IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/zag/market/v28y2016i2p143-157.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Consumer Sustainability and Responsibility: Beyond Green and Ethical Consumption

Author

Listed:
  • Maja Hosta

    (Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana)

  • Vesna Žabkar

    (Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana)

Abstract

Purpose – Most literature regarding sustainable behavior is based on the assumption that the reduction of consumption is inherently positive (mainly in the form of positive environmental consequences) and based on ethical considerations. However, the issue of the social consequences of this reduction and self-interested intentions in consumption is not generally open to debate. This paper aims to identify dimensions of sustainable and responsible consumer behavior, distinguish between the two concepts, and present consumer obstacles to acting responsibly in all aspects that a sustainability agenda would suggest.Design/Methodology/Approach – The paper includes a literature review, proposes a framework of responsible and sustainable consumption (RSCB), and offers a set of propositions to achieve responsible and sustainable consumption. Insights from personal interviews with consumers are added for the sake of additional understanding of the concepts presented. Findings and implications – Through the RSCB framework, we show the potential trade-off decisions consumers have to make in order to implement sustainability and responsibility issues in everyday consumer decision processes.Struggles between doing what is good for them and what is good for the environment and society could be a reason why consumers have difficulties achieving responsible and sustainable consumption.Limitations – Qualitative study based on a small sample of personal interviews does not allow for generalizations. Originality – A research gap in understanding the dimensions of sustainable and responsible consumer actions in terms of their emphasis (environmental and social) and intentions (self-interest and other-interest) is addressed. By understanding those two dimensions of behavior, managers and consumers can resolve consumer sustainability and responsibility dilemmas that arise from a one-dimensional view in order to move sustainability research and practice forward.

Suggested Citation

  • Maja Hosta & Vesna Žabkar, 2016. "Consumer Sustainability and Responsibility: Beyond Green and Ethical Consumption," Tržište/Market, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb, vol. 28(2), pages 143-157.
    • Handle: RePEc:zag:market:v:28:y:2016:i:2:p:143-157
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hrcak.srce.hr/file/251354
    Download Restriction: None
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mayer, Robert N, 1976. "The Socially Conscious Consumer-Another Look at the Data," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 3(2), pages 113-115, Se.
    2. Carroll, Archie B., 1991. "The pyramid of corporate social responsibility: Toward the moral management of organizational stakeholders," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 39-48.
    3. Ulf Schrader & John Thøgersen, 2011. "Putting Sustainable Consumption into Practice," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 34(1), pages 3-8, March.
    4. 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.
    5. Ajzen, Icek, 1991. "The theory of planned behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 179-211, December.
    6. Carmen Valor, 2008. "Can Consumers Buy Responsibly? Analysis and Solutions for Market Failures," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 31(3), pages 315-326, September.
    7. 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.
    8. Sungchul Choi & Alex Ng, 2011. "Environmental and Economic Dimensions of Sustainability and Price Effects on Consumer Responses," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 104(2), pages 269-282, December.
    9. Frank‐Martin Belz & Birte Schmidt‐Riediger, 2010. "Marketing strategies in the age of sustainable development: Evidence from the food industry," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(7), pages 401-416, November.
    10. C. Bhattacharya & Daniel Korschun & Sankar Sen, 2009. "Strengthening Stakeholder–Company Relationships Through Mutually Beneficial Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 85(2), pages 257-272, April.
    11. Michal Carrington & Benjamin Neville & Gregory Whitwell, 2010. "Why Ethical Consumers Don’t Walk Their Talk: Towards a Framework for Understanding the Gap Between the Ethical Purchase Intentions and Actual Buying Behaviour of Ethically Minded Consumers," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 97(1), pages 139-158, November.
    12. Minton, Ann P. & Rose, Randall L., 1997. "The Effects of Environmental Concern on Environmentally Friendly Consumer Behavior: An Exploratory Study," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 37-48, September.
    13. Webb, Deborah J. & Mohr, Lois A. & Harris, Katherine E., 2008. "A re-examination of socially responsible consumption and its measurement," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 91-98, February.
    14. Sheth, Jagdish N. & Newman, Bruce I. & Gross, Barbara L., 1991. "Why we buy what we buy: A theory of consumption values," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 159-170, March.
    15. Graham Hubbard, 2009. "Measuring organizational performance: beyond the triple bottom line," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(3), pages 177-191, March.
    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. Calderon-Monge, Esther & Pastor-Sanz, Ivan & Sendra Garcia, F. Javier, 2020. "Analysis of sustainable consumer behavior as a business opportunity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 74-81.
    2. Bożena Gajdzik & Kamila Bartuś & Magdalena Jaciow & Radosław Wolniak & Robert Wolny & Wiesław Wes Grebski, 2024. "Evolution of Polish E-Consumers’ Environmental Awareness and Purchasing Behavior over Ten Years," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(11), pages 1-29, May.
    3. Salomé Areias & Antje Disterheft & João Pedro Gouveia, 2023. "The Role of Connectedness in Pro-Environmental Consumption of Fashionable Commodities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-17, January.
    4. Yamoah, Fred A. & Yawson, David Eshun, 2022. "Promoting global well-being through fairtrade food: the role of international exposure," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 26(2), November.
    5. Maria Vincenza Ciasullo & Gennaro Maione & Carlo Torre & Orlando Troisi, 2017. "What about Sustainability? An Empirical Analysis of Consumers’ Purchasing Behavior in Fashion Context," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-18, September.
    6. Saba Resnik & Mateja Kos Koklič, 2018. "User-Generated Tweets about Global Green Brands: A Sentiment Analysis Approach," Tržište/Market, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb, vol. 30(2), pages 125-145.

    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. Calderon-Monge, Esther & Pastor-Sanz, Ivan & Sendra Garcia, F. Javier, 2020. "Analysis of sustainable consumer behavior as a business opportunity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 74-81.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. Waris, Idrees & Hameed, Irfan, 2019. "Using Extended Model of Theory of Planned Behavior to Predict Purchase Intention of Energy Efficient Home Appliances in Pakistan," MPRA Paper 109612, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Paolo Antonetti & Stan Maklan, 2014. "Feelings that Make a Difference: How Guilt and Pride Convince Consumers of the Effectiveness of Sustainable Consumption Choices," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 124(1), pages 117-134, September.
    6. Maria del García-de los Salmones & Angel Herrero & Patricia Martínez, 2021. "Determinants of Electronic Word-of-Mouth on Social Networking Sites About Negative News on CSR," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 171(3), pages 583-597, July.
    7. Andrés Nova-Reyes & Francisco Muñoz-Leiva & Teodoro Luque-Martínez, 2020. "The Tipping Point in the Status of Socially Responsible Consumer Behavior Research? A Bibliometric Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-23, April.
    8. Rafael Currás‐Pérez & Consuelo Dolz‐Dolz & María J. Miquel‐Romero & Isabel Sánchez‐García, 2018. "How social, environmental, and economic CSR affects consumer‐perceived value: Does perceived consumer effectiveness make a difference?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(5), pages 733-747, September.
    9. Michael P. Schlaile & Katharina Klein & Wolfgang Böck, 2018. "From Bounded Morality to Consumer Social Responsibility: A Transdisciplinary Approach to Socially Responsible Consumption and Its Obstacles," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 149(3), pages 561-588, May.
    10. Tong Jia & Shahid Iqbal & Arslan Ayub & Tehreem Fatima & Zeeshan Rasool, 2023. "Promoting Responsible Sustainable Consumer Behavior through Sustainability Marketing: The Boundary Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility and Brand Image," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-21, March.
    11. 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.
    12. José Javier Pérez-Barea & Ricardo Espantaleón-Pérez & Peter Šedík, 2020. "Evaluating the Perception of Socially Responsible Consumers: The Case of Products Derived from Organic Beef," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-24, December.
    13. 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," Economics Working Papers 1292, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    14. Dirk C. Moosmayer & Yanyan Chen & Susannah M. Davis, 2019. "Deeds Not Words: A Cosmopolitan Perspective on the Influences of Corporate Sustainability and NGO Engagement on the Adoption of Sustainable Products in China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 158(1), pages 135-154, August.
    15. Tsarenko, Yelena & Ferraro, Carla & Sands, Sean & McLeod, Colin, 2013. "Environmentally conscious consumption: The role of retailers and peers as external influences," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 302-310.
    16. 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.
    17. Jankowski, Anne Katharina & Höhler, Julia, 2017. "Mind The Gap: Determinanten Der Diskrepanz Von Verbrauchereinstellung Und Kaufverhalten Am Beispiel Gentechnikfreier Trinkmilch," 57th Annual Conference, Weihenstephan, Germany, September 13-15, 2017 262156, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA).
    18. Henri Kuokkanen & William Sun, 2020. "Companies, Meet Ethical Consumers: Strategic CSR Management to Impact Consumer Choice," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 166(2), pages 403-423, October.
    19. Li Yan & Hean Tat Keh & Xiaoyu Wang, 2021. "Powering Sustainable Consumption: The Roles of Green Consumption Values and Power Distance Belief," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 169(3), pages 499-516, March.
    20. Chorong Youn & So‐young Kim & Yuri Lee & Ho Jung Choo & Seyoon Jang & Jae Im Jang, 2017. "Measuring Retailers' Sustainable Development," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(3), pages 385-398, March.

    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:zag:market:v:28:y:2016:i:2:p:143-157. 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: Tanja Komarac (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fefzghr.html .

    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.