Environmental degradation is a serious problem in modern civilization as it causes changes in consumer behavior towards ecologically responsible purchasing. In order to understand the green product purchasing decision process, an extensive literature review on green purchasing behavior was conducted. The current study is an exploratory research and the purpose of this paper was to investigate how sociodemographic factors explain consumers’ green purchase behavior. The differences between gender, age, education level, personal financial situation, and the number of children in the family were examined. To achieve the goal, we conducted a survey among 650 Polish consumers. Our findings suggest that all of the above-mentioned sociodemographic variables have an impact on awareness and purchasing behavior towards green products. Moreover, the results show that female consumers have more positive attitudes towards purchasing green products, than male consumers. Young consumers are skeptical about green products. A positive relationship was established between education and the acknowledgement of the dominance of one’s own needs over the needs of the environment. The better the personal financial situation, the more people expressed their intention to buy green products. The paper shows the implications for marketing. In addition, our exploratory research shows future research directions based on findings from the point of view of green consumer behavior. The study is an in-depth analysis of the factors determining green purchasing behavior. It contributes to the current literature by strengthening the existing knowledge about the factors influencing green purchase behavior in developing countries.

Pro-ecological behavior of consumers on the food market is conditioned by many factors, among which the literature on the subject particularly indicates, is high environmental awareness. Among other factors, the influence of social groups is also emphasized, in relation to young consumers; these are mainly peers and friends, which was confirmed by the authors’ research. The aim of the research was to identify the role of ecological awareness and influence on the food purchasing habits of young consumers in shaping their pro-ecological behavior. Based on the literature on the subject, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the empirical material, reducing the number of dimensions through the use of factor analysis. Analyzing the collected material, the authors proposed three latent variables—ecological awareness (EA), impact on food preferences (IFP), and ecological behavior (EB). Hidden variables were defined by explicit variables, and the whole was characterized in the light of the literature. The research results indicated that there are significant correlations between all latent variables, however the strongest one could be observed between EA and EB. This proves that the ecological behavior of young consumers is strongly determined by their environmental awareness.

The subject literature around the world puts a strong emphasis on the discrepancy between the positive attitude towards the idea of sustainability and consumer behaviour. These issues are the subject matter of this paper, which aims at both the identification and evaluation of selected aspects of knowledge, attitudes and eco-friendly behaviour of consumers connected with their choice of foods. The authors made an attempt of answering the question, to what extent do the level of knowledge and the declared eco-friendly attitudes have an impact on specific purchasing decisions. In the empirical observations, the conceptual model of the effects of the environment (knowledge, attitude, behaviour) on the customers' ecological awareness was used. The analysis conducted on the basis of this model indicated that stimulating the demand for ecological products is implemented mainly by the processes of raising awareness, which leads to expanding the consumers’ knowledge concerning ecological farming and eco-friendly foods. In such a way the consumer awareness is built, especially by educational campaigns and promoting/endorsing the ecological foods targeted at young consumers.

BACKGROUNDIn these times of growing competition among local government units (LGUs) to win domestic and foreign clients, promotion is becoming increasingly important. Traditionally, promotion was associated with messages and incentives to use the subproducts on offer. Also, it involved LGUs' efforts to remain distinct from the competition. These functions now prove insufficient, however, as consumption is shifting towards the virtual world as a result of the emergence of new technologies and ever-growing access to the Internet. It has become necessary for LGUs to build interactions that enable cities and regions to pursue publicity and encourage the use of their services, as well as to gain valuable information to, for instance, see whether their decisions are right, or to identify the weaknesses of the local products and services. This shift in the approach to promotion is facilitated by an ever-increasing customer engagement in co-creating local value.Given the ongoing transformations within the environment of LGUs, there is growing reason to shift from the traditional promotion strategy driven by oneway communication towards marketing communication, which is "a specific process of interaction and dialogue" [Wiktor, 2013, p. 14] between an LGU and its target audience. Due to the specific nature of the audiences, who "are involved in and affected by LGUs' efforts to achieve their objectives, thereby indirectly influencing the way entire LGUs function", these audiences should be considered as stakeholders [Kuźniar, 2013, p. 9].

StreszczenieW artykule przedstawiono możliwości współuczestniczenia mieszkańców w procesie zarzą-dzania i rozwoju jednostki terytorialnej. Na tle głównych założeń modelu DART dokonano próby jego adaptacji do specyfiki jednostki terytorialnej. Przeprowadzone badania wśród 223 mieszkań-ców województwa podkarpackiego wykazały, że młodzi ludzie dość słabo angażują się w rozwój swojej gminy. Ich niezadowolenie budzi przede wszystkim słabe otwarcie władz lokalnych na inicjatywy młodych, wykształconych ludzi. Aby temu przeciwdziałać, należy postawić na dialog i umacnianie relacji z mieszkańcami przez komunikację wielokierunkową, w tym zwłaszcza media społecznościowe.Słowa kluczowe: władze samorządowe, mieszkańcy, model DART, współtworzenie wartości, samorząd terytorialny WprowadzenieJednym z efektów reformy samorządu terytorialnego jest wzrost partycypacji społecznej, polegającej na współudziale członków społeczności lokalnej, w tym zwłaszcza mieszkańców, w rozwiązywaniu problemów danej jednostki. Ważnym czynnikiem sprzyjającym rozwojowi takich postaw i zachowań jest wzrastająca świadomość społeczeństwa w zakresie przynależności do odrębnych wspólnot lokalnych, regionalnych, narodowych czy też etnicznych. Odzwierciedleniem 1 wkuzniar@ur.edu.pl. 2 marka@ur.edu.pl.