Sustainable consumption: green consumer behaviour when purchasing products

William Young, Kumju Hwang, Seonaidh McDonald and Caroline J. Oates
Additional contact information
William Young: Sustainability Research Institute, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, UK, Postal: Sustainability Research Institute, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, UK
Kumju Hwang: Department of Business Administration, College of Business Administration, Chonnam National University, South Korea, Postal: Department of Business Administration, College of Business Administration, Chonnam National University, South Korea
Seonaidh McDonald: Aberdeen Business School, Robert Gordon University, UK, Postal: Aberdeen Business School, Robert Gordon University, UK
Caroline J. Oates: Management School, University of Sheffield, UK, Postal: Management School, University of Sheffield, UK

Sustainable Development, 2010, vol. 18, issue 1, 20-31

Abstract: The 'attitude-behaviour gap' or 'values-action gap' is where 30% of consumers report that they are very concerned about environmental issues but they are struggling to translate this into purchases. For example, the market share for ethical foods remains at 5 per cent of sales. This paper investigates the purchasing process for green consumers in relation to consumer technology products in the UK. Data were collected from 81 self-declared green consumers through in depth interviews on recent purchases of technology products. A green consumer purchasing model and success criteria for closing the gap between green consumers' values and their behaviour are developed. The paper concludes that incentives and single issue labels (like the current energy rating label) would help consumers concentrate their limited efforts. More fundamentally, 'being green' needs time and space in people's lives that is not available in increasingly busy lifestyles. Implications for policy and business are proposed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (170)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1002/sd.394 Link to full text; subscription required (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:wly:sustdv:v:18:y:2010:i:1:p:20-31

DOI: 10.1002/sd.394

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainable Development is currently edited by Richard Welford

More articles in Sustainable Development from John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().