Explaining green consumption: A cross-cultural study on young adult consumers through a multi-group comparison /Explicando el consumo verde: un estudio transcultural sobre consumidores adultos j - Vol. 38 Núm. 162, Enero 2022 - Estudios Gerenciales - Libros y Revistas - VLEX 900147167

Explaining green consumption: A cross-cultural study on young adult consumers through a multi-group comparison /Explicando el consumo verde: un estudio transcultural sobre consumidores adultos j

AutorCavazos-Arroyo, Judith
CargoResearch article
  1. Introduction

    Advances in technology and communication have enabled business enterprises to address the challenges that arise when finding routine operations that enhance productivity in a sustainable manner (Geetha & Laxman, 2017). The products we buy, eat, and use have an important impact on the environment. Many of the current trends in global consumption are unsustainable, resulting in massive damage and destruction of ecosystems. Thus, some emerging green industries are seeking to protect the environment through the adoption of environmentally sustainable lifestyles and human actions, encouraging consumers to spend more on green products (Spielmann, 2020).

    Green consumption is a form of consumption compatible with using eco-friendly products that are harmless to the environment and consumers in their production, use, or disposal (Geetha & Laxman, 2017). Despite increased eco-awareness during the past few decades, considerable barriers (e.g., motivational and practical complexity of green consumption) to the dissemination of more ecologically oriented consumption styles still exist in Western markets (Moisander, 2000). To address these environmental issues, consumers must be motivated to make ethically conscious decisions toward more sustainable consumption, which in turn will persuade producers and marketing intermediaries to re-constitute their business models with an orientation towards sustainability.

    Research on sustainable consumption has changed its focus from exploring the consumer profile towards finding a deeper understanding of different ecological behaviors that can lead to green consumption (Peattie, 2010). Nevertheless, further exploration of other antecedents that could impact this type of consumption has been recommended (Whitburn et al., 2020). Also, environmental citizenship and activism have become critical aspects in leading people to act as agents of change for the solution of environmental problems; however, the research shows a gap regarding the understanding of its effects towards behaviors such as consumption, since many people do not feel sufficiently empowered about their decision-making on socioenvironmental issues, and a growing apathy towards environmental mobilization and commitment has been identified (Hodson, 2014; Reis, 2020). Therefore, there is a call for more research to close the gap towards a deeper understanding of the antecedents of green consumption.

    More specifically, some research in the management field have used Spanish and Mexican samples to compare how generalizable or contextualized the research variables can be (Ayuso & Navarrete-Báez, 2018; Ueltschy, 2010); although these countries share diverse linguistic and cultural traits (Ueltschy, 2010), they also present significant differences in their socioeconomic, institutional, and political conditions (Ayuso & Navarrete-Báez, 2018). Therefore, this research focuses on understanding some pro-environmental behaviors in young adults from these countries. When the samples are similar in some respects and different in others, it is suggested to develop a comparative investigation, the differences are usually the focus of the examination to understand the underlying structure that allows the variation (Routio, 2007).

    The objective of this research is to explore and compare the decision to consume green products related to their connection to nature, environmental citizenship, activism, and environmental social identity among young Mexican and Spanish buyers to provide information on the effect of these variables on green consumption. Therefore, a multigroup structural equation model (SEM) with R statistical software was used to analyze the results. The purpose of this study is to contribute to the intellectual bases of consumer behavior and pro-environmental actions to help policy makers and market participants in formulating strategies to encourage green consumption in young adults. The thesis of the research is that although consumers might be concerned about the environment, they struggle to engage in green consumption behavior (Young et al., 2010). Thus, there is a need to promote the perceived effectiveness of the consumer, convincing him/her that green consumption could really have an impact on the environment (Gleim et al., 2013).

    In addition to the introduction, this document includes five more sections: The second contains the literature review in which the main concepts are defined, and the hypotheses are formulated. Next, the methodological process and the statistical methods used are described. The fourth section shows the results obtained, and the last section presents the conclusions and managerial implications.

  2. Theoretical background and hypotheses development

    The term green consumption has often been used interchangeably with other terms, such as socially responsible consumption, ecologically conscious consumption, environmentally responsible consumption, environmentally friendly consumption, and pro-environmental consumption (Pagiaslis & Krontalis, 2014). In this research, green consumption is understood as the consumption of environmentally friendly products (Côrtes et al., 2016), considering an effort to balance demand, consumption processes, and sustainable development (Sun et al., 2019). It is expected that green consumption contributes to solving problems regarding overexploitation of natural resources (Pagiaslis & Krontalis, 2014) due to the desire of consumers to meet their individual needs differently and to contribute to the welfare of society (Nguyen et al., 2019).

    Previous studies about green consumption have been considered to explain the phenomenon in terms of demographic variables. In this research, we control it through the variables of age and gender. There is no agreement on the age group most prone to green consumption. Some studies have concluded that green consumers are younger (Akehurst et al., 2012), while others claim that they are older (Martins Gonçalves & Viegas, 2015). Regarding gender, some studies have suggested that women are more likely to demonstrate green consumption and recycling (Mainieri et al., 1997; Straughan & Roberts, 1999; Laroche et al., 2002); however, others did not find significant differences among genders (Paço & Gouveia, 2016).

    2.1 Connection to nature and green consumption

    Connection to nature has become increasingly useful in the study of environmental behavior, as well as in psychological health and well-being (Nisbet & Zelenski, 2013; Whitburn et al., 2020). It is rotted in the primitive beliefs that motivate pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors (Geng et al., 2015). Connection to nature refers to the positive experiential and emotional connection that an individual achieves with nature (Mayer & Frantz, 2004). Schultz (2001) conceptualizes it as the extent to which an individual feels that he or she is part of nature. The idea implies interest in and affinity with the natural world (Wilson, 1984).

    Previous research with young adults has found that connection to nature is useful for predicting sustainable pro-environmental values and behaviors, subjective well-being, and concern for the environment (Mayer & Frantz, 2004; Nisbet & Zelenski, 2013; Pereira & Forster, 2015). However, although a significant association has been found among the connection to nature value and pro-environmental behaviors (Davis et al., 2009; Dutcher et al., 2007), values toward nature differ among cultures (Boeve-de Pauw & Van Petegem, 2013), and green consumption is affected directly and indirectly by values and beliefs (Stern et al., 1995). Therefore, it is possible to assume that:

    H1: Connection to nature positively affects green consumption of young adults in Mexico and Spain.

    2.2 Connection to nature and environmental sociai identity

    Social identity can be understood as an element of the self-concept that assumes and values belonging to a certain social group (Tajfel, 1978). Environmental social identity implies the value and emotional importance that a person attributes to being part of the initiatives that seek to change a social system towards pro-environmental behaviors (Schulte et al., 2020). The value of feeling connected to the natural environment can encourage important environmental social identity mechanisms, thus generating a positive impact on people's well-being and quality of life (Olivos & Clayton, 2017). That is, when people perceive themselves as connected and interdependent with nature, they can develop an identity that empathizes with pro-environmental efforts (Andic & Hadela, 2021). Thus, this research suggests the following hypothesis:

    H2: Connection to nature positively affects environmental social identity of Mexican and Spanish young adult consumers.

    2.3 Environmental social identity and green consumption

    One challenge in contemporary society is the construction of positive and lasting identities (Ryan & Deci, 2003). However, the environmental identity has changed in recent decades (Gallup, 2016). An environmental social identity is a psychological mechanism that facilitates assimilation to the norms of the group and drives individuals to engage in pro-environmental behaviors, including green consumption (Fielding & Hornsey, 2016). Thus, environmental social identities might influence behavior across different contexts (Ellemers et al., 2002), whether with abundant or limited resources. "Social identity processes may be important for collective action problems because they can influence ascriptions of responsibility for responding to large-scale problems with diffuse causes and solutions" (Chapman, 2018, p. 52). Thus, the environmental social identity approach implies that membership to certain groups influences one to maintain a positive self-concept of constructive environmental behaviors.

    For instance, Fielding and Hornsey (2016) studied how social identities can motivate group members to act in more or less...

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