Drawing on moral philosophy and cognitive dissonance theory, this paper examines how consumer idealism and egoism influence consumer culpability and how culpability shapes boycott and moral decoupling in response to corporate social irresponsibility (CSI) in China's fast fashion market. The moderating role of perceived benefits is also considered.
Survey data were collected from 324 Chinese consumers and analysed using partial least squares–structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) to test the proposed relationships among idealism, egoism, consumer culpability, boycott, moral decoupling and perceived benefits.
Idealism positively predicts consumer culpability, whereas egoism negatively predicts it. Consumer culpability increases boycott and decreases moral decoupling. Perceived benefits significantly moderate these relationships. Specifically, perceived benefits weaken the positive relationship between consumer culpability and boycott and weaken the negative relationship between consumer culpability and moral decoupling. These findings suggest that consumers' moral beliefs and perceived benefits jointly shape whether they respond to CSI through boycott or through moral decoupling.
This study extends existing work by jointly modelling consumer culpability, boycott intention, moral decoupling and perceived benefits within a single framework in the labour-related fast fashion CSI context. Consumer culpability serves as a mechanism linking ethical ideology to both punitive and non-punitive consumer responses, while perceived benefits help explain why some consumers morally decouple and continue purchasing despite awareness of CSI.
