Abstract
With a rapidly growing world population and the need to address the issue of consumption of global resource and its associated environmental impacts and other social and economic issues, the demand for a responsible consumption, production and prevention of waste generation become increasingly crucial. With this broad characterization of Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP), businesses based on circular economy should become the norm. With this goal in mind, an online questionnaire survey was performed on a nationwide scale, to explore consumers’ behaviors and attitudes. It was distributed in all four of Romania’s macro-regions and reached 642 respondents. The purpose of the study has been to better understand consumers’ behavior regarding sustainable consumption and production and examine whether generations play a role in responsible consumer attitudes toward the products. Three generations (X, Y, and Z) have been examined and compared. The results show that what extent those three generation agree with the environment and the benefits of reducing resource consumption, also waste generation, selective collection, recycling and reuse. However, most of them have not adopted and do not intend to adopt consumer patterns based on the circular economy. The findings provide empirical evidence and directions that could help marketers identify their consumer’s characteristics and market segments and develop consumer empowerment strategies on the Romanian market.
Highlights
A growing population can impact the demand and supply of food, fuel, consumer products and services, and other ecosystems, and thereby the marketing industry which is closely associated with the production and consumption of these products and services [1]
This study investigates opportunities and bottlenecks of some alternative and more Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) choices in terms of consumer evaluation with the aim of identifying which types of circular business model are more appropriated for Romanian consumers
The formal introduction of the Sustainable Consumption and Production concept occurred during the 1992 World Summit on Sustainable Development, emerging as a response to the sustainability challenges facing communities around the globe
Summary
A growing population can impact the demand and supply of food, fuel, consumer products and services, and other ecosystems, and thereby the marketing industry which is closely associated with the production and consumption of these products and services [1]. This study investigates opportunities and bottlenecks of some alternative and more SCP choices in terms of consumer evaluation with the aim of identifying which types of circular business model are more appropriated for Romanian consumers To identify their consumer characteristics, an inter-generation segmentation analysis is included. Segmentation research allows a better understanding on how to make SCP choices more relevant to different consumers and how to better position sustainable products in a competitive marketing environment. Whether male and female consumers exhibit different levels of environmental attitude and concern toward SCP remains to be further investigated In line with these notions, it is the purpose of this study to provide an understanding of consumers’ behavior regarding SCP and generation-based distinctions in attitudes, which can benefit marketers to better understand their consumer characteristics and develop more efficient market communication strategies.
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