Does Corporate Ethical Behavior Affect Relationships with their Brands? Influence ofEthical Consumer Perception on Consumers' Trust, Commitment and Loyalty

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to verify the influences of Ethical Perception in the loyalty of consumers was developed this study. Methodology: Focus groups were conducted to explore the dimensions of PEC in the context of the market under study. Then, a laboratory experiment was carried out with 270 respondents, in order to verify how ethical behavior of a corporation affects the confidence, commitment and loyalty of its consumers. An integrative hypothetical model was tested through structural equation modeling Main results: The results showed that the model was able to explain 70.3% of loyalty. Ethical behavior strongly affected the trust, and significantly, and in less impact the commitment. The results indicate that the trinomial ethics-trust-commitment works in an integrated way in ethical situations fostering loyalty. Academic contributions: Considering stimuli linked to ethics, it is observed that they are generators (or reducers) in particular of trust. Trust is a sense of security held by the customer in their interaction with the brand and is based on the perceptions that the brand is trustworthy and responsible for the interests and well-being of the consumer. In this sense, the main contributions of this work are the inclusion of ethics in the nomological chain of business loyalty, as well as indicating its impact on trust and commitment. Practical contributions: Trust is significantly affected by ethical perceptions, presenting an assertion to managers that their actions are accompanied by consumers and they must take swift action to contain any problems of unethical perception, the company must be honest with the client, respond to glitches quickly. Ethical attitudes are perceived by consumers as advancements and generate confidence and commitment of the same, so brands must be attentive in the execution and dissemination of their ethical actions towards consumers, the environment and corruption.