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The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of consumers’ moral preferences between moral and economic benefits and consumers’ moral and rational behaviour intentions based on moral decision-making models of previous studies.

Respondents were asked to answer a questionnaire measuring moral and economic benefits, consumers’ moral preferences and moral and rational behaviour intention after reading a stimulus describing imaginary fashion brand A’s unethical activities.

Moral and economic benefits directly and significantly affect moral and rational behaviour intention. Homo economicus evoked by an economic benefit had a negative effect on moral behaviour intention.

This study focused only on a moral benefit and an economic benefit as factors evoking consumers’ moral preferences. This study was also conducted only in a Korean context and considered a specific industry. In future research, the results of this study should be extended to design the “possibility of punishment” to encourage moral behaviour by discouraging the effect of homo economicus. The results have implications for companies such as social enterprises and charities that want to promote consumers’ moral behaviour.

This study provides evidence on why ethical consumers do not always make ethical decisions by confirming that homo economicus has a significant influence on not only rational behaviour intention but also moral behaviour intention.

This study aims to fill the gap between academia and reality by empirically confirming the effect of moral preferences on consumer responses (purchase intention) to fashion companies’ unethical activities. This study also explores the moderating effect of collectivism and individualism on the paths from moral preferences to purchase intention.

Respondents read a stimulus passage describing unethical activities of imaginary fashion brand A and the economic benefits of purchasing/using the brand's products. Then, they were asked to answer questions about homo moralis, homo economicus, individualism, collectivism and purchase intention.

Homo moralis significantly and negatively influenced respondents’ purchase intention. Homo economicus significantly and positively affected purchase intention. Collectivism further increased the negative influence of homo moralis on purchase intention. In contrast, individualism increased the positive effect of homo economicus on purchase intention.

The scope of future research should include various products and explore variables that help consumers perceive that the ethical issues of the industry are deeply related to themselves. Studies should also examine the intention not to purchase products from unethical companies as an outcome variable. The economic aspect that responds to incentives affects purchase intention more strongly than the moral aspect of consumers, which helps explain the behavior of consumers who think of themselves as ethical but purchase products from unethical companies.

This study can help fashion companies establish strategies such as corporate social responsibility that will lead to a positive effect on consumers’ purchase intention.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities of a fashion company with multiple brands. In particular, the aim is to determine the differences in the impact of corporate-level and brand-level CSR.

The data were collected using an online survey from the consumer panel of a marketing research firm in South Korea. The subjects were presented with the following stimuli of a fashion company with multiple brands: describing corporate-level CSR activities of a company (n=109) and describing brand-level CSR activities of a company (n=113). After processing the information, the participants were asked to evaluate their reciprocity perception, corporate image, brand image, and purchase intention.

Regarding corporate-level CSR, participants’ reciprocity perception positively and directly affected purchase intention. It also positively affected corporate image, and corporate image affected brand image, and brand image positively affected purchase intention. Regarding brand-level CSR, reciprocity perception did not affect purchase intention directly, but positively affected purchase intention through mediation of corporate image. This study found a construct where reciprocity perception influences purchase intention with a mediating role of corporate image and brand image. The effect of reciprocity perception shaped by corporate-level CSR is greater than that shaped by brand-level CSR.

The outcome of this study provides meaningful insights and practical implications for companies that have multiple brands.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between online retail therapy and consumers’ attitudes towards online fashion shopping malls (ATO) based on the stimulus–organism–response model.

This study examined how online retail therapy factors (e.g. the aesthetics of web design and attractiveness of the models) affect consumers’ ATO. In particular, the authors examined the mediation of positive mood reinforcement (PMR) and negative mood reduction (NMR).

The results indicated that aesthetics has a significant and direct effect on ATO. However, model attractiveness has an indirect effect on ATO through PMR and NMR. In addition, the direct effect of aesthetics on ATO is greater than the indirect effect of model attractiveness. Therefore, online fashion shopping malls need to concentrate on improving the aesthetics of the shopping malls. For fashion shopping malls that do not have the capacity to improve the aesthetics, it is possible to improve ATO by using highly attractive models.

This study applied the concept of retail therapy to the online environment and verified the effect. This study expanded the scope of the study of retail therapy by examining the effect of mood improvement on ATO as well. Further, this study examined the structure of two online retail therapy factors, aesthetics and model attractiveness, that affect ATO through PMR and NMR, and suggested managerial implications for online shopping malls.

The purpose of this study is to develop and validate scales measuring two consumer moral preferences: Homo moralis and Homo economicus.

This research includes four sequential studies. Before the first study, items were established through a comprehensive literature review and pre-test. Four studies were then conducted to verify the validity and reliability of the scales following the scale validation methodology suggested by Churchill (1979) and Anand and Kaur (2018). Study 1 employed exploratory factor analysis to extract the underlying factor structure of the scale. This led to a two-factor structure with sufficient evidence of internal reliability. Study 2 and Study 3 were conducted to confirm the reliability and the validity of the scale using confirmatory factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha. The final study established the predictive validity of the scale using a structural equation model.

Finally, seven items were developed measuring consumers' moral preferences for Homo moralis and Homo economicus.

This research has some limitations that should be addressed in future research. First, the scale was only tested in a Korean context. Second, this study was not conducted in the context of a specific industry.

This study extends the range of research to an empirical field by practically verifying how these two preferences are independent, can be generalized and can influence human behavior. This study empirically demonstrates that the preferences affect human behavior such as purchase intention. This study extends the current knowledge on Homo moralis and Homo economicus by providing a scale for empirical validation of the concepts.

The purpose of this study was to find different effects of e‐tailer attributes on consumer attitude in fashion product purchase situations according to e‐tailer types.

A quantitative study with a survey method was adopted to test the significance of the paths which construct the structural equation model.

As a result of the study, e‐tailers were classified into three types: comprehensive mall, fashion specialty mall, and limited brand mall. In addition three attribute dimensions were derived from the statistical analyses: transaction fulfillment, variety, and accessibility. Transaction fulfillment and variety were the critical dimensions for the comprehensive mall and the limited brand mall, whereas variety was the only significant dimension for the fashion specialty mall. According to the multi‐group comparison, it was found that similar strategic implications can be applied to comprehensive and limited brand malls.

The variety dimension be further researched. With variety being equally important for all of the e‐tailer types, specific sub‐dimensions need to be identified.

The paper provides value in classifying the e‐tailer type and investigating the attributes.