Consumer Perceived Ethicality (CPE)

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Process of collecting the literature

For this frame of reference, 16 articles and books have been used as the main literature in this study. Also, additional sources have been used in order to better understand the subject. The search engines Primo from Jönköping University Library as well as Google Scholar has been used to find these sources. Moreover, to find relevant articles keywords such as brand loyalty, brand attitude, brand trust, brand attachment, brand equity, ethical decision making, millennials, purchase behavior, and CPE have been used. Additionally, in order to find relevant articles to the subject, the authors looked at the references in some of the articles that were of interest.

Brand

Brand is a well discussed concept within research, yet, there is no academic consensus to the term, as all experts within the field make up their own definitions to it. Though, there seem to be a common understanding to the concept (Stern, 2006; Kotler, Armstrong, Harris and Piercy, 2017; Kapferer 2008). Kotler et. al (2017) defines brand as ”A name, term, sign symbol (or a combination of these) that identifies the maker or seller of the product.”. Although, brands were initially used as a tool for manufacturers to distinguish themselves from competitors, today they are also used as a tool to create value for consumers, which is done by trying to manage consumers perception and attitude towards the brand by creating and maintaining a good reputation (Riezbos, Kist and Kootstra, 2003; Corstjens, J. and Corstjens, M., 1995).
Brands can be divided into two more broad categories: emotional brands and functional brands. Even though all brands have a functional purpose, it is argued that brands hold an emotional value for consumers, such as memories and feelings, that justifies their preference of a brand over its competitor. Thus, making it important for brands to evoke an emotional response from consumers in order to be superior, regardless if it is a low- or high involvement product. Since, brands can compete on a functional level, but it is hard to replicate the emotions consumers relate to a brand (Aaker, 1991; Rosenbaum-Elliott, et. al, 2018).

Brand Loyalty

Brand loyalty has been discussed extensively by researchers, though there seem to be no academic agreement upon the definition to the concept. However, scholars appear to have a shared understanding to the concept and it is described as a repeated buying behavior of a specific brand that is reinforced with a sense of commitment or attachment to the brand (Jacoby and Kyner, 1973; Aaker, 1991; Amine, 1998; Lau and Lee 1999). Moreover, brand loyalty, together with brand awareness, perceived quality, brand associations, and other proprietary brand assets, has been identified as the core dimensions of brand equity, which is a concept used to establish the value of a brand (Aaker 1991).
Consumers can express different amount of loyalty to a brand, based on which scholars have attempted to categorize consumers, where characteristics of consumers belonging to the categories are explained. Three similar concepts have been used by the scholars when trying to identify consumers level of brand loyalty: perceived risk in switching, satisfaction, and commitment to the brand. Perceived risk in switching refers to the cost, in terms of money, time, energy, or the risk that the product from the new brand might not perform as well as the first one, that will be required when wanting to switch to another brand. If the perceived risk in switching is high, then brands would have to offer additional value that would work as a compensation, in order for a consumer to consider switching brands. Satisfaction refers to the liking of the actual product and the consumers perception of it, such as if the product fulfills the consumers’ expectations. The higher the satisfaction a consumer experiences, the less chance is it that they would switch to another brand that is in the same price category. Finally, commitment to a brand refers to how dedicated consumers are to a brand, and this part is not only concerned with how often consumer purchase from a specific brand, but also concerns the attachment consumers have towards the it. High satisfaction, commitment and perceived risk in switching, results in high brand loyalty (Aaker 1991; Rosenbaum-Elliott, et. al., 2018; Baldinger and Rubinson, 1996).

1. Introduction 
1.1. Background
1.2. Problem Discussion
1.3. Purpose and Research question
1.4. Definitions
2. Frame of Reference 
2.1. Process of collecting the literature
2.2. Brand .
2.3. Brand Loyalty
2.4. Brand Attachment
2.5. Brand Trust
2.6. Business Ethics
2.7. Ethical decision-making process
2.8. Consumer Perceived Ethicality (CPE)
2.9. Millennials (Generation Y)
3. Methodology
3.1. Methodology
3.2. Method
3.3. Data Collection
4. Findings
4.2. Satisfied Consumers
4.3. Low Loyal Consumers
5. Analysis
5.1. High Loyalty Consumers
5.2. Satisfied Consumer
5.3. Low Loyalty Consumers
5.4. Response to general ethical issue
5.5. Cultural differences
6. Conclusion
7. Discussion .
References
Appendices .

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