Above and beyond? How businesses can drive sustainable development by promoting lasting pro-environmental behaviour change: An examination of the IKEA Live Lagom project

Current global changes require new business approaches driving sustainable development on all fronts. To date, most business approaches have focused on sustainable marketing and corporate social responsibility initiatives. In this field study, we examine IKEA's Live Lagom project, a 3-year behaviour change initiative that aimed to explore how to go above and beyond conventional approaches demonstrating how businesses could support sustainable development by supporting their customers' attempts to live more sustainable lifestyles. We examined the effectiveness of the project involving multifaceted behaviour change interventions, testing for behavioural changes both during and after the project period. In addition, we explored changes in participants' attitudes towards the company. Findings show that the extensive set of interventions led to changes in pro-environmental behaviours across all three participant groups with potentially positive impacts on the customer–company relationship. The article thus provides a call for further businesses to engage in similar behaviour change projects that would allow citizens to engage in more sustainable lifestyles and behaviours across contexts.     

Relationships among healthy lifestyle beliefs and body mass index in urban China

Consumption is a major driving force in China's economy. The consumer society is particularly emerging in the more urbanized and affluent regions in China. Given the rise of consumerism on the one hand, and the rise of overweight and obesity on the other, this study explored whether the proliferating consumer culture is a threat to the traditional health culture in China. The lifestyle‐oriented approach used in this study does not confirm a straightforward relationship between an upward trend in Chinese with (economic) assets to join the consumer society and a downward trend in health interest among urban Chinese. The result that the rise of the consumer society is not directly accompanied by a devaluation of health issues does not imply that lifestyle research is of no use. On the contrary, this paper successfully identified four dimensions of health‐related lifestyle for urban China, namely Food‐health Belief, Perceived Knowledge, Health Careless and Group Conformity. This result is informative with respect to the complexity of sociocultural factors influencing the increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity.     

Risky behaviours of males and females in a Spanish suburban community

Health is determined by an accumulative process, so a perspective on life cycle is crucial in any health prevention programme. As a consequence of this accumulative dimension, lifestyles are a key determinant of the state of health of older people. The main contribution of this paper is to explain gender differences in lifestyle and the implications of lifestyle in men's and women's states of health. We have implemented our empirical analysis into Spanish society through the use of a self‐elaborated survey. From this survey, we have drawn a subsample of 938 people older than 14 years old who live in the Spanish neighbourhood of Casablanca, Zaragoza (452 men and 486 women). We conclude that men tend to consume more substances that may negatively affect their state of health (alcoholic beverages, tobacco products and coffee), and they are also less careful in keeping an adequate weight and dental hygiene. On the other hand, women tend to be more sedentary. These results are decisive for policy makers that strive to improve the citizens’ state of health, because it is not only important to improve the quality and extension of healthy goods and services, but also to promote healthy lifestyles.     

Understanding Local Food Consumers: Theory of Planned Behavior and Segmentation Approach

Purpose: The objectives of this study were to examine the antecedents and consequence of consumer attitudes toward local food and to segment these consumers using their food-related lifestyle (FRL) attributes. Using the Theory of Planned Behavior, we proposed three factors to impact attitude toward local food (health consciousness, concern for the environment, and concern for local economies) along with subjective norm and perceived behavioral control to influence intentions to purchase local food.

Methodology: Data were collected from 502 local food consumers measuring the following: antecedents and consequence of attitude toward local food; FRL; demographic information.

Findings: Health consciousness, concern for the environment, and concern for local economies were found to be significant predictors of attitude toward local food. Attitude toward local food and subjective norm, but not perceived behavioral control, were found to have a significant effect on intention to purchase local food. Further, segmenting based on their FRL yielded four types of consumers (Impromptu Novelty Explorer, Uninvolved Connoisseur, Involved Information Seeker, and Apathetic Local Food Consumer). An ANOVA provided a snapshot of several demographic and psychographic differences between segments.     

基于生活方式的农村市场细分研究

随着农村经济的不断发展,农村居民的生活方式发生了变化,生活方式的变化引起了农村居民消费行为的变化。本文把农村居民的生活方式划分为金钱型、尊重型、传统型、权力型和道德型,以这五种生活方式为基础把农村市场细分为守旧型、享受型、现实型、权威型、欲望型、创造财富型、个人价值增值型和守法型,这种市场细分对企业开辟农村市场有一定的现实意义。     

Travelling neo-tribes: conceptualising recreational vehicle users

Neo-tribes have been defined as including people from different walks of life who come together in fluid groupings, bound by common interests, similar lifestyles, rituals and language. This concept is popular in sociological literature, but has rarely been applied to travellers or tourism literature. This study sought to understand whether neo-tribalism could add insights into our existing knowledge of recreational vehicle (RV) users in Canada. Using a grounded theory approach including focus groups and in-depth interviews, the research found RV users exhibit neo-tribal characteristics which can be characterised as symbolic and behavioural. The behavioural aspects of this neo-tribe are evident in campsites, where rituals such as happy hours exist. Symbolic aspects included fluidity of membership and commitment to the RVing lifestyle. The findings suggest that the neo-tribal concept is a highly useful tool for understanding the motivations, behaviour and needs of travellers and adds new insights into our understanding of the RVing experience.     

中国消费者购买行为研究——基于儒家价值观与生活方式的视角

中国儒家价值观直接或通过生活方式间接对中国消费者购买行为形成影响。作者选择手机消费进行实证分析,在问卷调查的基础上,借助探索性因子分析和确认性因子分析,验证、改良了儒家价值观、创建获得了生活方式两个度量量表。随后作者对中国儒家价值观、生活方式与顾客购买行为间的关系进行了结构方程模型检验,发现儒家价值观直接影响购买行为,通过生活方式间接影响购买行为。根据研究结果提出了一个全新的,基于儒家价值观和生活方式的市场划分方法(CCLS),帮助企业针对消费群体,定位、设计、生产、完善产品和实施有效的市场营销策略。     

Impacts of Novel Protein Foods on Sustainable Food Production and Consumption: Lifestyle Change and Environmental Policy

We analyse the impacts of a change in consumers’ preference for Novel Protein Foods (NPFs), i.e. a lifestyle change with respect to meat consumption, and the impacts of environmental policies e.g. tradable emission permits for greenhouse gases (GHGs) or an EU ammonia (NH₃) emission bound per hectare. For our analysis we use a global applied general equilibrium (AGE) model that includes consumers’ lifestyle change, different production systems, emissions from agricultural sectors, and an emission permits system. Our study leads to the following conclusions. Firstly, more consumption of NPFs assists in reducing global agricultural emissions of methane (CH₄), nitrous oxides (N₂O) and NH₃. However, because of international trade, emission reduction does not necessarily occur in the regions where more NPFs are consumed. Secondly, through lifestyle change of the ‘rich’, the emission reduction is not substantial because more ‘intermediate’ consumers will increase their meat consumption. Finally, for the same environmental target the production structure changes towards less intensive technologies and more grazing under environmental policy than under lifestyle change.

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Away-From-Home and At-Home Consumption of Alcohol

This article examines the impact of socio-demographic factors on individual consumption of alcohol from both the away-from-home and at-home markets. Factors considered are urbanization, race, ethnicity, region, weight, height, sex, food stamp participation, employment status, diet status, day of consumption, household size, age, and income. Results from the economic models developed indicate that various sets of socio-demographic factors affect the consumption of alcohol away from home and at home. Findings imply that men residing in urban areas in the Northeast, Midwest, and West consume more alcohol away from home than do others while individuals residing in suburban areas in the south consume more alcohol at home than do others.