The interrelationship between temporal and environmental orientation and pro‐environmental consumer behaviour

Abstract

It is proposed that consumers fail to make environmentally conscious choices because they do not consider the long‐term impact of their actions. This research examines the role of consumers' temporal orientation (past and future) in regard to their environmental orientation and pro‐environmental consumer behaviour (PECB), using a representative sample of 2566 Australian respondents. The results identify that both future and past orientations are related to environmental orientation, with future orientation leading to increased levels of PECB and past orientation leading to reduced levels of PECB. Further, environmental orientation mediates the relationship between temporal orientation and PECB, suppressing the negative impact of high levels of past orientation.

With the best of intentions: a large sample test of the intention‐behaviour gap in pro‐environmental consumer behaviour

“…In-store promotions could be employed to highlight to shoppers items that will fulfil plans to buy green. Mobile marketing communications that leverage a shopper's smart phone to provide product specific environmental information could make the purchase of pro-environmental products easy, achievable and convenient (Atkinson, 2013;Polonsky et al, 2014;Whitson, Ozkaya and Roxas, 2014).…”

“…However, consumers' engagement in pro-environmental purchase behaviour is not always consistent with their intentions: there is only a low to moderate correlation between environmental concern and behaviour ( Cleveland et al, 2005;Carrington et al, 2010;Devinney et al, 2010;Papaoikonomou et al, 2011;Englis and Phillips, 2013). There appear to be barriers preventing many otherwise environmentally oriented consumers from engaging in this market (Heath and Chatzidakis, 2012;Paço et al, 2013;Zabkar and Hosta, 2013;Fuentes, 2014;Polonsky et al, 2014).…”

Structural relationships between environmental attitudes, recreation motivations, and environmentally responsible behaviors

“…In another study, environmental attitudes were useful in predicting interest in participating in ecofriendly activities (Juric, Cornwell, & Mather, 2002). Increasingly, carefully measured environmental attitudes are being shown to be associated with environmentally responsible behaviors (Polonsky, Vocino, Grimmer, & Miles, 2014;Takahashi & Selfa, 2014).…”

Mapping our underlying cognitions and emotions about good environmental behavior: Why we fail to act despite the best of intentions

“…A lack of understanding on PE behavioural options can derail the intention to act in a sustainable way, as individuals simply do not know what to do. It is also clear that PE behaviour can be influenced by a number of factors that go beyond explicit, cognitive evaluation, including such things as emotions (Koenig-Lewis, Palmer, Dermody and Ubye 2014) and perceived time for taking effective action (Polonsky, Vocino, Grimmer and Miles 2014). As the issue of climate change is a real, complex problem it means that there are a myriad of variables (some cognitive, others emotional, some highly personal, others culturally specific) that may shape one's attitudes, intentions and associated behaviour (Carrington, et al 2010).…”