Ethical consumption in Iceland. Results from an exploratory study in consumer awareness

Abstract

Ethical consumption has been defined as “the conscious and deliberate decision to make certain consumption choices due to personal moral beliefs and values” (Crane & Matten, 2007). Human rights, labour relations, land rights, environmental sustainability and animal welfare are the best known issues that ethical consumers have brought to the fore. Even though the diffusion of pro- environmental and more sustainable consumption choices is significant from a social, political and ecological point of view, ethical consumption is still an understudied field (Bray, et al., 2011; Newholm & Shaw, 2007). This is particularly true in Iceland. Studies on Icelandic consumers’ ethics are still scarce, despite the country’s high levels of consumption. Iceland was recently identified as the country with the highest ecological footprint in the world (Sigurður E. Jóhannesson, 2010). Our study aims at bringing a needed insight into the status and definition of ethical consumption in Iceland. We will present results from a survey on ethical concerns among Icelandic consumers. Ethical concerns were assessed through an internet survey. The questionnaire was in Icelandic and it was online for a month, between May and June 2012. The respondents (N = 425) were chosen through snowballing and self-selection sampling. The results are presently being analysed.