Journal ArticleDOI
Signing up for voluntary simplicity – consumer motives and effects
Irina Pravet,Maria Holmlund +1 more
TLDR
In this paper, the authors examined consumers' motives in signing up for a week-long voluntary simplicity experiment, No Impact Week (NIW), and reducing their consumption during and afterwards, finding that participants who participated were motivated by curiosity and desire to be more aware, to learn tips for eco-living applicable to daily life and to challenge themselves.Abstract:
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine consumers’ motives in signing up for a week-long voluntary simplicity experiment, No Impact Week (NIW), and reducing their consumption during and afterwards.
Design/methodology/approach
The empirical data come from informants who filled out a pre-week email inquiry, completed a daily diary template centred on eight themes, responded to a post-week email inquiry and answered follow-up questions one month after completion.
Findings
Those who participate in NIW were motivated by personal factors, such as curiosity and desire to be more aware, to learn tips for eco-living applicable to daily life and to challenge themselves. People who chose not to participate did so largely because they did not understand what would be required of them. Participants incorporated the experiment into their lives, but the outcomes remained dependent on existing structures, in this case environmental and personal factors. The findings indicate the existence of a value–action gap and an awareness–behaviour gap.
Research limitations/implications
While a mismatch between consumers’ consumption values and behaviour is not uncommon, enabling behaviour in line with values is crucial for reducing consumption. Although voluntary simplicity is a drastic form of consumption reduction that appeals only to a small but growing niche of people, the motives for and consequences of engaging in it highlight pressing issues of consumer behaviour and consumption.
Originality/value
The study is unique in that it links voluntary simplicity to a social marketing campaign that should appeal to those with a favourable attitude towards taking action and reducing their consumption.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Voluntary simplicity: A literature review and research agenda
Raquel Rebouças,Ana Maria Soares +1 more
TL;DR: A systematic literature review of the state of the art in the field of voluntary simplicity (VS) can be found in this article, where the authors provide a categorization scheme of VS and analyses: the number of studies and year of publication; journals, number of citations and research areas; study location, definitions, types of studies; and research methods.
Journal ArticleDOI
Minimalism as a sustainable lifestyle: Its behavioral representations and contributions to emotional well-being
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore how minimalism is structured by synthesizing existing measures of relevant constructs and other potential indicators that could represent the concept and formulate the operationalization of minimalism.
Journal ArticleDOI
High-Status Pro-Environmental Behaviors: Costly, Effortful, and Visible:
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors studied what gives PEBs social status and found that the perceived social status of PEBs is a predictor of their pro-environmental behavior. But little was known about what gave PEB social status.
Journal ArticleDOI
Young People as Drivers or Inhibitors of the Sustainability Movement: The Case of Anti-Consumption
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explored young people's motivations for engaging in three behavioural patterns linked to anti-consumption (voluntary simplicity, collaborative consumption, and living within one's means) in relation to sustainability.
Journal ArticleDOI
Consumer orientations of secondhand fashion shoppers: The role of shopping frequency and store type
TL;DR: In this paper , the authors examined consumer orientations of secondhand shoppers to determine whether they differ by shopping frequency, and store type, and found that the orientations generally increased with shopping frequency.
References
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Book
Fostering Sustainable Behavior: An Introduction to Community-Based Social Marketing
TL;DR: In this paper, a process, community-based social marketing, that attempts to make psychological knowledge relevant and accessible to those who design environmental programs has been presented, and case studies in which program planners have utilized this approach to deliver their initiatives.
Journal ArticleDOI
Interventions to Break and Create Consumer Habits
Bas Verplanken,Wendy Wood +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors propose two potential habit change interventions: upstream and downstream-plus interventions, where upstream interventions occur before habit performance and disrupt old environmental cues and establish new ones; downstream interventions provide informational input at points when habits are vulnerable to change.
Book
Human Scale Development Conception Application and Further Reflections
TL;DR: The first edition of this book was published in Spanish as a special issue of Development Dialogue in 1986 under the title Desarollo a Escala Humana: una opcion para el futuro.
Book Chapter
Motivating Sustainable Consumption
Abstract: ........................................................................................................................ iii Executive Summary....................................................................................................... v Part 1 Framing the Debate ................................................................................ v Part 2 Models of Consumer Behaviour ........................................................... vi Part 3 Towards Behavioural Change ............................................................... xi PART 1: FRAMING THE DEBATE........................................................................ 1 1 Towards Sustainable Consumption Policy ............................................................ 3 1.1 The Challenge of Behavioural Change ...................................................... 3 1.2 The Challenge of Sustainable Consumption.............................................. 4 1.3 Terms of Reference for this Review.......................................................... 5 1.4 The Question of Evidence.......................................................................... 5 1.5 The Limitations of Systematic Review...................................................... 6 1.6 Overview of the Structure .......................................................................... 7 2 Consumption: the vanguard of history? ................................................................. 9 2.1 Consumption and Well-Being.................................................................... 9 2.2 Consumption and Needs .......................................................................... 10 2.3 Consumption and Desire .......................................................................... 11 2.4 Ordinary and Inconspicuous Consumption.............................................. 13 2.5 Consumption and Identity........................................................................ 13 2.6 The Symbolic Role of Consumer Goods ................................................. 14 2.7 Consumption as Social Conversation ...................................................... 15 2.8 Consumption and the Pursuit of Meaning ............................................... 16 2.9 Conclusions .............................................................................................. 17 PART 2: MODELS OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR ........................................... 19 3 The Role of Models .............................................................................................. 21 4 Rational Choice.................................................................................................... 29 4.1 Consumer Preference Theory................................................................... 30 4.2 The Attribute (Lancaster) Model ............................................................. 31 4.3 Rational Choice in Non-Purchasing Behaviour ....................................... 32 5 Against Rational Choice ...................................................................................... 35 5.1 Bounded Rationality, Habit and Emotion................................................ 35 5.2 The Argument against Individualism....................................................... 37 5.3 The Moral Critique ................................................................................... 39 6 Adjusted Expectancy-Value Theory.................................................................... 43 6.1 Simple Expectancy-Value Attitude Theory............................................. 43 6.2 Means-End Chain Theory........................................................................ 44 Motivating Sustainable Consumption ii 6.3 The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) .................................................. 46 6.4 The Theory of Planned Behaviour ........................................................... 48 7 Moral and Normative Conduct ............................................................................ 51 7.1 Ecological Value Theory ......................................................................... 52 7.2 Norm Activation Theory.......................................................................... 54 7.3 Stern’s Value Belief Norm Theory.......................................................... 56 7.4 The Focus Theory of Normative Conduct ............................................... 58 8 The Matter of Habit .............................................................................................. 63 8.1 Cognitive effort – control, automaticity and heuristics ........................... 64 8.2 The Role of Habit and Routine ................................................................ 65 8.3 Framing, Priming and Bias ...................................................................... 66 9 Sociality and Self ................................................................................................. 69 9.1 The Social-Symbolic Self ........................................................................ 70 9.2 The Project of Symbolic Self-Completion............................................... 73 9.3 Self-Concept, Cognitive Dissonance and Spillover ................................. 76 9.4 Self-Discrepancy Theory ......................................................................... 77 9.5 Social Identity Theory.............................................................................. 79 9.6 Cultural Theory........................................................................................ 84 10 Integrative Theories of Consumer Behaviour .................................................. 89 10.1 Structuration and Social Practices............................................................ 89 10.2 Stern’s Attitude-Behaviour-Context Model............................................. 92 10.3 Triandis’ Theory of Interpersonal Behaviour .......................................... 93 10.4 The Motivation-Opportunity-Abilities model.......................................... 95 10.5 Bagozzi’s Model of Consumer Action .................................................... 97 10.6 Summary Discussion ........................................................................... 99 PART 3: TOWARDS BEHAVIOURAL CHANGE ............................................ 103 11 Change, Persuasion and Learning.................................................................. 105 11.1 Persuasion Theory.................................................................................. 106 11.2 The Elaboration Likelihood Model........................................................ 107 11.3 Social Learning Theory.......................................................................... 109 11.4 Control, Helplessness and Participatory Problem Solving .................... 112 11.5 Breaking ‘Bad’ Habits ........................................................................... 114 11.6 Community-Based Social Marketing..................................................... 118 11.7 Summary Discussion ............................................................................. 119 12 Policy Options and Opportunities .................................................................. 121 12.1 Policy Options in Historical and Cultural Context ............................ 122 12.2 Policy Opportunities in Social and Institutional Context .................. 127 12. 3 Concluding Remarks.......................................................................... 132 References .................................................................................................................. 135 Motivating Sustainable Consumption
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