Sustainable development has become a global concern because of problems of environmental pollution, energy consumption and climate change. Sustainable development requires that individuals from all sectors contribute to protecting the environment. Although numerous studies have investigated the relationship between social normative beliefs and environmental behaviour, the results of these studies have varied. Scant attention has been devoted to clarifying the mechanism underlying the influence of social normative beliefs on environmental behaviour by testing mediators. The present study explored the mediating effect of environmental perceptions on the relationship between social normative beliefs and environmental behaviour. A convenience sampling method was employed to establish a sample consisting of 453 young adults aged 18-30 years. Structural equation modelling was employed for data analyses. Results revealed that environmental perceptions (perceived effectiveness and environmental responsibility) completely mediate the relationship between social normative beliefs (descriptive normative beliefs and injunctive normative beliefs) and environmental behaviour. This finding suggests that environmental practitioners might develop effective programs that motivate individuals to engage in environmental behaviour to achieve sustainable development from the social influence perspective.

No abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the underlying mechanisms of how consumers respond to health-claim framing via experimental design. Design/methodology/approach Across the two experiments conducted for this research, the authors examine the moderating effects of self-perceived health status and individuals’ need for cognition on health-claim framing. Findings The results indicate that personal differences moderate the effects of health-claim framing on consumers’ food-product evaluation. Consumers with poor health status evaluate food product more favorably when the reduced-disease-risk claims are offered. However, consumers with good health status evaluate food product similarly between the two health claims. Moreover, consumers with a high need for cognition evaluate food product more favorably when the reduced-disease-risk claims are used, whereas consumers with a low need for cognition evaluate food product more favorably when the enhance function claims are used. Practical implications This research provides that reduced-disease-risk claims may be the better communication message used to persuade consumers no matter they rate themselves as poor health status or good health status. Moreover, the results of the present research also indicate the importance of market segmentation. Marketers could design proper advertisements and select the appropriate media vehicles for low need for cognition readers and high need for cognition readers separately. Originality/value There has been few studies addressed consumers’ product choice with respect to different health-claim framing. Further, this research presents a new concept of the effects between individual differences and health-claim framing on consumers’ food-product evaluation.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of food product types and affective states and on consumers’ variety seeking (VS) tendency. Design/methodology/approach – Two experiments are conducted in this paper to examine the influence of different food product types and the VS-mood state relationship. Findings – The results are consistent with the author's hypotheses and indicate that happy people incorporate more VS when healthful and unfamiliar food products are offered, while sad people incorporate more VS when hedonic and familiar food products are offered. Practical implications – Marketers of leading brands selling hedonic food products could cultivate positive emotions in their target consumers in order to prevent them from switching brands. Conversely, marketers of follower brands may find it appropriate to induce negative moods in their consumers to encourage brand switching. For those marketers who sell less hedonic, healthier food products, marketing strategies should be contrary to those for hedonic food products. In addition, marketers may conduct strategies to prevent consumers from feeling sad in the case of products with a low market profile and which are unfamiliar to their consumers. They could cultivate happy moods in consumers to encourage them to make more varied food product choices. Originality/value – Prior research has focussed mainly on hedonic and familiar products when explaining VS behavior, but the present research has demonstrated the need to discuss different product types, such as healthful and unfamiliar products, in order to obtain a broader understanding of affective states on VS.

In this study we aimed to explore the effect of price promotion on the relationship between mood states and variety-seeking (VS) behavior. Participants were 133 university students, who were induced to feel either a sad or happy mood to test our hypothesis. Results indicated that price promotion mitigates the effect of affective states on VS. That is, people who are sad demonstrate more VS than those who are happy in the absence of price promotion. However, people in both mood states demonstrate similar level of VS in the presence of price promotion.