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Religion in Consumer Behavior Research: A Systematic Literature Review

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Eurasian Business and Economics Perspectives

Part of the book series: Eurasian Studies in Business and Economics ((EBES,volume 20))

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to systematically examine how religion is reflected in scholarly articles regarding consumer behavior research over the year 2010–2019. A total of 36 academic articles was content analyzed to show marketing scholars’ findings of religion as a moderating variable in consumer research. Three main groups were identified in which interest in religion increased significantly: Religion, Religiosity and Purchase Behavior, Religion and Consumer Ethics and Religion and Sustainable Consumption. Evidence suggests that religion, in most cases, influences consumption in specific contexts. Most of the articles analyzed on Religion, Religiosity and Purchase Behavior show an influence on the relationship between religion, religiosity, and purchasing behavior. The results of the analyzed articles on Religion and Consumer Ethics showed that the influential relationship between religion and consumer ethics is questionable. Most articles have revealed that religion has a dual effect on consumer ethics, depending on the internal and external religiosity of consumers. Most of the observed articles on Religion and Sustainable Consumption have shown that religion influences sustainable consumption. In general, religion and religiosity have been found to influence purchasing behavior as well as consumer ethics and sustainable consumption.

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Correspondence to Vytautė Šmakova .

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Šmakova, V., Piligrimienė, Ž. (2021). Religion in Consumer Behavior Research: A Systematic Literature Review. In: Bilgin, M.H., Danis, H., Demir, E., Karabulut, G. (eds) Eurasian Business and Economics Perspectives. Eurasian Studies in Business and Economics, vol 20. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85304-4_11

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