Assessing the drivers of green consumerism: a multi-factor analysis

Abstract

In the last decades, human activity has abused the planet on an unprecedent scale leading to severe depletion of natural resources and affecting the environment. The awareness of this widespread environmental degradation changed the consumption patterns and has led to the emergence of green consumerism, creating a new opportunity for companies. Marketers are now challenged to incorporate green values into their practices and to take green marketing to its full potential. However, there is a recognized inconsistency between attitude and behavior for those who claim to care about the environment and therefore green consumerism is considered a complex behavior that needs to be scrutinized. Marketers need to address this gap in order to help protecting the environment, while assuring the financial sustainability of their companies. The main objective of this study is to provide further insights to mitigate this gap by exploring the effect of a set of multiple factors on green buying behavior. Using a quantitative methodology, results from this study show that general prosocial attitudes, receptivity to green communication, perceived green value, perceived consumer effectiveness and willingness to pay more have a positive effect over green buying behavior, while green skepticism affects it in a negative way.