DPKKEVY YEODATO’ PADUKA DR.

SCHOLARSHIP & PERSPECTIVES

Journals &
Research.

Advancing the conversation on consumer rights, responsible consumption and shared well-being.

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“Consumers should exercise their rights responsibly, while businesses should consciously safeguard the rights and interests of consumers.”

FROM THE COC CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Research papers

02 PAPERS
01CONCEPTUAL
PAPER

FRAMEWORK & FOUNDATIONS · 20 PAGES

Cosmopolitanism of Consumer (COC): A Conceptual Framework for Consumer Rights, Responsible Consumption and Sustainable Consumer Ecosystems

Dato’ Paduka Dr. Yeo Kok Vui

An integrative framework connecting consumer rights and responsible consumption through five interdependent ecologies: policy, economic, education, cultural and consumption.

  • Consumer rights
  • Responsible consumption
  • Consumer ecosystems
  • Sustainability
Read the abstract

Global consumption is increasingly shaped by cross-border markets, digital commerce, cultural exchange, sustainability concerns, consumer-rights expectations and the growing interdependence of public, private and civil-society actors. Yet consumer-behaviour scholarship often analyses these influences separately. This conceptual paper advances Cosmopolitanism of Consumer (COC) as an integrative framework for examining consumer rights, responsible consumption and sustainable consumer ecosystems. COC is an initiative proposed by Dato’ Paduka Dr. Kevy K. V. Yeo through the Worldwide Consumers’ Association (WCA). Its core premise is reciprocal responsibility: consumers should exercise their rights responsibly, while businesses should consciously safeguard the rights and interests of consumers. The initiative is organised around five interdependent ecologies —policy, economic, education, cultural and consumption ecology—and emphasises inclusivity, borderlessness and equilibrium. Drawing on consumer-behaviour research, sustainable-consumption literature, consumer-rights principles, the Theory of Planned Behaviour and ecosystem thinking, this paper positions COC as a meso-level framework that connects individual consumer choices with institutional, cultural, educational, policy and market conditions. Eight conceptual propositions are advanced to explain how the five ecologies may jointly influence responsible consumption, consumer confidence, trust, perceived fairness, market participation and long-term consumer well-being. Importantly, this paper distinguishes COC from the established academic construct of consumer cosmopolitanism, which primarily concerns openness to foreign cultures and products. COC is broader: it seeks a balanced consumer civilisation supported by interacting social and institutional ecologies. The paper concludes with theoretical contributions, managerial and policy implications, and a research agenda for operationalising COC, developing validated measures and empirically testing relationships among its ecologies and consumer outcomes.

02CONCEPTUAL
PAPER

TRUST, BEHAVIOUR & WELL-BEING · 21 PAGES

From Consumer Rights to Responsible Consumption: Examining the Influence of Cosmopolitanism of Consumer (COC) on Trust, Purchase Behaviour and Consumer Well-Being

Dato’ Paduka Dr. Yeo Kok Vui

A conceptual model exploring how consumer ecosystems may shape trust, responsible purchase behaviour and consumer well-being.

  • Consumer trust
  • Purchase behaviour
  • Consumer well-being
  • Consumer ecosystems
Read the abstract

Consumer rights and responsible consumption are often discussed as related but separate domains: the former emphasises protection, fairness and redress, whereas the latter emphasises informed, ethical and sustainable consumer choice. This conceptual paper connects these domains through Cosmopolitanism of Consumer (COC), an initiative proposed by Dato’ Paduka Dr. Kevy K. V. Yeo through the Worldwide Consumers’ Association (WCA). COC conceptualises consumer society through five interdependent ecologies —policy, economic, education, cultural and consumption ecology —and emphasises inclusivity, borderlessness and equilibrium. Building on the COC architecture, this paper examines how an enabling consumer ecosystem may influence three central outcomes in consumer behaviour: consumer trust, purchase behaviour and consumer well-being. The paper integrates COC with the Theory of Planned Behaviour, trust and perceived-risk literature, responsible-consumption research and contemporary consumer well-being scholarship. A co nceptual model is proposed in which COC ecosystem quality strengthens institutional assurance, consumer capability and normative alignment; these mechanisms enhance trust and responsible purchase behaviour, which in turn contribute to consumer well-being. Ten propositions are developed, including mediating and moderating relationships and a feedback pathway from consumer experience to ecosystem development. The paper distinguishes the originating COC initiative from the scholarly extensions proposed here an d does not claim that COC has yet been empirically validated. The resulting model provides a foundation for future scale development and empirical testing in conventional retail, digital commerce and cross-border consumption contexts.

These papers present conceptual frameworks and propositions for future research. Author names and paper titles follow the original documents.