Environmentally conscious consumption: The role of retailers and peers as external influences

Abstract

Environmentally conscious consumption is one of the key concerns in modern society generally, and increasingly among the consumer population. However, consumers often overstate their willingness to purchase environmentally conscious products, with global purchasing of these products relatively low. Much research has considered the role of drivers internal to an individual in making such consumption choices; however there is less knowledge as to how external influences may impact environmentally conscious consumption behaviour. As retailers increasingly strive to adopt and communicate their environmentally sustainable business practices, and encourage parallel consumer behavior, the question arises: what role do retailers play in influencing consumers’ environmentally conscious consumption? In this paper we investigate this notion, specifically how external influences (the retailer and peers) impact environmentally conscious behavior. We investigate this behavior in terms of two outcomes; sustainable consumption (direct costs) and willingness to accept environmental taxes (indirect costs). Our research demonstrates that retailers can influence consumers to be more environmentally conscious in their consumption, with retailer influence a stronger mediator than peers in this relationship. One important implication of this research is that retailers have the opportunity to shape environmentally conscious consumption if they adopt sustainable business practices.

Introduction

Environmentally sustainable business practice, the existence and management of an organization’s economic and environmental position in meeting the needs of the present without compromising future generations (WCED, 1987), is an increasingly important commitment for the retail industry (Jones et al., 2007). In fact, during the past decade, retailers globally have looked to emphasize their commitment to more than merely economic goals, with an increased focus on broader environmental and social impacts (Jones et al., 2007). This is an important practice for retailers, both in terms of attracting consumer segments and given their active role in driving production and in stimulating and shaping customer demand (McGoldrik, 2002, Wrigley and Lowe, 2002).

Equally important to the business practice of environmental sustainability is an understanding of consumer’s environmentally conscious consumption. This is crucially important for retailers given the intention–behavior gap that often exists in this regard (Auger and Devinney, 2007, Carrigan and Attalla, 2001, de Pelsmacker et al., 2005, Follows and Jobber, 2000, Shaw et al., 2007), whereby a large proportion of consumers report that they are very concerned about environmental issues, but this concern fails to translate into behavior. One case in point can be seen in the fair-trade grocery category, with research showing that while the vast majority of consumers believe it is important to buy grocery products that support fair-trade causes, only a relatively small percentage do so (Datamonitor, 2010). Essentially, despite the existence of environmental concerns, the reality is that most environmentally sustainable product categories have seen relatively low levels of adoption, and consumer-buying behavior generally is not consistent with positive attitudes toward environmental sustainability (de Pelsmacker et al., 2005).

Much of the existing environmentally conscious consumption research suggests that purchase intention is driven by intrinsic factors such as demographics; for instance income, education and social status (Carrigan and Attalla, 2001), or psychographics for instance attitudes, values and personality characteristics (Dickson, 2001). However, one criticism of this body of research is a lack of consideration of external factors and social influences (Fukukawa, 2003), and a general gap in our understanding as to how both internal and external factors influence an individual’s environmental consumption behavior (Beck and Ajzen, 1991, Gorsuch and Ortberg, 1983, Kalafatis et al., 1999). Whist external factors such as one’s social peers have been shown to affect consumption behavior, another important external driver are retail organisations. Retailers play an active role not only in promoting sustainable business practices but also in shaping and modifying consumer behavior (Jones et al., 2007), commonly through consumer education. In reality, factors external to the individual may play an influential role in environmentally conscious consumption and, as such, they are an important consideration for the marketing literature broadly and retail practice more specifically.

In this paper, we investigate the role of external influences impacting environmentally conscious consumer behavior in terms of sustainable consumption and willingness to accept environment-related Government taxes. The purpose of this research is to explore how intrinsic characteristics (concern for the environment and self-image) lead to consumer willingness to modify behavior (through intentions to consume sustainably and a willingness to accept environment-related taxes), as facilitated by external factors such as the influence of the retailer (in terms of the appeal an environmentally conscious retailer has to consumers) and peers (in terms of the discussion of environmental issues with peers). Our paper is structured as follows. In the next section, we present our theoretical framework and the relevant literature in developing a conceptual framework. We then present the method and findings, followed by a discussion of the results and conclusions. Finally, implications and future research considerations are discussed.