Do Health, Environmental and Ethical Concerns Affect Purchasing Behavior? A Meta-Analysis and Narrative Review

Wan Nie,Antonieta Medina-Lara,Richard Smith,Hywel Williams

doi:10.3390/socsci10110413

Wan Nie, Antonieta Medina-Lara + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10110413

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Journal: Social Sciences	Publication Date: Oct 26, 2021
Citations: 5	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Exeter, Turing Institute

Abstract

Much attention has been given to how we can make consumption more responsible—better for the planet and society. However, research on the associations between consumer purchasing behavior and their psychological concern for health, the environment and ethics lacks consensus on the significance and directionality of these concerns. This study aims to examine how (relatively) important these concerns are in determining consumer purchasing behavior. Systematic searches were conducted in PubMed, EconLit, Web of Science and Scopus databases from 2000 to 2020. Results were summarized through narrative synthesis of the evidence and meta-analysis. The meta-analysis revealed a significant positive correlation between health, environmental and ethical concerns and purchasing behavior, indicating that changes in health, environmental and ethical concerns will result in a consistent shift in purchase behavior towards choices consistent with the concern. This association is susceptible to moderating factors including types of products (food, non-food and non-specific products) and country’s level of economic development. In addition, the health, environmental and ethical concerns appear to have a weaker impact on the actual purchase behavior than on purchase intention, suggesting that interventions should focus on translating these “purchasing intentions” into actual purchasing behaviors. Narrative review of the studies that were not subject to meta-analysis showed good agreement, with almost all relationships reported having the same direction as those indicated by the meta-analysis. Overall, this study suggests that there is substantial potential for marketing strategies aimed at encouraging pro-health, pro-environment and ethical purchasing behaviors.

Highlights

We have become increasingly aware of the impact of our daily consumption on the environment, our health and the lives of others
A positive association would imply that an increase in health, environmental and ethical concerns will result in a shift of purchasing towards choices indicated by these concerns; for example, buying more healthy products or fewer unhealthy products
The results indicate that health concern has a positive influence on purchase intention, purchase attitude, purchase frequency and willingness to pay a premium price

Summary

Introduction

We have become increasingly aware of the impact of our daily consumption on the environment, our health and the lives of others. Consumer behavior is a highly complex process, influenced by prices and income, and by a variety of preferences, which can be broadly categorized as egoistic (e.g., concern about one’s health) and altruistic (e.g., concern about the physical environment and the ethical manner by which goods are produced (Birch et al 2018; Ritter et al 2015; Magnusson et al 2003). A positive association would imply that an increase in health, environmental and ethical concerns will result in a shift of purchasing towards choices indicated by these concerns; for example, buying more healthy products or fewer unhealthy products. A negative association would imply that an increase in these concerns will move purchasing away from choices indicated by these concerns; for example, buying more unethical products or fewer ethical products. No effect indicates that a shift in health, environmental and ethical concerns will not influence purchasing

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