The effect of ethical and sustainability issues on consumer adoption of digital technology in the consumer purchasing journey

Poole, Adam

Abstract

Against a background of increasing use of digital technology in society including the retail sector, this developmental paper identifies a need for research into ethical and sustainability issues that affect an individual's decision to use digital technology as part of a purchasing journey. Research into technology acceptance is well established using models such as the Technology Acceptance Model (Davis, 1989), however much of that research focusses upon the benefits of using technology and ease of use and does not take account of ethical issues. Given increasing interest in ethical and sustainability issues, particularly amongst younger more socially aware generations, this could be problematic for businesses looking to benefit from the introduction of digital technology, and represents a gap in current knowledge, specifically what ethical issues affect an individual's choice to use a digital technology when purchasing a product or service, and how do those ethical issues effect that decision. This developmental paper represents the first step in filling that gap in our knowledge. Track: Marketing and Retail Word Count: 2517 (excluding abstract and references)

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: British Academy of Management 2020 Conference in the Cloud
• Start Date: Sep 2, 2020
• End Date: Sep 4, 2020
• Deposit Date: May 26, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: May 26, 2020
• Keywords: Ethics, Sustainability, Digital, Marketing, Consumer Journey
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/5997728
• Publisher URL: https://www.bam.ac.uk/civicrm/event/info?id=3638