Ethics and Public Policy Implications of Research on Consumer Well-Being

This essay provides an overview of research programs related to consumer well-being (CWB) and discusses the ethics perspectives and public policy implications of the programs. The author groups CWB research programs into five ethics perspectives: (1) ethics of consumer sovereignty, (2) duty ethics of nonmaleficence, (3) ethics of stakeholder theory, (4) ethics of social justice, and (5) ethics of human development and quality of life. Ethical guidelines and public policy implications are then logically deduced to assist professional and industry associations in setting CWB standards, to train member organizations to develop and implement programs to enhance CWB, and to monitor the extent to which the entire profession or industry is contributing to society through CWB. These ethical guidelines can also help government institutions and nongovernmental organizations create public policies to ensure that institutions deliver higher levels of CWB.