TY - JOUR
T1 - Motivating sustainable consumption among Chinese adolescents
T2 - An empirical examination
AU - Geng, Duanyang
AU - Liu, Junjun
AU - Zhu, Qinghua
N1 - Funding Information:
This work is supported by two projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China ( 71632007 , 71472021 ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2017/1/10
Y1 - 2017/1/10
N2 - Sustainable consumption (SC) is key for sustainable development, but only limited studies have examined how to motivate SC among consumers in developing countries. Younger consumers tend to more sustainable consumption while whether they really understand the SC concept is not clear. To explore the role of SC understanding for motivating SC behaviors, this paper develops a concept model with hypotheses to propose that SC understanding mediates relationships between influencing factors and SC behaviors. Based on 623 usable questionnaires collected from junior high schools and senior high schools in three eastern cities of China, five influencing factors for SC behaviors are identified, they are, education, awareness & attitude, social influence, effectiveness of energy saving and emission reduction for sustainable products, and differentiation of sustainable products from regular products. Statistic results through hierarchical regression analysis demonstrate that SC understanding is necessary to motivate SC behaviors with certain influencing factors. Chinese adolescents can understand the SC concept through education and then purchase sustainable products. Only if sustainable products can show benefits of energy saving and emission reduction, Chinese adolescent would like to use these products. Environmental awareness and attitude can bring environmental treatment and disposal of products, but SC understanding is necessary. This paper contributes to extend the TPB to develop a conceptual model including education as one influencing factor for SC behaviors. It also develops three factors for SC behaviors from the product life cycle perspective. Besides, it also contributes to extend the previous studies about motivation of SC consumption to adolescents in an emergent economy of China to examine the role of SC understanding. Statistic results reveal the low implementation level of SC behaviors, and the government should highlight sustainable education to improve sustainable awareness and SC understanding. It is also shown that adolescents would like to purchase sustainable products if environmental performance of such products can be demonstrated, which also provide insights for enterprises to achieve win-win opportunities.
AB - Sustainable consumption (SC) is key for sustainable development, but only limited studies have examined how to motivate SC among consumers in developing countries. Younger consumers tend to more sustainable consumption while whether they really understand the SC concept is not clear. To explore the role of SC understanding for motivating SC behaviors, this paper develops a concept model with hypotheses to propose that SC understanding mediates relationships between influencing factors and SC behaviors. Based on 623 usable questionnaires collected from junior high schools and senior high schools in three eastern cities of China, five influencing factors for SC behaviors are identified, they are, education, awareness & attitude, social influence, effectiveness of energy saving and emission reduction for sustainable products, and differentiation of sustainable products from regular products. Statistic results through hierarchical regression analysis demonstrate that SC understanding is necessary to motivate SC behaviors with certain influencing factors. Chinese adolescents can understand the SC concept through education and then purchase sustainable products. Only if sustainable products can show benefits of energy saving and emission reduction, Chinese adolescent would like to use these products. Environmental awareness and attitude can bring environmental treatment and disposal of products, but SC understanding is necessary. This paper contributes to extend the TPB to develop a conceptual model including education as one influencing factor for SC behaviors. It also develops three factors for SC behaviors from the product life cycle perspective. Besides, it also contributes to extend the previous studies about motivation of SC consumption to adolescents in an emergent economy of China to examine the role of SC understanding. Statistic results reveal the low implementation level of SC behaviors, and the government should highlight sustainable education to improve sustainable awareness and SC understanding. It is also shown that adolescents would like to purchase sustainable products if environmental performance of such products can be demonstrated, which also provide insights for enterprises to achieve win-win opportunities.
KW - Adolescents
KW - China
KW - Factor analysis
KW - Hierarchical regression analysis
KW - Motivation
KW - Sustainable consumption
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84994291677&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.09.113
DO - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.09.113
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84994291677
SN - 0959-6526
VL - 141
SP - 315
EP - 322
JO - Journal of Cleaner Production
JF - Journal of Cleaner Production
ER -