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Due to consumer concerns about food-related diseases and an increase in the use of genetically modified food, more and more “green consumers” integrate environmental considerations into daily purchases, asking for healthier, safer and higher quality food. Marketing managers still face the challenge of broadening the understanding of how and why consumers purchase organic food. Specifically, a deeper understanding of the value dimensions consumers perceive in the context of organic food products is required to develop and implement successful management strategies which might transfer positive consumer perceptions to actual buying behavior and satisfaction. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Drawing on theoretical and empirical insights on organic food consumption in different markets, this research investigates antecedents of organic food products and differences regarding the relative importance of the value-based drivers across two Western nations.

The results from survey data indicate significant differences in the value perceptions, especially the functional and individual value perceptions, and recommendation behavior related to organic food for consumers from the USA and Germany. In addition, the segmentation approach provides evidence for consumer segments that cross-national borders: the “convinced opponents,” the “silent/private consumers,” the “prestige-seekers” and the “passionate evangelists.”

Consequently, instead of a country-based segmentation approach, marketers should emphasize the different types of consumers across national borders in order to address the differences in customer value perception in the organic food market.

This chapter captures the interrelatedness of sustainable production and consumption, which can be brought together in the concept of sustainable market exchange. The purpose of this chapter is to develop and present a framework of sustainable market exchange, including the key players, factors that influence sustainable behavior and issues that need to be addressed to achieve sustainable market exchange. The framework includes the ecological, economic, and social dimensions, while factors in the framework are classified into three groups: individual, relational, and societal. The sustainability spheres and stakeholders contribute to raising the importance of the phenomenon in the long run. The authors subsequently conduct an exploratory quantitative study to examine the features of the framework which is empirically examined from the perspective of one group of stakeholders that needs to be understood better, that is, consumers. Searching for answers to research questions on how consumers perceive their sustainable behavior, company sustainable behavior, how perceptions of production and consumption are related and what are the differences according to individual factors, the authors demonstrate different emphasis that consumers place on different sustainability dimensions and suggest recommendations for encouraging sustainable market exchange for management and public policy stakeholders.

The purpose of this paper is to examine a form of anti-consumption termed moral avoidance.

The study builds and tests a model of moral avoidance, using a sample (n=457) of adults aged 50-94 years.

Two distinct forms of this type of anti-consumption emerged, one based on exploitation of eco-systems and one on exploitation of humans. Ecology concerns and perceived consumer effectiveness are significant antecedents to both forms, while ethical ideology also impacts anti-consumption for social reasons. Greater numbers practice this form of anti-consumption for social reasons than for ecology reasons.

The study uncovers new underlying reasons why people practice moral avoidance and in so doing guides managers in their targeting and decision making.

The study is the first to demonstrate that this form of anti-consumption has two different perspectives: planet and people. Moreover, older adults are important ethical consumers, but no previous study has explored them from an anti-consumption perspective.