Top

Journal of Business Ethics

Published in:

08-01-2020 | Original Paper

Antecedents of Environmentally and Socially Responsible Sustainable Consumer Behavior

Authors: Maja Hosta, Vesna Zabkar

Published in: Journal of Business Ethics | Issue 2/2021

Activate our intelligent search to find suitable subject content or patents.

search-config

AI-assisted search

Off

Abstract

Responsible sustainable consumer behavior (RSCB) involves a complex pattern of environmental and social issues, in line with the view of sustainability as a construct with both environmental and social pillar. So far, environmental dimension was far more researched than social dimension. In this article, we investigate the antecedents of both environmentally and socially RSCB and willingness to behave in environmentally/socially responsible way. We include measures of concern, perceived consumer control/effectiveness, personal/social norms and ethical ideologies/obligation to better explain and extend the traditional theory of planned behavior. Additionally, we test the impact of information availability about environmental or social impact on RSCB. Our findings on a representative sample of 426 respondents (ages 18 to 65) show that in general, antecedents of environmentally and socially responsible sustainable consumption are similar in their effect on consumer behavior, with personal norms, concern and ethical ideologies having the strongest impact on RSCB. When comparing both types of behavior, socially responsible behavior is more influenced by perceived behavioral control and possibly social norms than environmentally responsible behavior, while information availability plays its role for both behaviors. Sustainable responsible consumption can be achieved by embracing both dimensions of sustainability and consumers need to have a sense for both social and environmental issues. The complexity and struggles between doing what is good for environment and society could be the reason why consumers have difficulties achieving sustainable responsible consumption.

previous article Unexpected Lives: The Intersection of Islam and Arab Women’s Entrepreneurship

next article Religious But Not Ethical: The Effects of Extrinsic Religiosity, Ethnocentrism and Self-righteousness on Consumers’ Ethical Judgments

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 102.000 Bücher
über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Automobil + Motoren
Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 67.000 Bücher
über 340 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Available only for authorised users

Abdul-Muhmin, A. G. (2007). Explaining consumers’ willingness to be environmentally friendly. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 31(3), 237–247.

Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50(2), 179–211.

Ajzen, I. (2013). Theory of planned behaviour questionnaire. Measurement instrument database for the social science. Retrieved from www.midss.ie.

Ajzen, I., & Fishbein, M. (2005). The influence of attitudes on behavior. The Handbook of Attitudes, 173, 221.

Anderson, W. T., Jr., & Cunningham, W. H. (1972). The socially conscious consumer. The Journal of Marketing, 3, 23–31.

Anderson, J. C., & Gerbing, D. W. (1988). Structural equation modeling in practice: A review and recommended two-step approach. Psychological Bulletin, 103(3), 411.

Antil, J. H. (1984). Socially responsible consumers: Profile and implications for public policy. Journal of Macromarketing, 4(2), 18–39.

Bagozzi, Richard P., & Yi, Youjae. (1988). On the evaluation of structural equation models. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 16(1), 74–94.

Balderjahn, I., Buerke, A., Kirchgeorg, M., Peyer, M., Seegebarth, B., & Wiedmann, K. P. (2013). Consciousness for sustainable consumption: Scale development and new insights in the economic dimension of consumers’ sustainability. AMS Review, 3(4), 181–192.

Bamberg, S. (2003). How does environmental concern influence specific environmentally related behaviors? A new answer to an old question. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 23(1), 21–32.

Bamberg, S., & Moser, G. (2007). Twenty years after Hines, Hungerford, and Tomera: A new meta-analysis of psycho-social determinants of pro-environmental behaviour. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 27(1), 14–25.

Belch, M. A. (1982). A segmentation strategy for the 1980’s: Profiling the socially-concerned market through life-style analysis. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 10(4), 345–358.

Brannen, J. (2005). Mixed methods research: A discussion paper.

Carrigan, M., & Attalla, A. (2001). The myth of the ethical consumer–do ethics matter in purchase behaviour? Journal of Consumer Marketing, 18(7), 560–578.

Carrington, M. J., Neville, B. A., & Whitwell, G. J. (2010). Why ethical consumers don’t walk their talk: Towards a framework for understanding the gap between the ethical purchase intentions and actual buying behaviour of ethically minded consumers. Journal of Business Ethics, 97(1), 139–158.

Catlin, J. R., Luchs, M. G., et al. (2017). Consumer perceptions of the social vs environmental dimensions of sustainability. Journal of Consumer Policy, 40(3), 245–277.

Chabowski, B. R., Mena, J. A., & Gonzalez-Padron, T. L. (2011). The structure of sustainability research in marketing, 1958–2008: a basis for future research opportunities. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 39(1), 55–70.

Chaiken, S. (1980). Heuristic versus systematic information processing and the use of source versus message cues in persuasion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39(5), 752.

Choi, S., & Ng, A. (2011). Environmental and economic dimensions of sustainability and price effects on consumer responses. Journal of Business Ethics, 104, 1–14.

Creswell, J. W. (2003). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Thousand Oaks: Sage publications.

Currás-Pérez, R., Dolz-Dolz, C., Miquel-Romero, M. J., & Sánchez-García, I. (2018). How social, environmental, and economic CSR affects consumer-perceived value: Does perceived consumer effectiveness make a difference? Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 25(5), 733–747.

De Pelsmacker, P., & Janssens, W. (2007). A model for fair trade buying behaviour: The role of perceived quantity and quality of information and of product-specific attitudes. Journal of Business Ethics, 75(4), 361–380.

de-Magistris, T., & Gracia, A. (2016). Consumers’ willingness to pay for light, organic and PDO cheese: An experimental auction approach. British Food Journal, 118(3), 560–571.

D’Souza, C., Taghian, M., & Lamb, P. (2006). An empirical study on the influence of environmental labels on consumers. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 11(2), 162–173.

Dupré, S. (2005). Talk the walk: advancing sustainable lifestyles through marketing and communications: United Nations Environmental Programme.

Ellen, P. S., Wiener, J. L., & Cobb-Walgren, C. (1991). The role of perceived consumer effectiveness in motivating environmentally conscious behaviors. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 10(2), 102–117.

Epstein, M. J. (2008). Making sustainability work: Best practices in managing and measuring corporate social, environmental, and economic impacts. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Forsyth, D. R. (1980). A taxonomy of ethical ideologies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39(1), 175.

Frank, P., & Brock, C. (2019). “Green cannibalism” or an “organic inside job”? Empirical insights into the rivalry of ethical grocery types. Psychology & Marketing, 36(6), 597–617.

Freestone, O. M., & McGoldrick, P. J. (2008). Motivations of the ethical consumer. Journal of Business Ethics, 79(4), 445–467.

Geiger, S. M., Fischer, D., & Schrader, U. (2018). Measuring what matters in sustainable consumption: an integrative framework for the selection of relevant behaviors. Sustainable Development, 26(1), 18–33.

Han, T. I., & Stoel, L. (2017). Explaining socially responsible consumer behavior: A meta-analytic review of theory of planned behavior. Journal of International Consumer Marketing, 29(2), 91–103.

Henseler, J., Ringle, C. M., & Sarstedt, M. (2015). A new criterion for assessing discriminant validity in variance-based structural equation modeling. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 43(1), 115–135.

Kilbourne, W., & Pickett, G. (2008). How materialism affects environmental-beliefs, concern, and environmentally responsible behavior. Journal of Business Research, 61(9), 885–893.

Kinnear, T. C., Taylor, J. R., & Ahmed, S. A. (1974). Ecologically concerned consumers: Who are they? The Journal of Marketing, 38(2), 20–24.

Kollmuss, A., & Agyeman, J. (2002). Mind the Gap: why do people act environmentally and what are the barriers to pro-environmental behavior? Environmental Education Research, 8(3), 239–260.

Lee, K. (2008). Opportunities for green marketing: Young consumers. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 26(6), 573–586.

Leire, C., & Thidell, A. (2005). Product-related environmental information to guide consumer purchases—A review and analysis of research on perceptions, understanding and use among Nordic consumers. Journal of Cleaner Production, 13, 1061–1070.

Lim, W. M. (2017). Inside the sustainable consumption theoretical toolbox: Critical concepts for sustainability, consumption, and marketing. Journal of Business Research, 78, 69–80.

Long, M. A., & Murray, D. L. (2013). Ethical consumption, values convergence/divergence and community development. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 26(2), 351–375.

Lorek, S., & Spangenberg, J. H. (2014). Sustainable consumption within a sustainable economy–beyond green growth and green economies. Journal of Cleaner Production, 63, 33–44.

Low, W., & Davenport, E. (2005). Has the medium (roast) become the message? The ethics of marketing fair trade in the mainstream. International Marketing Review, 22(5), 494–511.

MacKenzie, S. B., & Podsakoff, P. M. (2012). Common method bias in marketing: Causes, mechanisms, and procedural remedies. Journal of Retailing, 88(4), 542–555.

Mayer, R. N. (1976). The socially conscious consumer-another look at the data. Journal of Consumer Research, 3, 113–115.

McCracken, G. (1988). The long interview (Vol. 13), Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Miles, M. B., Huberman, A. M., & Saldaña, J. (2014). Qualitative data analysis: A methods sourcebook (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Minton, A. P., & Rose, R. L. (1997). The effects of environmental concern on environmentally friendly consumer behavior: An exploratory study. Journal of Business Research, 40(1), 37–48.

Mohr, L. A., Webb, D. J., & Harris, K. E. (2001). Do consumers expect companies to be socially responsible? The impact of corporate social responsibility on buying behavior. Journal of Consumer Affairs, 35(1), 45–72.

Ngobo, P. V. (2011). What drives household choice of organic products in grocery stores? Journal of Retailing, 87(1), 90–100.

Park, H., & Stoel, L. (2005). A model of socially responsible buying/sourcing decision-making processes. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 33(4), 235–248.

Paul, J., Modi, A., & Patel, J. (2016). Predicting green product consumption using theory of planned behavior and reasoned action. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 29, 123–134.

Roberts, J. A. (1995). Profiling levels of socially responsible consumer behavior: A cluster analytic approach and its implications for marketing. Journal of marketing Theory and practice, 3, 97–117.

Roberts, J. A., & Bacon, D. R. (1997). Exploring the subtle relationships between environmental concern and ecologically conscious consumer behavior. Journal of Business Research, 40(1), 79–89.

Saini, R., & Monga, A. (2008). How I decide depends on what I spend: Use of heuristics is greater for time than for money. Journal of Consumer Research, 34(6), 914–922.

Schrader, U. (2007). The moral responsibility of consumers as citizens. International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development, 2(1), 79–96.

Shaw, D., & Shiu, E. (2003). Ethics in consumer choice: A multivariate modelling approach. European Journal of Marketing, 37(10), 1485–1498.

Shaw, D., Shiu, E., & Clarke, I. (2000). The contribution of ethical obligation and self-identity to the theory of planned behaviour: An exploration of ethical consumers. Journal of Marketing Management, 16(8), 879–894.

Singhapakdi, A., Vitell, S. J., Rallapalli, K. C., & Kraft, K. L. (1996). The perceived role of ethics and social responsibility: A scale development. Journal of Business Ethics, 15(11), 1131–1140.

Sudbury-Riley, L., & Kohlbacher, F. (2016). Ethically minded consumer behavior: Scale review, development, and validation. Journal of Business Research, 69(8), 2697–2710.

Tarkiainen, A., & Sundqvist, S. (2005). Subjective norms, attitudes and intentions of Finnish consumers in buying organic food. British Food Journal, 107(11), 808–822.

Thøgersen, J. (2006). Norms for environmentally responsible behaviour: An extended taxonomy. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 26(4), 247–261.

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). (2015). Sustainable consumption and production, A handbook for policy makers, Global edition. Retrieved from https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/1951Sustainable%20Consumption.pdf

Uusitalo, O., & Oksanen, R. (2004). Ethical consumerism: A view from Finland. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 28(3), 214–221.

Van Doorn, J., & Verhoef, P. C. (2015). Drivers of and barriers to organic purchase behavior. Journal of Retailing, 91(3), 436–450.

Vermeir, I., & Verbeke, W. (2006). Sustainable food consumption: Exploring the consumer “attitude–behavioral intention” gap. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 19(2), 169–194.

Webb, D. J., Mohr, L. A., & Harris, K. E. (2008). A re-examination of socially responsible consumption and its measurement. Journal of Business Research, 61(2), 91–98.

Webster, F. E., Jr. (1975). Determining the characteristics of the socially conscious consumer. Journal of Consumer Research, 2, 188–196.

White, K., Habib, R., & Hardisty, D. J. (2019). How to SHIFT consumer behaviors to be more sustainable: A literature review and guiding framework. Journal of Marketing, 83(3), 22–49.

Title: Antecedents of Environmentally and Socially Responsible Sustainable Consumer Behavior
Authors: Maja Hosta
Vesna Zabkar
Publication date: 08-01-2020
Publisher: Springer Netherlands
Published in: Journal of Business Ethics / Issue 2/2021
Print ISSN: 0167-4544
Electronic ISSN: 1573-0697
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04416-0

Springer Professional

Abstract

Please log in to get access to your license.

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Other articles of this Issue 2/2021

Unexpected Lives: The Intersection of Islam and Arab Women’s Entrepreneurship

How Do Companies Respond to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) ratings? Evidence from Italy

Virtue Beyond Contract: A MacIntyrean Approach to Employee Rights

Popular Culture, Moral Narratives and Organizational Portrayals: A Multimodal Reflexive Analysis of a Reality Television Show

Beyond Warm Glow: The Risk-Mitigating Effect of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Punishment by Securities Regulators, Corporate Social Responsibility and the Cost of Debt