Studies and Investigation about the Attitude towards Sustainable Production, Consumption and Waste Generation in Line with Circular Economy in Romania

Abstract

With a rapidly growing world population and the need to address the issue of consumption of global resource and its associated environmental impacts and other social and economic issues, the demand for a responsible consumption, production and prevention of waste generation become increasingly crucial. With this broad characterization of Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP), businesses based on circular economy should become the norm. With this goal in mind, an online questionnaire survey was performed on a nationwide scale, to explore consumers' behaviors and attitudes. It was distributed in all four of Romania's macro-regions and reached 642 respondents. The purpose of the study has been to better understand consumers' behavior regarding sustainable consumption and production and examine whether generations play a role in responsible consumer attitudes toward the products. Three generations (X, Y, and Z) have been examined and compared. The results show that what extent those three generation agree with the environment and the benefits of reducing resource consumption, also waste generation, selective collection, recycling and reuse. However, most of them have not adopted and do not intend to adopt consumer patterns based on the circular economy. The findings provide empirical evidence and directions that could help marketers identify their consumer's characteristics and market segments and develop consumer empowerment strategies on the Romanian market.

The Sustainability of Romanian SMEs and Their Involvement in the Circular Economy

“…In the last five years, almost six out of ten Romanian enterprises (62.8%) engaged in activities specific to the circular economy [41]. The most frequent activities were the consolidation of guarantees for consumers who purchase goods online (14.10%), use of renewable energy (12.78%), smart and environmentally friendly product design and energy labeling (12.33%) and the use of advanced manufacturing facilities to achieve clean production (10.13%).…”

“…The European Commission report states that more than two-thirds of interviewed SMEs are satisfied with the return on investments made to improve resource efficiency, and have seen production cost reductions over the past two years [40]. Romanian SMEs are extremely different, so every branch of the national economy can benefit from the implementation of the principles of the circular economy in an adapted manner [41]. In these conditions, the extent to which SMEs are willing to adopt ecological measures and their attitude to green policies depends on the sector in which they operate [42].…”

“…In Romania between 2002 and 2008, the SME sector developed steadily, with the growth of more than 69% in the number of enterprises [41]. The number of active entities increased from 326,443 in 2002 to 557,189 in 2008.…”

A Comparative Study Between the Different Modes of Support to Employment

“…Romania's programs differs a little bit from the other partners programs, the evaluation methods are theory and practical tests while the other partners programs focus more on self-assessment, feedback questionnaires, focus on learners motivation, measures of skills and competences [21].…”

The Tipping Point in the Status of Socially Responsible Consumer Behavior Research? A Bibliometric Analysis

“…The most productive thematic areas during the last 30 years have been: (a) Research into consumer attitude, (b) research on CSR, and (c) research on social and sustainable consumption behavior. In response to calls for greater theoretical clarification of the SRCB discipline, the authors providing experts and novices with a better understanding of the current state of the art and suggest future research directions.Sustainability 2020, 12, 3141 2 of 23 responsible consumption [5][6][7][8], socially responsible investments [9,10], the impact of sustainable production/products [11][12][13][14][15], and even from the consumerism viewpoint [14][15][16][17][18], to name some examples. Ten years ago, Eckhardt et al [19] stated that, although there was great expectation around the concept of responsible or ethical consumption, real consumer behavior was discouraging.The present study investigates how socially responsible consumer behavior (SRCB) research has advanced, focusing on the key issues it has addressed, given the importance it has as a market driver, in the paradigm of our current consumer society.…”