The Effects of Environmental Concern on Purchase of Green Products in Retail

The Gap in Sustainable Food Services in Public Institutions: The Perceptions of Young Consumers from Public Universities in the Madrid Region (Spain)

The agri-food system needs to transition into a more balanced system that takes into account economic, social, and environmental factors. Young people are a key demographic group to consider as they are open to new trends of consumption, including sustainable buying practices. Public universities can play a significant role in promoting sustainable and healthy eating habits among students. In this paper, we focus on the perceptions of young people regarding sustainable food in the Madrid Region. We conducted a survey using a questionnaire-based approach among 1940 students in 2022. The results highlight that young consumers are highly concerned about food sustainability. They perceive sustainability as local and non-processed foods. However, this perception varies among young consumers, and we identified five different consumer profiles. Principal component analysis and cluster analysis provide insights into potential actions that universities can take to promote sustainable and healthy eating habits among students.

Decision-Making Factors in the Purchase of Ecologic Products

This paper attempts to empirically investigate the main variables that might exert a significant influence over the green purchase decisions of a Romanian consumer. An online survey was conducted on a sample of 915 individuals. The objectives of the study aim to evaluate the influence of different types of variables (related to the person, the environment, the product and the reference group) on the decision to purchase green products. For data analysis, both descriptive statistics measurements and a logit regression model were used. One of the most important findings shows that there is a significant and positive relationship between environmental factors (e.g., pollution reduction, greenhouse effect reduction) and the decision to purchase organic products; furthermore, Romanian consumers are less willing to pay high prices for green products. By offering important information on new variables relevant for a deeper understanding of a consumer located in a green emerging market such as Romania, this study may be useful for both academics and companies that could be interested in entering new local markets.

Green Energy and Water Resource Management: A Case Study of Fishery and Solar Power Symbiosis in Taiwan

Renewable energy development is a key pathway for mitigating climate change. The Taiwan government has been actively developing low carbon green energy with solar photovoltaic technology and wind power as their primary development projects. Cigu Taiwan provides an ideal research site to examine tradeoffs between ecological conservation, marine fisheries, and green power development, and the factors affect commitments to ecological conservation in the face of these tradeoffs. This research investigates the fishery and electricity symbiosis project in Cigu through a novel combination of the theory of planned behavior and the contingent valuation method to analyze the factors influencing the local residents’ behavioral intentions to safeguard ecological achievements in ecologically fragile areas through conservation trust funds. Analysis of survey responses from a convenience sample of 715 residents and resource users in the Cigu area reports that attitudes (ATT), subjective norms (SN), perceived behavioral control (PBC), environmental concern (EC), and environmental risk (ER) significantly influence the behavioral intention to pay eco-compensation fees; the local residents’ willingness to pay for the conservation trust funds was NTD 621.4/year (USD 21.9/year), and decreased to NTD 545.9/year (USD 19.2/year) after the implementation of fishery and electricity symbiosis. The discussion section argues that the drivers of ATT, SN, PBC, EC, and ER can be used by policy makers to direct local residents’ intentions and behavior toward conserving ecological achievements in fragile eco-environmental areas through payments for ecosystem services. Thus, this strategy can improve the sustainability of ecological and environmental restoration programs.

Knowledge and perception of different plastic bags and packages: A case study in Brazil

The growing demand for plastics, for packaging and consumption, is a current environmental issue. Although there are many scientific developments concerning material science, knowledge about the public's perception is low, which can delay society's efforts to face this challenge. This study aimed to understand if Brazilians who practice different sustainable actions perceive differently biodegradable, recycled, and common plastics and have different purchase intentions for each specific type of packaging. A total of 1080 Brazilian adults were first classified by their day-to-day attitudes regarding sustainability efforts. Then, their purchase intention and perception about different plastics were assessed. Regardless of sustainability practices, people associate common plastic bags with negative attributes and biodegradable plastic bags with positive attributes. This shows that there is a well-established concept about these types of bags, even if there are some misconceptions (e.g. recyclable) or controversies (e.g. non-polluting). On the other hand, results showed that consumers who adopted more sustainable practices were 3.5 times more willing to pay for biodegradable packages, even though no differences were observed in the accepted price for biodegradable bags between consumer's groups. Finally, the purchase intention comparisons for products packaged in recycled and biodegradable plastics showed the consumers were more interested in those biodegradable plastics and the purchase intention was lower for perishable food (e.g. products that can have higher safety risks). The results are important for understanding environmental policy management in Brazil, highlighting the importance to improve the population's knowledge about different types of plastic, leading to more conscious choices.

Consumer Confusion and Green Consumption Intentions from the Perspective of Food-Related Lifestyles on Organic Infant Milk Formulas

A sustainable lifestyle and green consumption are becoming popular nowadays due to increased awareness of environmental issues and many incidents regarding food safety. This has triggered the rapid development of the marketing of green products and the promotion of many green brands which causes confusion among consumers. This paper’s purpose is to evaluate the relationship between this consumer confusion and different Food-Related Lifestyles (FRLs) tending towards green consumption, taking as a case study organic infant milk formula. This study was based on an online survey which was conducted with 381 Taiwanese parents and carried out from January to February 2019. Through cluster analysis, this study categorized the different FRLs into three groups, i.e., consumers unfamiliar with food product quality, consumers who value food quality, and consumers who value food practicality. This study found that there is no significant correlation between different levels of consumer confusion and different FRLs. Furthermore, different consumers’ FRLs have significant correlations with green consumption intention. This study also found a positive relationship between consumer confusion and green consumption intention.

A Qualitative Approach to the Sustainable Orientation of Generation Z in Retail: The Case of Romania

In order to highlight the extent to which young consumers, or members of Generation Z, are familiar with the sustainability principles implemented by retailers operating in emerging markets, the authors conducted a qualitative empirical research study with the help of a semi-structured in-depth interview guide. Respondents were asked to express their perception of the extent to which their favorite retailers adopted and implemented the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of sustainability. The results show that respondents viewed retailers’ sustainability orientation favorably, specifying concrete measures implemented by their preferred retailers. They seemed to favor those retail networks making a useful and proactive contribution to resource preservation and environmental protection, whilst taking care of employees’ welfare and being involved in their local communities. From a theoretical perspective, the paper makes a clear contribution to enhancing the generational theory-based studies on emerging markets, where market conditions and polyvalent consumer behavior are highly dynamic, and where sustainability principles play a major role in drawing and maintaining their customers. From a management perspective, the paper provides retailers with an overview on the measures, tactics, and actions that allow them to properly target consumers and develop a proper customer approach strategy.

Exploring Consumers' Purchase Intention of An Innovation of the Agri-Food Industry: A Case of Artificial Meat

Green consumption is an emerging environmental topic receiving global attention. Because livestock production is a primary source of greenhouse gas emission, the "low-carbon diet" has become a new trend in the catering industry. Fast food companies have been launching vegetarian products because artificial meat requires less water and land resources than traditional livestock and has lower carbon emissions. This study explores the influence of consumers' attitude, subjective norms (SNs), and perceived behavioral control (PBC) on their purchase intention for vegetarian burgers from the product knowledge (PK) and environmental concern (EC) perspectives. Based on the theory of planned behavior, the purchase intention of people from different food cultures to pay for fast food burgers is discussed. Five hundred questionnaires were distributed, of which 436 were valid. The results revealed that: (1) consumers' SNs , PBC, and EC significantly affect purchase intention (PI), and SNs and PK have no significant relationship with PI; and (2) vegetarians are willing to pay higher prices than nonvegetarians. This study recommends that industry personnel should attempt to increase consumers' knowledge regarding artificial meat and expand marketing channels to improve the convenience of purchasing artificial meat foods by conducting lectures and media promotion, respectively.

Climate Change and Consumer's Attitude toward Insect Food

Given the influence of rising environmental awareness, food systems and security are receiving increasing international attention. Previous studies have discussed the acceptance of insect foods but have been primarily conducted in a European context. Hence, their results cannot be applied to Taiwanese consumers. Regarding this, our study is centered on the theory of planned behavior and considers environmental concern and food neophobia to discuss the effects of consumer attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control on the purchase intention toward insect food. We used purposive sampling to survey questionnaire answers face-to-face in Taichung city, Taiwan. We distributed 408 surveys of which 77.45% were used in this study. The results revealed that consumer attitudes, perceived behavioral control, and food neophobia significantly influence purchase intention, whereas subjective norms and environmental concern did not demonstrate significant relationships with purchase intention. According to these results, we suggest that businesses emphasize consumers’ product experience or reduce levels of food neophobia to increase consumer interest in insect foods and improve the acceptability of such foods, thereby increasing purchase intention.

Influence of Environmental Concern and Knowledge on Households’ Willingness to Purchase Energy-Efficient Appliances: A Case Study in Shanxi, China

With the increases in residents’ household energy consumption and carbon emissions, to conserve regional energy and reduce emissions, studying the factors affecting residents’ willingness to purchase energy-efficient appliances and their mechanisms of action is necessary. In this research, based on the theory of extended planned behavior and combined with environmental concern variables and environmental knowledge variables, a model of the factors influencing residents’ willingness to purchase energy-efficient appliances was constructed and an empirical study of urban residents in Shanxi Province, China was conducted. The research indicates that environmental concern, environmental knowledge, attitude, and perceived behavioral control are significantly positively correlated with residents’ willingness to purchase energy-efficient appliances. The influence of subjective norms on the willingness of residents to purchase energy-efficient appliances is not significant; environmental concern and environmental knowledge have a positive impact on attitudes and indirectly affect residents’ willingness to purchase energy-efficient appliances. This study focuses on improvement and research from the perspectives of theoretical expansion, indirect impact test, and analysis of typical underdeveloped energy-rich regions. This study provides corresponding policy suggestions from the perspectives of education and guidance, sales and marketing, and independent improvement for the government, sellers, and residents, to improve the residents’ willingness to purchase energy-efficient appliances.