Consumer Empowerment in the Digital Economy: Availing Sustainable Purchasing Decisions

Abstract

Abstract:The advent of the digital economy and, implicitly, of competition in the online marketplace has triggered new challenges in terms of consumer protection approaches. Online, consumer skills are expected to be improved and the level of consumer awareness and engagement increased. These are the baseline prerequisites of the sustainable purchasing decision and, thus, should be considered as pillars of responsible online consumption. Consistent with the novel consumption challenges, the current paper is intended to advance and test a research model integrating five main constructs, namely, competition in the online marketplace, online consumer skills, online consumer awareness, online consumer engagement and sustainable purchasing decision. A total of 318 college students-a representative population of the new Millennials generation-accepted the invitation to participate in a questionnaire-based survey. In order to pertinently analyze the collected data, a structural equation modeling technique based on partial least squares was employed for the assessment of the measurement and the structural model. The findings indicated that the model explained 24.4 percent of the variance of sustainable purchasing decisions, while the highest influence was exerted by the improvement of online consumer skills. This implies that online providers should revisit their products sustainability standards on purpose to preserve a competitive advantage.

Users' motivations to participate in the sharing economy: Moving from profits toward sustainable development

“…As a proponent of this perspective, Belk () “distinguishes between sharing in and sharing out, and suggests that sharing in dissolves interpersonal boundaries posed by materialism and possession attachment through expanding the aggregate extended self” (p. 715). Hamari et al () consider information and communication technologies important for the matchmaking between those in need and those willing to share (Heinrichs, ; Owyang, Tran, & Silva, ), which is often conducive to knowledge‐based online communities, as posited by Gazzola, Colombo, Pezzetti, and Nicolescu () and Vătămănescu, Alexandru, Cristea, Radu, and Chirica (), among others. These social aggregations supported by web platforms have emerged as an agora for savvy dynamic flows and various forms of intellectual capital, which catalyze users' familiarization and knowledge levels with the sharing market (Vătămănescu et al, ).…”

“…In addition, Marti, Rovira‐Val, and Drescher (), Piscicelli et al (), Möhlmann (), and Schor () identify a propensity toward sustainability, sustainable development, and environmental preoccupations as among the key drivers of consumer participation in the sharing economy, whereas Hamari et al () envisage more sustainable consumption patterns within the scope of the sharing economy. Founded on the principle of the distribution and exploitation of underutilized assets (Frenken & Schor, ; Murillo et al, ), a sense of social responsibility encourages sharing practices and other positive behaviors among empowered citizens in search of new opportunities for profit, environmental protection, and social interaction (Cherry & Pidgeon, ; Gazzola et al, ). This is in line with the broader views of Ho, Huang, and Ou () regarding the significant importance of social and environmental practices in the development sustainable business practices and sustainable societies.…”

How Myopia Archetypes Lead to Non-Sustainability

“…The OECD is aware of the importance of consumer education and recommends developing a policy of education in the use of new technology to enable "informed consumption" to be implemented and emphasizes: "growth in the use of online technologies for work, leisure, electronic commerce and other activities has greatly increased the need for consumers to develop digital competence" [63] (p. 12). The hope is that the consumer able to inform himself in an appropriate manner will become more aware and implement a consumption policy that does not conflict with the non-sustainability of his choices [64,65].…”

Raising Awareness on Health Impact of the Chemicals Used in Consumer Products: Empirical Evidence from East-Central Europe

“…In a broader context, paying heed to the opportunities provided by the latest technological developments is liable to yield benefits for most social categories [51]. Implementing information and education online campaigns for a wider audience in the digital environment can complement the offline campaigns in an effective manner [49,54,55].…”