IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v144y2022icp322-335.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Are consumers consistent in their sustainable behaviours? A longitudinal study on consistency and spillover

Author

Listed:
  • Puntiroli, Michael
  • Moussaoui, Lisa S.
  • Bezençon, Valéry

Abstract

It is unclear whether knowledge about a customer’s current sustainable behaviours, such as their choice of lightbulbs or travel mode, allows us to predict the sustainable behaviours they will carry out in the future. We address this in a large longitudinal study (N = 2177) where participants provided self-reports on electricity-, heating- and mobility-related consumption at two separate times, three years apart. The results highlighted a high level of temporal consistency, whereby carrying out one sustainable behaviour predicted consumers would be carrying out the same behaviour three years later. However, sustainable behaviours generally did not drive other different sustainable behaviours years later (i.e. no spillover). In fact, isolated instances of spillover emerged only between different kinds of mobility-related consumption among consumers with high environmental values. Overall, the findings indicate a high degree of consistency in sustainable behaviour even years apart, and limited spillover from one sustainable behaviour to another.

Suggested Citation

  • Puntiroli, Michael & Moussaoui, Lisa S. & Bezençon, Valéry, 2022. "Are consumers consistent in their sustainable behaviours? A longitudinal study on consistency and spillover," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 322-335.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:144:y:2022:i:c:p:322-335
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.01.075
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014829632200087X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.01.075?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ajzen, Icek, 1991. "The theory of planned behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 179-211, December.
    2. Fabien Vinckier & Lionel Rigoux & Irma T Kurniawan & Chen Hu & Sacha Bourgeois-Gironde & Jean Daunizeau & Mathias Pessiglione, 2019. "Sour grapes and sweet victories: How actions shape preferences," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(1), pages 1-24, January.
    3. Hargreaves, Tom & Nye, Michael & Burgess, Jacquelin, 2010. "Making energy visible: A qualitative field study of how householders interact with feedback from smart energy monitors," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(10), pages 6111-6119, October.
    4. Alexander Maki & Amanda R. Carrico & Kaitlin T. Raimi & Heather Barnes Truelove & Brandon Araujo & Kam Leung Yeung, 2019. "Meta-analysis of pro-environmental behaviour spillover," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 2(4), pages 307-315, April.
    5. Panu Pihkala, 2020. "Anxiety and the Ecological Crisis: An Analysis of Eco-Anxiety and Climate Anxiety," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-20, September.
    6. Sylvain Weber & Paul Burger & Mehdi Farsi & Adan L. Martinez-Cruz & Michael Puntiroli & Iljana Schubert & Benjamin Volland, 2017. "Swiss Household Energy Demand Survey (SHEDS): Objectives, design, and implementation," IRENE Working Papers 17-14, IRENE Institute of Economic Research.
    7. Volland, Benjamin, 2017. "The role of risk and trust attitudes in explaining residential energy demand: Evidence from the United Kingdom," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 14-30.
    8. Caroline Doran, 2009. "The Role of Personal Values in Fair Trade Consumption," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 84(4), pages 549-563, February.
    9. Santarius, Tilman & Soland, Martin, 2018. "How Technological Efficiency Improvements Change Consumer Preferences: Towards a Psychological Theory of Rebound Effects," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 414-424.
    10. Pascal Paillé & Nicolas Raineri & Olivier Boiral, 2019. "Environmental Behavior On and Off the Job: A Configurational Approach," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 158(1), pages 253-268, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Irena Antošová & Jana Stávková, 2023. "Changes in the intensity and impact of factors influencing consumer behaviour in the food market over time," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 69(9), pages 358-365.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Holly Berman & Rachael Shwom & Cara Cuite, 2019. "Becoming FEW Conscious: A Conceptual Typology of Household Behavior Change Interventions Targeting the Food-Energy-Water (FEW) Nexus," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-24, September.
    2. Phu Nguyen-Van & Anne Stenger & Tuyen Tiet, 2021. "Social incentive factors in interventions promoting sustainable behaviors: A meta-analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(12), pages 1-27, December.
    3. Petra Mesarić & Damira Đukec & Slavko Krajcar, 2017. "Exploring the Potential of Energy Consumers in Smart Grid Using Focus Group Methodology," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-17, August.
    4. Fell, Michael J. & Chiu, Lai Fong, 2014. "Children, parents and home energy use: Exploring motivations and limits to energy demand reduction," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 351-358.
    5. Hye Jung Jung & HaeJung Kim & Kyung Wha Oh, 2016. "Green Leather for Ethical Consumers in China and Korea: Facilitating Ethical Consumption with Value–Belief–Attitude Logic," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 135(3), pages 483-502, May.
    6. Kua, H.W. & Wong, S.E., 2012. "Lessons for integrated household energy conservation policies from an intervention study in Singapore," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 49-56.
    7. Tilov, Ivan & Weber, Sylvain, 2023. "Heterogeneity in price elasticity of vehicle kilometers traveled: Evidence from micro-level panel data," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(PA).
    8. Tilov, Ivan & Farsi, Mehdi & Volland, Benjamin, 2019. "Interactions in Swiss households’ energy demand: A holistic approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 136-149.
    9. Luigi Cembalo & Alessia Lombardi & Stefano Pascucci & Domenico Dentoni & Giuseppina Migliore & Fabio Verneau & Giorgio Schifani, 2015. "“Rationally Local”: Consumer Participation in Alternative Food Chains," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(3), pages 330-352, June.
    10. Belaïd, Fateh & Youssef, Adel Ben & Lazaric, Nathalie, 2020. "Scrutinizing the direct rebound effect for French households using quantile regression and data from an original survey," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    11. Ondřej Částek & Linda Plaváková, 2018. "Human Values as Determinants of Fairtrade Consumption in the Czech Republic," Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, Mendel University Press, vol. 66(2), pages 465-478.
    12. Rommel Salvador & Altaf Merchant & Elizabeth Alexander, 2014. "Faith and Fair Trade: The Moderating Role of Contextual Religious Salience," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 121(3), pages 353-371, May.
    13. Thomas Hoppe & Frans H. J. M. Coenen & Maria T. Bekendam, 2019. "Renewable Energy Cooperatives as a Stimulating Factor in Household Energy Savings," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-33, March.
    14. Tilov, Ivan & Farsi, Mehdi & Volland, Benjamin, 2020. "From frugal Jane to wasteful John: A quantile regression analysis of Swiss households’ electricity demand," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    15. Xuemei Bian & Yanisa Tantiprapart & George Chryssochoidis & Kai-Yu Wang, 2022. "Counterfeit patronage: human values, counterfeit experience and construal level," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 33(4), pages 645-658, December.
    16. Ricci, Elena Claire & Banterle, Alessandro & Stranieri, Stefanella, 2018. "Trust to Go Green: An Exploration of Consumer Intentions for Eco-friendly Convenience Food," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 54-65.
    17. Ozawa-Meida, Leticia & Wilson, Caroline & Fleming, Paul & Stuart, Graeme & Holland, Carl, 2017. "Institutional, social and individual behavioural effects of energy feedback in public buildings across eleven European cities," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 222-233.
    18. Mi, Lingyun & Gan, Xiaoli & Sun, Yuhuan & Lv, Tao & Qiao, Lijie & Xu, Ting, 2021. "Effects of monetary and nonmonetary interventions on energy conservation: A meta-analysis of experimental studies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    19. Mack, Birgit & Tampe-Mai, Karolin, 2016. "An action theory-based electricity saving web portal for households with an interface to smart meters," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 51-63.
    20. Foulds, Chris & Robison, Rosalyn A.V. & Macrorie, Rachel, 2017. "Energy monitoring as a practice: Investigating use of the iMeasure online energy feedback tool," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 194-202.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:144:y:2022:i:c:p:322-335. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.