Abstract
Although many authors agree on the role of personal values in explaining the main determinants of eco-behaviour, disagreement about the effects of socio-demographic features exists, particularly about the effect of nationality. In an attempt to fill this gap in the literature, this paper contributes to the debate surrounding the main determinants of eco-behaviour, based on a cross-country analysis. To test the role of nationality and personal values in eco-behaviour, a linear regression model involving 353 Chinese and 333 Italian subjects was performed. A stepwise analysis was then conducted to identify the main significant effects. The explorative and stepwise analyses confirmed that nationality is significant when explaining individual eco-behaviour, for both Italian and Chinese people. Moreover, the linear regression model, as a stepwise analysis, showed that regulatory focus and universalism are the main personal values influencing ecological behaviour. Differences emerging from the analysis show significant differences in terms of eco-behaviour and eco-awareness, for the two countries involved in the analysis, that might lead companies to adopt different marketing strategies when promoting eco-products.
Highlights
From a global perspective, the adoption of pro-environmental behaviours by most industrialized countries is not automatic, and requires the joint efforts of all principal stakeholders, including governments, businesses, and individual consumers
This paper contributes to the debate concerning the main determinants of eco-behaviour based on an inter-country analysis
Thanks to a cross-country analysis involving Chinese and Italian subjects, we investigated the role of nationality as a socio-demographic factor, compared to the role of different personal values, including the Schwartz’s values with the addition of regulatory focus and time orientation as explanatory variables
Summary
The adoption of pro-environmental behaviours by most industrialized countries is not automatic, and requires the joint efforts of all principal stakeholders, including governments, businesses, and individual consumers. As customer adoption of new ideas depends on the media, culture, the legal environment, and other relevant aspects [1], investigating any differences in adopting pro-environmental behaviour has become crucial. Even given the relevance of this topic, the literature shows that it is difficult to understand and predict pro-environmental behaviour [2]. Even though pro-environmental behaviour research has developed in different directions [11], including the socio-demographic or psychological determinants of individual ecological behaviour [12,13], we can still consider the impact of nationality as one of the most challenging topics. Even if nationality differences have been included in many studies [14,15], inter-country analysis is not as common in the pro-environmental behaviour literature, especially involving non-American countries
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