IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jouret/v89y2013i1p44-61.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Against the Green: A Multi-method Examination of the Barriers to Green Consumption

Author

Listed:
  • Gleim, Mark R.
  • Smith, Jeffery S.
  • Andrews, Demetra
  • Cronin, J. Joseph

Abstract

Knowledge regarding the barriers to green consumption is of increasing importance as retail organizations place greater emphasis on the environment in evaluating performance in adherence with the triple-bottom line approach. The objective of this research is to investigate individual barriers that affect consumers’ evaluations of the green products found in retail outlets. The research presented utilizes a critical incident qualitative study and two quantitative studies to examine the factors associated with non-green purchase behaviors. In addition, findings from an experiment suggest that altering the number and form of informational product cues may overcome purchase barriers. These factors are discussed, as are the implications of the research for stakeholders of retail organizations.

Suggested Citation

  • Gleim, Mark R. & Smith, Jeffery S. & Andrews, Demetra & Cronin, J. Joseph, 2013. "Against the Green: A Multi-method Examination of the Barriers to Green Consumption," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 44-61.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jouret:v:89:y:2013:i:1:p:44-61
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jretai.2012.10.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022435912000723
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jretai.2012.10.001?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. Miniard, Paul W & Cohen, Joel B, 1983. "Modeling Personal and Normative Influences on Behavior," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 10(2), pages 169-180, September.
    2. Balderjahn, Ingo, 1988. "Personality variables and environmental attitudes as predictors of ecologically responsible consumption patterns," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 51-56, August.
    3. Menguc, Bulent & Ozanne, Lucie K., 2005. "Challenges of the "green imperative": a natural resource-based approach to the environmental orientation-business performance relationship," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(4), pages 430-438, April.
    4. Childers, Terry L & Rao, Akshay R, 1992. "The Influence of Familial and Peer-Based Reference Groups on Consumer Decisions," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 19(2), pages 198-211, September.
    5. Armstrong, J. Scott & Overton, Terry S., 1977. "Estimating Nonresponse Bias in Mail Surveys," MPRA Paper 81694, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Jay P. Carlson & Leslie H. Vincent & David M. Hardesty & William O. Bearden, 2009. "Objective and Subjective Knowledge Relationships: A Quantitative Analysis of Consumer Research Findings," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 35(5), pages 864-876, October.
    7. MacKenzie, Scott B, 1986. "The Role of Attention in Mediating the Effect of Advertising on Attribute Importance," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 13(2), pages 174-195, September.
    8. Roberts, James A., 1996. "Green Consumers in the 1990s: Profile and Implications for Advertising," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 217-231, July.
    9. Keller, Kevin Lane & Staelin, Richard, 1987. "Effects of Quality and Quantity of Information on Decision Effectiveness," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 14(2), pages 200-213, September.
    10. Webster, Frederick E, Jr, 1975. "Determining the Characteristics of the Socially Conscious Consumer," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 2(3), pages 188-196, December.
    11. Brucks, Merrie, 1985. "The Effects of Product Class Knowledge on Information Search Behavior," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 12(1), pages 1-16, June.
    12. Park, C Whan & Mothersbaugh, David L & Feick, Lawrence, 1994. "Consumer Knowledge Assessment," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 21(1), pages 71-82, June.
    13. Stone, Dan N. & Schkade, David A., 1991. "Numeric and linguistic information representation in multiattribute choice," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 42-59, June.
    14. David W. Gerbing & James C. Anderson, 1992. "Monte Carlo Evaluations of Goodness of Fit Indices for Structural Equation Models," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 21(2), pages 132-160, November.
    15. Mano, Haim & Oliver, Richard L, 1993. "Assessing the Dimensionality and Structure of the Consumption Experience: Evaluation, Feeling, and Satisfaction," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 20(3), pages 451-466, December.
    16. Lichtenstein, Donald R & Bloch, Peter H & Black, William C, 1988. "Correlates of Price Acceptability," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 15(2), pages 243-252, September.
    17. Pujari, Devashish & Wright, Gillian & Peattie, Ken, 2003. "Green and competitive: Influences on environmental new product development performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 56(8), pages 657-671, August.
    18. Noah J. Goldstein & Robert B. Cialdini & Vladas Griskevicius, 2008. "A Room with a Viewpoint: Using Social Norms to Motivate Environmental Conservation in Hotels," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 35(3), pages 472-482, March.
    19. Maignan, Isabelle & Ferrell, O. C., 2001. "Antecedents and benefits of corporate citizenship: an investigation of French businesses," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 37-51, January.
    20. Diamantopoulos, Adamantios & Schlegelmilch, Bodo B. & Sinkovics, Rudolf R. & Bohlen, Greg M., 2003. "Can socio-demographics still play a role in profiling green consumers? A review of the evidence and an empirical investigation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 56(6), pages 465-480, June.
    21. Ganesan, Shankar & George, Morris & Jap, Sandy & Palmatier, Robert W. & Weitz, Barton, 2009. "Supply Chain Management and Retailer Performance: Emerging Trends, Issues, and Implications for Research and Practice," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 85(1), pages 84-94.
    22. Kassarjian, Harold H, 1977. "Content Analysis in Consumer Research," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 4(1), pages 8-18, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Gleim, Mark R. & McCullough, Heath & Sreen, Naman & Pant, Logan G., 2023. "Is doing right all that matters in sustainability marketing? The role of fit in sustainable marketing strategies," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    2. Johan Jansson, 2011. "Consumer eco‐innovation adoption: assessing attitudinal factors and perceived product characteristics," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(3), pages 192-210, March.
    3. Wintschnig, Bea Alexandra, 2021. "The Attitude-Behavior Gap – Drivers and Barriers of Sustainable Consumption," Junior Management Science (JUMS), Junior Management Science e. V., vol. 6(2), pages 324-346.
    4. Michelle Bonera & Elisabetta Corvi & Anna Paola Codini & Ruijing Ma, 2017. "Does Nationality Matter in Eco-Behaviour?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-17, September.
    5. Vishnu Nath & Rupesh Kumar & Rajat Agrawal & Aditya Gautam & Vinay Sharma, 2013. "Consumer Adoption of Green Products: Modeling the Enablers," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 14(3), pages 453-470, September.
    6. Zou, Lili Wenli & Chan, Ricky Y.K., 2019. "Why and when do consumers perform green behaviors? An examination of regulatory focus and ethical ideology," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 113-127.
    7. Gonçalves, Helena Martins & Lourenço, Tiago Ferreira & Silva, Graça Miranda, 2016. "Green buying behavior and the theory of consumption values: A fuzzy-set approach," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(4), pages 1484-1491.
    8. Vetter, J. & Benlian, Alexander & Hess, T., 2011. "Overconfidence in IT Investment Decisions: Why Knowledge can be Boon and Bane at the same Time," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 58030, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    9. Nitika Sharma & Raiswa Saha & V. Raja Sreedharan & Justin Paul, 2020. "Relating the role of green self‐concepts and identity on green purchasing behaviour: An empirical analysis," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(8), pages 3203-3219, December.
    10. Roberts, James A. & Bacon, Donald R., 1997. "Exploring the Subtle Relationships between Environmental Concern and Ecologically Conscious Consumer Behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 79-89, September.
    11. Irina Cojuharenco & Gert Cornelissen & Natalia Karelaia, 2011. "One Person in the Battlefield is not a warrior: Self-Construal, Perceived Ability to Make a Difference, and Socially Responsible Behavior," Working Papers 589, Barcelona School of Economics.
    12. van Rijnsoever, Frank J. & Farla, Jacco C.M., 2014. "Identifying and explaining public preferences for the attributes of energy technologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 71-82.
    13. Micael-Lee Johnstone & Lay Tan, 2015. "Exploring the Gap Between Consumers’ Green Rhetoric and Purchasing Behaviour," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 132(2), pages 311-328, December.
    14. Erifili Papista & Athanasios Krystallis, 2013. "Investigating the Types of Value and Cost of Green Brands: Proposition of a Conceptual Framework," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 115(1), pages 75-92, June.
    15. So-Yun Kim & Jungsung Yeo & Sang Sohn & Jong-Youn Rha & Shinae Choi & A-young Choi & Suhyun Shin, 2012. "Toward a Composite Measure of Green Consumption: An Exploratory Study Using a Korean Sample," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 33(2), pages 199-214, June.
    16. Sütterlin, Bernadette & Brunner, Thomas A. & Siegrist, Michael, 2011. "Who puts the most energy into energy conservation? A segmentation of energy consumers based on energy-related behavioral characteristics," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(12), pages 8137-8152.
    17. Saayman, Melville & Krugell, Waldo F. & Saayman, Andrea, 2016. "Willingness to pay: Who are the cheap talkers?," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 96-111.
    18. Manika, Danae & Dickert, Stephan & Golden, Linda L., 2021. "Check (it) yourself before you wreck yourself: The benefits of online health information exposure on risk perception and intentions to protect oneself," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    19. Roberts, James A., 1996. "Green Consumers in the 1990s: Profile and Implications for Advertising," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 217-231, July.
    20. Qian, Lixian & Soopramanien, Didier & Daryanto, Ahmad, 2017. "First-time buyers' subjective knowledge and the attribute preferences of Chinese car buyers," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 189-196.

    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:jouret:v:89:y:2013:i:1:p:44-61. 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: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-retailing .

    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.