Inclusion of Life Cycle Thinking in a Sustainability-Oriented Consumer’s Typology: A Proposed Methodology and an Assessment Tool

Anna Lewandowska, Joanna Witczak, Pasquale Giungato, Christian Dierks, Przemyslaw Kurczewski and Katarzyna Pawlak-Lemanska
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Anna Lewandowska: Faculty of Commodity Science, Poznan University of Economics and Business, 61-875 Poznan, Poland
Joanna Witczak: Faculty of Commodity Science, Poznan University of Economics and Business, 61-875 Poznan, Poland
Pasquale Giungato: Chemistry Department, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Taranto district-via Alcide de Gasperi, 74123 Taranto, Italy
Christian Dierks: Fraunhofer Project Group Materials Recycling and Resource Strategies, Brentanostrasse 2a, 63755 Alzenau, Germany
Przemyslaw Kurczewski: Faculty of Machines and Transportation, Poznan University of Technology, Piotrowo 3, 60-965 Poznan, Poland
Katarzyna Pawlak-Lemanska: Faculty of Commodity Science, Poznan University of Economics and Business, 61-875 Poznan, Poland

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 6, 1-19

Abstract: Characterizing consumers in terms of their propensity to practice sustainable consumption represents an interesting research challenge in which a crucial role is played by the questionnaire in terms of its structure and classification criteria. Various classification rules have been proposed in the literature, which can be used to identify consumer types and signify their propensity to practice the principles of sustainable development in daily life. In this paper, we based our approach in designing a classification tool on a combination of two elements: the concept of voluntary simplicity as a pillar for consumer characteristics and the idea of assessing consumers by using filters, in a modified form introducing many new aspects of life-cycle thinking. The tool proposed provides insight into the relationship between the consumer’s typology and behavior during purchasing decisions in daily life. The main function of the proposed tool is to assign respondents to one of the proposed consumer types distinguished and characterized in terms of many aspects of life cycle thinking. A pilot survey has been performed in order to verify the proposed tool, and the survey results have been presented in the paper, as well.

Keywords: consumer classification; voluntary simplicity; life cycle thinking; purchasing criteria; sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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