Every Dog has Its Day: How Top‐Dog Versus Underdog Brand Positioning Affects Unethical Consumer Behavior
通过六个实验发现，相比顶级品牌，弱势品牌定位能通过激发消费者对品牌的共情，增强预期内疚感，从而减少不道德行为；但当消费者道德认同低或伤害显著时，该效应减弱。
ABSTRACT Unethical consumer behavior inflicts substantial damage on firm performance and social order, rendering it a formidable challenge in the field of commercial ethics. Scholars have therefore sought to identify the antecedents of unethical consumer behavior in order to devise more effective countermeasures. Across six experiments ( N = 1398, including one experiment reported in the supporting Materials), the present study demonstrates that brand positioning (top‐dog vs. underdog) exerts a significant influence on unethical consumer behavior. Compared with top‐dog brands, underdog brands attenuate unethical consumer behavior by amplifying consumer empathy toward the brands, which subsequently heightens anticipated guilt associated with violating moral norms. This attenuating effect is, however, weakened when (a) consumers’ moral identity is low and (b) the salience of harm is high. These findings advance the consumer ethics literature and offer actionable guidance for brands: integrating underdog narratives into brand stories and in‐purchase communications can help curb unethical acts such as cheating and coupon abuse, especially for consumer segments with high moral identity or when harm from unethical behavior is less salient.