Commentary essay on “exploring origins of ethical company/brand perceptions — A consumer perspective of corporate ethics”

Brunk (2010) investigates consumerʹs perceptions of corporate ethics. The topic of the manuscript is an important one and congratulations to Brunk is due on a job well done. Particularly, a great job is done of delineating a comprehensive set of issues that may evoke un/ethical perceptions of corporations. Brunk (2010) set out to answer this question, “What are the business practices and transactions that are judged to be right or wrong and act as sources of un/favorable consumer perceived ethicality (CPE)?” Her research finds that consumers consider a variety of corporate ethical behaviors when making consumer decisions. This commentary essay develops some ideas for future research that can begin with the taxonomy for “Exploring Origins of Ethical Company/Brand Perceptions — A Consumer Perspective of Corporate Ethics.” A first thought when reading the article is to question how consumers know about ethical or unethical actions of corporations. Second, after reading this article, I began to envision a research stream that delineates CPE and consumer heuristics, as well as CPE and consumer neutralizations. Research can consider whether all ethical and unethical actions are equally treatable. Still further, once a company is perceived as unethical or having a shady past (e.g., connections to Nazis during WWII), what, if anything, can be done to change unfavorable CPE?