The Role of Moral Deficiency in Moral Consumption Behavior - The Implicit and Explicit Approaches: An Empirical Study from Indonesia*

This research aims to investigate the relationship between moral deficiency and moral consumption. Consumers’ moral values cannot be separated from their consumption activities. In other words, consumers’ spending preferences may be an expression of their beliefs about what is right and wrong. A less explored concept within moral consumption behavior theory is ‘moral deficiency’. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first research effort to integrate green purchasing and religious purchasing under the banner of moral consumption behavior. There are two studies: Study 1 aimed to measure the moral deficiency of participants through moral scenarios (implicit) and then test its relationship with the green purchase and religious purchase, two proxies of moral consumption. A total of 121 universities were chosen via the nonprobability sampling method. To improve the results of the prior study, Study 2 aimed to measure the moral deficiency of participants through moral deficiency self-report (explicit) and then test its effects on green purchase and religious purchase. A total of 208 participants from the general public were recruited via the nonprobability sampling method. The findings of the two studies suggest that participants with high moral deficiency showed more intention to engage in moral consumption behavior.