A Systematic Literature Review of Concepts and Factors Related to Pro-Environmental Consumer Behaviour in Relation to Waste Management Through an Interdisciplinary Approach

Abstract

Although there has been a steady increase in the number of studies on consumer behaviour in relation to sustainable development, there is limited focus on the product disposal phase. This systematic literature review intends to: (1) clarify how concepts related to pro-environmental consumer behaviour are understood and analysed in the academic literature on waste management; (2) discover any interplay between pro-environmental consumer behaviour and generic consumer behaviour, and the conditions and factors that favour it. A typical systematic literature review methodology was applied to the papers available on Web of Science, Science Direct and EBSCO (Elton Bryson Stephens Company) host between 1975 and 2019, leading to the selection of 699 final papers. The findings reveal that: (1) Although scholars tend to create a variety of pro-environmental consumer behaviour models depending on their specific field of inquiry, all approaches can be traced back to a limited number of reference theories; (2) The overall level of interplay between pro-environmental consumer behaviour and generic consumer behaviour is limited, nevertheless a favourable context or a supportive institutional-legal framework can significantly influence it; (3) A plethora of conditions and factors favour this type of interplay, involving social psychology, laws, economics, institutions and more; (4) Several critical issues appear in the analysed papers, especially some scholars’ assumptions to be able to identify all key factors. It follows the need for a more interdisciplinary approach, a deeper analysis of the effectiveness of the intervention measures at the governmental and institutional level, and a clear classification of factors and conditions (as proposed by this review).

Reconceptualizing and modeling sustainable consumption behavior: A synthesis of qualitative evidence from online education industry

“…This kind of behavior is beneficial to both production and consumption. SCB refers to personal behavior and a concept of behavior, which encourages the consumption of sustainable products in the process of economic development (Concari et al, 2020). Therefore, the definition of SCBOEI in this study is the spontaneous and positive development of the online education industry.…”

“…Environmental attitude and environmental behavior are two closely related concepts, so environmental attitude seems to affect the sustainable consumption behavior of consumers (Concari et al, 2020). The environmental attitude should be an essential factor in the study of sustainable consumption (Wang et al, 2014).…”

Public Administration and Values Oriented to Sustainability: A Systematic Approach to the Literature

“…Based on the areas of public administration that were most mentioned in this study (71.05% of all articles), their relation to the main types of values was analyzed ( Figure 17). Then again, other researchers [127,128] have relevantly addressed the environmental dimension and reflections on the environment (226 articles), where the importance of natural resources for the continuity of life on Earth indicates that the economy and the environment act systemically and can be represented in the form of values, with these values being biological, ecological, and economic [129].…”

Environmental Will, Environmental Behavior and Knowledge Sharing – an Empirical Study Based on Resource-based Enterprises

“…The theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) is proposed based on the expected value theory, which explains the driving factors of individual behavior from the perspective of information processing [32,33]. This theory is extended by Ajzen on the basis of Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), he believes that variables indirectly affect behavior performance by influencing behavior intention, and behavior intention is affected by three variables: Attitude toward The Behavior (AB), Subject Norm (SN) and Perceived Behavior Control (PBC) [29].…”