To purchase or not?
- Although ecologically and socially responsible consumption helps to reduce the harmful effects of resource use for both nature and society, all types of consumption (whether green or fair) deplete valuable resources. At the same time, to maintain household financial sustainability, spending should not exceed a household's financial resources. Thus, economically sustainable consumption is related to the consumer's decision to not buy products and the disposition to forgo specific purchases. Based on a means-end chain approach, this study investigates consumer cognitive decision-making structures related to six distinct options for economically (non-)sustainable consumption. Whereas saving motives, waste concerns, and avoidance motivations support economically sustainable decisions, economically non-sustainable decision-making is directly linked to attaining overall life goals. By clustering respondents based on the elicited means-end chains, the study discloses four consumer groups with distinctive motivational structures. The studyAlthough ecologically and socially responsible consumption helps to reduce the harmful effects of resource use for both nature and society, all types of consumption (whether green or fair) deplete valuable resources. At the same time, to maintain household financial sustainability, spending should not exceed a household's financial resources. Thus, economically sustainable consumption is related to the consumer's decision to not buy products and the disposition to forgo specific purchases. Based on a means-end chain approach, this study investigates consumer cognitive decision-making structures related to six distinct options for economically (non-)sustainable consumption. Whereas saving motives, waste concerns, and avoidance motivations support economically sustainable decisions, economically non-sustainable decision-making is directly linked to attaining overall life goals. By clustering respondents based on the elicited means-end chains, the study discloses four consumer groups with distinctive motivational structures. The study also reveals several obstacles to promoting economic sustainability, indicates methods to overcome such obstacles, and suggests avenues for future research.…
Author details: | Alexandra HüttelORCiDGND, Florence ZiesemerORCiD, Mathias PeyerGND, Ingo BalderjahnORCiDGND |
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DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.11.019 |
ISSN: | 0959-6526 |
ISSN: | 1879-1786 |
Title of parent work (English): | Journal of Cleaner Production |
Subtitle (English): | Why consumers make economically (non-)sustainable consumption choices |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Place of publishing: | Oxford |
Publication type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Date of first publication: | 2017/11/05 |
Publication year: | 2017 |
Release date: | 2022/01/24 |
Tag: | Collaborative consumption; Consumer decision-making; Economically sustainable consumption; Frugal consumption; Means-end chain theory; Voluntary simplicity |
Volume: | 174 |
Number of pages: | 10 |
First page: | 827 |
Last Page: | 836 |
Funding institution: | German Federal Ministry of Education and ResearchFederal Ministry of Education & Research (BMBF) [01UT1429A] |
Organizational units: | Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Wirtschaftswissenschaften / Fachgruppe Betriebswirtschaftslehre |
DDC classification: | 3 Sozialwissenschaften / 33 Wirtschaft / 330 Wirtschaft |