IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i23p15627-d982771.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Agenda 2030 and COVID-19: A Young Consumer’s Perception of Sustainable Consumption

Author

Listed:
  • Maria Francesca Renzi

    (Department of Business Studies, Roma Tre University, 00146 Rome, Italy)

  • Veronica Ungaro

    (Department of Business Studies, Roma Tre University, 00146 Rome, Italy)

  • Laura Di Pietro

    (Department of Business Studies, Roma Tre University, 00146 Rome, Italy)

  • Roberta Guglielmetti Mugion

    (Department of Business Studies, Roma Tre University, 00146 Rome, Italy)

  • Maria Giovina Pasca

    (Faculty of Economics, Niccolò Cusano University, 00166 Rome, Italy)

Abstract

COVID-19 threatens sustainable development and is a potential opportunity for downsizing the consumer economy. The virus’s impacts on society are still unclear and additional contributions are required to investigate its effects on sustainable consumer behaviours. The paper aims to evaluate consumers’ awareness regarding the emergency impacts on the 2030 Agenda SDGs achievement and sustainable consumption (SDG 12) in terms of societal and environmentally responsible behaviour. A qualitative study is planned to reach the research goal and 133 in-depth consumer interviews are performed. The sample is composed of young students informed on sustainability topics and issues. The thematic analysis is used to assess the data. The paper contributes to the existing literature about the 2030 Agenda and young consumers’ sustainable behaviours by identifying the goal perceived by respondents as most negatively and positively impacted by the crisis and detecting those that can help overcome the emergency. Five themes (Social factors, Knowledge, Habits, Values, and Price) describing the main young consumer behaviour dimensions influenced by COVID-19 and lockdown in sustainability and social responsibility are detected. A theoretical framework is proposed to describe the effects of the five themes on sustainable behaviours. Finally, a roadmap for future research is identified.

Suggested Citation

  • Maria Francesca Renzi & Veronica Ungaro & Laura Di Pietro & Roberta Guglielmetti Mugion & Maria Giovina Pasca, 2022. "Agenda 2030 and COVID-19: A Young Consumer’s Perception of Sustainable Consumption," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-20, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:23:p:15627-:d:982771
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/23/15627/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/23/15627/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Aaron R. Brough & James E. B. Wilkie & Jingjing Ma & Mathew S. Isaac & David Gal, 2016. "Is Eco-Friendly Unmanly? The Green-Feminine Stereotype and Its Effect on Sustainable Consumption," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 43(4), pages 567-582.
    2. Belk, Russell W, 1988. "Possessions and the Extended Self," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 15(2), pages 139-168, September.
    3. Wiesława Kuźniar & Tomasz Surmacz & Bogdan Wierzbiński, 2021. "The Impact of Ecological Knowledge on Young Consumers’ Attitudes and Behaviours towards the Food Market," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-20, February.
    4. Patrick Pelsmacker & Wim Janssens, 2007. "A Model for Fair Trade Buying Behaviour: The Role of Perceived Quantity and Quality of Information and of Product-specific Attitudes," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 75(4), pages 361-380, November.
    5. Walter Leal Filho & Luciana Londero Brandli & Amanda Lange Salvia & Lez Rayman-Bacchus & Johannes Platje, 2020. "COVID-19 and the UN Sustainable Development Goals: Threat to Solidarity or an Opportunity?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-14, July.
    6. Berna Tari Kasnakoglu, 2016. "Antecedents and consequences of co-creation in credence-based service contexts," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(1-2), pages 1-20, January.
    7. Van Doorn, Jenny & Verhoef, Peter C., 2015. "Drivers of and Barriers to Organic Purchase Behavior," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 91(3), pages 436-450.
    8. Paweł Brzustewicz & Anupam Singh, 2021. "Sustainable Consumption in Consumer Behavior in the Time of COVID-19: Topic Modeling on Twitter Data Using LDA," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-20, September.
    9. Remi Trudel & Jennifer J. Argo & Matthew D. Meng, 2016. "The Recycled Self: Consumers’ Disposal Decisions of Identity-Linked Products," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 43(2), pages 246-264.
    10. Sarra Jribi & Hanen Ben Ismail & Darine Doggui & Hajer Debbabi, 2020. "COVID-19 virus outbreak lockdown: What impacts on household food wastage?," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 22(5), pages 3939-3955, June.
    11. He, Hongwei & Harris, Lloyd, 2020. "The impact of Covid-19 pandemic on corporate social responsibility and marketing philosophy," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 176-182.
    12. Ulf Schrader, 2007. "The moral responsibility of consumers as citizens," International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 2(1), pages 79-96.
    13. Simeon Djankov & Ugo Panizza, 2020. "Developing economies after COVID-19: An introduction," Vox eBook Chapters, in: Simeon Djankov & Ugo Panizza (ed.), COVID-19 in Developing Economies, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 1, pages 8-23, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    14. Tonino Pencarelli & Viktória Ali Taha & Veronika Škerháková & Tomáš Valentiny & Richard Fedorko, 2019. "Luxury Products and Sustainability Issues from the Perspective of Young Italian Consumers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-25, December.
    15. Djankov, Simeon & Panizza, Ugo (ed.), 2020. "COVID-19 in Developing Economies," Vox eBooks, Centre for Economic Policy Research, number p330.
    16. 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.
    17. Nana Osei Bonsu & Jennifer TyreeHageman & Juliet Kele, 2020. "Beyond Agenda 2030: Future-Oriented Mechanisms in Localising the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-21, November.
    18. Carla Rossi & Francesca Rivetti, 2020. "Assessing Young Consumers’ Responses to Sustainable Labels: Insights from a Factorial Experiment in Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-23, December.
    19. Thogersen, John & Olander, Folke, 2002. "Human values and the emergence of a sustainable consumption pattern: A panel study," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 23(5), pages 605-630, October.
    20. Piergiorgio Degli Esposti & Ariela Mortara & Geraldina Roberti, 2021. "Sharing and Sustainable Consumption in the Era of COVID-19," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-15, February.
    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. 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.
    2. Osburg, Victoria-Sophie & Akhtar, Pervaiz & Yoganathan, Vignesh & McLeay, Fraser, 2019. "The influence of contrasting values on consumer receptiveness to ethical information and ethical choices," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 366-379.
    3. Olson, Erik L., 2022. "Advocacy bias in the green marketing literature: Where seldom is heard a discouraging word," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 805-820.
    4. Maja Hosta & Vesna Zabkar, 2021. "Antecedents of Environmentally and Socially Responsible Sustainable Consumer Behavior," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 171(2), pages 273-293, June.
    5. Xu, Cheng & Li, KunJing & Li, Chang-Jun & Xu, Hao & Sun, Yanqi, 2024. "Covid-19 pandemic, social normative compliance, and sustainable consumption: Evidence from experiments," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 351(C).
    6. Robert Mai & Stefan Hoffmann & Ingo Balderjahn, 2021. "When drivers become inhibitors of organic consumption: the need for a multistage view," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 49(6), pages 1151-1174, November.
    7. Kettle, Keri L. & Mantonakis, Antonia, 2024. "Look for the signature: Using personal signatures as extrinsic cues promotes identity-congruent behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    8. Matthew D. Meng & Jessica Gamlin, 2024. "Sexually explicit advertisements boost consumer recycling due to moral cleansing goal activation," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 35(2), pages 205-218, June.
    9. Vicente Javier Clemente-Suárez & Stephanie Rodriguez-Besteiro & Juan José Cabello-Eras & Alvaro Bustamante-Sanchez & Eduardo Navarro-Jiménez & Macarena Donoso-Gonzalez & Ana Isabel Beltrán-Velasco & J, 2022. "Sustainable Development Goals in the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Narrative Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-26, June.
    10. Daniel Baier & Theresa Maria Rausch & Timm F. Wagner, 2020. "The Drivers of Sustainable Apparel and Sportswear Consumption: A Segmented Kano Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-21, April.
    11. Eva Cerio, 2022. "How parents handle the disposal of their children's toys: an emotional and controlled process [Comment les parents gèrent la séparation des jouets de leurs enfants : un processus émotionnel et cont," Post-Print hal-03588879, HAL.
    12. Xingyuan Wang & Yaming Wang & Yi Wang, 2021. "The Influence of Infectious Disease Cues on Purchase Intention for Environmentally Friendly Products," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-18, August.
    13. Sławomir Kalinowski & Aleksandra Łuczak & Adam Koziolek, 2022. "The Social Dimension of Security: The Dichotomy of Respondents’ Perceptions during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-20, January.
    14. Kutaula, Smirti & Gillani, Alvina & Leonidou, Leonidas C. & Christodoulides, Paul, 2022. "Integrating fair trade with circular economy: Personality traits, consumer engagement, and ethically-minded behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 1087-1102.
    15. Md. Rayhan Sarker & Md. Abdul Moktadir & Ernesto D. R. Santibanez-Gonzalez, 2021. "Social Sustainability Challenges Towards Flexible Supply Chain Management: Post-COVID-19 Perspective," Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management, Springer;Global Institute of Flexible Systems Management, vol. 22(2), pages 199-218, December.
    16. Yamna Erraach & Fatma Jaafer & Ivana Radić & Mechthild Donner, 2021. "Sustainability Labels on Olive Oil: A Review on Consumer Attitudes and Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-23, November.
    17. Eleonora Annunziata & Tommaso Pucci & Jacopo Cammeo & Lorenzo Zanni & Marco Frey, 2023. "The mediating role of exogenous shocks in green purchase intention: evidence from italian fashion industry in the Covid-19 era," Italian Journal of Marketing, Springer, vol. 2023(1), pages 59-79, March.
    18. Carvalho, Sergio W. & Luna, David & Goldsmith, Emily, 2019. "The role of national identity in consumption: An integrative framework," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 310-318.
    19. Subarna Nandy & Neena Sondhi & Himanshu Joshi, 2024. "Toward a measure of brand pride: scale development and validation," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 31(4), pages 430-448, July.
    20. Lucyna Witek & Wiesława Kuźniar, 2020. "Green Purchase Behavior: The Effectiveness of Sociodemographic Variables for Explaining Green Purchases in Emerging Market," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-18, December.

    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:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:23:p:15627-:d:982771. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.