This study analyzed the effects of fashion consumers’ moral identity and empathy propensity on ethical consumption attitude and donation behavior, and the effect of ethical consumption attitude on donation behavior. The survey was conducted on consumers over the 20s who experienced the donation of fashion products, 384 responses were used for data analysis. The result showed that the internality and symbolism of moral identity had a positive effect on ethical consumption attitudes. The all factors of empathy propensity positively affected eco-friendly oriented consumption, and cognitive empathy and social empathy positively affected boycott oriented consumption. The cognitive empathy, social empathy and relational empathy positively affected community oriented consumption and practice oriented consumption. Furthermore, social empathy and relational empathy positively affected recycling oriented consumption. The eco-friendly, boycott, community, and recycling oriented consumption positively affected temporal donation. The all factors of ethical consumption attitude positively affected emotional donation, and eco-friendly, community, recycling, and practice oriented consumption positively affected material donations. The internality and symbolism of moral identity positively affected temporal and emotional donation, and the symbolism except internality positively affected material donation. The cognitive empathy, social empathy and relational empathy positively affected the temporal donation and material donation. In addition, the all factors of empathy propensity positively affected emotional donation. The results of this study will contribute to the ethical product strategy, marketing, and sustainable development of the fashion industry.

This study explores the effect of moral identity on attitude toward and purchase intention of upcycled fashion products by comparing purchasers and non-purchasers. Data from 127 purchasers and 307 non-purchasers collected through a survey was analyzed using descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis, model invariance check, and multiple-group comparison tests using Amos 23.0. Results indicate consumers with purchase experiences of upcycled fashion products showed a higher level of moral identity (internalization and symbolization), positive attitude toward upcycled fashion products, and purchase intention than did consumers with no purchase experience. In model tests, internalization affected attitude toward purchasing upcycled fashion products, whereas symbolization affected purchase intention, regardless of purchase experience. The effect of symbolization on purchase intention was consistent with prior studies focusing on charity behaviors that are highly visible to others. These findings demonstrate that fashion products are visible and symbolic, so it should be carefully considered in ethical consumption studies. From these results, researchers may obtain insights on the process of how consumers apply moral identity to their purchase intention regarding upcycled fashion products. Likewise, marketers may enhance satisfaction of consumers with a high level of symbolization by putting special tags and logos that clearly highlight the products’ upcycled nature.

Over the past two decades, consumer moralism, or moralism about consumption in a broad sense, has received much academic attention in answer to the growing concern for fair-trade, corporate social responsibility, environmental sustainability, and other anti-consumption initiatives and movements (McGregor, 2006; Newholm and Shaw, 2007). This theoretical trajectory not only pay attention to how everyday consumption practice is shaped by and help shape certain sorts of ethical dispositions (Clive et al., 2005), but it also extends to the understanding of the intertwined relationship between morality, consumption, and consumers’ identity narratives (Thompson, 2011). While previous research has focused on understanding moral consumption as a politically and morally motivated collective practice (Luedicke et al., 2010; Thompson, 2007), limited research has been done on revealing how personal moral identity project institutionalize and contest the socio-cultural power structure through ascribing social meanings in consumption practice to legitimatize seemingly unethical behavior in the marketplace (Brace-Govan and Binary, 2010). This research concerned the creation and negotiation of moralistic identities among a group of young consumers in Hong Kong who engaged in counterfeit consumption. We focused on how consumers strategically appropriate moralistic meanings in their everyday counterfeit consumption, in which their identity work utilized these ‘alternative’ market resources to echoed with, or even reproduce, the entrenched Chinses social relationships and marketplace ideological conditions (Giesler and Veresiu, 2014; Luedicke et al., 2010).

본 연구는 윤리적 리더십이 구성원들의 조직시민행동에 미치는 영향력을 살펴보고 이들 사이의 관계에서 도덕적 정체성이 매개역할을 수행하고 있다는 것을 검증하고자 한다. 여러 연구들에서 윤리적 리더십의 영향력이 규명되었으나 어떠한 과정으로 결과변수에 영향력이 나타나는 지를 규명하는 것은 이론적으로 무척 중요하다. 조직시민행동은 Williams와 Anderson(1991)의 연구를 토대로 개인, 조직에 대한 조직시민행동으로 구분하였으며 도덕적 정체성은 Aquino & Reed Ⅱ(2002)의 연구에 기반하여 내재화와 상징화로 구분하였다. 연구가설의 설정은 주효과 가설과 매개효과 가설로 설정하였다. 분석결과를 요약하면 다음과 같다. 첫째, 윤리적 리더십은 구성원들의 조직시민행동을 높이는 것으로 나타났다. 둘째, 도덕적 정체성은 윤리적 리더십이 조직시민행동에 미치는 영향력에 있어서 매개역할을 수행하는 것으로 나타났다. 결과적으로 윤리적 리더십은 구성원들의 조직시민행동을 증가시키는 있으므로 조직시민행동의 중요한 선행변수라는 것을 알 수 있었다. 무엇보다 윤리적 리더십 발휘가 구성원들의 조직시민행동을 높이는데 있어서 구성원들의 도덕적 정체성을 향상시키고 향상된 도덕적 정체성을 통해 조직시민행동으로 이어진다는 것을 알 수 있었다. 결국 구성원들의 도덕적 정체성 형성이 중요하며 이러한 도덕적 정체성 형성이 이루어져야만 윤리적 리더십이 조직시민행동을 높일 수 있다는 것을 규명하였다는 점에서 본 연구의 의의를 찾을 수 있다.