Citizens of the (green) world? Cosmopolitan orientation and sustainability

Amir Grinstein and Petra Riefler
Additional contact information
Amir Grinstein: 1] Guilford Glazer Faculty of Business and Management, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel[2] Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands[3] D'Amore-McKim School of Business, Northeastern University, Boston, U.S
Petra Riefler: Faculty of Business, Economics, and Statistics, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Journal of International Business Studies, 2015, vol. 46, issue 6, 694-714

Abstract: Contemporary consumer markets are characterized by both a heightened need for sustainability and an increasingly cosmopolitan lifestyle. This article bridges these two trends and studies two untapped questions: (1) How do cosmopolitan consumers relate to sustainable behavior? and (2) How should environmental messages be framed to successfully target cosmopolitan consumers? Four studies in three countries show that high-cosmopolitan consumers demonstrate environmental concern and engage in sustainable behavior. To successfully target this promising segment with sustainable products or messages to promote sustainable behavior, marketers and public policymakers should highlight the benefit of these products/behaviors for the global (rather than the local) environment. However, the findings also show that high-cosmopolitan consumers can be successfully targeted to support local environmental initiatives when activating their local identification. The article offers implications for businesses, non-government organizations, and public policymakers in designing effective messages to promote sustainable behavior.

Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jibs/journal/v46/n6/pdf/jibs20151a.pdf Link to full text PDF (application/pdf)
http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jibs/journal/v46/n6/full/jibs20151a.html Link to full text HTML (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:pal:jintbs:v:46:y:2015:i:6:p:694-714

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... nt/journal/41267/PS2

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of International Business Studies is currently edited by John Cantwell

More articles in Journal of International Business Studies from Palgrave Macmillan, Academy of International Business
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().