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A consumer model of environmentally responsible purchase behaviour was tested using covariance structural analysis. The model successfully predicted the purchase of environmentally responsible and non‐responsible product alternatives. A hierarchial relationship from values to product specific attitudes to purchase intention to purchase behaviour was confirmed. Individual consequences, which take the personal implications of consumption into account, were found to be just as important in predicting intention as the environmental consequences of a product. The study empirically tested a values typology as a basis to explain attitude formation.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the generational cohort effect on responsible consumer behavior. Based on the theory of planned behavior and the generational cohort theory, the authors test the impact of perceived consumer effectiveness (PCE), media exposure (ME), the social group influence of family and peers and self-identity on the intention of Generation X and Generation Y to purchase environmentally responsible products.

The data were collected from 1,870 respondents in France. Based on the factor scores from a confirmatory factor analysis, the authors tested for interaction effects by employing regression and path analyses. A two-group structural model evaluated the strength of each cohort’s direct effects and the significant differences between the groups.

The results reveal a generational (cohort) effect on the relationship between PCE and ME and the intention to purchase environmentally responsible products.

The convenience sample shows bias toward younger people, especially students. In addition, some latent variables show low AVE scores, probably due to scale interpretation differences. By measuring purchase intention, the study disregards the actual behavior of consumers.

To increase consumers’ personal involvement in responsible purchasing behaviors, marketers could cater to the social desirability side of Gen Y by emphasizing products that express community values; on the other hand, marketers could appeal to the PCE of Gen X by providing more information and convincing them that their actions matter.

The efficiency of awareness and promotional campaigns for environmentally responsible products will be enhanced when marketers employ segmentation based on generational cohorts.

The study contributes to a better understanding of responsible consumer behavior by identifying generational cohort differences.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between social and environmental responsibility knowledge, attitudes, and purchasing behavior.

An online questionnaire was developed to assess knowledge of, and attitudes towards, issues of social responsibility, including social and environmental aspects related to the production and distribution of apparel and textile goods. Information regarding engagement in socially and environmentally responsible apparel‐purchasing behavior was also collected. Participants included students enrolled at a four‐year institution located in the Midwestern USA.

Participants indicated being more knowledgeable about apparel environmental issues as compared to apparel social issues. Overall, participants exhibited low involvement in socially and environmentally responsible apparel‐purchasing behavior. However, both knowledge and attitudes of social and environmental issues were significant predictors of socially and environmentally responsible purchasing behavior.

Given the competition among apparel companies operating in the marketplace, this study lends valuable insight for firms in implementing strategic social and environmental practices and policies. The implications of this study also suggest that firms within the industry may need to respond to the barriers perceived by consumers in engaging in sustainable apparel‐purchasing behavior.

The findings of this study are useful in understanding the relationship between knowledge, attitudes, and behavior. Previous research on this topic has been inconclusive. A thorough examination of this topic is important, as noted by previous scholars, consumers have the ability to effect change in the marketplace through their purchasing behavior.

The individual’s set of values determines how they make decisions and navigate various personal and professional issues. This study aims to investigate the substitutability of self-improvement values for self-transcendence values in fostering responsible consumption behaviors in society, using Schwartz’s Basic Human Values as the theoretical foundation.

Focus group discussions are used to investigate the research problem. Representative samples of 100 centennials or Generation Z college students (50 undergraduate and 50 postgraduate students) and 45 millennials or Generation Y working employees were chosen for focus group talks to ensure the findings’ correctness. Using thematic analysis, the information gathered was coded and analyzed manually.

The paper looks into whether people’s self-transcendence values play a role in getting them to act responsibly when they buy things. This study gives us much new information about how people’s values change and how people buy things in today’s world.

This study explains how changing values make people want to be more responsible with their money and adds to the literature on sustainable consumption and consumer behavior. Using the lens of Schwartz’s Basic Human Values, this study extends the theoretical domain of responsible consumption.

The concept of sustainable consumption is essential for the next generation’s well-being. The sustainable development goal (SDG) 12 of responsible consumption is the focus of this study. This is a novel study to examine and understand factors that can facilitate consumers to consume responsibly to attain the SDGs. This is also one of the first studies on responsible consumption, using focus group discussions as the research methodology.

Ethical consumption is an integral component for the sustainable development in the world and is especially challenging in the Western consumer society. This research demonstrates that mindfulness, a Buddhism-based notion, is associated with two related and distinctive approaches of ethical consumption: refinement and reduction. It examines the psychological mechanisms underlying the effects of mindfulness on these two approaches of ethical consumption.

Self-report data were collected through an online survey with consumers from western societies (N = 523).

The findings show (1) that the significance of mindfulness on both approaches of ethical consumption and (2) that the contrast between the different mechanisms underlying them. Specifically, the mindfulness–consumption refinement link is fully mediated by connectedness-to-nature whereas the mindfulness–consumption reduction link is fully mediated by connectedness-to-nature and self-control. A series of supplementary studies further confirmed the proposed model.

It demonstrates the multifaceted and complex nature of ethical consumption, which is positively associated with mindfulness but through distinctive psychological mechanisms.

The multifaceted and complex nature of ethical consumption and its underlying drivers need special attention. Mindfulness can be an effective means to boost ethical consumption behavior. Meanwhile, nurturing the sense of connectedness to nature and self-control capability facilitates the path-through of the positive impacts of mindfulness

The findings can be adopted to enhance the effectiveness of mindfulness practice in promoting ethical consumption towards achieving the Sustainable Consumption goal, especially in the West.

The paper makes original contribution by conceptualizing two interrelated and distinctive approaches of ethical consumption and shows how mindfulness promotes both through different mediating pathways. Overall, this study paints a clearer picture how mindfulness relates to ethical consumption.

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.

The study examines the responsibilisation of an ethnocentric consumer in commercial, meta-organisational discourses. In addition to nationalistic and patriotic discourses, the focus is on wider conceptualisations of consumer responsibility.

The paper uses critical discourse analysis as a methodological approach to conduct an empirical case study on the texts of two producer-driven labelling campaigns.

The campaign texts create possibilities for ethnocentric consumption with positioning, argumentative and classificatory discourses. Patriotic responsibilisation is emphasised, together with rationales to take action on environmental concerns.

The study highlights the responsibility of marketers over their corporate responsibility communication, suggesting that ethnocentric promotions may have the power to alter how consumers take action on various responsibility concerns.

The study surfaces the tensions that responsible consumption can entail for consumers. Indeed, nationalistic and patriotic discourses may alter our understanding of responsibility issues that may seem completely separate from the concepts of nationalism and patriotism.

The paper shows how different organisational texts are deployed to bring about the idea of ethnocentric consumption and how this relates to responsibility discourses, nationalism and patriotism.

This study aims to empirically indicate that environment-friendly products may be used as a consumption strategy for improving the environmental well-being of a sizable consumer base and show that there are great possibilities and opportunities available for companies to come up with the right marketing mix for consumers in the rural market. There is a great dearth of empirical research on consumer behavior facets on environment-friendly products for rural market in India.

Conclusive cross-sectional descriptive research design has been used to study the environmentally concerned consumer behavior (ECCB) for environment-friendly products with the help of a survey instrument relevant for empirical research. This paper adds to the existing literature by developing one model in the Indian context for the rural market. The research study used exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis with structural equation modeling approach to analyze the collected data from consumers.

The major finding of the study is that consumers living in rural areas are aware about the environmental movement, but marketers have probably not fully explored the potential for environment-friendly products. The study strongly argues that organizations should leverage on the rural market opportunity in India. It confirms the need to tailor marketing mix for rural markets for determining behavioral dimensions of consumer decision-making.

This empirical research paper is developed and applied in the Indian context, with special reference to the rural market of the country. Results may change when applied to different rural locations in the same country and/or different countries depending on their demographic variables, psychosocial factors and socioeconomic conditions. The findings of this study need to be viewed within the context of certain limitations of location, social and economic issues. The study provides the initial base for further research on the theme, as there are no such studies available on environment-friendly products.

This research study is highly useful for the business firms deciding on marketing mix variables for environment-friendly products in rural market scenario in India, and it provides inputs for formulating major policy decisions in marketing. The study provides insights for managers, policymakers and organizations operating in rural markets and working on different facets of environmental protection issues in different forms.

It has been investigated across global markets that human activities have altered the natural ecosystem, so to make natural resources available for the future generation, there is a greater need to achieve more sustainable forms of development. The study provides insights from the rural Indian market for better adoption of environment-friendly products and will motivate marketers to explore the rural market horizon.

The study has been conducted with consumers who are residents of one small town in India. So far, no study has been conducted, and it is first such attempt to analyze the rural Indian market for environment-friendly products and consumer behavior ever since such products were launched in the country. This study provides an early glimpse into the workings of marketing practitioners who work on consumer strategy formulation and rural marketing decision-making for environment-friendly products.

The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyse a teaching strategy designed to increase the awareness of trainee teachers and educate them with regard to sustainable consumption.

Ninety-four subjects (trainee teachers) were assessed on their knowledge of the environmental impacts of consumerism, their attitudes to sustainable consumption and their behavioural intentions before (pre-test) and after (post-test) the teaching intervention took place.

Statistical analysis of the results obtained revealed that subjects increased their knowledge of the social and environmental impacts of consumerism, became more aware of the need to take action in this regard, and developed behaviours oriented towards a sustainable model of consumption.

The proper application of an educational strategy of this nature requires more time than that actually assigned to the teaching intervention itself. This obstacle was overcome by using the time envisaged by the European Space for Higher Education, but the outcome could not be monitored.

A reduction of individual and collective consumption in universities.

The study demonstrates the possibilities of an educational strategy that when applied to trainee teachers in higher education promotes sustainable consumption.

The aim of this study is to examine profiles of consumers in organic foods market segments and determine their attitudes toward organic food consumption. Consequently, we explore whether there are differences among these consumer segments in terms of their health orientation, socially responsible consumption, environmental responsibility and values and lifestyles.

A total of 316 consumers were surveyed at supermarkets and malls in one of the largest metropolitan areas of a European city.

The cluster analysis performed indicates that there are three segments based on consumer attitudes toward organic foods: favorable, neutral and unfavorable. The results show that the consumer segment with more favorable attitudes toward organic foods exhibits higher levels of health orientation and socially responsible consumption behavior when compared to other segments.

It important for marketers to understand organic foods market segments so that they can target them with the appropriate marketing mix. For this reason, we attempt to identify consumer segments based on their attitudes and behavior concerning organic foods. In doing so, we examine the profiles of consumers in each organic food market segment and their attitudes toward organic food consumption.

Organic food consumption is growing at a fast pace despite economic problems around the world. This study has identified three market segments (consumer profiles) with different attitudes and behavior towards organic foods.