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Beginning from the 1990s, the concept of sustainable development has been purposefully implemented by the most advanced economic actors including separate regions, countries, companies, and individuals. Consumer behaviour is also changing: the most advanced consumers who care about their own health and are aware of the environmental issues, change their behaviour to the conscious consumption patterns. However, most do so under the influence of companies promoting sustainable value propositions, or under the influence of government policy that encourages sustainable behaviour. Within the chapter ‘Dimensions of conscious consumption’, the authors consider consumption patterns evolution from traditional (patriarchal) consumption pattern through hedonic consumption to sustainable and conscious consumption patterns. The authors analyse transformation mechanisms of consumption patterns and how they affect changing consumer behaviour from traditional to conscious behaviour. As a result, a typology of sustainable value propositions for conscious consumers was formed, with the comparative analysis of four sustainable value proposition models: Driven by humanistic philosophy, Unique market position, Driven by government policy, and Leadership in sustainable innovations. Cases of Bouchee (Russian coffee shop and bakery chain) and Enjoy the Run (sport club for recreational running lovers) were analysed as the examples of companies implementing the considered models.

This study seeks to investigate the influence of the theory of planned behavior (TPB), of the conscious consumption intention and of the consumer ethical considerations, on Slow Fashion Consumption in the region known as Agreste Pernambucano, in Brazil, which is known for being an apparel manufacturing area.

To achieve this purpose, descriptive quantitative research using non-probabilistic sampling was conducted. Data were collected through an online survey and distributed through the snowball technique. The sample consists of 486 respondents and relies on structural equation modeling for data analysis.

The results highlight that the Slow Fashion Consumption, in the scope of Local Productive Arrangement (LPA) of clothing manufacturing in the Agreste region, is influenced by the intention of conscious consumption, the ethical considerations in consumer behavior and the perceived behavioral control. Moreover, the results highlight the role of the influence of subjective norms both in the attitudes of consumers and the intention of conscious consumption.

The primary contribution of this study is to demonstrate that perceived behavioral control is positively associated with Slow Fashion Consumption, which, in turn, shows that respondents believe they have control over their sustainable actions.

This chapter focuses on analyzing conscious consumption practices of sustainable products among the young generation, and their perceptions and behavior toward it. Because university students are the future consumers, they are more educated and aware than the typical person (Mcmillin & Dyball, 2009), will have earning capacity, and will be able to influence others in their workplaces (Nejati & Nejati, 2013), it is critical to measure sustainable consumption in the context of university students. Businesses and marketing strategies must also take into account sustainable consumption. In this vein, policy and business ramifications have been explored (Joshi & Rahman, 2015; Young, Hwang, McDonald, & Oates, 2010). Taking in view the above viewpoint, the focus of the study is to measure and analyze the responses of young generations to conscious consumption of sustainable products in Pune City. This is a descriptive study that was conducted among the 501 students at MIT-World Peace University (MITWPU) in Pune using a judgmental sampling method. Data collection was done through a standardized questionnaire using Google forms. Exploratory factor analysis and percentage analysis were used to examine the responses obtained using SPSS IBM 28.0. The results of the study reveal that conscious consumption enhances the environmental, social, and economic quality of life among young generations. It reflects conscious sense among youth as well as their perception and behavior on caring about themselves, the environment, and conserving for future generations.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many consumers to pause and rethink the impacts of their consumption behavior. The purpose of this paper is to explore changes to consumers’ preferences and shopping behavior in retail using a sustainable consumption lens to understand the long-term effects of the pandemic on retail services.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 participants to gain insights into shopping behaviors and preferences during the pandemic and to investigate changes in attitudes or behaviors toward sustainable consumption as a result of the pandemic. Data analysis involved an iterative inductive process and subsequent thematic analysis.

The results reveal a strong move toward sustainable and conscious consumption with three key changes occurring as a result of the pandemic, including changes in consumers’ ethos, move to purpose-driven shopping and drive to buy local and support national.

This paper reveals insights into consumer shopping behaviors and preferences that can potentially counter the collapse of “normal” marketplace activities in the face of the current global pandemic by providing a framework for how retail services can respond, reimagine and recover to move forward long term.

This study uncovers the importance of services marketing in endorsing and promoting sustainable consumption by shaping subtle shifts in conscious consumption as a way to recover from a global pandemic and move to a “new” service marketplace.

The paper's aim is to investigate environmentally conscious behaviour among young individuals in Australia with special attention given to their climate change risk perceptions.

In total, 20 in‐depth interviews were employed in this qualitative investigation. The informants of the investigation are young individuals (aged between 19‐25 years) in a major city in Australia. Twenty semi‐structured, in‐depth interviews ranging from 1.5‐3 hours were conducted. Purposive and snowball sampling techniques were used to ensure informant diversity and access to “information rich” cases of youth engaged in environmental groups, activism and environmental behaviour.

Four thematic categories were derived. They are: unperceived adverse effects of climate change, disassociation between adverse effects of climate change and environmentally conscious behaviour, challenges to the dominant economic model and, redefined environmental paradigm

Based on the implications of the findings, several recommendations for communicating climate change remedial actions and encouraging environmentally conscious behaviour among young individuals are made.

The study contributes toward enhancing the understanding of climate change risk perceptions and environmentally conscious behaviour among young environmentalists in Australia where studies on young consumers are scarce. Findings of the study are useful in gaining young individuals' support for the successful implementations of climate change remedial actions.

The purpose is to explore consumer acceptance of the doggy bag as an intervention to promote sustainable food consumption. In particular, it explores consumer attitudes towards taking home the leftover food from eating out at restaurants as a way of sustainable consumption.

A consumer survey to explore consumer attitudes, followed by an investigation of the media communications that promote the doggy bag as a tool to reduce food wastage.

Strategic communication was employed in an inclusive approach to increase the impact of the doggy bag on consumer behaviour. Consumers show a positive inclination towards using the doggy bag to take home the leftovers of their restaurant meals and reduce food wastage. Cultural biases can cause hurdles in the acceptance of the tool.

To the best of the author's knowledge, this is the first study to approach the behavioural analysis of leftover food takeout interventions studied from the consumer perspective. Furthermore, it is based on a novel approach of experimental methods at ready-to-eat food outlets for communicating with consumers.

This paper aims to test the relationship between millennials’ status motivation and their ecologically conscious consumer behavior (ECCB) and the mediating role of culture influencing this effect.

A panel of millennials was surveyed using established scales to measure their status motivation, cultural values and ECCB.

The findings demonstrate status motivation has a positive effect on millennials’ ECCB. The findings indicate that the cultural values of collectivism, power distance and masculinity mediate the relationship between status motivation and ECCB.

This study looked at responses from one generation, millennials, in one country, the USA.

Status motivation can impact ECCB and cultural values mediate this relationship. Status motivation can directly impact ECCB, as well as work positively through the cultural values of collectivism and power distance and negatively through masculinity.

The results suggest ECCB for status-motivated millennials is driven by both status motivation and their collectivism, power distance and masculinity. To encourage millennials’ ECCB, public policymakers and marketers should emphasize the social influences of sustainable behaviors and how these behaviors make them stand out from others who are not sustainable and target those who view women as equal to men.

This research examines how millennials’ status motivations impact their ecologically conscious behaviors both directly and through the mediating role of cultural values. This research contributes by answering the call for looking at the influence of cultural values on environmental behaviors. It offers a possible reason for the mixed findings previously in the literature regarding status and sustainability by illustrating status motivations may work both directly and through cultural values in influencing ECCB. Thus, it is one of the first studies to demonstrate culture’s mediating effect in the area of sustainability.

There is a need to promote socially responsible consumption which would accelerate the efforts of economic upliftment and sustainable development initiated by the government and corporates through corporate social responsibility initiatives. This study aims to explore the factors that contribute to socially responsible consumption across demographic factors.

The socially responsible consumption behaviour (SRCB) scale developed by Antil and Bennet was used to gather responses on a five-point Likert scale along with information on demographic profile from the residents of Delhi National Capital Region.

The factor analysis revealed a striking finding that personal contribution is the most important factor that governs socially responsible consumption, and this factor also emerges across demographic variables to have significant contribution for the consumption. Gender wise, there is no significant difference, while education bears an inverse relationship with SRCB. People in the middle-income group with lower incomes and younger in age are more likely to exhibit SRCB.

The implications for marketers is to use the results of this study in their promotion for targeting consumers by focusing on the joy/pride of personal contribution in being socially responsible while they fulfil their product purchase needs that could create a loyal segment of consumers who would buy such products and further spread a positive word of mouth to convert non-consumers into buyers, leading to sustainable economic development. Policymakers and the Government need to promote SRCB by subsidizing goods that are generated from such sources to enhance their usage. Younger Indians, in the early years of their career and people in middle-income groups, are promising customers with higher inclination to be socially responsible in their purchase behaviour. This paper presents a practical dimension of personal contribution that could be used to develop promotion strategies to motivate consumers towards socially responsible consumption.

These incorporate usage of the results of this study to promote cause-related marketing, wherein a company donates a portion of each purchase made by its customers during a specific period to a socially responsible cause. Marketers can enhance the purchase of socially responsible products by creating awareness among their target consumers about the consequences of their purchase and their personal contribution in community development. Creating confidence among customers and goodwill by providing awareness of the contribution made by firms in the social development of the country will encourage customers to patronize products of such firms, as they would feel a sense of personal contribution in nation development by supporting buying from such firms.

The adoption of socially responsible consumption by the vast majority of population shall uplift the economically backward sections of society, thereby creating employment opportunities and incomes at the bottom of the pyramid, ultimately, leading to sustainable economic development and attainment of millennium development goals.

This is a maiden attempt to gain an insight into the Indian SCRB. This can be a base for further studies in the area of socially responsible consumption which is relatively unexplored in the Indian context.

Drawing on goal framing theory, this study aims to investigate consumer values and perceived readiness to engage in secondhand luxury consumption, a form of pro-environmental behavior.

An integrative conceptual model is proposed based on goal- framing theory to gauge the role of various goals driving Gen Z’s secondhand luxury purchase. Cross-sectional data were collected from 246 Indian secondhand luxury shoppers and analyzed using structural equation modeling and PROCESS Macro.

Results demonstrated that both egoistic and altruistic value frames drive secondhand luxury purchase intention through attitude and subjective norms (SNs), respectively. Interestingly, attitude significantly leads to consumer perceived readiness, but readiness does not directly affect purchase intention. Further, risk perceptions moderate the effect of readiness and SNs.

Academic literature lacks empirical evidence on secondhand luxury as a form of pro-environmental behavior and Gen Z argued to be the most influential generation driving this market has not been investigated so far. Through an emerging economy context, this study contributes important implications for luxury brands entering the secondhand market, secondhand retailers and scholars about what motivates young consumers and drives purchase decisions while engaging with an otherwise stigmatized market.