Ethical consumption behavior in international marketing: A research on the cosmetics sector

This study is about cosmetic sector, which is one of the most important sector of the world. The ethical consciousness of consumers in the sector under the auspices of ethical consumption and their attitude towards companies were studied in various dimensions.In the cosmetics market, which is a very large market, it is important to measure consumer awareness of cosmetic products about ethical consumption. Especially for animal-loving consumers, the fact that animals are not harmed as a result of their consumption is of great importance when making a purchase decision. There are important studies in the literature on ethical consumption and cosmetics, but it has been observed that the impact of animal welfare on the purchasing behavior of ethical consumers has not been fully explored. The study aims to fill this gap in the literature. The study used the questionnaire method, which is one of the tools for collecting quantitative data. The study universe consists of male and female consumers over the age of 18 who purchase beauty products residing in Turkey. Participants were contacted via email and social media and informed about the study, and 397 people participated in the study. Data received; chi-square analysis, frequency analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and path analysis were used and analyzed using the SPSS and AMOS package programs.According to results from structural equation modeling, it was found that the importance consumers place on ethical behavior has a positive effect on both their intentions to reward and their intentions to punish. It has been observed that consumer concern for the environment positively influences the intention to punish companies and negatively influences the intention to reward. In addition, it has been understood that the majority of consumers have information about the logo showing that the cosmetic product is recyclable and the logo that is directly related to animal health.