High Involvement and Ethical Consumption: A Study of the Environmentally Certified Home Purchase Decision

Lianne Foti and Avis Devine
Additional contact information
Lianne Foti: Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
Avis Devine: Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto, ON M3J 1P3, Canada

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 19, 1-11

Abstract: Sustainable and energy efficient (SEE) attributes in the housing market have become a focus in Canada. Similarly, understanding the consumer’s decision-making process of this high-involvement ethical product has become a burgeoning area for researchers. This study describes the development of the subject, highlighting the nature of the ethical decision-making process and how it relates to this known intention–behaviour gap. An observation, followed by two studies consisting of in-depth interviews with real estate agents and sales representatives (n = 15) and home purchasers/consumers (n = 15), were conducted. Transcriptions were analysed qualitatively with NVivo Pro 12 software (NVivo Pro 12, QSR International Pty Ltd, Melbourne, Australia). Inductive thematic analysis revealed two main driving themes: information and trust in seller/realtor. Attribute investment return uncertainty was identified as a theme that affects the strength of the relationship between purchase intention and behaviour, whereas the trust in seller/realtor speaks to how and why this effect occurs. The findings present relationships among the driving factors that were identified by realtors and consumers in the SEE housing market, as well as barriers (investment return uncertainty) that prevent consumers from purchasing high-involvement ethical products.

Keywords: sustainable; energy efficient; high involvement; ethical consumption; decision making; home purchase (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/19/5353/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/19/5353/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:19:p:5353-:d:271510

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().