ABSTRACT

Mafia stereotypes referring to Sicilian organized crime organization have been used by some businesses to market their product or services. Although these practices are not unethical, the use of these stereotypes is questionable considering the history behind this criminal organization, that is responsible for hundreds of killings. So far, research has not studied consumers’ perceptions toward these products and services, their willingness to buy them, and the rationale behind their decision as to whether to buy them or not. As such, this paper aims to fill this gap in scholarly literature. This research was carried out through a concurrent parallel mixed method, based on a survey of 152 British consumers recruited through Prolific. This study suggests that even products that are not deemed to be unethical could promote “political” reactions from consumers. However, additional research is required to understand political consumerism choices related to these products and services.

摘要

一些企业已使用黑手党刻板印象来指代西西里有组织犯罪组织，以推销其产品或服务。尽管这些做法并非不道德，但考虑到这个犯罪组织背后的历史，这种成见是可疑的，该犯罪组织造成数百起杀戮。到目前为止，研究还没有研究消费者对这些产品和服务的看法，他们购买商品的意愿以及他们决定是否购买这些商品和服务的依据。因此，本文旨在填补学术文献中的这一空白。这项研究是通过并行并行混合方法进行的，该方法基于对通过Prolific招募的152名英国消费者的调查。这项研究表明，即使不被认为是不道德的产品也可以促进消费者的“政治”反应。但是，还需要进行其他研究才能了解与这些产品和服务相关的政治消费主义选择。