A consumption emotion measurement development: a full-service restaurant setting

This article describes the development of a consumption emotion scale for use in the full-service restaurant industry. The current emotion measures utilized in consumer and marketing research are reviewed, along with the conceptualization of consumption emotions. The adequacy of employing a categorical approach to assess restaurant customers' emotional responses is discussed. Moreover, the appropriate procedure for a scale development is described. Based on quantitative analyses, a multi-item scale involving four dimensions of consumption emotions (excitement, comfort, annoyance, and romance) is developed. Further analyses provided strong evidence of the scale's unidimensionality, reliability, and validity. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed with study limitations and recommendations for future research.     

Towards sustainable consumption: an examination of environmental knowledge among Malaysians

Environmental problems are mainly attributable to the impact of humans on natural systems. In the case of Malaysia, rapid urbanization and Malaysian consumer’ pursuit of consumption‐oriented lifestyles have intensified the solid‐waste management problem faced by the government. Increasing public environmental awareness is a potential way of addressing this. The objectives of the study described here were to assess the level of environmental knowledge among households in Selangor in Malaysia, examine the sources of their environmental knowledge, determine factors that lead to different levels of knowledge and analyse the relationship between knowledge and environmental attitude, behaviour and participation. The results of the study indicate that, in general, respondents’ basic or general environmental knowledge was high. However, when questioned on various scientific environmental terms, the majority of the respondents were not familiar with most of them. Respondents indicated that their main sources of environmental knowledge and information were newspapers, television and radio. Lower levels of education were reflected in the level of environmental knowledge. Participation in environmental activities had a positive influence on knowledge. The study also found that knowledge correlated positively with environmental attitudes, behaviours and participation.     

基于集群规模资源消耗的实证研究——以温州低压电器产业集群为例

产业集群作为发展区域经济的有效途径,资源利用效率低下已成为制约其发展的一大瓶颈。在集群发展过程中,集群规模过大或过小都将导致资源的过度消耗,从而阻碍产业集群竞争力的提升。如何在保证集群发展的同时降低资源的消耗是我们当前凾待解决的紧迫问题。通过对基于集群规模的资源消耗影响机理分析,以温州低压电器产业集群为例,得出集群规模与资源消耗之间呈现倒N形的曲线特征,说明资源的高效利用只在一个较高的水平才会出现。     

Consciousness for fair consumption: conceptualization,scale development and empirical validation

Sustainable consumption means that consumers act in an environmentally and socially responsible manner. Compared with the vast amount of studies concerning environmentally conscious consumer behaviour, relatively little is known about socially conscious consumption. The present paper focuses on fair consumption as an important aspect of social consumption. In our study, consciousness for fair consumption (CFC) is defined as a latent disposition of consumers to prefer products that are produced and traded in compliance with fair labour and business practices. A scale to measure CFC was conceptualized and tested in three independent empirical studies. Two studies were conducted at European universities (2010 and 2012) and used 352 and 362 undergraduate business students respectively. The third study, conducted in 2011, used 141 employees at a European university. The results confirmed the reliability and validity of the new CFC scale across samples. While being moderately related to other aspects of sustainable consumption such as ecological concern and moral reasoning, CFC was significantly distinct from those concepts. Most importantly, it was established that the CFC, as measured by the new CFC scale, is a strong determinant of consumption of fair trade products that has been neglected in existing research.     

Accessing and affording sustainability: the experience of fashion consumption within young families

Despite the ever increasing levels of fashion consumption, neither retailers nor consumers have as yet implemented sustainability principles to a significant degree. This is despite the fact that sustainability principles are increasingly understood and will be applied by consumers, as long as affordable alternatives in mainstream fashions are available. In a highly competitive fashion retail sector, there exists an opportunity for UK high street fashion retailers to differentiate their brand image through aligning products with consumers' moral frameworks. Using phenomenological interviews, this research explores the fashion consumption experiences of professional women with young children and living in or near Edinburgh, with particular focus on their expression of their own sustainability concerns in their day‐to‐day practices. The findings reveal that in the absence of suitable products, information and labelling, consumers apply heuristics to their choices, especially price. They refer to the more familiar ethical food market which serves as a metaphor for fashion‐related practices. They talk about trustworthy retailers and about how they deal with and rationalize their own practices where they reveal an obvious attitude‐behaviour gap. The women's role of providing for the family adds further complexity in a sector which provides affordable alternative options.     

Social influence on sustainable consumption: evidence from a behavioural experiment

Although social influence on consumers’ behaviour has been recognized and documented, the vast majority of empirical consumer studies about sustainable products considers mainly, if not only, individual characteristics (socio‐demographic attributes, individual environmental attitudes, etc.), to explain the decision to buy sustainable products. Making use of experimental methods, this paper studies the social influence that peer groups like colleagues, family and friends may exert in the decision to choose for environmentally friendly products rather than conventional ones. We also test for different types of social influence, in particular for ‘herd behaviour’ vs. ‘social learning’. In our experimental setting, the relevance of peer effects is corroborated. We find clear evidence for ‘herd behaviour’ and the data indirectly support the presence of ‘social learning’ effects. The results also suggest heterogeneous impact of specific social groups.     

Comparing sustainable consumption patterns across product sectors

In this paper, we present findings from two qualitative studies where we explored sustainable consumption practices through examining consumers' information search and decision-making processes for recent purchases of five categories of goods/services: fast moving consumer goods (such as foodstuffs and household products), white goods (such as fridges and washing machines), small electrical products (such as TVs and computers), green energy tariffs (such as electricity from renewable sources) and tourism (such as flights). This research has provided us with a set of rich data which explores the nature and extent of sustainable consumption practices across different product sectors. A comparative analysis has allowed us to draw out patterns of consumer behaviour for different product and service types. Our findings suggest that even the same green consumer will not use the same information sources or decision-making criteria, consider the same options or focus on the same industry actors, for products in different sectors. However, we have identified some degree of consistency in purchases within sectors. We present these sector-specific patterns of consumer behaviour and highlight differences in the criteria utilized and the research norms in each sector.     

Retail services image measurement: an examination of the stability of a numerical comparative scale

The numerical comparative scale (NCS) is a multi-attribute measurement procedure in which the respondent provides simultaneous comparative ratings of multiple objects (i.e., alternative retail stores, products, etc.) using bipolar scales similar to semantic differential scales. Recent research indicates that scales requiring respondents to rate multiple retail stores on an attribute-by-attribute basis may be vulnerable to rating instability problems resulting from rating context effects. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to examine the evidence of this potential rating instability problem and to report the results of an experiment designed to test the numerical comparative rating scale under conditions that potentially produce context-induced rating instability. The findings indicate the scale is subject to problems of instability resulting from the multiple-store rating context, Based upon the findings, potential methods of increasing the stability of the scale are explored.     

Exit from the high street: an exploratory study of sustainable fashion consumption pioneers

In today's fashion system, dominated by business models predicated on continual consumption and globalized production systems that have major environmental and social impacts, the consumption of ‘sustainable fashion’ takes on an almost paradoxical quality. This paper explores this paradox by focusing on a previously under‐researched group of consumers – ‘sustainable fashion consumption pioneers’ who actively engage and shape their own discourse around the notion of sustainable fashion consumption. These pioneers actively create and communicate strategies for sustainable fashion behaviour that can overcome the nebulous and somewhat paradoxical reality that sustainable development in the fashion industry presents. Specifically, we use passive netnography and semi‐structured interviews to illuminate the role of motivational and contextual factors that help shape these consumers' definitions of sustainable fashion including such key behaviours as purchasing fewer garments of higher quality, exiting the retail market, purchasing only second‐hand fashion goods and sewing or upgrading their own clothing. Central to much of these behaviours is the notion that personal style, rather than fashion, can bridge the potential disconnect between sustainability and fashion while also facilitating a sense of well‐being not found in traditional fashion consumption. As such, our research suggests that for these consumers sustainability is as much about reducing measurable environmental or social impacts as it is about incorporating broader concepts through which to achieve goals beyond the pro‐environmental or ethical.     

Place identity and sustainable consumption: implications for social marketing

Place identity is a self-identity dimension related to a physical setting. This study measured place identity relating to residential neighborhood, based on levels of attachment, continuity with personal past, perception of familiarity, cohesion and social acceptance. The study examined the proposition that people with strong place identity are committed to their neighborhoods, in turn leading to positive sustainable consumption attitude and behavior. Structural equation modeling empirically verified a theoretical model developed from the environmental psychology, consumer behavior and marketing literatures. A telephone survey was conducted of 409 residents in two suburbs in the Kuala Lumpur metropolitan area, Malaysia. The finding that place identity and commitment to the residential suburb are strong motivational drivers of sustainable consumption-related attitude and behavior has important implications for social marketing.     

Consumer credit,household financial management,and sustainable consumption

Over the past decade, sustainable consumption has emerged as an issue of growing international prominence. Policy initiatives to facilitate more environmentally and socially preferable household provisioning have typically emphasized materials and energy efficiency. While this approach holds the prospect for some notable short‐term gains, experience suggests that longer‐term improvements are likely to fall short of expectations and trigger unanticipated rebound effects. Effective policy programs need to acknowledge the social and financial dimensions of consumer decision making and become more attentive to the role of households as catalysts of production. From this perspective, consumer payment systems take on special significance. In particular, the prevalence of credit cards and the accumulation of consumer debt in the USA and other advanced countries have been important drivers of economic growth in recent years. This paper highlights the linkages between consumer credit and sustainable consumption and discusses the structural changes in lending practices that account for the popularity of this payment system. While unsatisfactory conceptual models and inadequate data make it difficult to advance any definitive assessment of this relationship, it is possible to outline the basic elements of a research agenda in this area.     

Perceptions,attitudes, and behaviors toward sustainable fashion: Application of Q and Q‐R methodologies

While sustainability has increasingly attracted the attention of scholars and practitioners, consumer attitudes and behaviors toward sustainable consumption have not yet been elucidated. The decision‐making process around sustainable consumption involves diverse and complex considerations including some forms of compromise (tradeoff). In addition, sustainability is a broad and subjective concept, and is not a primary attribute of a product Impacting the choices of consumers. Therefore, it is necessary to apply new methods to overcome the limitations of conventional evidence‐based research. This research uses Q and Q‐R methodologies to identify consumers' subjective viewpoints toward sustainable fashion and to present socio‐demographic differences across segments of sustainable fashion consumers. Study 1 uses Q methodology to interview 26 consumers and to identify four types of decision makers: doubtful egoists, single‐minded bystanders, wavering intellects, and opinion leaders. Study 2 uses Q‐R methodology to verify the psychological and socio‐demographic variables among 328 consumers. The research provides useful suggestions for selecting and approaching target consumer segments in the sustainable fashion industry.     

Plastic bag politics: modifying consumer behaviour for sustainable development

The adverse environmental impacts of plastic bags, including production energy costs, limited lifespan, increasing landfill content and inability to biodegrade, provide symbolic and practical evidence of a ‘throwaway’ consumer culture which acts as a significant barrier to sustainable consumption in particular and sustainable development in general. Decoupling consumer behaviour from plastic bag use is therefore an important challenge in the pursuit of sustainable consumption as a precursor to achieving sustainable development. This article provides a critical evaluation of that challenge, set within the theoretical framework of sustainable development. It examines the adverse environmental impacts of plastic bag use and evaluates initiatives by governments and businesses internationally to change consumer behaviour regarding the use of plastic bags in line with sustainable development principles. The politics of this agenda are analysed using a combination of consumer policy and public policy perspectives. Finally, the article draws conclusions regarding the earlier analysis.     

Interdependence between consumption in the North and sustainable communities in the South

The issues we want to address and discuss in this article are related to the interdependence between consumption in households in high‐income countries and life in the low‐income countries, seen in a sustainable perspective. In the consumer society the underlying premise is that ever‐escalating consumption is accepted, even desirable. During the past decade, an increasing critique of consumer lifestyle has come from environmentalists, who argue that the resource use to maintain a consumer lifestyle is putting too hard a burden on the ecosystems. We give examples of the abundant evidence of interdependence between North and South at global levels, such as climate change and appropriation of ecosystem capacities, and related to specific types of consumption such as clothing, flowers, food and cosmetics. We argue that the loss of feedback to individual households in the North is a serious barrier for change towards more sustainable consumption habits, and raise a question about how impacts of production and consumption can be communicated to consumers. On the basis of previous and ongoing research, we highlight some impacts of positive and negative labelling schemes as well as extended environmental information.     

Taboo in consumption: Social structure,gender and sustainable menstrual products

Although consumption taboos are prevalent in everyday life, consumer research interest in the topic remains scant and focuses mostly on taboo products. This research moves by focusing on taboo persons and explores how barriers are presented in consumption choices for such individuals. A qualitative research design was used in the study and in‐depth interviews were conducted with 31 women from middle and upper income classes who showed an inclination to purchase sustainable menstrual products (SMPs). This study analyses how the intimate and private consumption of SMPs gets transformed into a complex socially embedded consumption choice. The study explores how and why a social structure steeped in symbolic violence towards menstruating women constrains the consumption of SMPs. Disillusioned by patriarchal subordination, the women preferred to respect boundaries and maintain stability in their life. Despite their socialization and engagement in several sustainable consumption decisions prior to the consideration of SMPs, these women exhibited a lack of agency as they could not transgress orthodox gender boundaries even as their choice reinforced prevailing social inequalities. They sought to conform to the gendered habitus instead of engaging in an act of defiance. This act of self‐restraint, however, results in tensions as the women try to legitimize a consumption choice which is inconsistent with their attitude towards sustainable consumption. The study discusses the consequences of the new restrictions faced by the women as they reframe concerns about the environment and justify their choice.     

Limits to labels: The role of eco‐labels in the assessment of product sustainability and routes to sustainable consumption

There has been rapid development in the methods, data and protocols for the assessment of product sustainability over the past decade. Notwithstanding this welcome development, the widespread provision of sustainable products has not occurred. Moreover, indications from a myriad of surveys suggest that consumers remain full of intent to purchase sustainably, yet these stated preferences have not translated into a widespread uptake in the purchase of more sustainable products. Heightened interest in climate change over the past couple of years has led to rising calls for labelling to allow consumers to differentiate between more or less sustainable options. Such calls apparently assume that if consumers are presented with appropriate label information their purchases will change and more sustainable purchasing will result. For many observers these calls bring more than a ring of déjà vu as the failures (or at least unfulfilled expectations) of environmental labelling schemes of the past spring to mind. A review and assessment of eco‐labelling schemes is presented. Discussion focuses on the history, successes and failures of such schemes, and consideration of their potential role (or not) in future shifts towards sustainable consumption. Behavioural, social practice, institutional and infrastructure factors are considered and labelling, legislation and other options are explored. Conclusions are drawn regarding potential routes to sustainable consumption, with particular reference to eco‐labels.     

Identity,self‐concept and young women’s engagement with collaborative,sustainable fashion consumption models

It is clear from extant theory that fashion consumption is intrinsically bound to self‐concept and social identity. As such, many individuals over consume in pursuit of ideal identities, particularly in periods of heightened awareness of identity development, such as their youth. This study thus takes one group of fashion over‐consumers, young females, and seeks to identify core motivations towards and barriers for collaborative consumption of clothing and fashion products, though the lens of self‐identity and social interaction. The study adopts a theory of planned behaviour approach, using in‐depth interviews to examine norms of behaviour in fashion consumption and develops a conceptual model for understanding of how these individuals construct a fashion identity within the social contexts of four alternative forms of consumption (renting, borrowing, swapping and purchasing second‐hand). Furthermore, the study examines perceived barriers to participation in these four alternative fashion consumption forms. The study finds that social and ethical implications of sustainable consumption behaviour are the least likely motivators towards engagement with collaborative fashion consumption models within this group, and that opportunities for individual identity expression are the most sought after benefits of such engagement. This research contributes to the literature regarding sustainability issues generally, in the context of fashion consumption, and deepens one’s understanding of young female consumers’ willingness to participate in sustainable consumption actions.     

Developing conditions for environmentally sustainable consumption: drawing insight from anti‐smoking policy

This paper starts from the premise that, particularly in industrialized countries, the consumption decisions made by individuals and households are a major source of environmental strain. Several international organizations and national governments have addressed this issue, but, thus far, their efforts have had minimal effect. This paper examines the conditions necessary for the implementation of policy able to effectively reduce the environmental impact of household consumption. It draws from the experience of American tobacco control, a relatively rare example of a public effort that succeeded in reducing the negative consequences of an entitled consumer behaviour. An extensive review of the tobacco control literature informs the conclusion that three fundamental changes brought about conditions conducive to a widespread reduction in smoking, namely, information about its negative effects became common knowledge and was widely believed as true; cigarettes became a target for taxes that raised the price of smoking while placing a penalty on a behaviour increasingly seen as ‘bad’; the public sentiment regarding smoking shifted, deglamourizing the behaviour. The paper further suggests that these changes, which were the result of a concerted public effort, have a similar potential in reducing environmentally unsustainable consumption. A closer tying of consumption to the issue of climate change is suggested as a primary facilitating strategy.     

一种新的服务开发理念:可持续服务创新

随着环保和可持续发展的观念日益深入人心,环保意识和环保消费创造了新的市场需求,不仅在制造业领域,而且在服务业领域都应当重视和实践可持续发展式的经营管理。将可持续发展的思想用于服务创新理论的理念,对实施可持续服务创新具有重要意义。归纳总结可持续服务创新的主要途径,旨在引起服务业对可持续发展思想的足够重视,为实施可持续服务创新提供一定的参考。     

Brand popularity as an advertising cue affecting consumer evaluation on sustainable brands: a comparison study of Korea,China, and Russia

This study examines how brand popularity in conjunction with consumers' varied styles of decision-making, as well as other consumer characteristics, can influence the overall evaluation of a sustainable brand. The results of our empirical analysis show that the effect of brand popularity varies widely according to which countries one considers. Here we examined Korea, China, and Russia, and found in each country that popularity significantly influenced consumers' evaluations of sustainable brands, yet in very different aspects. In Korea, when the brand popularity cue was presented, a significant positive influence on consumer evaluation resulted. However, China showed a significant negative influence, while Russia showed neutral, insignificant results. In addition, we found also that both a brand's fashion leadership and its connection with sustainable, conscientious causes can work as moderators. Finally, we found that consumer decision-making style varies not only according to fashion leadership and sustainability involvement, but that each country had a different opinion on sustainability in general. Thus, several important implications for international marketing are here presented.