Title: Consumer perception regarding the ethics of online retailing: a review, synthesis, and future research directions

Authors: Saptarshi Bhattacharya; Rajendra Prasad Sharma; Ashish Gupta

Addresses: Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), Delhi and Kolkata, India ' Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), Delhi and Kolkata, India ' Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), Delhi and Kolkata, India

Abstract: The study is a systematically structured review of the academic literature on consumer perception regarding the ethics of online retailing (CPEOR). It analyses the thematic research developments during the last two decades. The authors reviewed quality papers published in eight academically recognised business management databases and classified the CPEOR literature in five broad areas, i.e., ethical issues related to marketing strategy, website dimensions on online retailing ethics, online consumer decision making, consumers' perceptions of online retailer's ethics, and the consumer characteristics influencing ethical/unethical consumption. A thorough analysis of research papers establishes that CPEOR influences customer behaviour and e-retailer performance. The proposed framework depicts the antecedents and consequences as potential themes for future studies. Due to limitations of empirical validation, future researchers can test the proposed framework. The generalisation of CPEOR study findings offers valuable insights to the online retail managers and researchers with directions for further research.

Keywords: CPEOR; online retailing; ethics; privacy; security; consumer perception; systematic literature review.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEMR.2024.136981

International Journal of Electronic Marketing and Retailing, 2024 Vol.15 No.2, pp.181 - 202

Received: 25 Sep 2021
Accepted: 16 Jan 2022
Published online: 01 Mar 2024 *

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