Transition towards Sustainability: Adoption of Eco-Products among Consumers

• Published in: Sustainability Vol. 11; no. 16; p. 4308
• Main Authors: Hojnik, Jana, Ruzzier, Mitja, Konečnik Ruzzier, Maja
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.08.2019
• Subjects: Behavior; Consciousness; Consumerism; Consumers; Consumption; Environmental effects; Environmental impact; Environmental perception; Environmental stress; Familiarity; Gender aspects; Lifestyles; Literature reviews; Multivariate statistical analysis; Product development; Purchasing; Science; Sex differences; Sustainability
• ISSN: 2071-1050; 2071-1050
• DOI: 10.3390/su11164308

Transition to sustainability is a long-term challenge which should also actively engage consumers, as consumption causes environmental stress. In order to understand how consumers adopt eco-products, we conducted an extensive literature review of green consumerism and presented findings of 47 previous research works. In addition, this study’s aim was to explore whether consumers remain only concerned about the environment or whether they actually make a difference. Moreover, we examined gender differences. Because the relationship between consumers’ environmental concern and purchase intention is not straightforward, we aimed to explore the effect of consumers’ environmental concern on their purchase intention. The purpose of this paper was to explore how consumers’ familiarity with and consciousness of eco-products and their perceived sense of environmental responsibility mediate the relationship between consumers’ environmental concern and their purchase intention. We used structural equation modeling to test the proposed conceptual model based on a sample of 705 Slovenian consumers. Our findings suggest that all the above-mentioned constructs mediate the relationship between consumers’ environmental concern and their purchase intention in relation to eco-products. However, consumers’ consciousness of eco-products has the greatest effect in channeling environmental concern into purchase intention of eco-products. In addition, the findings indicate that female consumers express greater environmental concern, consciousness of eco-products, and perceived environmental responsibility than male consumers. The paper concludes with policy and managerial implications, theoretical implications, limitations of the study, and future research directions based on the findings of consumers’ perspectives.