Sustainable consumption is one of the world’s biggest challenges. Consumption is complex affecting people’s physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being. People need to consume to survive yet many today live in poverty in appalling conditions with limited access to food, clean water, housing, healthcare and education. While underconsumption is a critical problem for low-income consumers, overconsumption is increasingly becoming problematic for middle to high-income consumers whose excessive consumption not only damages the environment but can also lead to physical, mental and financial distress (Sheth, Sethia and Srinivas, 2011). Both underconsumption and overconsumption are not sustainable and lead to serious detrimental consequences for the environment, for individual consumers and for society. Consider the environmental impact and the needs of vulnerable consumers within your community and the world around you. Working together as a consumer research group, identify a social, health or environmental issue to tackle due to either underconsumption (e.g. poverty, illiteracy, hunger, etc.) or overconsumption (e.g., obesity, cyber-bullying, alcohol-fuelled violence, etc.). The creative production is in three stages. Stage 1: As a group conduct background research to explain why the identified issue is problematic from a sustainability view point. Stage 2: As individuals think through the ethical concerns and use relevant theoretical literature to critically examine the consumer behaviour in terms of personal, interpersonal and cultural influences. Stage 3: As a group integrate group members’ individual consumer research and develop an innovative solution to address the issue. Topic: Cyberbully (Overconsumption) – focus on Cyberbullies’ views not from victim’s view As individuals, think through the ethical concerns and use relevant theoretical literature to critically examine consumer behaviour in terms of personal (e.g., consumer motivation, values, identity, perception, learning and memory, personality, attitudes and attitude change, decision-making…), interpersonal (e.g., reference groups, social class and status) and cultural influences. Each group member must investigate a different consumer behaviour influence as well as discuss and compare two traditions of ethical thought that are relevant to the group issue identified in Stage 1. STAGE 2: Individual work (25%): Consumer Research and Ethical Implications Group members work individually. Each member researches a different consumer behaviour influence and ethical points with the purpose of integrating the individual research to provide a comprehensive understanding of the identified issue. Details regarding submission requirements are on following page. 2.1 Briefly assess the unsustainable consumption issue identified in Stage 1 o What are the main consumer behaviour influences involved? Why investigate this specific one? How can understanding this influence help businesses address the problem? 2.2 Provide a detailed theoretical critique of one Consumer Behaviour influence o What theories are used to explain the issue? How does theory assist in understanding and solving the problem? 2.3 Discuss and compare two relevant traditions of ethical thinking o What consumer insights are gained from applying these different ethical perspectives? How can these views support better decision making to improve sustainable consumption? Notes: • Failing to meet the 5 quality journal article minimum will lead to a 10% deduction of marks. o Keep in mind: The academic journal articles may address the actual topic, a related topic or relevant ethical theories. Make sure to use quality journal articles accessed from top ranking journals such as: Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Business Research, European Journal of Marketing, etc.… If in doubt find out the journal ranking or pose a question on the general iLearn discussion board . • Failure to reference or inaccurate referencing will lead to a 10% deduction of marks. • Exceeding the word limit will lead to a 10% deduction of marks. Markers will stop reading once the 2000 word limit is reached.