Abstract
Ethical consumption is a significant driver of contemporary markets, yet measurement approaches remain fragmented, often treating empathy, moral obligation, and efficacy as independent predictors of behaviour. This study re-examines the psychological structure underlying prosocial purchasing in the context of hill tribe women’s handicrafts in Thailand. Drawing on the Social Entrepreneurial Antecedents Scale, the study adapts and empirically re-specifies key psychological constructs within an ethical consumption setting. Using exploratory factor analysis, three latent dimensions emerge: affective empathy, empathic engagement, and civic self-efficacy. The findings reveal consumers strong emotional alignment with marginalised women as producers of handicrafts but comparatively varied confidence in personal capacity to contribute to social change. This distinction underscores the role of perceived agency in translating moral concern into sustained purchasing behaviour. By identifying and validating a multidimensional psychological configuration, the study advances a structurally grounded understanding of ethical consumer orientation in a collectivist context. At the practical level, results suggest that responsible retail strategies should strengthen consumers’ perceived impact and emotional engagement to foster consistent support for marginalised handicrafts producers.