The great Millennials’ trouble: leading or confused green generation? An Italian insight

Abstract

The paper purpose is to investigate the green consumption behaviour of the Millennials generation. The paper aims to understand if all Italian Millennials are similar in terms of green consumption and if there are differences in adopting and consuming green products. As Millennials are considered the driving generation of the sustainable movement, thanks to their lifestyle and behaviours, our study tries to comprehend whether these consumers can be considered the leading “Green Generation”. We performed a cluster analysis, using the non-hierarchical method by applying the k-medium algorithm, segmenting Millennials. The segmentation was performed according to the reasons underlying and against green consumption. Then, green values and green consumer behaviour of the segments were analyzed. The results of our research reveal the existence of different clusters of Millennial consumers in terms of green attitude. Some confusion about green issues in the Millennials generation emerges, contrasting with the literature. Our results do not necessarily imply a negative attitude towards green values by Millennials, but different green attitudes among the clusters.

The effect of environmental concern on conscious green consumption of post-millennials: the moderating role of greenwashing perceptions

“…Findings reveal that willingness to pay, environmental concern, perceived value and personal norms affect Generation Z's purchase intention for recycled clothing. Conversely, the findings of Bonera et al (2020) reveal that the purchasing behavior of the millennials seems to be less environmentally friendly, however, as almost half of the respondents never purchase recycled paper products or take their bags when shopping. In recent studies, scientists have understood that there are key personality attributes linked with pro-environmental behavior (Chiang et al, 2019;Brick and Lewis, 2014;Markowitz et al, 2012;Hirsh and Dolderman, 2007) that refers to as the Green Personality.…”

Cultural dimensions in online purchase behavior: Evidence from a cross-cultural study

“…Consistently with recent studies (Zollo et al, 2020 ), Millennials are the generation of “techno-savvy” digital natives characterized by a high level of experience concerning e-commerce and social media. Hence, they represent an adequate sample for the purpose of our research (Bonera et al, 2020 ). Concerning occupation, students represented most of the sample (Europe = 49.4%, Asia = 46.0%) followed by white-collar workers (29.9% and 22.4%, respectively), and blue-collar workers (11.5% and 9.2%, respectively).…”

Intergenerational influence on sustainable consumer attitudes and behaviors: Roles of family communication and peer influence in environmental consumer socialization

“…It is recognized that millennial consumers (our sample group) progressively engage with social media (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) as a primary tool to gather information about sustainability initiatives and environmentally friendly products (e.g., Bonera et al, 2020). Most recently, Güney and Sangün (2021) have shown the positive influence of the pandemic on sustainable consumption habits (e.g., organic food consumption, green buying, waste reduction) and environmental awareness of individuals in Turkey.…”