Sustainable Consumption Research Research Articles

The Impact of Economic Incentives on the Purchase Behavior of Recycled Fashion and Footwear

This study investigates the impact of economic incentives on the purchase behavior of recycled fashion and footwear in Vietnam, addressing a critical gap in sustainable consumption research within emerging markets. Employing a mixed-methods approach, including a large-scale survey (n=1,023) and field experiments across 120 stores, we examine the effectiveness of various incentive types: discounts, loyalty programs, and government subsidies. Our findings reveal that while price discounts drive immediate sales increases (28.3% volume increase), loyalty programs foster superior long-term engagement (23.5% increase in repeat purchases) and higher average order values (31.7% increase). Government subsidies, particularly when combined with educational initiatives, also prove effective (27.3% sales volume increase). The study identifies key moderating factors, including environmental consciousness, age, and urban-rural location, which significantly influence the impact of these incentives. By providing empirical evidence on the nuanced effectiveness of economic incentives in promoting sustainable fashion choices, this research offers valuable insights for retailers, policymakers, and sustainability advocates. The findings contribute to bridging the intention-action gap in sustainable consumption and provide a foundation for developing targeted strategies to promote recycled fashion in emerging markets.

Can sufficiency become the new normal? Exploring consumption patterns of low-income groups in Norway

Sufficiency has gained increased attention within sustainable consumption research in recent years. Often presented in opposition to guiding principles like efficiency, which discuss sustainability issues alongside ideas of economic growth, sufficiency offers alternative sustainability pathways that highlight the need to reduce consumption. This paper discusses the interrelation between sufficiency principles and consumption patterns of low-income groups, exploring how sufficiency could support the needs of vulnerable groups in society. Low-income groups use fewer material resources than high-income groups due to their comparatively limited economic resources. However, low-income groups at risk of relative poverty are also vulnerable to various factors that can significantly impact their health and wellbeing. Studying low-income groups offers possibilities for understanding the work that goes into establishing sufficiency-oriented practices and the potential pitfalls of the sufficiency discourse. Through our qualitative study of low-income groups in Norway based on focus groups and interviews, we identify three different characteristics relating to sufficiency. First, sufficiency as a necessity, pointing to situations where lack of economic resources forces low-income groups to consume frugally; second, sufficiency as opposition, where low-income groups pursue sufficiency goals because they do not identify themselves with mainstream growth narratives and consumption patterns; and, third, sufficiency as reframing sustainability, where sufficiency arguments give value to low-consumption patterns positioned against technology-centred and green consumerist narratives about sustainability.

Participatory Visual Methods and Artificial Intelligence-Driven Analysis for Sustainable Consumption Insights

Sustainable consumption is crucial for mitigating global sustainability challenges. Understanding consumer behaviors and motivations, particularly in developing regions, is essential for designing effective interventions. This study pioneers an innovative methodology integrating participatory visual methods (photovoice) and artificial intelligence analysis to investigate food waste perceptions in an emerging economy context. Twenty-six university students participated in the study, documenting their lived experiences and perspectives on household food waste through photographs and narratives. The key results included 32% of participants expressing shock at the extent of food waste in their daily lives, while 28% showed relative indifference. AI-powered (Artificial Intelligence) computer vision and natural language processing were used to efficiently analyze the large visual and textual dataset. The mixed methods approach generated nuanced, situated insights into consumer attitudes, behaviors, and socio-cultural drivers of wastage. The key themes included low waste consciousness, aesthetic and convenience motivations, social norms, and infrastructural limitations. The participatory process proved effective for raising critical consciousness and uncovering consumption practice dynamics. AI analysis enabled rapid knowledge discovery from the qualitative data while mitigating researcher bias. This innovative integration of participatory methodologies and computational analytics advances sustainable consumption research by empowering marginalized voices and generating contextual insights from unstructured data. With further development, such human-centered AI approaches can transform the study and governance of sustainable consumption.

Conceptualizing sustainable consumption priming: A scoping review

AbstractWhile many psychological interventions encourage sustainable consumption by altering attitudes, these modified attitudes often do not result in sustainable choices leading to the need to test alternative interventions to facilitate sustainable consumption, such as priming. Priming uses stimuli that trigger nonconscious processing that influences decisions. Despite its popularity, studies that employ priming strategies in sustainable consumption research are widely dispersed across several conceptual domains. This article unpacks and summarizes different approaches to priming sustainable behavior by delineating theoretical and methodological perspectives in various contexts across diverse consumer characteristics. The method employed is a scoping review of 74 articles published over 23 years (2000–2022). The resulting review (1) provides an overview of priming in sustainable consumption, (2) highlights knowledge gaps, (3) identifies knowledge clusters, and (4) proposes a research agenda for future investigations. Primarily, this paper provides an integrated map that deconstructs how researchers have explored priming interventions to promote sustainable consumption and to enable the best, or at least, better practice.

Boosting Upcycled Value: Evidence from an Emerging Economy

Sustainable consumption research, particularly understanding how consumers realign their purchasing habits toward more sustainable ones (e.g., upcycled products), has swiftly grown in popularity. Upcycling is one of the ways for firms to decrease their waste while enhancing their production processes. It is a way to add value to waste and discarded products and make them new again with a story. Although there is some research on consumer perception of such products in developed countries, the views of consumers in developing countries regarding upcycled goods have not been studied. To address this gap, this paper investigates consumer attitudes toward upcycling products in an emerging economy, namely, Türkiye. We conduct an embedded case study and examine several contextual considerations that firms should consider when embarking upon upcycling programs. In conclusion, we offer a conceptual framework for attitude toward upcycled products.

Generational Differences in Sustainable Consumption Behavior among Chinese Residents: Implications Based on Perceptions of Sustainable Consumption and Lifestyle

To deal with the challenges posed by generational differences in China’s sustainable consumption transition, this study’s pioneers using a mixed-methods approach with data mining and literature research to classify Chinese residents into four generations based on the sustainable consumption perspective. We developed a conceptual model of generational differences and conducted an empirical study using structured interviews with a multi-stage random sampling approach. The results highlight significant differences and distinct influencing mechanisms among the four generations regarding perceptions of sustainable consumption, lifestyle, and sustainable consumption behavior. Based on this, multi-generational differentiated green marketing strategies, green product development and green marketing practices, as well as consumer education systems and strategies for stakeholders including the government, enterprises, and society are proposed. The findings contribute to advancing theoretical perspectives in sustainable consumption research, serving as a valuable reference for sustainable consumption research worldwide.

Unraveling the Nexus: A Bibliometric Analysis of Subjective Wellbeing, Individualism-Collectivism and Sustainable Consumption Research in The Last Decade

Purpose: This paper intends to contribute to the academic field by pointing out trends in studies on subjective wellbeing and exploring the possibility of new interconnections with different constructs, especially in a scenario of significant changes in consumption behavior, such as the post-pandemic one. In the managerial area, it aims to collaborate by providing relevant information on the effects of sustainable consumption on subjective wellbeing, particularly for marketing professionals and the development of marketing strategies. Method: The study conducts descriptive and bibliometric analyses of the 236 selected articles found in the literature over the last ten years, establishing connections between the main theories. Results and conclusion: Although the studies found do not directly associate the three main constructs that are the focus of the research, there is a clear relationship between them. Studies show individualistic or collectivistic orientation as an antecedent of sustainable consumption; the influence of culture on the level of subjective wellbeing; as well as a positive relationship between sustainable consumption habits and subjective wellbeing and an inversely proportional relationship between individualism and sustainable consumption. Research implications: We can understand as relevant that future studies on sustainable consumption should take into account individualism-collectivism and wellbeing, seeking a comprehensive and systematic approach to sustainable consumption, considering the role of individual citizens in society, and exploring the link between the provision of sustainable products and diverse sustainable consumption practices. It is necessary to consider the complex and multifaceted nature of wellbeing, as well as the cultural and societal factors that influence it, and take a holistic approach that considers the interplay between individual, community, and social wellbeing. Originality/value: The study contributes to the integration of constructs, since the article seeks to fill a gap by exploring the interconnection between three main constructs - subjective wellbeing, individualism/collectivism and sustainable consumption. In doing so, it provides an integrated view that can enrich theoretical discussions in these areas. In addition, the bibliometric analysis reveals recent trends in the literature, highlighting the areas that have received the most attention and those that are less explored. This information can guide researchers for future studies and explore knowledge gaps. By considering the influence of culture on the relationships between the constructs, the article also contributes to a deeper understanding of how cultural differences can shape perceptions of wellbeing and sustainable consumption practices.

Consuming Less as a Rational Choice: A Review of Applied Social Exchange Theory in Topical Research on Sustainable Consumption

Along with a fast expansion in volume, research on sustainable consumption is confounded with inconsistencies in definitions and terminology. For a better categorization and thus utilization of the knowledge already accumulated in the field, a synthetic approach outlining conceptual differences and commonalities within the multitude of research appears useful. Contributing to this conceptual approach, this article pursues the role of the paradigm of rational choice in topical (2019 – 2023) research on sustainable consumption. By way of a theory-based review, the particular areas of sustainable consumption research in which social exchange is applied are scrutinized, highlighting specific structures and inclinations in terms of the history of ideas. The findings point out a preference towards the sociological take on social exchange theory (as opposed to the socio-psychological) and demonstrate that the application of social exchange theory is significant particular in research on sharing economy. On the other hand, no application of social exchange theory in areas of sustainable consumption like minimalism, downshifting or voluntary simplicity could be documented.

The Reasons Behind Sustainable Product Purchases. What Affects Consumers More – Cognition or Emotions?


 
 
 
 More and more scientists are pointing to the need for sustainable consumption research in order to find an effective way to promote sustainable products among consumers. Scientists note that sustainable consumption is often illusory. The research shows that consumers have a positive attitude towards sustainable products, but that does not always correlate with actual consumers’ purchasing behaviour. Accordingly, the question arises of how to promote consumers to buy sustainable products. Recent theories in the field of decision-making, such as Dual Processing theories, place increasing importance on emotional response. The aim of this article is to investigate the emotional and cognitive factors that affect consumers’ intentions to buy sustainable products. Based on theoretical aspects, a model that examines the intersection between the emotional and cognitive responses on consumers’ intentions to buy sustainable products is proposed.
 
 
 

A Bibliometric Analysis of Sustainable Food Consumption: Historical Evolution, Dominant Topics and Trends

The major goal of this study is to trace the emergence of SFC-related research across time, using a thematic map and a list of corresponding publications. In addition, this study aims to determine the author who has made the most significant contribution to this particular field. This study provides a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of the historical development and current trends in sustainable food consumption research, examining 2265 articles published between 1990 and 2023. Using the bibliometrics package of R Studio software version 4.2.1 and its Biblioshiny package, articles from the Scopus and Web of Science databases are examined. In the field of sustainable food consumption, we identify five distinct research phases: initial stagnation, infant growth, post-economic crisis, expanding phase and COVID-19 and post-pandemic. While research on broader sustainability topics can be traced back to the early 20th century, a very limited number of articles on sustainable food consumption was published in the 1990s. However, the number of publications increased incrementally over time, with a notable uptick in interest around 2015, and the subject was still being discussed in 2022. The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic marked the beginning of the most recent phase of research, which analyzed the consumption patterns of consumers before and after the pandemic. Our study highlights key authors, documents and sources related to sustainable food consumption. The United States, Italy and the United Kingdom emerged as the most active contributors to the research on sustainable food consumption and were additionally the countries with the largest global market shares for organic products. Major sub-themes including organic food, food waste, sustainable development and food security, together with consumer behavior and organic products appeared as being the most researched sub-themes of recent times. The results of this study suggest that more research is related to sustainable food consumption in countries with a low organic food market share. In addition, the investigation of actual data on food waste, carbon footprints and greenhouse gas emissions resulting from food production and consumption is essential to gain holistic insights.

Towards an embodied understanding of the sustainability of consumer choice—the case of fashion shopping

This conceptual article uses an embodied theoretical lens to describe how consumption and shopping are bodily activities shaped by marketplaces. This article contributes to research on sustainable consumption in general and research on sustainable shopping in particular. The social and situated embodiment perspective highlights how sociomaterial marketplace elements configure shopping outcomes. The context of fashion shopping is used, and this article shows how an embodied view of shopping can increase our understanding of unsustainable shopping practices and promote shopping for sustainable products. This article aims to enrich the structural strand of sustainable consumption research by describing how the sustainability of individual shopping can be understood as skills and dispositions acquired within, or in relation to, marketplace activities and discourses. This suggests that current Western unsustainable fashion shopping practices, characterized by excessive consumption, change only if supply and communication practices in the fashion marketplace change.

Locally produced food for restaurants: a theoretical approach for the supply chain network design

PurposeThis paper evaluates the feasibility and benefits of a local food distribution system, which connects farmers and restaurant owners from a logistics perspective. This paper considers a platform to improve operations and investigates various schemes for delivering locally produced food to restaurants using a food hub.Design/methodology/approachTo compare distribution scenarios and derive managerial implications, a simulation model has been developed and executed in Matlab 2019a©. The model evaluates various settings of business connections between farmers and restaurateurs.FindingsResults of computational experiments highlight great potentials of such a system, particularly to reduce travel distances. To obtain these positive externalities, the local system requires specific attention during the design of logistical aspects and needs to be planned following a specific structure.Practical implicationsThe developed simulation model can be used to improve understanding of related short food supply chains by analyzing specific cases where the main actors involved differ in terms of type, number, and location.Originality/valueThe paper analyzes the feasibility and the effects of a new distribution system that can connect supply chain actors directly. The analyses focus on logistics aspects, a topic that is often neglected in sustainable consumption research. Furthermore, the paper does not focus of a single case study but develops a customizable model to be used in various settings.

Sustainable Consumption Research and the Role of Marketing: A Review of the Literature (1976–2021)

There is a causal relationship between existential dangers to our biosphere and our unsustainable consumption practices. For more than three decades, academics and researchers have explored ideas to make consumption practices sustainable. Still, a practical and widely accepted solution to the problem is missing. This review aims for a theoretical and structural understanding of the literature to identify future avenues for marketing, to explore and increase its contribution to consumption sustainability research. The review used bibliometric and integrative review methods to synthesize knowledge. The review found that sustainable consumption research has proliferated since 2015, indicating a heightened interest in the field. There are four major schools of thought in sustainable consumption research, employing three interdependent micro, meso, and macro levels of analysis to understand consumption practices. By focusing on individual consumption behaviors, this review recommends that consumption sustainability be repositioned as a means of attaining a better quality of life for consumers. It involves reforming the consumer mindset toward progress based on pro-social and pro-ecological choices, training consumers in mindful consumption practices, and providing them with an infrastructure for consuming with a mindful mindset. It is recommended that marketing should refine itself as a pro-social discipline, with consumer well-being as its primary goal, and to become a leader in reshaping quality of life in terms of non-financial standards.

Unraveling the Relationship between Well-Being, Sustainable Consumption and Nature Relatedness: a Study of University Students

Many empirical studies have found an association between sustainable consumption and well-being. However, the direction of causality between these constructs remains unclear. Well-being could be an antecedent of sustainable consumption or, sustainable consumption a driver of well-being; also, there could be a reciprocal relationship between these two constructs. Alternatively, both well-being and sustainable consumption could be outcomes of another construct that could be masking a relationship between well-being and sustainable consumption. This study aims to advance the well-being and sustainable consumption research by testing these three relationships in a longitudinal study with young consumers (n = 369). The findings show that when controlling for the constructs at Time 1, the relationship between the focal constructs is no longer significant. Results lead to support the hypothesis that sustainable consumption and well-being are explained by a particular trait of the individual, nature relatedness, so that individuals with greater nature relatedness are more likely to adopt a sustainable lifestyle and have greater well-being. Nature relatedness thus acts as a predictor of both focal constructs. This result implies that by nurturing nature relatedness, societies will achieve the double dividend of well-being and sustainability.

Kohti kestävää kuluttamista: Materiaalitaju kuluttajien ja materiaalien aktiivisen suhteen hahmottajana

Artikkelissa hahmotellaan materiaalitajun käsitettä kuluttajien ja materiaalien välisenä, tilanteisena, aktiivisena ja vastavuoroisena suhteena. Tavoitteena on luoda uutta ymmärrystä kuluttajien materiaalisuhteista osana kestävää kulutusta. Käsitteellisesti materiaalitaju rakentuu suhteessa lukutaidoista käytävään keskusteluun ja sen kritiikkiin. Ammentamalla teoreettisia vaikutteita uusmaterialismista ja pragmatismista, materiaalitajun käsite korostaa materiaalisuhteiden tilanteista, vuorovaikutteista, kehkeytyvää ja jännitteistä luonnetta. Lisäksi materiaalitaju rakentaa ymmärrystä siitä, miten kuluttajat luovasti oppivat ja muuttavat tapojaan olla vuorovaikutuksessa materiaalien kanssa. Materiaalitaju tuo kestävän kulutuksen tutkimuksen keskusteluun aiempaa vahvemmin ajatuksen materiaalien aktiivisista toimijuuksista sekä materiaalisuhteiden monenlaisista yhteenliitännöistä kuluttajien arjessa. Artikkelissa määrittelemme materiaalitajun käsitteen neljän ulottuvuuden (tilanteisuus, ajallisuus, eloisuus, kehollisuus) kautta, joihin kytkien hahmottelemme neljä kestävyyteen liittyvää empiiristä esimerkkiä pyrkimyksenämme luoda pohjaa materiaalitajun soveltamiselle jatkossa.

The practice approach in practice: Lessons for Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) that Work Towards Sustainable Food Consumption in Sweden

Recognizing the great potential of civil society organizations (CSOs) as drivers of social change, this study examines how CSOs’ work directed towards consumers—in this case, to make food consumption sustainable—could be analyzed and improved through insights in practice theory. This research scope adds to the sustainable consumption literature by shifting the lens from the rich body of scholarship examining the practices of households or organizations themselves to how CSOs can influence household practices. Interviews with five different Swedish CSOs serve as the study's main empirical basis. To analyze CSO activities that target households, we use practice theorist Alan Warde's well-established categorization of four integrative social practices of eating: (1) the supplying of food, (2) cooking, (3) the organization of meal occasions, and (4) aesthetic judgments of taste. Unlike some perspectives in sustainable consumption research that focus on consumer attitudes and behavioral change, a practice theory perspective encourages a view of consumption patterns as arising from complex and necessarily social configurations of human action formed in relation to evolving infrastructures and institutions in a cultural and historical context. In agreement with this, we suggest that the CSOs would generally benefit from focusing on particular practices, practice elements, and communities of practice. The different preconditions under which CSOs operate—such as material resource constraints and symbolic power resources—should further inform their chosen types of activities. However, we also conclude that the scale of the necessary societal changes ultimately requires increased integration and coordination of practical and political activities, not just among CSOs but throughout all spheres of society. Finally, we briefly outline avenues for further research.

Sustainable Consumption: Individual Consumer Concerns, Behaviour, and Practices (Literature Review)

Extant marketing literature has confirmed that sustainable consumption appears to be an emerging area of research. Equally, there are contradictory conclusions emerging from different papers. This paper explores the foundations of sustainable consumption based on previous literature and also highlighting the contribution made by major journals towards the field of sustainable consumption. The sustainable consumption research seems to be dependent mainly on Theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and other related theories like the theory of reasoned action, Norm activation theory, Dominant social paradigm, Cognitive dissonance, Social cognitive theory, Attitude-Behavior-Constraint, value-belief-norm theory (VBN). This paper also analyses the antecedents of sustainable consumption based out of 210 articles from various journals like Journal of marketing management, European journal of marketing, Journal of macro marketing, Journal of business science, International Journal of consumer’s studies, Journal of marketing management, Journal of consumer research, Journal of advertising and many others. In the appendix, the antecedents of sustainable consumption have also been identified based on the literature reviewed.

Big data: New tend to sustainable consumption research

Abstract Growing consumption has brought a series of environmental problems. Sustainable consumption patterns which could meet human needs, improve the quality of lives, and reduce pollutants in the product life cycle emerge and develop. With the development and application of information and network technology, the scale and variety of data are increasing rapidly; advances in data analytics have made the economy, and consumption, quantifiable and visible. At present, many scholars rely on a big-data background and carry out research on sustainable consumption. Therefore, we called for sustainable and consumption papers for special volume of Journal of Cleaner Production (JCLPRO). We received submissions from all over the world and eventually accepted 45. This Special Issue forming a study on sustainable energy consumption, low-carbon transportation, waste recovery and recycling, climate change cost assessment, application and policy modelling for big data and sustainable consumption to promote sustainable development in the fields of energy consumption, low-carbon transportation, waste recovery, and so on. The authors have analysed the problems of pollution and carbon emission in different regions and product production cycles, according to the background of specific regions and enterprises, through data mining, measurement models, and an evaluation index system. Some suggestions are provided for urban construction and enterprise development according to the results.

Critical sustainable consumption: a research agenda

Sustainability scholarship is increasingly focused on individual behavior change and sustainable consumption as crucial components of engendering more sustainable societies. Practices like bicycling to work, recycling and reusing goods, and eating organic food are heralded as both integral to and generative of larger societal transformations. Scholars have begun to identify the individual and societal conditions that can help enable such practices while also examining social, cultural, and systemic dynamics driving over-consumption, particularly in the developed world. Additionally, questions of social and cultural identity have been interrogated, as the cultural politics of sustainable consumption emerges as a key sub-field in its own right. While more recent work has begun to focus on linking individual environmentalisms with the collective processes of changing social systems, sustainable consumption as an analytical concept has largely lacked any deep engagement with questions of power or politics. Questions of power, legitimacy, authority, and consequently justice remain largely unexamined in this field of research. In this paper, I draw on research examining sustainable consumption in India to present an argument for a new direction in sustainable consumption research that prioritizes a critical perspective and is grounded in critical social theory. I argue that sustainable consumption researchers need to look at relational and structural power within sustainable consumption efforts to see how these efforts challenge or reinforce existing patterns of oppression and marginalization and outline a “critical sustainable consumption” disposition to permeate sustainable consumption study and practice.

Changing littering practices at Glastonbury Festival

Abstract Findings: This conceptual paper introduces practice theory as a potential alternative to the traditional ways that littering is conceptualised and tackled, and considers the strengths and pitfalls of the theoretical approach for the expensive, pervasive and environmentally dangerous littering problems faced by Glastonbury Festival. Implications: The study of littering has yet to embrace practice theory, despite the theory being considered the cutting edge of sustainable consumption research. This paper is an exploratory starting point, opening up a potential future research and intervention agenda for festival organisers and researchers alike to consider littering as a by-product of a range of different bundled practices rather than the result of particularly attitudes and behaviours. Limitations: Practice theory has yet to move authoritatively out of a theoretical domain and be used in the process of intervention planning and implementation, although some early efforts are beginning to emerge. As such, the applicability of the theory to a real world setting is untested. Relatedly, it is not fully clear how evaluation can capture the full extent of a multi-disciplinary culture change programme inspired by practice theory. Contribution: The paper offers the first practice theoretical examination of littering and introduces the theory to the practical challenges faced by Glastonbury and other festival organisers as well as introducing the problem of littering to the practice theory field, already central to the study of other issues in sustainable consumption.