Sohn, Michele Esther Delis2011-06-152011-06-152011-06-15http://hdl.handle.net/10539/10125MBA - WBSIn developed markets a growing number of consumers expect business organisations to take responsibility for their impact on society as a whole. This research investigated the applicability of these first world concerns to South African consumers. A statically significant sample of 171 respondents was asked to define the term ethical consumerism and to identify the ethical issues that they considered when evaluating which organisations to buy from and which to boycott. The qualitative data was subjected to content and cluster analysis, to determine if certain types of respondents share clearly identifiable concerns and if it is possible to segment the market into definite market segments. Chi-squared goodness of fit tests were used to determine if any demographic variables have strong correlations to these market segments. The research found clear evidence of an ethical market and that marketers are able to segment this ethical market into segments of sets of ethical concerns. Income, gender, province can be used as demographic segmentation tools to reach these segments. The relevance to marketers is that companies who adopt ethical initiatives may have market advantage over those who do notenEthicsConsumer behaviourThesis