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Journal of Business Ethics
Published in: Journal of Business Ethics 2/2019

22-05-2017 | Original Paper

Perceived Ethical Leadership Affects Customer Purchasing Intentions Beyond Ethical Marketing in Advertising Due to Moral Identity Self-Congruence Concerns

Authors: Niels Van Quaquebeke, Jan U. Becker, Niko Goretzki, Christian Barrot

Published in: Journal of Business Ethics | Issue 2/2019

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Abstract

Ethical leadership has so far mainly been featured in the organizational behavior domain and, as such, treated as an intra-organizational phenomenon. The present study seeks to highlight the relevance of ethical leadership for extra-organizational phenomena by combining the organizational behavior perspective on ethical leadership with a classical marketing approach. In particular, we demonstrate that customers may use perceived ethical leadership cues as additional reference points when forming purchasing intentions. In two experimental studies (N = 601 and N = 336), we find that ethical leadership positively affects purchasing intentions because of customers’ concerns for moral self-congruence. We show this by means of both mediation and moderation analyses. Interestingly, the effect of perceived ethical leadership on purchasing intentions holds over and above the ethical advertising claims (e.g., cause-related marketing) that are commonly used in marketing. We conclude by discussing the possible ramifications of ethical leadership beyond its effects on immediate employees.
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Metadata
Title
Perceived Ethical Leadership Affects Customer Purchasing Intentions Beyond Ethical Marketing in Advertising Due to Moral Identity Self-Congruence Concerns
Authors
Niels Van Quaquebeke
Jan U. Becker
Niko Goretzki
Christian Barrot
Publication date
22-05-2017
Publisher
Springer Netherlands
Published in
Journal of Business Ethics / Issue 2/2019
Print ISSN: 0167-4544
Electronic ISSN: 1573-0697
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-017-3577-4

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