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The Impact of Social Norms on Pro-Environmental Behavior: A Systematic Literature Review of The Role of Culture and Self-Construal

Author

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  • Selma Saracevic

    (The Institute for International Marketing Management, WU Vienna, 1020 Vienna, Austria)

  • Bodo B. Schlegelmilch

    (The Institute for International Marketing Management, WU Vienna, 1020 Vienna, Austria)

Abstract

This paper documents state-of-the-art research on the impact of social norms on pro-environmental consumer behavior. Our aim was to identify possible research gaps, in particular in terms of the moderating role of culture and self-construal, and to suggest potentially fruitful research avenues. To achieve these objectives, we conducted a systematic review of the literature on the impact of social norms on sustainability over the past 20 years, placing emphasis on the role of culture and self-construal. Altogether, we collected over 16,000 papers via Web of Science and subsequently used NVivo 12 for a fine-grained qualitative analysis. Our findings provide several new insights. First, we identified the most popular research areas, top journals and leading authors in the field of social norms and pro-environmental sustainability. Second, we pinpointed the most popular research topics in the context of the norm–sustainability relationship. Third, we revealed how culture and self-construal have been addressed when researching the connection between social norms and pro-environmental behavior, identified managerial implications, and offered future research directions on the moderating effects of culture and self-construal.

Suggested Citation

  • Selma Saracevic & Bodo B. Schlegelmilch, 2021. "The Impact of Social Norms on Pro-Environmental Behavior: A Systematic Literature Review of The Role of Culture and Self-Construal," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-21, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:9:p:5156-:d:549065
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    Cited by:

    1. Daria Minashkina & Ari Happonen, 2023. "Warehouse Management Systems for Social and Environmental Sustainability: A Systematic Literature Review and Bibliometric Analysis," Logistics, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-33, July.
    2. Saleh Md. Arman & Cecilia Mark-Herbert, 2021. "Re-Commerce to Ensure Circular Economy from Consumer Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-18, September.
    3. Yuan Liang & Casey Watters & Michał K. Lemański, 2022. "Responsible Management in the Hotel Industry: An Integrative Review and Future Research Directions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-18, December.
    4. Xiangdan Piao & Shunsuke Managi, 2024. "Determinants of pro-environmental behaviour: effects of socioeconomic, subjective, and psychological well-being factors from 37 countries," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-17, December.
    5. Donovan, Christopher & Shrum, Trisha, 2025. "Extreme Weather Events: Perception, Pro-Environmental Behavior, and the Tools to Measure Them," OSF Preprints 9zadu, Center for Open Science.

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