This paper builds on existing research investigating CSR and ethical consumption within luxury contexts, and makes several contributions to the literature. First, it addresses existing knowledge gaps by exploring the ways in which consumers perform ethical luxury purchases of fine jewellery through interpretive research. Second, the paper is the first to examine such issues of consumer ethics by extending the application of theories of practice to a luxury product context, and by building on Magaudda’s :15–36, 2011) circuit of practice framework. (...) This is significant in that, to date, consumer research using practice theories has focused mainly on routine and habitual practices. Our findings and discussion provide an analysis of intentional and less intentional ethical consumer performances within the interconnected nexus of activities of consumers’ fine jewellery consumption practice, where meanings, understandings and intelligibility of social phenomena are worked through the various activities that shape such a practice. Finally, the paper concludes with significant managerial and policy-related implications, as our extended circuit of practice analysis conveys that if ethics and sustainability dimensions are to be embedded in fine jewellery consumption practice, they must first be made an intrinsic part of the nexus of the social and material environment of trading and consumption places. (shrink)

Despite a growing population of older people, traditional prejudices against age continue to flourish in society. The media in particular are often guilty of ageism, persistently focusing upon the ‘youth market’, and advertisers are particular offenders. By ignoring older people, or using them as caricatures, the advertising industry not only violates its ethical responsibilities to this group within the community, but also overlooks the commercial opportunity presented by the new generation of older consumers. The article presents research into UK print (...) media which shows that older people tend not to be featured in advertisements in mainstream publications, but are prominent in advertisements in publications for the over‐fifties. The issues this raises in terms of the duty of advertisers to respect the rights of older people are discussed, along with the commercial imperative to provide more appropriate images of older people in UK advertising. (shrink)

Despite a growing population of older people, traditional prejudices against age continue to flourish in society. The media in particular are often guilty of ageism, persistently focusing upon the ‘youth market’, and advertisers are particular offenders. By ignoring older people, or using them as caricatures, the advertising industry not only violates its ethical responsibilities to this group within the community, but also overlooks the commercial opportunity presented by the new generation of older consumers. The article presents research into UK print (...) media which shows that older people tend not to be featured in advertisements in mainstream publications, but are prominent in advertisements in publications for the over‐fifties. The issues this raises in terms of the duty of advertisers to respect the rights of older people are discussed, along with the commercial imperative to provide more appropriate images of older people in UK advertising. (shrink)

Sport sponsorship is a growth area which is under‐researched yet which displays opportunities and threats for both sponsor and sport, as well as having important ethical implications. If sponsorship funding is to be attracted, sports need to supply evidence of the opportunities for sponsors; yet “sport also needs to ensure that the negative aspects of sponsorship are reduced and the positive encouraged.” Marylyn Carrigan has a background in banking and export marketing and is currently Lecturer in Marketing and International Marketing (...) at the Business School, The University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, England, where she also researches the areas of Corporate Philanthropy and Sport and Leisure Marketing. Her husband worked in industry before graduating in Sports Studies and Business, and currently works as a Youth Worker for the City of Birmingham Department of Leisure and Community Services with research interests in Sport and the 50+ leisure market. (shrink)

Sport sponsorship is a growth area which is under‐researched yet which displays opportunities and threats for both sponsor and sport, as well as having important ethical implications. If sponsorship funding is to be attracted, sports need to supply evidence of the opportunities for sponsors; yet “sport also needs to ensure that the negative aspects of sponsorship are reduced and the positive encouraged.” Marylyn Carrigan has a background in banking and export marketing and is currently Lecturer in Marketing and International Marketing (...) at the Business School, The University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, England, where she also researches the areas of Corporate Philanthropy and Sport and Leisure Marketing. Her husband worked in industry before graduating in Sports Studies and Business, and currently works as a Youth Worker for the City of Birmingham Department of Leisure and Community Services with research interests in Sport and the 50+ leisure market. (shrink)

Just as socially irresponsible organizational behavior leaves a punitive legacy on society, socially responsible organizations can foster curative change. This article examines whether small organizations can foster societal change toward more sustainable modes of living. We contend that consumption is deeply intertwined with social relations and norms, thus making individual behavioral change toward sustainability a matter of facilitating change in individual behavior, as well as in social norms and relations between organizations and consumers. We argue that it is in this (...) facilitation process that small firms can play a major role, by adopting upstream and downstream approaches to diffuse behavioral change. By synthesizing four key strands of literature -small businesses and corporate social responsibility, ethical consumption, community social marketing, and the diffusion of innovation — and using the exemplar case of Modbury, the iconic "plastic bag-free" town, we demonstrate how responsible small firms can influence communities, and the individuals therein, to encourage environmentally sustainable practice to diffuse and support change in society. (shrink)