Environmental Concern Behaviours in Africa: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

Environmental concern, including environmental behaviour continues to receive attention in both the public media and academic research. The purpose of the paper is to investigate environmental behaviour (both purchasing and non-purchasing behaviour) in an African context. Use was made of a quantitative study among a convenience sample of selected Africans. Statements reflecting non-purchasing behaviour indicated lower mean scores when compared to purchasing behaviour statements. Statistically significant differences were found to exist between different age groups with respect to both purchasing and non-purchasing behaviour as well as between different nationalities with regard to their purchasing behaviour. The findings have the potential of impacting the strategies of organisations operating on the continent. The major contribution of this paper is that is provides insight in the behavioural aspects as seen in an African context, and consequently provides detail on both purchasing and non-purchasing behaviour and the role of marketing aspects (such as price) in influencing purchase behaviour of Africans.

Predicting Pro-Environmental Behaviour amongst Citizens in African Countries: A Cross-National Study amongst Six African Countries

“…That age can predict PEB seems plausible, and this is ascribed to lifelong learning and the increase in environmental knowledge that individuals acquire over time [57,67]. It is therefore not counterintuitive to find that in other studies, younger (<20 years old) respondents varied significantly in their green purchase behaviour than older respondents [27].…”

“…In a survey conducted amongst university students in the UK and Nigeria, it was found that those with higher knowledge of environmental education issues exhibited relatively higher levels of PEB, thus offering important insights into how education can contribute towards healthier environments [25]. Other studies have examined the influence of socio-demographic factors such as gender, education, income and a number of contextual variables on PEB [26][27][28]. To this extent, cross-cultural research based on the role of environmental knowledge on PEB amongst students in Brazil, Mexico, Spain and the USA indicated differences in the situational factors between developing and developed countries, thereby highlighting the influence of external factors such as culture, services and environmental structures in the different countries [29].…”

“…In light of these development imperatives, our study has investigated the determinants of PEB amongst citizens of six African countries, namely Algeria, Egypt, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Of the few studies that were conducted in some of the African countries, none of them performed any comparative cross-national analyses on the various determinants of PEB [27]. Although Berndt and Gikonyo [27] attempted to study environmental concern and behaviour in Africa, theirs was an exploratory and descriptive study; therefore, it was limited from a regional and continental scale of analysis.…”

Identification of Six Emergent Types Based on Cognitive and Affective Constructs that Explain Individuals’ Relationship with the Biosphere

“…were grouped into four explanatory constructs. The explanatory constructs were: intrinsic [34][35][36][37], cognitive [38][39][40][41][42][43], affective [6,[44][45][46], and behavioral [47][48][49][50]. These explanatory constructs and dimensions were chosen for inclusion into the study test battery to explore whether they are collectively able to provide a fuller picture of the human-nature nexus, especially related to typology building.…”

“…Demographics can be a good predictor [47] or a poor predictor [53] of environmental issues. Demographics were therefore only included for descriptive purposes.…”