The effect of evolving resource synergy beliefs on the intentions – behavior discrepancy in ethical consumption

Consumers are less likely to buy ethical products than their stated intentions in marketplace polls, due at least in part to the distinct temporal frames guiding their poll responses versus actual purchase decisions. We propose that as consumers' beliefs about the synergy between the resources a firm devotes to their ethical and functional attributes evolve, as part of the broader ethical marketing/corporate social responsibility movement, from negative to positive, this discrepancy between intentions and behavior is likely to disappear. Two studies provide support for this basic contention, implicating the importance consumers ascribe to a brand's ethical attribute as the driver of the temporal frame- and resource synergy beliefs-based differences in their preference for that brand.