Sustainable Consumption of Groceries: the Importance of Believing that One Can Contribute to Sustainable Development

Abstract

This study investigated relations between consumers' sustainable development self-efficacy, attitudes, norms and intentions to purchase sustainable groceries such as ecological and fair trade foods. Demographic variables were also investigated. Attitudes and norms were positively associated with intentions to purchase sustainable products. The importance of different types of attitudes and norms for explaining sustainable consumption depended on the facet of purchasing intentions that was investigated. Self-efficacy explained variance in purchasing intentions over and above attitudes, norms and demographic characteristics. Of the self-efficacy components, people's perceptions of their indirect impact gained by encouraging others to contribute to sustainable development showed the strongest association with purchasing intentions. This could mean that believing that one can have an impact on other consumers is a strong motivator for buying sustainable products. Implications of these findings for practitioners and environmental policy are discussed.

Intentions to make sustainable tourism choices: do value orientations, time perspective, and efficacy beliefs explain individual differences?

“…This was contrary to our hypothesis and to the findings of two prior studies that investigated different components of self-efficacy in connection with sustainable consumption in everyday life (Hanss & Böhm, 2010;Hanss et al, 2016). A possible explanation for this might be that travel decisions (as conceptualized in this study) are often made in private and are therefore less socially visible than everyday consumer choices, which were the focus in the aforementioned studies.…”

“…While they found that both components were positively associated with sustainable purchase habits, selfefficacy towards indirectly influencing the environment (through encouraging other consumers) explained more variance than self-efficacy towards directly influencing the environment (through own consumer choices). Hanss et al (2016) reported similar results, and furthermore, found self-efficacy (direct and indirect) to explain greater variability in intentions to purchase sustainable groceries than any other investigated variable (attitudes, norms, and demographics). Accordingly, we expect that people distinguish between beliefs about the direct and beliefs about the indirect environmental impact of their travel choices, and that the latter shows the stronger association with intentions.…”

“…In a social dilemma context, the term self-efficacy is used somewhat differently, referring to judgments about whether one's contribution helps the group to secure some valued collective outcome (Kerr, 1992). Research suggests that strengthening these beliefs might promote sustainable consumption decisions at home (Gupta & Ogden, 2009;Hanss & Böhm, 2010;Hanss, Böhm, Doran, & Homburg, 2016) and on vacation (Doran et al, 2015). In their study, Doran et al (2015) found that people with a strong sense of self-efficacy (e.g.…”

Can Social Comparison Feedback Affect Indicators of Eco-Friendly Travel Choices? Insights from Two Online Experiments

“…Research shows that these beliefs are also important for explaining variability in consumption motivated by sustainability concerns. For instance, consumers who believe that they can personally promote sustainability goals through their purchases also seem more likely to buy sustainable instead of conventional product alternatives, than consumers who question their abilities in this regard (e.g., [16][17][18]). Different lines of research have used different terms to refer to these types of personal beliefs [17].…”

“…For instance, consumers who believe that they can personally promote sustainability goals through their purchases also seem more likely to buy sustainable instead of conventional product alternatives, than consumers who question their abilities in this regard (e.g., [16][17][18]). Different lines of research have used different terms to refer to these types of personal beliefs [17]. The present paper builds on the literature that construes issues of environmental sustainability as social dilemmas (e.g., [19]), and uses the term self-efficacy to refer to an individual's perceived ability to personally contribute to collectively-beneficial outcomes (here: improvements in sustainable development; see also [20]).…”