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Nachhaltiger Konsum – Der Unterschied zwischen subjektiv und objektiv umweltfreundlichem Kaufverhalten
Abstract
Der Umsetzung nachhaltigen Konsumverhaltens stehen subjektive und objektive Barrieren entgegen. Der Artikel geht auf die wesentlichen Einflussfaktoren ein. Auf Grundlage der Theory of Planned Behavior und Daten des GfK Consumer Panels kann zwar bestätigt werden, dass Konsument_innen nachhaltige Aspekte in ihr Kaufverhalten einfließen lassen und ihr Kaufverhalten als nachhaltig einstufen. Es besteht allerdings eine Diskrepanz zwischen selbstberichtetem und tatsächlich realisiertem Kaufverhalten. Weiterhin werden Methoden zur Umweltwirkungsbewertung von Produkten vorgestellt, um die subjektiv als nachhaltig empfundenen Verhaltensweisen mit objektiven Kriterien überprüfen zu können. An Beispielfällen wird gezeigt, dass das subjektiv nachhaltige Verhalten nicht in objektiv nachhaltigem Verhalten mündet. Eine entsprechende Abweichung kann kaum mit unterstellten Mehrkosten für nachhaltige Produkte erklärt werden.
Konsument_innen wollen umweltfreundlich konsumieren und gehen auch davon aus, dass sie dies tun. Das mangelnde Wissen über die Umweltwirkungen von Konsumgütern und die einfachen Heuristiken bei der Konsumentscheidung stehen aber letztlich einem nachhaltigen Konsumverhalten entgegen. Am Beispiel des Carbon Footprint lässt sich dieses Phänomen bei einigen Konsumgütern nachweisen. Schließlich werden die Eignung dieses monokriteriellen Indikators und mögliche Alternativen diskutiert.
Schließlich sollen Konsument_innen für mögliche Lücken zwischen subjektiv und objektiv nachhaltigem Konsumverhalten sensibilisiert werden, um zukünftig ein kongruentes Handeln zu ermöglichen. In diesem Sinn können die Ergebnisse als Ausgangspunkt für ein methodisch fundiertes Nachhaltigkeitsmarketing dienen.
... Eine substantielle Akzeptanz auf Seiten der Konsumierenden ist allerdings wesentliche Voraussetzung für langfristige Veränderungen. Als bedeutsames Problem ergibt sich, dass nachhaltige Fleischprodukte schwer zu identifizieren und zu überprüfen sind, die komplexen Strukturen und Prozesse der Lebensmittelherstellung sind für Laien kaum nachvollziehbar, sie können die Einhaltung entsprechender Kriterien der Nachhaltigkeit nicht kontrollieren (Koths & Holl, 2012;Haubach & Moser, 2016). Auch finden sich in den Medien immer wieder Berichte über Lebensmittelskandale, die mit erheblichen Vertrauensverlusten der Konsumierenden einhergehen. ...
... Hinreichend bekannt ist die Diskrepanz zwischen Wissen und Einstellungen zur Nachhaltigkeit im Ernährungsbereich einerseits und dem tatsächlichen realisierten Konsumverhalten andererseits (u.a. Grostollen et al., 2013;Garnett et al., 2015;Haubach & Moser, 2016;BMUB & UBA, 2017;Scharnberg, 2017). In der Regel dominieren als Entscheidungskriterien nämlich Preis, Qualität, Geschmack und Bequemlichkeit. ...
... Dementsprechend werden mehr Transparenz sowie klarere und eindeutigere Kennzeichnungen durch vertrauenswürdige und unabhängige Quellen (wie etwa einem einheitlichen staatlichen Tierwohl-Label) gefordert (u.a. Nitzko & Spiller, 2014;Haubach & Moser, 2016;BEML, 2017), sie sind Ausdruck der Unsicherheit und des fehlenden Vertrauens im Umgang mit Komplexität und mangelnder Nachvollziehbarkeit der einzelnen Schritte in der Fleischwirtschaftskette (Koths & Holl, 2012;Scharnberg, 2017) und lassen die Bedeutung (unzulänglicher) Kommunikation gegenüber den Endverbraucher*innen evident werden. Zahlreiche Studien lassen erkennen, dass die Verbraucher*innen in ihrem Status als Laien sozial-ökologisch verträgliche Produkte aufgrund fehlender, unklarer oder verwirrender Informationen oder auch angesichts unzureichenden Vorwissens nicht eindeutig identifizieren können (Haubach & Moser, 2016), damit verbundene Vertrauensdefizite hemmen letztendlich die erforderliche Kaufmotivation (Grostollen et al., 2013;Prüne, 2013;Kriege-Steffen, 2015;Haubach & Moser, 2016). ...
... Thus, the findings underline that sustainable attributes might not be attractive enough to foster demand for most consumers although they might have a general positive attitude towards sustainability. Consumers generally approve of sustainable products and expect that products fulfill a certain level of sustainability (Haubach & Moser, 2016). However, they are not willing to trade off functional attributes against sustainable attributes (Auger et al., 2008;Olson, 2013). ...
The dissertation project focuses on empirically investigating consumers’ attitudes, motivations and purchasing decisions regarding sustainable products. The focus on this micro perspective, however, does not reflect consumers’ roles within the transformation towards sustainable consumption. Therefore, the present framework paper puts the included papers into a greater context and evaluates the findings on a meta-level by applying an enhanced transition management theory. The analysis underlines that consumers’ limited personal capabilities are an underlying reason for unsustainable practices. Therefore, the active engagement not only of consumers, but also of companies is required if the transformation is to be successful. If companies actively support consumers in making sustainable choices, consumers can engage
in sustainable consumption with only low cognitive efforts. On this basis, genuine sustainable choices are enabled. The dissertation provides practical implications by highlighting potential measures which will help to promote sustainable products from niches to mainstream. In sum, the dissertation project enhances academic understanding of consumers’ sustainable purchasing behavior and reveals the potential of integrating such insights into the management of transformations towards sustainable consumption.
Die imperiale Lebensweise westlicher Industrienationen, die sich durch ein permanentes Streben nach Wirtschaftswachstum ausdrückt, bringt den Planeten an die Grenzen seiner Tragfähigkeit. In den letzten Jahren wurden jedoch – bestärkt durch die Weltwirtschaftskrise 2007/08 – Alternativen zum Modell des permanenten Wachstums immer populärer, die sich anstatt auf ökonomischen Wohlstand vermehrt auf soziale und ökologische Belange des gesellschaftlichen Zusammenlebens fokussierten. Unter dem Begriff der Postwachstumsbewegung sammelten sich Ansätze, Ideen und Akteure, die gemeinsam für eine Zukunft fernab jeglicher Wachstumszwänge und innerhalb der planetaren Grenzen kämpfen. Vor dem Hintergrund der zunehmenden sozialen und ökologischen Herausforderungen wurden nun erstmals sozial-ökologische Nischenakteure aus drei unterschiedlichen Bereichen der Postwachstumsbewegung gemeinsam in einem Forschungsvorhaben – unter besonderer Berücksichtigung gesellschaftlicher, organisatorischer und territorialer Einbettungsprozesse – untersucht. Eingebettet ist diese Untersuchung in den theoretisch-konzeptionellen Ansatz der sozial-ökologischen Transformation, deren inkrementeller Wandel mithilfe der Multi-Level-Perspektive beschrieben werden kann. Die Kombination dieses spezifischen theoretisch-konzeptionellen Ansatzes und der empirischen Erhebung ist das Alleinstellungsmerkmal der vorliegenden Untersuchung. Es zeigte sich, dass alle untersuchten Nischenakteure eine deutlich progressive Unternehmungsphilosophie vertreten, die häufig in einer Unternehmungsorganisation mit flachen Hierarchien und konsensbasierten Entscheidungsfindungen mündet. Besonders gesellschaftliche Einbettungsprozesse bedingen den Erfolg oder Misserfolg der Nischenentwicklung. Organisatorische Einbettung kommt derweil vor allem im Aufbau weitreichender Netzwerkstrukturen zum Tragen, die die Innovationsfähigkeit und Stabilität der Nische unterstützen. Eine starke territoriale Einbettung steigert den lokal-regionalen Einfluss der Nischeninnovationen und generiert Rückhalt in der Bevölkerung.
Das bildungspolitische Ziel der Förderung nachhaltigen Wirtschaftens ist zwar über Ordnungsmittel
legitimiert, fachdidaktische Umsetzungen in Form von Konzeptionen, Aufgabengestaltungen und Leistungsfeststellungen sind bisher jedoch nur ansatzweise vorzufinden. Daher zielt das Projekt Inno-
BBNE auf die praxisorientierte Gestaltung einer App-basierten Lern- und Assessmentumgebung zur Förderung einer innovativen nachhaltigen Gestaltungskompetenz für den Beruf Kaufmann/-frau im Einzelhandel. Anliegen des Beitrages ist es, theoretische Lern-/Assessment-Ansätze der Fachdidaktik mit praktischen Beispielen und Erkenntnissen so auszugestalten, dass die situierte digitale Lern- und Assessmentumgebung sowohl wissenschaftlichen Qualitätsstandards genügt als auch gleichzeitig von hoher Relevanz und Verwertbarkeit für die Praxis ist. Didaktisch folgen wir für die situierte digitale Lernumgebung den Prinzipien des Four Component/Instructional Design (4C/ID; vgl. van Merriënboer/Kirschner 2013) und für das Assessment (i. S. e. Game-based Assessment) den Gamification-Kriterien nach Kapp (2012). Dieses Vorgehen ermöglicht eine technologiebasierte Implementierung ganzheitlicher, komplexer Lernsituationen. Über das Prinzip des evidenzbasierten Schlussfolgerns im Rahmen des „Evidence-Centered Design“ (vgl. Mislevy/Steinberg/Almond 2003) gewährleisten wir eine enge Verknüpfung sowohl zwischen Curriculum-Instruktion-Assessment als auch zwischen Theorie und Praxis, die gleichzeitig einem wissenschaftlichen Anspruch genügt. Mit dieser Ausgestaltung unseres Research-and-Development-Ansatzes wird gezeigt, wie auf der Basis einer extensiven Domänenanalyse (u. a. Fokusgruppen mit Ausbildern und Lehrkräften) zielgerichtet fachdidaktisch Aufgaben
konstruiert werden können, die sich gleichzeitig für ein Lernmodul wie für ein Performance Assessment nutzen lassen. Wir erreichen damit eine Konkretisierung und Ausarbeitung der bildungspolitischen Forderungen für die Bildungspraxis, die neben einer Sensibilisierung für das Thema auch aktivitätsfördernde und spaßbringende Lernsituationen ermöglichen. So lassen sich Chancen wie Grenzen einer Rückkoppelung Wirtschaftspädagogischer Forschung ausloten.
While the educational objective of promoting sustainable economic activity has been laid down in relevant policy documents, development of the required teaching methodology concepts, task configurations and performance assessments has only just begun. For this reason, the Inno-BBNE project is aimed at the practice-oriented creation of an app-based learning and assessment environment to promote innovative and sustainable creative skills for professionals working in the retail trade. This paper seeks to use practical examples and insights to formulate theoretical learning/assessment approaches of teaching methodology in such a way that the digital learning and assessment environment both meets academic quality standards and is also highly relevant and applicable in practical terms. In didactic terms, we follow the principles of the Four Component/Instructional Design (4C/ID; van Merriënboer/Kirschner 2013) for the digital learning environment and the gamification criteria according to Kapp (2012) for the assessment (in the sense of a game-based assessment). This method enables complex holistic learning situations to be implemented on a technological basis. With the principle of evidence-based deductive reasoning as a part of the“ Evidence-Centred Design“ (vgl. Mislevy/Steinberg/Almond 2003), we ensure a close link between Curriculum-Instruction-Assessment as well as between theory and praxis, which fulfill a scientific standard at the same time. This design of our Research-and-Development-Approach shows how, on the basis of an extensive domain analysis (e. g. focus groups with trainers and teachers), tasks can be didactically designed with a particular purpose in mind and how these tasks can also be used for a learning module and for a performance assessment. This allows us to substantiate and develop educational requirements for educational practice, which not only creates awareness of the topic but also enables activity-promoting and enjoyable learning situations. This makes it possible to explore the opportunities and limitations when applied to research in economic education.
Viele Umweltprobleme werden direkt oder indirekt durch das individuelle Konsumverhalten
ausgelöst. Daher ist eine nachhaltige Veränderung der vorherrschenden Konsummuster
gefragt. Zero Waste als nachhaltiger Konsumstil zur Müllvermeidung und -reduktion
zielt auf einen bewussten ressourcen- und umweltschonenden Lebensstil ab. Um
den Status quo und die Zukunftschancen dieses Konsumstils in Österreich zu untersuchen,
wurden Leitfadeninterviews mit zwölf Expertinnen und Experten durchgeführt. Dabei
stellten sich Umweltschutz, Konsumkritik sowie gesundheitliche und ökonomische
Vorteile als die zentralen Motive hinter Zero Waste Konsum heraus. Als Barrieren standen
für die befragten Personen vor allem die Angemessenheit, Alltagstauglichkeit, mangelnde
Verfügbarkeit und der hohe Aufwand des Konsumstils im Vordergrund. Um diese
Hindernisse zu umgehen und eine weitere Verbreitung des Zero Waste Konsumstils zu
gewährleisten, ist es sinnvoll, nicht das Ziel der absoluten Müllvermeidung, sondern die
Relevanz eines bewussten und kritischen Konsums in den Vordergrund zu stellen. Zusätzlich
sind Maßnahmen vonseiten der Politik und Wirtschaft gefragt um begünstigende
Rahmenbedingungen zu schaffen.
Schlüsselwörter: Inflation – Nachhaltiger Konsum – Warenkorb – Bio-Produkte –
Verbraucherpreisindex
ZUSAMMENFASSUNG
Ein nachhaltigeres Konsumverhalten ist für immer mehr Menschen in Deutschland
wichtig und vor dem Hintergrund weiter steigender globaler Umweltbelastungen auch
dringend notwendig. Die unterstellten Mehrkosten eines nachhaltigeren Konsums
stellen jedoch für viele Verbraucher eine Handlungsbarriere dar. Im Forschungsvorhaben
„Warenkorbbasierter Preis- und Umweltwirkungsvergleich von ökologischem
und konventionellem Konsum“ wird deswegen auf der methodischen Grundlage des
Laspeyres-Preisindex anhand von Daten des Verbraucherpreisindex und der Kaufkraftparitäten
überprüft, ob und gegebenenfalls in welcher Höhe diese sogenannte Mehrpreishypothese
bei nachhaltigeren im Vergleich zu konventionellen Produkten zutrifft.
Hier werden die Methoden und Ergebnisse des Bereichs „Nahrungsmittel, Getränke
und Tabakwaren“ vorgestellt.
ABSTRACT
More sustainable consumption behaviour is important to more and more people in
Germany and, considering the continuing increase in global environmental burdens,
it is urgently needed. However, the assumed extra costs of more sustainable consumption
is an obstacle for many consumers to change their consumption behaviour. Therefore,
the research project on “Comparison of prices and environmental impact between
ecological and conventional consumption, based on the basket of goods” is carried
out on the methodological basis of the Laspeyres price index and using data of the
consumer price index and of purchasing power parities. It studies whether and, if so,
at what level the extra price hypothesis applies to more sustainable products when
compared with conventional products. This article presents the methods and results
for “food, beverages and tobacco products”.
Central to the theoretical model I have presented is the idea that altruistic
behavior is causally influenced by feelings of moral obligation to act on one's
personally held norms. Research supporting this central tenet of the model has demonstrated associations between personal norms and behavior, rather than
causal relations. I have argued that these associations are at least partly causal,
however, because: (1) the associations appear primarily in the presence of
personality conditions conducive to norm activation and are absent when personality
conditions are conducive to deactivation; and (2) attributes of personal
norms (e.g., centrality, ·stability, intensity) relate to altruism singly and' in
combination in ways predicted when we assume the causal impact of anticipated
moral costs on behavior.
A third critical link in this argument would be forged by studies showing
that variations in situational conditions conducive to activation of moral obligation
also influence the relationship between personal norms and behavior. There
is ample evidence that variables which foster movement through the activation
process, according to the theoretical model, are themselves related to altruistic
behavior (e.g., seriousness of need, uniqueness of responsibility). What remains
to be determined is whether the impact of these variables on altruism is
mediated by personal norms.
Evidence relevant to the sequential nature of the steps in the theoretical
model is sparse. Both the ·distinctiveness and ordering of the postulated steps
rests largely on logical rather than empirical grounds. The role of feedback
among the steps, with new input of information from later redefinitions or overt
actions in a chain of decisions, also merits investigation.
It is worth noting that study of how personal norms are related to altruism is
part of a larger enterprise, the investigation of attitude-behavior relations in
general. Personal norms are a subtype of attitudinal variable, i.e., evaluations of
acts in terms of their moral worth to the self. Techniques developed to discover
whether the impact of personal norms on altruism is causal might profitably be
imported into general attitude-behavior research. Reasoning like that employed
to identify personality and situational moderators of the impact of personal
norms on altruism might be used to track down the elusive moderators of other
attitudinal variables. Characteristics of personal norms and the normative structure
which influence their impact (e.g., centrality, stability) might also suggest
characteristics of attitudes which warrant consideration. Equally important, the
extensive research on attitude-behavior relations may yield leads for understanding
the workings of personal norms.
Next steps in developing the theory will have to address three issues given
cursory treatment here. First, how do emotional arousal and feelings of moral
obligation jointly influence altruism? Under what conditions and in what ways
do they enhance 9r blunt each other's effects? How might emotional arousal
modify the perception and processing of need-relevant information, for example?
And how might rapidity of onset and deterioration in need cues affect
shifting between empathic and morally mediated responsiveness?
Second, how do perceived social norms and personal norms complement or
supplement each other in their impact on altruistic behavior? Under what
conditions do social norms have any influence? And do these effects ever
interact with those of personal norms? Finally, how, if at all, do personal norms
mediate boomerang effects on helping? What are the differences between conditions
which elicit feelings of moral obligation and those which induce a sense of
undue pressure or manipulation? Speculations and hypotheses regarding some of
these questions, offered in my discussion of past research, may suggest directions
for approaching these three issues.
Experimental social psychologists, with their chariness toward individual
differences, have conducted most of the research on prosocial behavior. Attention
to internalized norms and values has consequently been restricted, and
normative explanations have received short shrift (Darley & Latane, 1970;
Krebs, 1970). I hope that the theory and research presented here will strengthen
the credibility of normative approaches. Altruism-in contrast to the more
inclusive "prosocial behavior" -implies purposes based in the person's value
system. Hence altruism cannot be understood fully in the absence of studies
which consider individual differences in values and norms as they interact with
situational variables.
This report presents a series of analyses with the common purpose of establishing which grocery products are likely to contribute most to the environmental impacts (greenhouse gas emissions, embedded energy, water, materials use and waste) associated with UK household consumption. The intention is that understanding and prioritising these will enable reduction actions, interventions and further research to be directed more effectively at those products with the greatest potential to influence overall consumption impacts.
Purpose
– This research aims to explore the factors that lead to the prevalence of the green gap. Currently, an overwhelming majority of consumers voice concern about the state of the environment; however, only a select few mirror their intentions with actual green behaviors.
Design/methodology/approach
– A critical incident technique is utilized in the first study, followed by a quantitative study analyzed via cluster analysis for the second study.
Findings
– Results suggest the green gap exists for several reasons, of which price is most commonly noted. However, factors such as poor perceptions of quality, lack of green product availability and brand loyalty to conventional products appear to be important issues leading to the gap as well. Additionally, the type of product sought for purchase appears to impact the prevalence of the green gap.
Research limitations/implications
– Future research should seek to extend the present study by monitoring actual usage rather than intentions, as well as an examination of strategies that may help to minimize the green gap.
Practical implications
– Consumers need to understand why green products are priced higher, the benefits they offer and the impact they can make as an individual. Additionally, firms competing in specific product categories can alter their strategies to better capitalize on the motivations of their target markets.
Originality/value
– Past research has focused on why consumers buy green, but there is a lack of research on why consumers fall into the green gap – that is they have the intention of going green, but don’t. This research examines factors surrounding the green gap and the role of product type in the prevalence of the green gap.
Too often research in the area of marketing has equated socially responsible consumer behavior (SRCB) with ecologically conscious consumer behavior (ECCB) and developed a profile and subsequent marketing strategies based solely on the numbers of ECCBs performed. Socially conscious consumer behavior (SCCB) can impact particular groups within society (e.g. women, minorities, migrant workers, labor unions, etc.) or promote causes (e.g. gay rights, religious affiliation, avoidance of “sin” stocks, reduction of weapons production, etc.). Using an expanded understanding of what comprises socially responsible consumer behavior (SRCB), a cluster analysis of a national sample of adult U.S. consumers was performed. Four distinct market segments emerged. The clusters were formed based upon the respondents’ levels of ecologically and socially conscious consumer behavior. Each segment possessed unique attitudinal and demographic characteristics. The size and profile of each segment has important implications for marketing theory and practice.
Research dealing with various aspects of* the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1985,
1987) is reviewed, and some unresolved issues are discussed. In broad terms, the theory is
found to be well supported by empirical evidence. Intentions to perform behaviors of different
kinds can be predicted with high accuracy from attitudes toward the behavior, subjective
norms, and perceived behavioral control; and these intentions, together with perceptions of
behavioral control, account for considerable variance in actual behavior. Attitudes, subjective
norms, and perceived behavioral control are shown to be related to appropriate sets of salient
behavioral, normative, and control beliefs about the behavior, but the exact nature of these
relations is still uncertain. Expectancy value formulations are found to be only partly
successful in dealing with these relations. Optimal rescaling of expectancy and value
measures is offered as a means of dealing with measurement limitations. Finally, inclusion of
past behavior in the prediction equation is shown to provide a means of testing the theory*s
sufficiency, another issue that remains unresolved. The limited available evidence concerning
this question shows that the theory is predicting behavior quite well in comparison to the
ceiling imposed by behavioral reliability.
Sustainability is a guiding principle for a responsible, future‐oriented 21st century lifestyle and this already begins in private households with the daily household tasks. Approximately 25% of an average household's electricity consumption is required to do the laundry and dishwashing – 5% alone is for washing clothes with a corresponding energy consumption of 6 billion kilowatt hours. In addition, 600 000 tonnes of detergent and 330 million cubic metres of water are used for textile care in G ermany. These figures provide the rationale for the scientific study of current practices of using washing machines and for a resulting estimate of the latent energy‐saving potential in G erman households.
In the context of the in‐home study presented here, 236 private households throughout G ermany were studied with respect to their washing practices and existing knowledge about topics on the sustainable, energy‐saving use of their washing machines. Overall, across all households 2867 wash cycles were individually recorded and subsequently analysed over a 4‐week period.
The results of this study show that washing machines tend to be underloaded, and therefore maximum loading of the machines could lead to a reduction of wash cycles per household. With respect to detergent dosage, it was determined that the consumer does not adjust the dosage to the textile type, load size, soil level and/or water hardness, and this can lead to under‐ or overdosing depending on prevailing conditions. Finally, the selection of the wash temperature showed a 90°C/95°C programme was only chosen in 2.3% of all recorded wash cycles, however, every fourth cycle was completed at 60°C. Therefore, adjusting the load size and detergent dosage as well as selecting the right wash temperature are key themes to be taken into account in future consumer communication about energy‐saving households.
An important step in promoting sustainable consumption is to find out how consumers understand the concept of sustainability. In this paper, we report on a study among Norwegian consumers in which we explored their understanding of sustainability at two levels. First, we investigated consumers' understanding of the general sustainability concept; specifically, we studied how important the following five sustainability dimensions are in consumers' conception of sustainability: the environmental, social, economic, temporal and the developmental dimension. Second, we investigated how consumers' understanding of sustainability manifests itself in consumption decisions: We studied consumers' opinions about how important various attributes are for sustainable products and which product labels they consider indicative of sustainable products. We found that all five sustainability dimensions occurred as elements of consumers' understanding of the sustainability concept. The environmental dimension, the social dimension and the developmental dimension were particularly outstanding. With regard to attributes that are important for sustainable products, consumers placed high emphasis on recyclability of the packaging, fair payment of producers, low energy use and low carbon dioxide emissions during production and shipping. Humane animal treatment was also considered an important attribute of sustainable products. The product labels that were considered most indicative of sustainable products were the Nordic Swan and the Norwegian Debio label. Consumers' judgments of how indicative the labels are of sustainable products were related positively to familiarity with the labels.
Etwa 40% der CO2-Emissionen eines deutschen Bundesbürgers entfallen auf Ernährung und Konsum (Schächtele & Hertle, 2007, S. 11). Konsumenten können somit durch umweltbewusstes Einkaufs- und Nutzungsverhalten einen erheblichen Beitrag zur Reduktion von Treibhausgasemissionen leisten. Im folgenden Forschungskonzept wird die These vertreten, dass die ökologische Einstellung eines Konsumenten und seine Absicht, klimafreundlich zu handeln, nicht in ökologischem Verhalten münden. Informationsdefizite sowie Handlungsbarrieren sind mögliche Erklärungsansätze für diese Lücke. Zur Klärung der Forschungsfragen wird eine Konsumententypologie entwickelt, auf deren Basis empirische Untersuchungen mit Hilfe von Paneldaten der GfK durchgeführt werden sollen. Potentielle Ergebnisse liefern Handlungsempfehlungen für Unternehmen und Handel, um die Klimawirksamkeit von Produkten verständlich zu kommunizieren. Auf dieser Basis könnte der Konsument befähigt werden, seine ökologische Einstellung in ein ebensolches Verhalten umzusetzen.
Despite widespread pro-green attitudes, consumers frequently purchase non-green alternatives. One possible explanation for this value–action gap is the tradeoffs that green products often force on their users: higher prices, lower quality, and/or reduced performance. The current study uses conjoint analysis to uncover the attribute preferences of car and TV buyers when green attributes are negatively correlated with conventional attributes. These attribute preferences are then used to predict choice among sets of green and less green alternatives currently sold in the marketplace. Strong preferences for green products are found when tradeoffs are not apparent, but preference shifts significantly to less green compromise alternatives when the actual attribute tradeoffs are considered. Although general preference is reduced by tradeoffs, a green product offering some compensatory advantage on a conventional attribute does attract a broader spectrum of consumers, while only “dark green” consumers are willing to pay the price to go green when the product offers few compensatory qualities. In all cases, however, predicted buyers of the greenest technologies offset some of their environmental benefits by choosing more energy-thirsty specifications on negatively correlated conventional attributes. Managerial and public policy implications of the findings are then discussed.
Knowledge regarding the barriers to green consumption is of increasing importance as retail organizations place greater emphasis on the environment in evaluating performance in adherence with the triple-bottom line approach. The objective of this research is to investigate individual barriers that affect consumers’ evaluations of the green products found in retail outlets. The research presented utilizes a critical incident qualitative study and two quantitative studies to examine the factors associated with non-green purchase behaviors. In addition, findings from an experiment suggest that altering the number and form of informational product cues may overcome purchase barriers. These factors are discussed, as are the implications of the research for stakeholders of retail organizations.
Policy-makers are interested in cost-effective and socially acceptable ways of encouraging the public to adopt more environmentally-friendly lifestyles. One area which UK policy-makers are focussing on is ‘catalyst behaviour’, the notion that taking-up a new behaviour (such as recycling) may cause people to adopt other pro-environmental behaviours. Yet, evidence for such ‘spill-over’ effects is so far limited, and it is unclear when and how cross-situational motivations (e.g., pro-environmental identity) may predict behaviour and when contextual factors are more important. We report on a postal survey (N = 551) of pro-environmental behaviours amongst the UK public. We assess the influence of pro-environmental self-identify on consistency across a range of behaviours. Pro-environmental values, perceived behavioural control, subjective norm, attitudes, and demographic factors were also measured. Findings show self-identity to be a significant behavioural determinant over and above theory of planned behaviour variables for carbon offsetting behaviour. However, pro-environmental self-identity was only a significant predictor for certain other pro-environmental behaviours; background variables were also important predictors. Limitations of the study, and implications for theory and policy, are discussed.
The increasing public awareness and sense of social responsibility related to environmental issues have led the textile industry to manufacture products with improved environmental profiles. This article evaluates processes used to produce cotton, wool, nylon, polyester, rayon, lyocell (Tencel®), and leather, and their potential environmental impacts using selected criteria. An analysis of the measures the textile industry has taken to reduce the adverse environmental impacts is provided. Finally, the textile industry's and consumers' responsibilities in moving toward the production of environmentally sound textile products are discussed. The assessment of the environmental impact of a product is a complex issue, and solutions cannot be achieved without action by the government, industry, and the consumers.
Marketing ethics and social responsibility are inherently controversial, and years of research continue to present conflicts and challenges for marketers on the value of a socially responsible approach to marketing activities. This article examines whether or not consumers care about ethical behaviour, and investigates the effect of good and bad ethical conduct on consumer purchase behaviour. Through focus group discussions it becomes clear that although we are more sophisticated as consumers today, this does not necessarily translate into behaviour which favours ethical companies and punishes unethical firms. The article concludes by some thoughts on how marketers might encourage consumers to engage in positive purchase behaviour in favour of ethical marketing.
Numerous theoretical frameworks have been developed to explain the gap between the possession of environmental knowledge and environmental awareness, and displaying pro-environmental behavior. Although many hundreds of studies have been undertaken, no definitive explanation has yet been found. Our article describes a few of the most influential and commonly used analytical frameworks: early US linear progression models; altruism, empathy and prosocial behavior models; and finally, sociological models. All of the models we discuss (and many of the ones we do not such as economic models, psychological models that look at behavior in general, social marketing models and that have become known as deliberative and inclusionary processes or procedures (DIPS)) have some validity in certain circumstances. This indicates that the question of what shapes pro-environmental behavior is such a complex one that it cannot be visualized through one single framework or diagram. We then analyze the factors that have been found to have some influence, positive or negative, on pro-environmental behavior such as demographic factors, external factors (e.g. institutional, economic, social and cultural) and internal factors (e.g. motivation, pro-environmental knowledge, awareness, values, attitudes, emotion, locus of control, responsibilities and priorities). Although we point out that developing a model that tries to incorporate all factors might neither be feasible nor useful, we feel that it can help illuminate this complex field. Accordingly, we propose our own model based on the work of Fliegenschnee and Schelakovsky (1998) who were influenced by Fietkau and Kessel (1981).
This study seeks to develop an ecological consumption measure based on the Rasch model. At the same time, it also intends to detect contextual conditions that constrain specific food purchases recognized as environmentally significant behaviors. Moreover, it provides information about the environmental impact and consequences of the behaviors that constitute the proposed measure. Questionnaire data from 547 Swiss residents are used to test three classes of contextual conditions: consumer’s socioeconomic characteristics, consumer’s living circumstances, and store characteristics. With differential performance probabilities as the source of information to detect effective contextual influences on ecological behavior, the findings suggest that ecological consumption is rather susceptible to store and household characteristics but not to socioeconomic features. Furthermore, the conditions under consideration are not uniformly supporting or inhibiting. Instead, they appear to inhibit some behaviors while facilitating others.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the growing public interest in climate protection and the desire for climate‐friendly consumption which has led to a previously unimagined demand for Carbon Labels on products and various approaches to calculating the carbon footprint of firms or individual products.
Design/methodology/approach
A principal problem in calculating the carbon footprint is the input required to genuinely map the emissions from cradle to grave, in other words the product life path as is customary in a life cycle assessment. Small‐ and medium‐sized companies especially encounter major problems in practice when trying to calculate their footprint and take aspects of upstream CO 2 emissions from their suppliers into account as well. The different options regarding how to balance and to include these emissions are compared.
Findings
Such analyses are indispensable against the background of decreasing vertical integration in industrialised countries. This is the classic question concerning the boundaries of balancing, but here with far‐reaching consequences, as incorrect selection of the limits will also falsify the results and conclusions.
Originality/value
The paper demonstrates that there are new methods that can be used to determine CO 2 emissions in supply chains from stage to stage recursively and simply pass the data on to the next actor in the chain. A company then only needs to take the data from its direct trading partners into account and can dispense with comprehensive life cycle analyses. This would make CO 2 calculations easier but it requires a discussion about the question for what kind of decisions the different approaches are really helpful.
We conducted a telephone survey with 1,357 respondents in Switzerland and Germany that examined daily life behaviors and factors affecting the behaviors. Discussion focuses on inconsistencies between attitudes and behaviors. Individuals are seen as using 3 strategies to reconcile gaps between concerns and behaviors: (1) behavior is diversified depending on specific situations, promoting the defense that individuals give favorable accounts of their behaviors; (2) behaviors are often justified via low-cost-situation explanations; and (3) rationality contains conflicts, and therefore ideal attitudes are not transferred to behavior. (English abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Geller hypothesized a mediational model of environmentally responsible behavior. Specifically, Geller proposed that 'actively caring,' a component of altruism, mediated the relation between environmentally responsible behaviors and personality factors related to self-affirmation (i.e., self-esteem, belonging, and personal control). The present study tested this hypothesis. Participants completed a lengthy questionnaire that assessed their levels of self-esteem, belonging and personal control, dispositional levels of actively caring (i.e., sympathy for others), and environmentally friendly behaviors. Results were largely consistent with Geller's model. Specifically, sympathy, the proxy measure of actively caring used in this study, mediated the relation between personal control and environmentally friendly behaviors.
Purpose – The theory of planned behavior (TPB) served as a framework for identifying major antecedents of everyday green purchasing behavior and for determining their relative importance.
Design/methodology/approach – The German market research institute GfK provided data (n = 12,113) from their 2012 household panel survey. A two-step structural equation modeling approach was applied to test both the measurement and the structural model.
Findings – Willingness to pay (WTP) was the strongest predictor of green purchasing behavior, followed by personal norms. The impact of attitude is insignificant. This implies an attitude – behavior gap.
Research limitations/implications – Individuals overestimate their self-reported WTP and behavior, which suggests that the share of explained variance is in reality lower. It has to be doubted whether consumers are objectively able to judge products by their environmental impact. Even if consumers are willing to buy a “greener” product, their subjective evaluation might be incorrect. Further research should be based on actual purchasing data. In addition, the attitude – behavior gap should be scrutinized by further research to identify further barriers to green consumption.
Practical implications – Consumers need to be aware that their consumption behavior can make a difference. They have to value the benefits of green products and understand why these are priced higher. Firms can apply pricing and promotional strategies addressing personal norms and
inducing a higher WTP to capitalize on the opportunities of the green market segment.
Originality/value – The study integrates WTP and personal norms as critical predictors into the TPB and furthermore expands the extant literature on green purchasing behavior to cover daily consumer goods extending beyond organic food. This enhances understanding of the structure of the constructs and determines their relative importance.
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the evidence for a positive correlation between increased consumption of organic products and potential climate change mitigation via decreased consumption of meat and it is discussed to what extent organic consumption is motivated by climate change concerns.
Design/methodology/approach
– A fixed effects model together with a factor analysis and ordinary least square are used to analyse household purchase data for 2,000 households in 2006-2010 combined with survey questionnaire data from 2008.
Findings
– A small but statistically significant correlation between increasing organic budget shares and decreasing meat budget shares is found. People include food-related behaviour such as the purchase of organic food and reduced meat consumption as ways to mitigate climate change. However, other behavioural modifications such as reduction of car usage and household heating are perceived as more important strategies.
Research limitations/implications
– Other food-related mitigation strategies could be investigated. The climate effect of different diets – and how to motivate consumers to pursue them – could be investigated. Individual as opposed to household data would supplement the analyses.
Practical implications
– Demand-side policies aiming at climate-friendly consumption could be a central factor in combating climate change. Already, food-related mitigation strategies such as lowered meat consumption are established practices among a group of organic consumers. As some consumers believe that climate change can be mitigated by consuming organic food, the authors propose that this is taken into account in the development of organic farming.
Originality/value
– The authors propose a shift from analysing the climate-friendliness of production to addressing the climate-friendliness of consumption using consumption of organic food as a case. The authors link stated concerns for climate changes with actual food-related behaviour.
The advice on climate-smart food consumption given by authorities and NGOs includes the recommendation to “eat seasonal foods”. However, no clear definition of seasonality is given in the literature. This study investigated how the carbon footprint of yearly per capita consumption of tomatoes and carrots in Sweden was affected by seasonal consumption according to interpretations of seasonality found in communications from Swedish NGOs and authorities. The results showed that the carbon footprint of carrot and tomato consumption was strongly affected by consuming according to either a strict definition of seasonality, which excluded both production in heated greenhouses and long-distance transport, or a definition which only allowed Swedish produce. The reduction potential was approximately 60%, but the consumption pattern was also highly restrictive, with e.g. tomatoes only being consumed during three months according to the strictest definition. The reduction from eating only Swedish products was not due primarily to characteristics commonly associated with seasonal production (shorter transport or low energy demand in cultivation), but to the use of renewable fuel instead of fossil energy. The methodology chosen in this study resulted in carrots having a more distinct season than tomatoes, since the energy use for heating greenhouses (which are needed all year round in cold climates) was evenly allocated across all tomatoes harvested during one year, while the carbon footprint of carrots was assumed to increase with time due to increased energy demand for storage and storage losses. Hence, modern production techniques challenge the traditional concepts of seasonality. On an absolute scale including the whole food sector, the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from eating seasonal is limited, as emissions from vegetable production make up a minor proportion of the total emissions from food consumption.
The article discusses the factors influencing proenvironmental consumer behaviors and the policy implications of knowledge about these influences. It presents a conceptual framework that emphasizes the determining roles of both personal and contextual factors and especially of their interactions. The practical usefulness of the framework is illustrated by evidence of the interactive effects of information and material incentives – typical interventions in the personal and contextual domains, respectively. The author concludes that incentives and information have different functions, so that efforts focused on only one are sometimes misplaced; however, properly deployed, they can have synergistic effects on behavior. Some policy conclusions are drawn for consumer and environmental policy.
Environmental impacts from food consumption are dominated by the consumption of livestock products. Changes in consumption patterns are necessary to reduce these impacts. Information is a policy instrument that can influence consumers to make more sustainable choices, as well as increasing awareness of the problem and hence creating acceptance for financial policy instruments, e.g. taxes. Environmental studies of livestock often focus on greenhouse gas emissions. Although the carbon footprint of meat correlates with several other impact categories, there is a risk of conflicts with categories such as biodiversity loss, pesticide use and animal welfare. In an interdisciplinary project, a consumer guide was developed to assist Swedish consumers and food professionals at retail level in making less environmentally harmful meat choices and to act as a communication tool, raising awareness of the different environmental aspects of meat production and potential conflicts with animal welfare. A series of design requirements were established for the guide as regards communication and environmental assessment from a life cycle perspective. Following these, four indicators (carbon footprint, biodiversity, use of pesticides and animal welfare) were chosen to represent the impact on the environment and animal welfare from different choices of meat and other protein sources. For each indicator, criteria were developed that placed the products included in the meat guide in one of three different groups, represented by the well-known traffic light system of red/yellow/green. This first attempt to develop a meat guide for the Swedish market has several limitations, but should provide valuable guidance to consumers and can act as a basis for discussion in the important task of decreasing meat consumption and choosing better meat alternatives.
The greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions embodied in 66 different food categories together with self-reported dietary information are used to show how consumer choices surrounding food might lead to reductions in food-related GHG emissions. The current UK-average diet is found to embody 8.8 kg CO2e person−1 day−1. This figure includes both food eaten and food wasted (post-purchase). By far the largest potential reduction in GHG emissions is achieved by eliminating meat from the diet (35% reduction), followed by changing from carbon-intensive lamb and beef to less carbon-intensive pork and chicken (18% reduction). Cutting out all avoidable waste delivers an emissions saving of 12%. Not eating foods grown in hot-houses or air-freighted to the UK offers a 5% reduction in emissions. We show how combinations of consumer actions can easily lead to reductions of 25% in food related GHG emissions. If such changes were adopted by the entire UK population this would be equivalent to a 71% reduction in the exhaust pipe emissions of CO2 from the entire UK passenger car fleet (which totalled 71 Mt CO2e year−1 in 2009).
The greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions embodied in 66 different food categories together with self-reported dietary information are used to show how consumer choices surrounding food might lead to reductions in food-related GHG emissions. The current UK-average diet is found to embody 8.8 kg CO2e person−1 day−1. This figure includes both food eaten and food wasted (post-purchase). By far the largest potential reduction in GHG emissions is achieved by eliminating meat from the diet (35% reduction), followed by changing from carbon-intensive lamb and beef to less carbon-intensive pork and chicken (18% reduction). Cutting out all avoidable waste delivers an emissions saving of 12%. Not eating foods grown in hot-houses or air-freighted to the UK offers a 5% reduction in emissions. We show how combinations of consumer actions can easily lead to reductions of 25% in food related GHG emissions. If such changes were adopted by the entire UK population this would be equivalent to a 71% reduction in the exhaust pipe emissions of CO2 from the entire UK passenger car fleet (which totalled 71 Mt CO2e year−1 in 2009).
One of the strategies employed by companies to differentiate themselves from others, in the food market, has been to market organic products according to the assumption that environmental values are an important influence on people's behavior. However, studies of the behavior of organic food consumers show that there is some debate on this subject. Although some studies associate organic food consumption with motives and attitudes in which the environment plays a predominant role, a greater number conclude that the motives for consuming this type of food are basically egoistic (related to health, food safety, or the quality or flavor of the food). This can lead to problems in deciding the central thrust of the marketing strategy. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the meaning and interpretations placed on the term “organic,” and how they are integrated, as a way to explain consumption behavior. Qualitative research methods were adopted for this purpose. Four focus group sessions with different sociodemographic profiles, held in the cities of Madrid and Seville, in Spain, displayed two evident paradoxes, which could indicate that environmental motives are not important for consumers in this market. It is concluded that the term “organic” plays an important role as a heuristic cue to superiority, irrespective of the consumer's knowledge about the real features of organic food. Three alternative models are presented to explain consumer behavior. These results could be useful to food companies, largely in connection with positioning this type of product and with their communications policy.
Two most critical factors to address in environmental system analysis of future milk production are 1) the link between milk and beef production, and 2) the competition for land, possibly leading to land use change (LUC) with greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and loss of biodiversity as important implications. Different methodological approaches concerning these factors, in studies on environmental impacts of dairy production, sometimes lead to contradictory results.Increasing milk yield per cow is often one of the solutions discussed in order to reduce GHG emissions from milk production. However, when also accounting for other systems affected (e.g. beef production) it is not certain that an increase in milk yield per cow leads to a reduction in total GHG emissions per kg milk. In the present study the correlation between carbon footprint (CF) of milk and the amount of milk delivered per cow is investigated for 23 dairy farms (both organic and conventional) in Sweden. Use of a fixed allocation factor of 90% (based on economic value) indicates a reduction in CF with increased milk yield, while no correlation can be noted when system expansion is applied. The average CF for two groups of farms, organic and high yielding conventional, is also calculated. When conducting system expansion the CF is somewhat lower for the organic farms (which have a lower milk yield per cow, but more meat per kg milk), but when a 90% allocation factor is used, the CF is somewhat higher for the organic farms compared to the high yielding conventional farms. In analysis of future strategies for milk production, it is suggested that system expansion should be applied, in order to also account for environmental impacts from affected systems. Thus, scenarios for milk and meat production should be analysed in an integrated approach in order to reduce total emissions from the livestock sector.How to account for emissions from LUC is highly debated and there is no current shared consensus. Different LUC methods result in significantly different results. In this study, four different LUC methods are applied, using data for organic milk production and high yielding conventional milk production systems in Sweden. Depending on which LUC method was applied, the organic system showed about 50% higher or 40% lower CF compared to the conventional high yielding system. Thus, when reporting CF numbers, it is important to report LUC-factors separately and clearly explain the underlying assumptions, since the method of accounting for LUC can drastically change the results.
Infolge der Angleichung der Sortimente im Lebensmitteleinzelhandel bieten sich den Handelsunternehmen durch die Markierung sog. Bio-Handelsmarken eindeutige Profilierungsmöglichkeiten gegenüber der Konkurrenz. Zudem eröffnen derartige Eigenmarken durch innovative Produktlösungen im gehobenen Preis-Leistungssegment neue Dimensionen im Verständnis sowie in der Funktion von Handelsmarken. Da die ökologischen Produkteigenschaften durch den Verbraucher nicht oder nur zu prohibitiv hohen Kosten überprüft werden können, sind zur erfolgreichen Warenkennzeichnung biologischer Eigenmarken insbesondere Gütesiegel relevant. In diesem Kontext mangelt es jedoch an wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnissen. So ist beispielsweise nicht eindeutig geklärt, welchen Einfluss derartige Gütesiegel auf die Kaufentscheidung ausüben. Dieses offensichtliche Forschungsdefizit zum Anlass nehmend, erfolgt in der vorliegenden Abhandlung eine empirische Überprüfung der Bedeutung von Gütesiegeln für den Kauf von Bio-Handelsmarken.
The assessment of a food product’s environmental friendliness is highly challenging for consumers because such an assessment requires the consideration of various product characteristics. Furthermore, products often show conflicting features. This study uses a choice task and a questionnaire to examine how consumers judge the environmental friendliness of several vegetables. The consumers’ assessment is compared with life cycle assessment (LCA) results, which represent the overall environmental impact of a product throughout its lifespan. In contrast to the LCA, consumers consider transportation distance rather than transportation mode and perceive organic production as very relevant for the environmental friendliness. Furthermore, consumers assess the environmental impact of packaging and conservation as more important than the LCA results show. Findings also suggest the current product information for vegetables is insufficient for judging their environmental friendliness. Implications for information campaigns and ecological food labeling are discussed.
Geller hypothesized a mediational model of environmentally responsible behavior. Specifically, Geller proposed that “actively caring,” a component of altruism, mediated the relation between environmentally responsible behaviors and personality factors related to self-affirmation (i.e., self-esteem, belonging, and personal control). The present study tested this hypothesis. Participants completed a lengthy questionnaire that assessed their levels of self-esteem, belonging and personal control, dispositional levels of actively caring (i.e., sympathy for others), and environmentally friendly behaviors. Results were largely consistent with Geller’s model. Specifically, sympathy, the proxy measure of actively caring used in this study, mediated the relation between personal control and environmentally friendly behaviors.
Perspectives from behavior-based psychology (behaviorism) and person-based psychology (humanism) are integrated to summarize ways to protect the environment. Community-based interventions are needed to decrease environment-destructive behaviors and to increase environment-protective behaviors. Intervention agents are needed to implement these interventions on a large scale, and this requires people to "actively care" enough to emit other-directed (or altruistic) behaviors for environmental protection. Person factors that influence one's propensity to actively care include self-esteem, belongingness, self-efficacy, personal control, and optimism. Thus person-based psychology defines the states or expectancies needed in people to increase their willingness to actively care for the environment, and behavior-based psychology offers the technology for changing behaviors and attitudes (including actively caring person states).
[I do not have an electronic copy of this chapter. You can find many pages of it online at
https://books.google.co.il/books?redir_esc=y&id=lEgM5N6rIKwC&q=normative+influences+on+altruism#v=snippet&q=normative%20influences%20on%20altruism&f=false
Central to the theoretical model of personal normative influences on altruism presented in this chapter is the idea that altruistic behavior is causally influenced by feelings of moral obligation to act on one's personally held norms. Research supporting this central tenet of the model has demonstrated associations between personal norms and behavior rather than causal relations. These associations are partly causal because the associations appear primarily in the presence of personality conditions conducive to norm activation and are absent when personality conditions are conducive to deactivation, and attributes of personal norms (e.g., centrality, stability, and intensity) relate to altruism singly or in combination, in ways predicted when the causal impact of anticipated moral costs on behavior is assumed. Studies show that variations in situational conditions conducive to activation of moral obligation also influence the relationship between personal norms and behavior. There is ample evidence that variables that foster movement through the activation process—according to the theoretical model—are themselves related to altruistic behavior (e.g., seriousness of need and uniqueness of responsibility). The study of how personal norms are related to altruism is a part of a larger enterprise—the investigation of attitude–behavior relations in general. [I do not have an electronic copy of this chapter. You can find many pages of it online at
https://books.google.co.il/books?redir_esc=y&id=lEgM5N6rIKwC&q=normative+influences+on+altruism#v=snippet&q=normative%20influences%20on%20altruism&f=false]
The article discusses the factors influencing proenvironmental consumer behaviors and the policy implications of knowledge about these influences. It presents a conceptual framework that emphasizes the determining roles of both personal and contextual factors and especially of their interactions. The practical usefulness of the framework is illustrated by evidence of the interactive effects of information and material incentives – typical interventions in the personal and contextual domains, respectively. The author concludes that incentives and information have different functions, so that efforts focused on only one are sometimes misplaced; however, properly deployed, they can have synergistic effects on behavior. Some policy conclusions are drawn for consumer and environmental policy.
This article develops a conceptual framework for advancing theories of environ- mentally significant individual behavior and reports on the attempts of the author's research group and others to develop such a theory. It discusses defini- tions of environmentally significant behavior; classifies the behaviors and their causes; assesses theories of environmentalism, focusing especially on value-belief-norm theory; evaluates the relationship between environmental concern and behavior; and summarizes evidence on the factors that determine environmentally significant behaviors and that can effectively alter them. The article concludes by presenting some major propositions supported by available research and some principles for guiding future research and informing the design of behavioral programs for environmental protection. Recent developments in theory and research give hope for building the under- standing needed to effectively alter human behaviors that contribute to environ- mental problems. This article develops a conceptual framework for the theory of environmentally significant individual behavior, reports on developments toward such a theory, and addresses five issues critical to building a theory that can inform efforts to promote proenvironmental behavior.
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to contribute to a better understanding of deeper motivations and inhibitors of green consumer behavior in the context of emerging economies. Based on the findings, it aims to provide implications for marketers and policy making.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on an ethnographic approach, in‐depth interviews and observational data were used to study 15 Mexican families from four urban regions of Mexico with different incomes. Thematic analysis was used to develop and validate themes and codes.
Findings
The findings highlight three dominant themes related to uncertainty in the adoption of environmentally‐friendly behaviors: consumer confusion, trust and credibility, and compatibility. Overall, green behaviors seem to be ingrained in the traditional heritage of savings and frugality rather than based on strong environmental values. It is suggested that the factors that drive consumers from positive attitudes and intentions to the actual adoption of green behaviors are a combination of perceived personal benefits, decreased perceived risk and uncertainty, a sense of control over costs, and a decomposition and reconstruction of deeply embedded cultural values and practices.
Practical implications
Policy makers and marketers are advised to build on collaborative efforts in order to facilitate comprehension and adoption of environmentally‐friendly behaviors and green products. In order to construct modernity alongside environmental responsibility, it seems indispensable to provide affordable lower‐priced alternatives for the low‐income segments of the market which constitute the vast majority of the population in emerging economies.
Originality/value
Being one of very few available qualitative studies on green consumer behavior, this study delves into the tension between modernity and traditional heritage in the context of emerging economies.
Importance attached to purchase criteria, beliefs about the characteristics of eco-labeled alternatives of some food products, and prescriptive norm strength to purchase such products were examined as potential predictors of purchasing eco-labeled products. It is argued that the purchase of ordinary food products is a behavior often guided by habits. This implies that to purchase eco-labeled alternatives often require a change of habit. Data were obtained from a questionnaire mailed to 480 individuals. Attaching importance to the purchase criteria environmental consequences and human health, expressing positive beliefs about eco-labeled products, and experiencing a strong prescriptive norm were positively correlated with a high relative frequency of choicing eco-labeled alternatives. Environmental values in particular may create a predisposition to change purchase habits.
Organic farming practices have been promoted as, inter alia, reducing the environmental impacts of agriculture. This meta-analysis systematically analyses published studies that compare environmental impacts of organic and conventional farming in Europe. The results show that organic farming practices generally have positive impacts on the environment per unit of area, but not necessarily per product unit. Organic farms tend to have higher soil organic matter content and lower nutrient losses (nitrogen leaching, nitrous oxide emissions and ammonia emissions) per unit of field area. However, ammonia emissions, nitrogen leaching and nitrous oxide emissions per product unit were higher from organic systems. Organic systems had lower energy requirements, but higher land use, eutrophication potential and acidification potential per product unit. The variation within the results across different studies was wide due to differences in the systems compared and research methods used. The only impacts that were found to differ significantly between the systems were soil organic matter content, nitrogen leaching, nitrous oxide emissions per unit of field area, energy use and land use. Most of the studies that compared biodiversity in organic and conventional farming demonstrated lower environmental impacts from organic farming. The key challenges in conventional farming are to improve soil quality (by versatile crop rotations and additions of organic material), recycle nutrients and enhance and protect biodiversity. In organic farming, the main challenges are to improve the nutrient management and increase yields. In order to reduce the environmental impacts of farming in Europe, research efforts and policies should be targeted to developing farming systems that produce high yields with low negative environmental impacts drawing on techniques from both organic and conventional systems.
Developing and implementing successful green strategies depends upon good communication. Faced with an increasingly cynical public, companies are finding it difficult to communicate improvements in their eco-performance to the marketplace in a way that will enable them to generate a competitive advantage. This difficulty is compounded by the problems involved in using traditional communications media for a task to which they are often poorly suited. Advertising for example, is difficult to formulate around green issues which are complex and hard to put across within the sort of short, style-orientated information bite that characterises many contemporary campaigns. Companies are looking for alternatives, and for packaged goods manufacturers are using the product's package as a communications channel. It reaches all existing (if not all potential) customers, and on-pack information is typically seen by consumers as relatively credible. This paper provides an exploratory study of on-pack information in part of the environmental ‘front-line’; the anti-perspirant and deodorant (APD) market. Options for on-pack communication are examined along with some of the issues that arise from trying to engage in environmental communication with the customer using packaging as the medium. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.
Recent evidence suggests that the extent of consumer adoption of ‘green’ products is much less than would be indicated by the enthusiastic opinion poll evidence concerning public attitudes towards environmentally-friendly consumption. This paper reports on an empirical analysis of firms' marketing strategies and their influence on consumer demand for green products. In twenty 2–3 hour interviews with senior managers, four representative groups of markets were analysed household detergents, paper (recycled), petrol (unleaded) and automobile technology (focusing on catalytic converters). According to managers, firms' marketing strategies influenced consumer demand by making green technologies available in the fwst instance. However, barriers to supplying green products that show panty with, or better performance than, conventional technologies constrain pricing and communication efforts Managers stressed that, in the absence of clarity of green products' environmental benefits, product performance and other attributes, not green benefits, remain the main determinants of product preference and choice. Promotions focused much more on consumers than distribution channels, yet channel acceptance and support of green innovations are paramount in facilitating sales. Firms see the costs of generating and promoting desirable green technologies as barriers to diffusion in the immediate future. Legislation and/or economic incentives may help, but manufacturers are not optimistic that future green consumption rates will accelerate. The results also highlight several propositions concerning the discrepancy between consumer environmental concerns and purchasing actions which warrant further testing: there is mis-specification of green products in relation to consumers'needs; there are barriers to perceptions of green products' environmental impact and consumers' free ride due to individual self-interest.
Increasingly, consumers choose ecological products when they do the shopping, not only because it is a healthier option but also because it helps to sustain the environment for future generations. They are prepared to switch products for ecological reasons and stop buying products from companies that cause pollution. Firms and other economic institutions are aware of the importance of reflecting these attitudes towards the environment in developing their products. This paper is focused on environmental attitudes as meaningful predictor of ecological behaviour. A three-dimensional approach to this variable has been developed, which addresses its emotional, cognitive and conative components. A random sample survey of 573 individuals was used to verify the conceptual model and framework. This model was assessed initially by principal factor analysis and subsequently, by structural equation modelling. Findings of this study showed that environmental attitudes have a significant effect on ecological behaviour. This research improves our understanding of how consumers feel and what attitudes best define their way of behaving in relation to environmental problems.
This study assesses the level of consumers' felt involvement in four distinct product categories of organic food (coffee, bread, fruit, and flour), and examines the role of felt involvement in the broader context of organic food shopping behavior. It is shown that the reason why consumers do not buy organic food regularly despite their positive attitudes is that such ideologically formed attitudes are not present in habitual, low-involvement shopping activities with limited problem-solving needs as in food shopping from grocery stores. The statistical analysis of an empirical sample of 200 consumers gives substantial support to the hypothesized new organic food buying behavior model. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.