Ethical Awareness of Seller’s Behavior in Consumer-to-Consumer Electronic Commerce: Applying the Multidimensional Ethics Scale

Consumer-to-consumer electronic commerce (C2C e-commerce) has opened the possibility of consumers completing more transactions with each other. It has also introduced the ability for consumers to behave unethically. This study examines an individual’s ethical awareness of a seller’s behavior in C2C e-commerce situations by applying the multidimensional ethics scale (with measures for moral equity, relativism, egoism, utilitarianism, and contractualism). The study surveys undergraduate business students in four different C2C e-commerce situations and finds relativism to influence ethical awareness in all scenarios. Egoism is found to influence ethical awareness in three scenarios and contractualism in one scenario, and utilitarianism is not found to be an influence in any scenario. The findings from this study suggest that sellers in C2C e-commerce should conduct transactions based on what is culturally and socially acceptable (i.e., relativism), but also consider the importance of one’s reputation (i.e., egoism), and written or perceived contracts (i.e., contractualism).