Does social influence turn pessimistic consumers green?

The current research investigates the role of social influence on pessimistic consumers' approach toward organic food consumption using the self-focused regulations theoretical framework. It also examines the mediating and moderating role of environmental concern and social influence on the proposed relationships, respectively. An e-survey was conducted on 300 Indian consumers. The findings reveal that pessimistic consumers do not typically consume organic food. However, they have a strong concern for the environment, which, in turn, is likely to change them into optimistic consumers who begin to consume organic foods. Further, social influence significantly motivates pessimistic consumers to adopt organic foods and reduces the concern-behavior gap. The study provides significant implications for organic food marketers and retailers.     

Are green consumers really green? Exploring the factors behind the actual consumption of organic food products

The increasing interest in sustainable consumption has lead several scholars to investigate the determinants that drive the consumption of organic food. Most of this research is based on consumers' self‐reports of their purchasing behavior by exploring declared behavioral intentions. There is a lack of understanding concerning the determinants of organic food consumption based on actual purchasing behavior. To fill this gap, this study is based on a combination of actual purchasing data and self‐reported data from a sample of 79 Italian consumers. The determinants of organic food consumption are explored by analyzing the effects of subjective norms, attitude, perceived behavioral control, intention to buy, organic knowledge, and health consciousness on actual purchasing behavior. Our results suggest that actual purchasing behavior is positively influenced by intention to buy and negatively by subjective norms. Although attitude towards buying organics is positively affected by health consciousness and perceived behavioral control, consumer knowledge about organics is found to influence purchase intentions. Theoretical and managerial implications, along with avenues for future research, are discussed.     

Understanding sustainable consumption in an emerging country: The antecedents and consequences of the ecologically conscious consumer behavior model

For past few decades, consumers have lately started to adapt sustainable consumption in emerging countries. The increasing importance of sustainable consumption led the researchers to analyze green purchase and ecological behaviors. The aim of this study was to examine the antecedents of ecologically conscious consumer behavior model and show the relationships among ecologically conscious consumer behavior, green purchase conspicuous behavior, and green purchase intention based on the theory of planned behavior in an emerging country. Data were collected from 650 consumers in Turkey, one of the emerging countries, by using face‐to‐face survey technique and analyzed by factor analyses and structural equation modelling. In findings, environmental concern, altruism, and perceived consumer effectiveness were found as the antecedents of the model, and there were significant effects of ecologically conscious consumer behaviors on green purchase conspicuous behaviors and green purchase intentions.     

Sustainable Consumption: Proposal of a Multistage Model to Analyse Consumer Behaviour for Organic Foods

Explanatory models of consumer behaviour can be used to steer decision‐making in the complex task of designing generic strategies to increase sustainable consumption. This paper proposes an operational model which assumes that the purchase of an organic food is a complex process that can be broken down into phases. It is applied to a concrete case – organic olive oil in the Spanish market – quantifying each phase to determine which ones should be acted on to increase demand. Results indicate that it is possible to adopt the model proposed, and that the problems hindering consumption are a lack of confidence in organic certification, not perceiving differences between organic and conventional foods, and the perception of barriers in their purchase. Given the context, marketing communications strategies have a key role to play. This model can be used to analyse the specific situation of each market and propose development strategies. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

What drives organic food consumption in Lebanon?

To increase the sparse knowledge about what drives organic food consumers in developing markets, Lebanese consumers' reasons and motives for buying organic food are studied in the framework of means‐end chain theory. A sample of N = 180 Lebanese consumers was interviewed in several retail outlets using a hard laddering questionnaire. The data were subjected to frequency analysis, cluster analysis, and structural equation modelling. Hierarchal value maps constructed from the laddering interviews revealed that “quality of life,” “pleasure,” and “peace of mind” are the main values driving organic food consumption in Lebanon. Frequent organic consumers displayed higher concern for their family's health and for the environment, whereas occasional organic consumers cared more about their own pleasure and were more likely to perceive organic food as a traditional and nostalgic product. Structural equation modelling revealed that “care for nature” and “care for children's health” significantly affect consumers' (self‐reported) purchasing behaviour. The found means‐end chains are a useful basis for marketing campaigns for organic food products in the Lebanese market. One focus of marketing campaigns should be raising consumers' awareness on the environmental benefits of organic production and the fact that it does not allow the use of harmful chemical products.     

Sustainable development: The effects of environmental policy disclosure in advertising

Sustainable development is a key issue for society. Beside corporate's efforts, consumers should have responsibilities for environmental protection and consider sustainable coexistences between future generations and natural ecosystems. In this study, a 4 × 2 factorial between‐subject experiment is adopted to develop eight environmental policy disclosure scenarios based on different environmental advertising claims (product orientation, process orientation, image orientation, and environmental fact) and eco‐labels (available/unavailable) to explore the effect of consumer attitudes and behaviors. This study's results show that environmental advertising claims have significant effects on consumers' attitudes. The product, process, and image orientation advertising, along with advertising with eco‐labels, can induce more positive attitudes and stronger purchase intentions. Individuals with greater environmental concerns have a significant positive attitude toward environmental advertising. Consumer attitudes toward environmental advertising also have positive effects on purchase intentions and sustainable consumption behaviors. Finally, this study offers useful findings, practical implications, and insights.     

Ethical consumers in search of markets

Research in ethical consumerism has concentrated on attempts to either categorize ethical consumers or to uncover their decision‐making processes, but to‐date there have been few investigations into the key ethical drivers behind the decision‐making process. This study attempts to identify these ethical drivers within their particular product groups by means of a survey of self‐proclaimed ethical consumers distributed via a questionnaire placed in the Ethical Consumer Magazine. The findings indicate that environmental issues are ranked above human rights and animal rights/welfare issues and that the ethical consumer considers the product groups to have differential importance ranging from the food products goods group, being the most strongly associated with ethical issues, to the ‘brown goods’ group (electric goods such as stereos and TVs), which proved to be least associated with these issues. An examination of the ethical drivers within each group suggests that ethical consumers consider each product group on the basis of its bundle of ethical attributes, with differing levels of importance placed on each ethical issue within the purchase decision. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Consumer attitudes toward genetically modified food in the United States: Are Millennials different?

ABSTRACT

Our study adds to the extant literature by focusing on Millennials, exploring possible generational shift that may have taken place in attitudes related to and consumption of such products. Results suggest that Millennials respond similarly as non-Millennials across several factors that shape consumers’ views and behaviors toward genetically modified technology and products. Millennials who are more educated and knowledgeable about biotechnology, though, are more willing to purchase GM foods. They perceive less risk and have fewer safety concerns compared to non-Millennials. Furthermore, male Millennials are more willing to purchase GM products and are more supportive of encouraging GM technology compared to female Millennials.     

Marketing challenges and organic farming in India—Does farm size matter?

The growing health consciousness among the consumer and increasing awareness about organic food has led numerous opportunities for organic producers. Along with opportunities, there also arise challenges; thus, the main purpose of this study is to explore the marketing challenges faced by the organic and conventional farmers in India. The study also aims to examine the differential association of the marketing challenges on various farm sizes. The sample comprised 400 Indian farmers including both conventional and organic producers. A sequential form of mixed‐method design, that is, qualitative–quantitative, was applied. In the first phase, an exploratory study was convened to find out the marketing challenges among organic and conventional farmers. In the second (quantitative) phase, binomial and multinomial logistics regression was applied to ascertain the differential impact of the marketing challenges on the type of farming and different farm sizes. The results of the qualitative analysis revealed six major marketing challenges faced by the farmers, namely, lack of warehousing facility, lack of price information, inadequate demand for crop, costly transportation, market price variations, and lack of government support. The results suggest there are significant differences in the marketing challenges faced by the conventional and organic farmers across farm sizes. This study is among the few to examine the marketing challenges of organic and conventional farmers in a developing country such as India. The findings will help different stakeholders to frame policies and build strategies to promote organic farming, which will lead to sustainable and responsible consumption in India.     

Answering key questions on green consumption: A qualitative study among Indian youth

The main objectives of this study are to (a) comprehend the definition of green consumption, (b) identify the products that are considered green by consumers, (c) understand the reasons behind green product consumption, and (d) decipher the possible implications of consuming green. To achieve these objectives, information‐rich young consumers were depth interviewed. Subsequently, thematic maps were developed using thematic analysis technique. In that, three major themes emerged as (a) personal factors, (b) social factors, and (c) environmental factors. These findings have implications primarily for scholars as this paper advances prior literature on the theory of planned behavior by looking at green consumption through the lens of young Indians. Also, it has implications for marketers as they may formulate strategies to market their green products on the basis of the factors identified in the paper.     

God and green: Investigating the impact of religiousness on green marketing

As the population increases, more people are now aware of the impact of their consumption on the natural environment. Nonetheless, 1 important factor that is often neglected is religiousness. Studies of the impact of religiousness on individual behavior have become increasingly important because the majority of the world population belongs to 1 of the major world religions. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of consumers' religiousness toward proenvironmental identity, attitudes toward environmental issues, and subjective norms about the environment. Subsequently, this study investigates the impact of these variables on purchase intention of green products. Using sampling from Indonesia (n = 649), which has the largest Muslim population, the results show significant differences between religions. In general, similar findings were found in both samples of Muslim and Christian consumers, where intrinsic religiousness has a positive impact on proenvironmental identity, attitudes towards environmental issues, and subjective norms about the environment. The study also found that the 3 variables (proenvironmental identity, attitudes towards environmental issues, and subjective norms) are positive determinants of intention to purchase green products. Nevertheless, the role of extrinsic religiousness is different for the 2 samples. Extrinsic religiousness is negatively related to attitude towards environmental issues for Muslim consumers, where it has a positive influence on proenvironmental identity among Christian consumers. The results of this study have significant implications not only to managers but also religious leaders on how to encourage more positive attitudes toward the environment.     

消费者跨渠道搭便车意愿的驱动因素分析

在多渠道环境下,消费者利用一家离线零售商来搜集信息或评估产品,然后转换到另一家在线零售商来实现其购买决策。通过实证方法分析可能会引起消费者在购买决策过程中转换渠道的驱动因素。其中,推动作用包括消费者使用多种渠道的自我效能;拉动作用,即竞争对手的在线零售商的吸引力,两者对搭便车意愿都具有正面影响。然而,系泊作用,即零售商锁定,对跨渠道搭便车意愿具有负面影响。     

Remanufacturing for the Circular Economy: An Examination of Consumer Switching Behavior

For the circular economy to be tenable, consumers need to not only return products after use, but also purchase products that are remanufactured. However, research finds that consumers have a poor opinion of remanufactured products and are typically not prepared to adopt them. Thus, development of the circular economy is dependent upon deeper understanding of consumers’ attitudes and behaviors. Research typically considers either micro‐level or macro‐level factors when assessing consumer perceptions of remanufactured products. The current research incorporates macro‐level factors of price, government incentives and environmental benefits with the moderating influence of micro‐level consumer attitudes to examine consumers’ intention to switch from purchasing new products to remanufactured products. The findings suggest that a consumer's attitude toward remanufactured products is an important moderating factor predicting consumer switching behavior to remanufactured products. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Sustaining brand loyalty: The moderating role of green consumption values

Environmental issues are massively emerging in the current agendas of governments, businesses and consumers all over the globe. Consumers increasingly adopt a more energetic role in the environmental discussion and employ product consumption to manifest their contribution to the debate. Equally, a growing number of businesses try to affect positive social change, whereas others strategically approach green opportunities; at the same time, they persistently intensify their branding offerings to sustain loyalty. This article brings into discussion green consumption values as the authors aim to shed light into the way the latter moderate the effect of brand related factors, namely, brand experiences and brand personality, on brand loyalty. Based on data received from 413 participants and using the wearable technologies industry as the focal context, the study underscores the significance of green consumption values. Findings are discussed, and implications for managers are provided.     

Integration of the Kano and QFD model in health food development: using black beans as examples

This study applied the Kano two-dimensional quality model and quality function deployment (QFD) to develop the black bean’s reputation as a health food and identify quality attributes of consumers’ needs in order to effectively control the attributes. This study first conducted a literature review and summarized the product’s quality attributes and then carried out expert interviews to determine health food quality attributes and consumer need quality attributes. A questionnaire survey was conducted to discuss which quality attributes of black beans consumers perceived to be important when they were presented as a health food and classify their answers using the quality attributes in the Kano model in order to effectively control consumers’ needs. Consumers’ demand for quality attributes was transformed into a technique of product quality development. In a matrix of the two constructs, quality classification of health food in the Kano model and order of consumers’ satisfaction with eating types of health food products, quality factors were transformed into technical specifications of product development for QFD and the construction of the first-stage of the House of Quality matrix. The results serve as references for companies to effectively distribute resources and establish strategies of product development, enhance product quality and consumer satisfaction, reduce product development time, and increase the success rate of products in the market. The results contribute to the health food enterprises are not only can make profit of product but also meet customers’ need.     

Price sensitivity,government green interventions,and green product availability triggers intention toward buying green products

In the 21st century, environmental problems are wreaking havoc, and sustainability is now of primary importance. Several external factors like population growth, industrialization, development, and overexploitation of natural resources play a crucial role in environmental degradation. Thus, the present study endeavors to explore the impact of price sensitivity, governments green interventions and green product availability on green buying intention through the lenses of the theory of planned behavior and the theory of consumption values. It also intends to examine the moderating effect of demographic factors on green buying intention. A cross-sectional study was carried out. Responses were gathered through a self-administered questionnaire-based survey. The final data set of 708 respondents were subjected to structural equation modeling for hypothesis testing. Price sensitivity, government green interventions, and green product availability show negative and significant interaction effects. Perceived behavioral control shows a relatively more substantial impact on green buying intention. Indian consumers from the age group of 41–50 years relatively have higher intention toward green buying. Overall, gender does not reveal any different approaches to environmentally friendly products. Green marketers must focus on communicating the availability of green products to reduce perceived difficulty.     

The impact of environmental information on professional purchasers' choice of products

Professional food purchasers are an important group of people since they influence what alternatives of a food product consumers will have the possibility to choose between. The aim of the present study was to investigate the inclination among professional purchasers to choose food products associated with more benign environmental consequences. Information about product price, total use of energy, emission of greenhouse gases and use of pesticides associated with production and consumption of one kilogram of minced beef and fresh apples was varied systematically in order to study the relative influence on product preference. Product price was found to influence product preference more than any of the three environmentally related factors. Introduction of a labeling system that indicated whether the environmental impacts associated with a food product during its life cycle were ‘better’ or ‘worse’ than an average product partly increased the effect of environmental information. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

绿色消费行为心理因素的作用机理分析——基于绿色消费行为心理过程的研究视角

绿色消费行为心理过程包括认知过程、情感过程以及意志过程三部分。认知过程包括环境知识和环境意识及消费者感知效力;情感过程中,由于受到文化、价值观的影响,一些消费者将形成积极的环境态度,进而形成绿色消费意愿;意志过程是从消费意愿到付诸绿色行为的心理过程,包括主观规范和感知行为控制。本文构建了绿色消费行为心理因素的作用机理模型,并结合我国社会特点提出了政府、企业以及非营利组织应着重从认知过程和意志过程对消费者施加影响的建议,以期更好地促进绿色消费。     

The generality/specificity issue in consumer innovativeness research

The purpose of the present study was to explore the role of personality in shaping consumer innovativeness by testing a model of the hierarchical relationships between a global (broad or abstract) personality trait, its domain-specific manifestation in a consumer context, and overt consumer behavior. A survey of 465 adult consumers measured global innovativeness, domain-specific innovativeness for two product categories (clothing and electronics) and self-reported purchase of new clothing and electronic items. Three hypotheses were tested. First, global innovativeness is more highly correlated with domain-specific innovativeness than it is with the purchase of new items. Second, domain-specific innovativeness is more highly correlated with the purchase of new items than is global innovativeness. Finally, the association between global innovativeness and new product purchase is mediated by domain-specific innovativeness. All three hypotheses were supported for both product categories.