Consumer ethics in vietnam: Do age, gender and education make a difference?

Little has been done on the ethical beliefs of consumers in Vietnam, an emerging economy in South East Asia. Vietnam has transformed itself to become an attractive destination for foreign investment which results in increasing consumer spending. However, it also has to face serious consumers’ unethical issues such as intellectual copyright, shoplifting and collusion. The purpose of this study is to examine whether age, gender and level of education make a difference in the ethical beliefs of consumers in Vietnam. Ethical beliefs of consumers consist of four attitudes: actively benefiting from illegal actions (active, illegal), passively benefiting at the expense of the seller (passive), actively benefiting from questionable but legal actions (active, legal), and no harm, no foul actions. An analysis of 390 Vietnamese consumers has resulted in many significant findings. First of all, age appears to be a significant factor in three of the four attitudes except (active, illegal). Second, gender is only a significant factor in (active, legal) and (passive) attitudes. Finally, education level is the only factor that makes a difference in all of the four ethical attitudes of consumers. In this study, literature on consumer ethics is presented along with implications and recommendations for academic scholars, practitioners and the like.