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Attitude-Behaviour-Gap (Consumers with green attitude versus average actual green consumer behaviour in % (based on Greenindex, 2012)
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The phenomenon of the deviation between purchase attitudes and actual buying behaviour of responsible consumers is called the attitude-behaviour gap. It is influenced by individual, social and situational factors. The main purchasing barriers for sustainable (organic) food are price, lack of immediate availability, sensory criteria, lack or overloa...
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Context 1
... in a number of studies consumers have tended to overstate when answering questions about their (sustainable or organic) consumption attitude. For example, in the Greenindex 4 (2012) the percentage of respondents who describe themselves as 'green' is significantly higher than the actual 'green' purchasers; see figure 3. To determine the Greenindex, 17.000 consumers in 17 countries (1.000 per country) were questioned about their consumer behaviour, effects, knowledge and awareness/attitude in the areas of household, mobility, nutrition and consumer goods. ...
Citations
... delves into the influence of corporate social responsibility and government policies on consumer decisions. It addresses how environmental corporate social responsibility impacts consumer choices, the effect of government policies and initiatives on sustainable consumption, and the role of business actions in shaping consumer behaviour (Alevizou et al. 2015;Terlau and Hirsch 2015). 3. Media, Marketing, and Information: Exploring the influence of media, marketing, and information, this theme looks at the impact of marketing, advertisements, and public discourse on behaviour. ...
This research unveils the intricate interplay of psychological and social factors shaping consumers’ green purchasing behaviour. Through systematic review and thematic analysis, it identifies catalysts driving eco-conscious choices, exploring psychological and social influences and delving into emerging themes. Adhering to the PRISMA framework, 56 relevant studies form the investigation’s foundation. The analysis reveals influential psychological factors—attitudes, beliefs, motivations, emotions, knowledge, and ethics. Simultaneously, the impact of social factors—norms, corporate responsibility, media, education, culture—is highlighted. Synthesizing these findings bridges individual choices and societal influences, informing tailored green marketing strategies for businesses, fostering loyalty, and societal contributions. This study hints at future exploration into intricate factor interplay, cross-cultural variations, and technology’s role in behaviour. Ultimately, it provides a comprehensive foundation to steer lasting shifts towards a greener future in business, policy, and research.
... In other words, nudges are successful because they are designed taking into account that behavior is the result of the interaction of two systems, but mostly with System 1. For sustainability research, one of the results of dual way of thinking is that attitude-behavior gap which represents the discrepancy of willingness to support pro-environmental behaviors and actual purchasing or adopting behaviors (Terlau & Hirsch, 2015). In this manner, nudges help individuals or businesses to adopt sustainable behaviors by steering them towards what's best for them and the 1340 environment without changing financial incentives significantly but preserving the autonomy of decision-making. ...
Everyday actions of people across various settings can lead to environmental issues. These automatically performed actions are overlooked in the traditional economics. Therefore, it is crucial to identify and understand pro-environmental behaviors. On the other hand, behavioral economics offers insights into cognitive constraints affecting these kinds of behaviors and develops nudges that take human beings' limited rationality into account. Therefore the study underscores the significance of nudges as empirical tools in behavioral economics for building a sustainable world and laying the foundation for pro-environmental behaviors. In this context, it examines the emerging significance of nudges in digital settings, analyzing their applications in this domain. Conducting an extensive literature review, this study categorizes pro-environmental behaviors as energy conservation, waste reduction & recycling, and sustainable consumption. Sustainable consumption is divided into grocery shopping, travel decisions, fashion & makeup choices. The research makes the importance of behavioral economics apparent by acknowledging the automatic nature of many pro-environmental behaviors and addressing the pervasive attitude-behavior gap. Consequently, by investigating the impact of both physical and digital nudges, this article offers a practical response to empirical evidence on promoting pro-environmental behavior responsible actions.
... The increasing decarbonization targets reflect a social trend towards greater sustainability awareness, resulting in a future increase in demand [73,86] for more climatefriendly products and services in all sectors-from basic material production to the end consumer stage [74,93,94]. The carbon footprint of products and services is thus becoming a decisive factor that not only influences private purchasing decisions but also plays a role in corporate procurement strategies and supplier selection [63,96]. This development has an impact on almost all elements of a company's business model [12], as it requires a comprehensive consideration of sustainability aspects in product development, marketing [18], procurement, and production [71]. ...
EIMIs face the challenge of adapting to the Paris Agreement and the European Green Deal to achieve carbon neutrality. Driven by consumer interest in low-carbon products, regulatory requirements, and investor priorities, companies are pressured to integrate sustainability beyond short-term financial gains. The growing awareness of the environmental impact of business models (BM) has fueled the development of Sustainable Business Models (SBMs). Although the importance of decarbonization of EIMIs has increased, there is a lack of industry-specific research examining the combination of decarbonization and business models, as well as their interrelationships and correlations. This study addresses the discussion on the role of SBMs in decarbonization, improving the understanding of how these drivers can be integrated to enable new BMs for EIMIs. Based on a structured literature review and semi-structured interviews within the EIMIs, the study identifies BM components influenced by these drivers requiring sustainable business model innovation (SBMI). Results show that decarbonization drivers significantly impact all BM components. Experts emphasize the importance of collaborative approaches and cooperation throughout the value chain. This research highlights the need for systematic analysis to understand how companies can manage decarbonization drivers effectively and suggests exploring potential SBM design options.
... As of now, consumers of these green products, or we can say environment-friendly products, are few because, while almost all of us have green attitudes, we do not always act in favor of environmentally friendly consumption [52,65,82,96,104,105]. This is commonly referred to as "the attitude-behavior gap" or "wordsdeeds inconsistency" and was coined by Fishbein and Ajzen [2] in a theory developed by them known as the Theory of Reasoned Action. ...
This study explores the attitude–behavior relationship among voters for political party brands that use a sustainable or green marketing approach. A structural equation modeling is used to analyze data collected from 1771 respondents who are registered Indian voters in this case. A positive attitude toward a political brand is compared to intentions to vote for the same brand. According to the findings, political brands create a more environmentally friendly product in the form of green actions because doing so encourages consumers to think favorably of the political brand, which results in them voting for it. As a result, authors are able to identify a positive attitude–behavior relationship for political brands among voters.
... Humanization of the technological environment is an important aspect of industry 5.0. Several scholars felt the need to incorporate social and environmental issues and prioritize these issues to make the industrialization process superior (Terlau & Hirsch, 2015). In terms of the observation of European Commission (EC), industry 5.0 has become resilient provider of prosperity with a focus to address the environmental issues and to improve the wellbeing of the workers of the organizations . ...
Industry 5.0 involves human and machines reunion by working together to improve the efficiency of service and production process. Industry 5.0 helps to create platforms for better value cocreation and open business models. Such open business model supports in integrating organizational competencies and customers’ preferences along with ensuring better services to meet the challenging needs of the tomorrows’ business world. It is an upcoming field of research and not many studies are available to understand the consequences of Industry 5.0 in the context of ambidexterity and absorptive capacity of the organization, especially from supply chain flow perspective in post COVID-19 period. Also, not many studies are available which have investigated the role of senior leadership support to facilitate adoption of industry 5.0 and sustainability of supply chain management process in the post COVID-19 period. With the support of absorptive capacity theory and existing literature, a conceptual model has been developed which was later validated using PLS-SEM technique considering 378 respondents from different industries. The study found that there is a significant impact of absorptive capacity of the organization towards successfully using industry 5.0 related technologies which in turn positively and significantly influence sustenance of supply chain flow in post COVID-19 period. The study also found that senior leadership support is necessary to successfully adopt and use industry 5.0 for sustaining supply chain flow in the post COVID-19 period.
... Diek mann/Preisendörfer 1992;de Haan/Kuckartz 1996;Kuckartz 1998). 1 Nach der Jahrtausendwende nahm die Zahl gleichartiger Veröffentlichungen jedenfalls stetig zu (vgl. Kollmuss/Agyeman 2002; Devinney et al. 2006;Carrington et al. 2010;Eckhardt et al. 2010;Gleim et al. 2013;Juvan/Dolnicar 2014;Barbarossa/Pastore 2015;Terlau/Hirsch 2015;Longo et al. 2019;Nguyen et al. 2019;Park/Lin 2020;Wintsching 2021). 2 Vergleicht man diese Beiträge daraufhin, welche Gründe dafür angeführt wer den, weshalb es anhaltend zu solch erheblichen ›Attitude-Behavior-Gaps‹ kommt, wurden überwiegend (und redundant) bestimmte ›Barriers‹ identifiziert, die der bekundeten Bereitschaft, sich entsprechend den geäußerten Zustimmungswer ten zu verhalten, strukturell entgegenstünden -strukturell aufgrund widriger Umstände, die vorwiegend produktions-oder distributionsbedingt seien. So wur den folgende Hemmnisse wiederholt ermittelt: zu hoher Preis, mangelnde Auf klärung, mangelnde Attraktivität, mangelnde Erreichbarkeit, mangelnde Verfüg barkeit usw. ...
Spätestens seit dem Brundtland-Bericht 1987, mithin seit fast vierzig Jahren, wird über die dringliche Notwendigkeit diskutiert, die Akzeptanz und Partizipationsbereitschaft für deutlich mehr nachhaltigen Konsum weltweit zu steigern. Auf der Einstellungsebene ist dies vergleichsweise gut gelungen, auf der Verhaltensebene mitnichten. Als Gründe für diese anhaltend ermittelte Diskrepanz werden vor allem extrinsisch bedingte Faktoren identifiziert, frei nach dem Motto: Würde man die Verbraucher und Verbraucherinnen nur nicht daran hindern, würde eine große Mehrheit deutlich nachhaltiger konsumieren. Doch ist dem wirklich so? Dieser Frage sucht der Beitrag ein Stück weit auf den Grund zu gehen, und zwar in drei Schritten. Zuerst geht es um eine kritische Analyse der Attitude-Behavior-Gap-Forschung in Sachen Nachhaltiger Konsum; im Fokus steht eine methodische Kritik. Als Konsequenz dieser Kritik wird eine empirisch-qualitative Fallstudie komprimiert präsentiert, die exemplarisch aufzeigen soll, dass es für Millionen von Verbrauchern und Verbraucherinnen gute Gründe gibt, (vermeintlich) nicht-nachhaltige Konsumpraktiken unverändert fortzuführen, ein weiterer Faktor, der zur Aufklärung der Gap-Problematik beitragen kann. Zur Abrundung wird am Ende ein konzeptioneller Vorschlag unterbreitet, die Forschung zu nachhaltigem Konsum ganzheitlicher zu betreiben, indem das Konsumverhalten von Verbrauchern und Verbraucherinnen sowohl auf der Mikro-, der Meso- und der Makroebene strikt interdependent untersucht werden sollte.
... The Civic Engagement Scale (CES) contains a total of 14 items rated on a seven-point Likert-type scale. Given the hypothesized gap between attitudes and behaviors [21,22], when individuals' attitudes may not directly correspond to their actions due to situational circumstances, the original study presented attitudes and behavioral patterns as two components of the scale [3]. Eight items comprised the first component focused on the attitudinal aspect of civic engagement (e.g., "I believe I should make a difference in my community."), ...
Civic engagement plays a critical role in smart city innovation and urban development by encouraging active participation in civic activities such as volunteering, voting, community organizing , or advocacy, all of which contribute to the development of local communities. This study highlights the need to assess civic engagement in smart cities in order to improve the interactions between technology and society. The study assessed the reliability and validity of the Civic Engagement Scale (CES) in the Czech context. The results presented are based on a representative sample of 1366 respondents from the general population aged 15-74. The study included univariate statistics, tests of internal consistency, and principal component analysis. In addition, the study presents the results of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) that was conducted to examine the fit of the proposed model to empirical data. The results indicate that the CES has excellent psychometric properties, including high internal consistency and favorable absolute and incremental indices. The Czech version of the CES can be considered a valid and reliable instrument. The findings suggest using CES to research and evaluate policy interventions aimed at developing digital platforms that enable citizens to easily participate in urban planning and smart city projects, community-driven smart city projects that ensure local needs and preferences are addressed, or implementing incentive programs for citizens.
... Several works have completed these studies by investigating the different variables that mediate the influence of attitude on sustainable eating behaviour. Hence, perceived efficacy, social norms and commitment (Vermeir & Verbeke, 2006); habits (Terlau & Hirsch, 2015); or contextual conditions such as price and perceived quality of food (Aschemann-Witzel & Niebuhr-Aagaard, 2014) are variables that mediate how attitude affects behaviour. ...
Purpose : In the context of global warming, there has been a surge of interest in studying the psychosocial determinants of environmental behaviour. With regard to the climate footprint of the food industry, food consumption behaviours form a particularly significant category of pro-environmental behaviours. The aim of this research was to assess the extent to which connectedness to nature can be mobilized as a mediator of the link between environmental attitudes and sustainable food behaviours.
Design/methodology/approach : A French scale was designed to measure these behaviours, considering simultaneously the questions of sustainable product choice and consumption restriction. Mediation was tested using Structural Equation Modelling.
Findings : The structural equation modelling conducted on a sample of 708 participants shows the mediating effect of connectedness to nature on only one of the two dimensions: a positive mediation of the attitude-behaviour link is observed for the dimension related to choosing more environmentally-friendly products, whereas this is not the case for lower consumption of animal products. It thus appears that mobilizing connectedness to nature is relevant to a greater or lesser degree depending on the type of food behaviour.
Originality : This is one of the first studies to explore the link between connectedness to nature and sustainable eating in France, and to investigate the differentiated effect of connectedness to nature according to the type of food behavior targeted.
... Science-based facts about the climate are becoming cemented as common knowledge, and the recognition of the need to address climate change has grown in society. However, actual actions to tackle those commonly recognized issues are often lacking, creating a dichotomy between awareness and action commonly referred to as the awareness-action gap or the attitude-behavior gap (Ágústsdóttir 2021;Zralek 2017;Terlau and Hirsch 2015). Studies from Sherry and Tivona (2022), Babakhani et al. (2020), andPulkkinen et al. (2016) explored the reactions of consumers when faced with carbon labels (calculated with LCAs) on menus in restaurants. ...
As the food industry accounts for more than one-third of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, it is one of the largest contributors to climate change. Strategies for reducing CO2e (equivalent) emissions must be implemented to regulate the impact the food systems have on the climate. Environmental communication using climate labels and sharing information on carbon footprints can help reduce GHGs emissions from restaurant purchases on a systemic scale. The aim is to gain insights and study how a carbon label influences the concept of a climate-friendly restaurant and its capacity to bridge the gap between knowledge, awareness, and action. What are the motivations for restaurant employees to adopt climate-friendly behavior? How does the label’s use influence restaurants’ decision to track their carbon footprint over time, communicate the carbon footprint of dishes, and adapt menus to be more climate-friendly? The data were collected with semi-structured interviews with video communication with three restaurant chains, all using labels. The data collected via the interviews were examined using an inductive thematic analysis to identify key themes. The transcending transmission approach to communication was used to gain insights into instrumental and constitutive communication dynamics. As the theoretical framework, ‘symbolic interactionism’ helps untangle constitutive aspects of environmental communication surrounding climate labels to analyze the process of conceptualization through usage, co-creation, and interpretation. The analysis brought forward three main themes: the interactions between the scientific data accessible in the tool and the restaurants. Second, the diverse implications of sustainability marketing for motivating climate actions and what they look like. And finally, climate actions and how they are being apprehended and implemented by the restaurants. The promise of climate labels was discussed by elaborating on socio-cultural dynamics, sustainability marketing, and activism forces and impulses influencing the motivations for restaurants. We then discussed the capacity to transcend information into action through collaboration and inclusiveness to avoid greenwashing. Restaurants have a commercial interest in implementing climate labels in their business and an intrinsic desire to be a company that takes action for the planet because of the restaurants ‘employees’ convictions. However, restaurants find themselves in a tricky situation where they can be criticized if they take ‘wrong’ actions that can be considered greenwashing and criticized if they do nothing. The software enables restaurants to legitimize their actions and communicate them, making them resilient and evolving.
... The actual need for the products and goods is much lower than the demand. Hence there is a big gap between actual and sustainable consumption (Terlau and Hirsch 2015). This situation will become the reason for reducing natural resources, destroying the environment and biodiversity (Seddon et al. 2016;Szeremlei and Magda 2015). ...
The study is aimed at investigating the impact of waste management in the context of Industry 4.0 and sustainable development. Data were collected from 257 production managers in the industrial sector using a survey questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS and PLS-SEM. The findings indicated that Industry 4.0 and waste management significantly contribute to achieving sustainable development. The integration of Industry 4.0 technologies and effective waste management practices can help organizations implement sustainable development goals. Practical implications include assisting organizations in implementing Industry 4.0 technologies and waste management strategies based on the 3Rs principle. This can lead to reduced environmental impacts and improved resource efficiency, contributing to sustainable development. Policymakers can also benefit from the study's insights to address waste management challenges and promote sustainable development. The study's originality lies in its incorporation of the cyber-physical system and niche theory to explore how Industry 4.0 can facilitate sustainable waste management. It highlights the transformative potential of Industry 4.0 in the industrial sector, particularly in developing countries. Overall, this research offers a unique contribution to understanding waste management within the context of Industry 4.0 and sustainable development.