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As consumer demand for corporate accountability intensifies globally, understanding how brand transparency drives ethical purchasing decisions becomes critical for sustainable business success. This study explores the influence of observability-based brand transparency on socially conscious purchasing, focusing on the mediating role of brand social responsibility and the moderating effect of consumer karmic belief in an emerging market context. Using a three-stage mixed-methods approach, comprising an exploratory qualitative study (Study 1), a primary quantitative study analyzing data from 402 consumers (Study 2), and a subsequent quantitative validation study (Study 3)—results from partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) indicate that observability-based brand transparency significantly enhances socially conscious purchasing, with brand social responsibility acting as a key mediator. Consumer karmic belief significantly moderates the relationship between brand social responsibility and socially conscious purchasing, while fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) reveals that high observability-based brand transparency is a highly relevant contributing condition that plays a foundational role in driving socially conscious purchasing, underscoring transparency’s pivotal role in ethical consumption. This study extends signaling theory and social identity theory by identifying cultural-spiritual moderators and configurational pathways in an emerging market, offering strategic guidance for managers developing transparency communication strategies tailored to emerging markets.
Van et al. (Sun,) studied this question.