegal downloading of TV shows
ACCEPTABLE
QUESTIONABLE
UNACCEPTABLE
(4) Perceived Outcomes
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(5) Perceived Risk
Perceived risk has to do with an individual’s perceptions of the probability of being caught and the severity of punishment.
“It’s quite easy, not a lot of chance of getting caught. The punishment may not even be enough to warrant not doing it, at least for the first time anyway…
there’s a good chance he’ll get away with it…the punishment for doing something like that would be a lot less than if you went and robbed a grocery
store.” (#23)
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Example: Illegal downloading of TV shows
ACCEPTABLE
QUESTIONABLE
UNACCEPTABLE
(5) Perceived Risk
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(6) Values
Values refer to the beliefs a consumer holds about a behaviour.
“On the inside of it I knew I was breaking my own values and core beliefs in what was right and wrong, so there was discomfort from that.” (#18)
“Yeah you just feel like this is just not right, this just doesn’t feel right. … you don’t do something like this.” (#24)
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Example: Illegal downloading of TV shows
ACCEPTABLE
QUESTIONABLE
UNACCEPTABLE
(6) Values
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(7) Ease of Justification
Ease of justification refers to the ability of the individual to employ neutralisation techniques to reduce dissonance caused by knowing a behaviour is wrong yet performing it anyway.
“I put it in questionable because I know it’s the wrong thing to do, but I can rationalise it in certain circumstances.” (#14)
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Implications Theoretical implications
Findings support and extend on the conceptual suggestions made about the underlying reasons for categorising behaviours (e.g. Amine & Gicquel, 2011; Cox, Cox & Moschis, 1990; Muncy & Vitell, 1992; Vitell & Muncy, 1992;2005; Wilkes, 1978).
Start answering the ‘why’- underlying factors driving perceptions of right and wrong and how they inform behaviour
Neutralisation techniques are used when there is contradictory information about a behaviours rightness or wrongness
Paves way for future research Which factors do’ Machivellian, relativistic, non religious, young males’ take into
account, and Then test interventions/deterrence strategies to better deter consumer deviance
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Implications
Practical implications Can’t rely on the ‘it’s wrong, don’t do it’ or solely on ‘risk’ Multi-level approach, justifications people use who are actually
engaging in consumer deviance
Suggestions: Social proofs Humanising the organisation- leveraging leverages the identifiable
victim effect More emphasis to be placed self-regulation
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QUESTIONS?
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Not saying anything when the waitress miscalculates the bill in your favour
Using an expired coupon for merchandise
Returning merchandise to a store by claiming that it was a gift when it was not
Return used goods for a refund
Using stolen credit cards to order goods over the Internet
Claim a purchase price is better at a competing retailer in order to get a discount
Purchasing organs for transplant over the Internet
Illegally downloading TV shows from the Internet for free for personal consumption
Impersonating someone else by using their credit card to purchase goods e.g. family members, without permission
Breaking a bottle of salad dressing in a supermarket and doing nothing about it
Buying items such as a dress or a power tool, for a single use, and then returning them
Giving misleading price information to a clerk for an un-priced item
Taping a movie off the television
Drinking a can of soda in a supermarket without paying for it
Lying about a child’s age in order to get a lower price
Card sort behaviours
Spending over an hour trying on different t-shirts and not purchasing any
Changing price tags on merchandise in a retail store
Buying movie tickets online to jump the queue at the cinemas
Reporting a lost item as “stolen” to an insurance company in order to collect the money
Tasting grapes in a supermarket and not buying any
Creating a fake U.S. iTunes account to access and pay for content not available in Australia
Creating a fake account on a social network site (e.g. dating website, Facebook etc.)
Cutting in front of someone in a queue
Evading fare on public transport e.g. taking public transport without a ticket or GoCard
Not claiming an item when buying groceries through the self-checkout
Intentionally taking someone else’s takeaway order
Only buying products from companies if you are part of their loyalty programs
Saying there are only 2 people staying in a holiday apartment when there are really 4
Using the 4 cents fuel voucher from the grocery store to buy petrol
Taking someone’s vegetarian meal at a conference