Understanding sustainable behavior

: which consumer values and concerns are more conducive to sustainable consumption?

Abstract

For a long time now, a substantial body of research has been conducted on an effort to develop a new consumer profile – the green consumer. Research has focused on evaluating individuals’ sociodemographic profile, as well as their psychographic stance to understand what makes them behave in an environmental-friendly manner. On its turn, this would allow companies to develop more successful CSR strategies, by identifying their consumer base.With this in mind, this article draws upon three scales – EPV-Q, PERVAL and SCB –to evaluate which individual values and consumer concerns could be used as predictors of sustainable behaviors and therefore sustainable consumption habits. Through this analysis, this study corroborates the findings of previous investigations, namely that the biospheric values, as part of Schwartz’s (1994) self-transcendence dimension, are the most relevant predictor of the adoption of sustainable behaviors. Alongside these values, as part of the aforementioned dimension, altruism also showed some level of correlation with sustainable behaviors. Additionally, this study hints at the possibility of certain consumer concerns, such as emotion and quality, being of interest to further investigation. In fact, though lacking predictability of sustainable behaviors, these variables showed correlation with sustainable behaviors sustaining the possibility these may help to further develop a consumer base for companies to target. Alongside these variables, others proved relevant by the literature, such as locus of control and external conditions, should also be considered in the future

Date of Award	15 Oct 2020
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Sérgio Paulo Moreira (Supervisor)