Consumers'willingness to pay for ethical consumption initiatives on e-commerce platforms

Despite China's fast-growing e-commerce and its great achievement in promoting poverty alleviation through consumption,little is known about Chinese consumers'online ethical consumption.Using the payment card elicitation method,this paper designs a within-subject survey and a between-subject survey to investigate Chinese consumers'quality perception and preference for apples from poverty-stricken areas.The results show that before"information shock",emphasizing that taste and safety attributes of apples from poverty-stricken areas are the same as the conventional ones,Chinese consumers on average are willing to pay a 31%premium for apples from poverty-stricken areas.After"information shock",both the within-subject and between-subject designs show a minimal drop of the premium,implying that the ethical attribute is the main motivation for buying apples from poverty-stricken areas.The regression results show that quality perception of private attributes has significant effect on consumers'willingness to pay(WTP)for apples from poverty-stricken areas,and trust in government supervision of e-commerce plays an essential role in motivating online ethical consumption.