Abstract
While the prevalence of ethical consumerism has pressured small businesses to embrace ethical behaviour, in ethically precarious business conditions the relentless pursuit for profit by small businesses may compel them to compromise their moral values. As such, a tacit struggle may persist between such businesses’ strategic orientations (e.g. profitability, improved performance) and demands of ethically conscious consumers. Drawing on ethics theory, this study explored the influence of the ethical conduct of small fast food outlets on buying intentions of customers. A survey was conducted on 116 probabilistically sampled customers of an indigenous owned fast-food outlet in two cities in Zimbabwe. Findings suggest that customers considered ethical conduct of business ventures when making their purchase decisions although it was unclear whether ethical consumers persistently maintained their buying decisions (i.e. purchasing ethically made products). Ethical business practices, however, remained an enduring feature of enterprises striving to optimise their profit motives.
Highlights
Business ethics in Zimbabwe: In view of the heated controversy that surrounds business ethics, perhaps, a safe point of departure is to define ethics as a precursor to understanding business ethics. Harris et al (2011) conceive ethics as the moral values or principles that guide human behaviour
The findings revealed that younger participants scored lower than the older ones on ethical sensitivity suggesting an age-based variation in ethical perception of customers, even though the variations were not marked
The primary objective of the study was to ascertain the extent to which consumers of fast foods in Zimbabwe considered as critical the ethical conduct of fast food outlets towards customers when making buying decisions
Summary
Business ethics in Zimbabwe: In view of the heated controversy that surrounds business ethics, perhaps, a safe point of departure is to define ethics as a precursor to understanding business ethics. Harris et al (2011) conceive ethics as the moral values or principles that guide human behaviour. An atmosphere of distrust between and organisation and stakeholders is created (Mullins et al, 2008, Longenecker et al, 2013) because stakeholders often prefer to work with firms with ethical values (King & McDonnell, 2012) It is not clear how ethical values within a corporate context affect customers’ perceptions and buying behaviour (Sebastiani et al, 2013) in economically distressed contexts, and the rationale for this study. This obscurity derives from the fact that ethically procured and manufactured goods/ services tend to attract premium prices than those procured and manufactured through unethical means (Jokinen, 2011). The irony is that in economically hard hit countries like Zimbabwe, where consumers tend to be cash strapped, even ethically sensitive consumers may be the tempted to suspend their ethical sensitivity by purchasing goods which were unethically produced or manufactured
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
