The Influence of Religion on Sustainable Consumption: A Systematic Review and Future Research Agenda

Anabel Orellano, Carmen Valor and Emilio Chuvieco
Additional contact information
Anabel Orellano: Environmental Ethics Chair, Department of Geology, Geography and the Environment, University of Alcalá, C/Colegios, 2, 28801 Alcalá de Henares, Spain
Carmen Valor: E-SOST Research Group, Marketing Department, Management School, Universidad Pontificia Comillas, c/Alberto Aguilera, 23, 28015 Madrid, Spain
Emilio Chuvieco: Environmental Ethics Chair, Department of Geology, Geography and the Environment, University of Alcalá, C/Colegios, 2, 28801 Alcalá de Henares, Spain

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 19, 1-21

Abstract: Background: Due to the current environmental crisis, sustainable consumption (SC) behaviour and its drivers has gained significant attention among researchers. One of the potential drivers of SC, religion, have been analysed in the last few years. The study of the relationship between religion and adoption of SC at the individual level have reached mixed and inconclusive results. Methods: Following the PRISMA guidelines, a systematic review of articles published between 1998 and 2019 was conducted using the Web of Science and Scopus databases. Search terms included sustainable consumption, green consumption, ethical consumption, responsible consumption, pro-environmental behaviour and religion. Results: This systematic review reveals that contradictory results are due to methodological and theoretical reasons and provides a unifying understanding about the influence of religion on SC practices. Results highlight the role of religion as a distal or background factor of other proximal determinants of environmental behaviour. Conclusions: This paper contributes to the literature concerning SC by synthesising previous scholarship showing that religion shapes SC indirectly by affecting attitudes, values, self-efficacy, social norms and identity. The review concludes with a research agenda to encourage scholars the study of other unexamined mediating constructs, such as beliefs in after life, cleansing rituals and prayer, moral emotions, moral identity, the role of virtues and self-restrain.

Keywords: religion; sustainable consumption; behavioral factors; review (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/19/7901/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/19/7901/ (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:12:y:2020:i:19:p:7901-:d:418482

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 ().