817322622-PHD Research Proposal-Revised

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The Influence of Ethical Marketing on Customer Experience 1 PROPOSAL RESEARCH ON THE IMPACT OF ETHICAL MARKETING ON CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE AND SUSTAINABILITY By (Name) Course Tutor University City, State where it is located Date

The Influence of Ethical Marketing on Customer Experience 2 1. Introduction This PhD research proposal flows directly out of the research dissertation of my master’s dissertation in “Evaluating Customer-Centricity and its impact on Business through Loyalty, Trust, and Satisfaction.” Today’s business environment encompasses companies that are increasingly identifying the importance of incorporating ethical marketing to determine the influence of ethical marketing practices over the entire strategies of the businesses that involve customer interactions and how they can be sustained within the same business systems. Now that in my master’s dissertation, I looked at customer-centricity in detail, I will be discovering the benefits of ethical marketing such as building trust and credibility with customers, compliance with laws and regulations, and attracting and retaining customers, together with how companies can improve brand reputation and customer loyalty, as well as the general bottom line while contributing to a sustainable future for all. The proposed Ph.D. research paper will be filling the gap in the literature by investigating conflicting views on the relationship between customer experience and brand reputation by researching further on the influence of ethical marketing and how it leads to long-term customer relations. The research will be evaluating arguments from scholars Lemon and Verhoef (2016) who perceive consumer experiences as a complex concept that involves a customer’s thoughts, feelings, actions, senses, and social interactions with a company’s products or services throughout their buying process (ethical conduct) and Becker and Jaakkola whose idea of customer experience; rather, is linked to the reactions and responses to managerial stimuli, such as those that are brand-related, like logos, advertising, and packaging, as well as the consumption processes. Therefore, such literature call for research on the influence companies have on the customer experience, that is, it is because of the ethical consideration in marketing or simply

The Influence of Ethical Marketing on Customer Experience 3 managing various stimuli, focusing on those the company controls (Becker and Jaakkola, 2020). Such contradicting literature has helped in structuring the research problem and the research aim of the proposed PhD research study. 2. Research Problem Statement and Research Aim For this research proposal paper, the research problem to be investigated is whether the customer experience is primarily a result of ethical conduct in marketing or is it a result of managerial reaction and response to the stimuli as presented by Becker and Jaakkola in the literature. Hence, the aim of this research proposal is to empirically describe, outline, and explain how ethical marketing influences the experience of the customers and sustainability by promoting sustainable consumption through education and training to the consumers about the environmental and social advantages associated with the products that they buy every day or simply they are about to buy. Hence, customers will be motivated to make more sustainable purchasing which leads to long-term customer relations. Section 3 of this research proposal has offered the literature review followed by the identification of the research gap and the research objectives in section 4. Section 5 explains how the proposed research contributes to existing literature. The research methodology and ethical considerations are outlined in sections 6 and 7, respectively. 3. Literature Review Experiences and Sustainability in the Society Societal experience entails the way individuals and groups interpret or comprehend their experiences in relation to the existing norms and values of their culture and it may include how

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The Influence of Ethical Marketing on Customer Experience 4 communities perceive their experiences, the expectations and stereotypes that shape those experiences, as well as the social and political contexts that influence them. The experience of humans is distinct from that of other organisms, as it is influenced by factors such as consciousness, attention, and focus (Van Boxtel et al., 2010). When the same event occurs, different communities within the society may have different experiences based on their individual perspectives and understanding of the world. It is unlikely that society will have the same experience. On the other hand, sustainability in its broadest sense is the ability to maintain or continue a process over an extended period. In the context of business and policy, it aims to preserve natural and physical resources to ensure they remain accessible in the long run (Mollenkamp, 2016). The field of cognitive psychology suggests that individuals in a particular society tend to rely on mental shortcuts, called heuristics, to make judgments and decisions which might not be the same when it comes to customer experiences and sustainability because such heuristics can lead to biases and errors in judgment (Raab et al., 2019). For example, the tendency to discount information that contradicts societal preconceptions. Research in cognitive psychology has shown that people may struggle to understand and take action on abstract or distant environmental problems, instead they respond more positively to local and immediate issues (Dahlstrand and Biel, 1997). Therefore, making the connection between customer experiences and sustainability more concrete and relatable can aid in the societal understanding of the significance of their actions and inspire communities to engage in sustainable behaviours (Sharafutdinova et al., 2021; Lafrenière, 2019). Thus, how society perceives and responds to the information regarding their experiences and sustainability is mainly explained by cognitive psychology and provides literature that is understandable and can

The Influence of Ethical Marketing on Customer Experience 5 be acted upon. Hence, different communities within the society create distinct feelings about a certain brand reputation where some are tied to the ethical presentation particular brand while others are believe it all depends with the size, design and consumption perspective. Customer Experiences and Sustainability in Ethical Marketing Ethical marketing encompasses marketing activities in a manner that is morally and socially responsible and advocates for transparency, truth, sustainability and fairness in all marketing communications so as to avoid any practices that might be exploitative, misleading, and deceptive (Baker, 2019). According to Lemon and Verhoef (2016), the argument is that constructs within ethical marketing, such as trust and commitment, are related to customer experience and can affect a customer's future interactions with a company. These scholars suggest that the experiences of the consumer occur within a multidimensional construct that encompasses the aspects of cognition, behaviour, and emotion (Dwayne Ball and Tasaki, 1992). They emphasized the importance of considering the entire customer journey, not just a single touchpoint, in understanding customer experience (Lemon and Verhoef, 2016; Bhatia & Priya, 2021). Commitment, which is a measure of the customer's connection with a company, is typically a result of their experience while trust is an overall evaluation of a company's reliability and goodwill, which is not directly related to the experiences by the consumers in their particular journey (Lemon and Verhoef, 2016). The idea of customer experience shares particular concepts with that of customer engagement in that it actively involves the customer reaching out to and interacting with a company in terms of both attitude and behaviour (Wereda and Grzybowska, 2016). Such interactions occur along the customer journey and can lead to certain response from

The Influence of Ethical Marketing on Customer Experience 6 the consumers such as social responses, emotional responses, behavioural responses and cognitive responses. Consequently, customer engagement is a vital aspect of the overall customer experience and can be seen as specific touchpoints within the customer journey when marketing is built on critical marketing communications (Angerer and Eickenberg, 2022). When a brand experience stimulates and activates multiple senses, it can lead to customers forming strong and deep connections with the brand. This is because the cognitive associations they make with the brand are retained in their memory more effectively (Yoganathan et al., 2019). Gulden and Moestue (2011) present the concept of activation as an illustration of how individuals are more likely to consider different actions when their behavioural or cognitive patterns are influenced and it is achieved through active communication of values, for instance, by asking questions related to an upcoming experience. For example, if a person is asked about their attitude towards eco-labeled products, it increases their likelihood of purchasing such products regardless of their initial attitude. In addition, research in the field of influence psychology has shown that when people are open to different behaviors, providing information about what others do in similar situations can lead to them considering similar actions, particularly when the majority or those in positions of authority are involved (Gulden and Moestue, 2011). In contrast, Becker and Jaakkola (2020) offer a different perception regarding how the customer experience should be influenced besides ethical marketing. These two scholars suggest that the experience of the consumer invokes certain spontaneous reactions and responses which are non-deliberate towards particular stimuli (Becker and Jaakkola, 2020, p. 637). Verhoef suggests that customer experience is not just a passive response to stimuli but it also involves the

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The Influence of Ethical Marketing on Customer Experience 7 active engagement of the customer it is not just a single point of evaluation rather it involves several touchpoints and interactions. Customer experience is not just a measure of satisfaction or perceived service quality (Laksana and Yudhiantoro, 2019). Therefore, following the contradicting literature on the two opposing authors on whether the customer experience is influenced by ethical behaviour in marketing or the reaction and response to the stimuli the research will utilize the multidimensional constructs presented by Verhoef and the idea of Beckker and Jaakkola and formulate credible research that integrates evidence from other researches to express the influence of ethical marketing on the customer’s experience. 4. Research gap and research objectives Ethical marketing encompasses looking into the trends as well as the behaviour of the customers and discovering any predispositions that can assist in influencing purchases. Ethical marketing practices serve as enablers of the company to stay committed to integrity and honesty thereby establishing a strong and positive reputation hence, by linking it to customer experience it creates long-term loyalty while at the same attracting new consumers. However, there seems to exist a research gap of the proposed Ph.D. because this research paper ought to investigate the contradicting literature separate authors regarding customer experience first while at the same time identifying how ethical marketing has an influence on the customer experience and sustainability as well as future sustainability which incorporates multidimensional constructs that involve cognitive, emotional, and behavioural aspects while extending the research onto how stimuli alienate from other scholarly researches (Crul, 2006). The research proposal will use the following research objectives: A. Empirical investigation of the impact of ethical marketing on the experiences of individual consumers.

The Influence of Ethical Marketing on Customer Experience 8 B. Examining multiple disciplines on how they approach the concept of experiences encountered by the consumers within the field of ethical marketing because several disciplines present different concepts and evidence which can be compared regarding their legitimacy as well as how they fare in assisting marketers to gain inspiration for constructing new research questions and methods. Systematic literature will assist in increasing the validity and reliability of the research by highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of previous research. C. Generate outcomes following the systematic literature review together with the qualitative study so as to describe, outline and explain the aspects of the customer experience within ethical marketing. D. Provide the relationship between multidimensional constructs and stimuli of response and reaction when explaining the influence of socially responsible marketing on the customers’ experiences using quantitative measurements that will undergo empirical testing upon the improvised scales with respect to how they affect consumer experiences will be carried out after the project. 5. Implications of the study for the marketing literature This research proposal aims to explain customers’ experience and sustainability within the literature on ethical marketing by first examining the contradictory theory between separate scholars. the research offers an interpretative and explanatory nature as well as several other opportunities for future research in terms of both concept validation and theory development within the aspect of customer experience. In fact, more research will be able to refine and elaborate further on novel findings. The literature that has been presented about customer experiences by separate scholars does not provide firm insight into the marketers which is about to be provided in the research

The Influence of Ethical Marketing on Customer Experience 9 project. Thus, by utilising the multidimensional constructs as well as the reaction and response stimuli and the consumption perspectives it will be easier to explain the impact of ethical marketing on the customers’ experience while revealing other research works by different authors that integrate the idea of cognitive psychology in expounding the actual information. The current research will undertake and address the cognitive, emotional, and behavioural aspects and reflect them on customer experiences and expectations. However, this research invites further examination of multiple ethical marketing strategies that can validate their impact on customer experiences. Further research is vital and can be used in shedding light on the customer’s experience and what can be done to diversify the idea of ethical marketing. 6. Methodology The research intends to use a mixed methods study that will integrate the qualitative and bibliometric methods and it will consist of four parts: Research Objective A : this is where the inductive qualitative research will involve 65 customers so as to investigate their perspective towards ethical marketing the multidimensional constructs and then thematically analyse the research outcome (Azungah, 2018). Research Objective B: the bibliometric systematic literature will be employed so as to review the perceptions of other disciplines regarding the customer experience within ethical marketing (Linnenluecke et al., 2019). Research Objective C : will encompass both qualitative study and synthesising of the bibliometric literature review to shed light on the two contradicting types of research about customer experience. Research Objective D : after the qualitative outcome the measurement scales will be modified for the quantitative testing.

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The Influence of Ethical Marketing on Customer Experience 10 The project timetable for the study is three years as listed below. 1 st Year April- Jun Jul-Sept Oct-Dec Jan-March Revisiting the proposal/ethical approval Systematic bibliographic literature view Analysis Conclusions and implications for a qualitative study Supervisory meeting (start of each month) 2 nd Year April- Jun Jul-Sept Oct-Dec Jan-March Design of inductive qualitative study Recruitment of research sample Start interviews Transcription Analysis Conclusions on construct Supervisory meeting (start of each month) 3 rd Year April- Jun Jul-Sept Oct-Dec Jan-March Analyse qualitative data for potential

The Influence of Ethical Marketing on Customer Experience 11 new measurement scale items. Design revised and new measurement scales Finalise scales for future testing 7. Ethical Consideration The research will abide by all the guidelines and ethical approval from the ethical committee where I will seek written consent from all individuals and organizations vital in conducting my research project. All the necessary measures will be applied to protect the information, including adherence to any organizational guidelines. Confidentiality, protection of participant information, and identification of participants will be given equal consideration and treated accordingly. The data collection process will not involve any sensitive or controversial topics, and will not involve children or vulnerable adults. References Angerer, T., & Eickenberg, V. 2022. Customer experience: Trust experience an human Touchpoints des Versicherungsvertriebs. Digitales Marketing und Management , 191- 247. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-38004-5_4

The Influence of Ethical Marketing on Customer Experience 12 Azungah, T. 2018. Qualitative research: Deductive and inductive approaches to data analysis. Qualitative Research Journal , 18 (4), 383- 400. https://doi.org/10.1108/qrj-d-18-00035 Baker, C. 2019. What is ethical marketing? BDJ In Practice , 32 (11), 20- 21. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41404-019-0218-x Becker, L., & Jaakkola, E. 2020. Customer experience: Fundamental premises and implications for research. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science , 48 (4), 630- 648. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-019-00718-x Bhatia, M., & Priya, P. 2021. The business case for customer experience: Ignoring customer experience is an expensive mistake. Crafting Customer Experience Strategy , 155- 174. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83909-710-220211009 Crul, M. R. 2006. Design for sustainability: A practical approach for developing economies . Dahlstrand, U., & Biel, A. 1997. Pro-environmental habits: Propensity levels in behavioral Change1. Journal of Applied Social Psychology , 27 (7), 588- 601. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.1997.tb00650.x Dwayne Ball, A., & Tasaki, L. H. 1992. The role and measurement of attachment in consumer behavior. Journal of Consumer Psychology , 1 (2), 155- 172. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1057-7408(08)80055-1 Gulden, T., & Moestue, C. 2011. Context of Experience: A Psychology-Based Design Tool, Towards sustainable Consumption Through Extending The product Lifetime. Diversity and Unity .

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The Influence of Ethical Marketing on Customer Experience 13 Iyengar, A., Gupta, P., & Priya, N. 2022. Inoculation against conspiracy theories: A consumer side approach to India's fake news problem. Applied Cognitive Psychology . https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3995 Lafrenière, D. 2019. Why is customer experience so important? Delivering Fantastic Customer Experience , 5-14. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429328091-2 Laksana, D. H., & Yudhiantoro, D. 2019. Effect of service quality and company image on customer loyalty through customer satisfaction at PT. POS Indonesia (Persero) Yogyakarta. Proceedings of the International Conference of Business, Economy, Entrepreneurship and Management . https://doi.org/10.5220/0009960601870192 Lemon, K. N., & Verhoef, P. C. 2016. Understanding customer experience throughout the customer journey. Journal of Marketing , 80 (6), 69- 96. https://doi.org/10.1509/jm.15.0420 Linnenluecke, M. K., Marrone, M., & Singh, A. K. 2019. Conducting systematic literature reviews and bibliometric analyses. Australian Journal of Management , 45 (2), 175- 194. https://doi.org/10.1177/0312896219877678 Mollenkamp, D. T. 2016, October 26. Sustainability definition . Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sustainability.asp Raab, M., MacMahon, C., Avugos, S., & Bar-Eli, M. 2019. Heuristics, biases, and decision making. Anticipation and Decision Making in Sport , 215- 231. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315146270-12 Sharafutdinova, K. G., Kulmamatova, F. K., & Haydarova, S. 2021. The role of cognitive psychology in the elimination of destructive behavior. ASIAN JOURNAL OF

The Influence of Ethical Marketing on Customer Experience 14 MULTIDIMENSIONAL RESEARCH , 10 (4), 957- 964. https://doi.org/10.5958/2278-4853.2021.00348.7 Van Boxtel, J. J., Tsuchiya, N., & Koch, C. 2010. Consciousness and attention: On sufficiency and necessity. Frontiers in Psychology , 1 . https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2010.00217 Wereda, W., & Grzybowska, M. 2016. Customer experience – does it matter? Modern Management Review . https://doi.org/10.7862/rz.2016.mmr.35 Yoganathan, V., Osburg, V., & Akhtar, P. 2019. Sensory stimulation for sensible consumption: Multisensory marketing for E-tailing of ethical brands. Journal of Business Research , 96 , 386-396. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.06.005

817322622-PHD Research Proposal-Revised

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