Environmental Philanthropy and Environmental Behavior in Five Countries: Is There Convergence Among Youth?

Abstract

This paper compares and contrasts environmental philanthropy, environmental behavior, and their determinants among university students in five countries: Canada, Germany, Israel, South Korea, and the United States. The paper's unique contribution to the nonprofit literature is its focus on environmental philanthropy as an unexplored form of philanthropic behavior, and the ability to test environmental philanthropy in an international setting and in comparison to other modes of environmental behavior. By environmental philanthropy, we mean giving to, and volunteering in, various environmental non-governmental organizations, and by environmental behavior, we refer to daily behaviors in the private sphere with ecological implications. We hypothesize that although the five countries vary on several characteristics, the student populations-who are young, educated, and exposed to global ideas and norms-will be relatively similar to each other in their environmental and philanthropic behavior and in the determinants of such behavior.To test this hypothesis, a standardized questionnaire was administered to 8,477 students on five campuses. Results show significant differences between students in their environmental philanthropic behavior, as well as in the demographic and attitudinal determinants of such behaviors.Résumé Cet article compare et met en contraste la philanthropie environnementale, le comportement environnemental et leurs déterminants chez les étudiants universitaires de cinq pays : Canada, Allemagne, Israël, Corée du Sud et É tats-Unis. L'apport singulier de cet article à la documentation sur le secteur à but non lucratif est d'avoir pour sujet central la philanthropie environnementale comme une forme inexplorée du comportement philanthropique, et la possibilité de tester la philanthropie environnementale dans un cadre international et par rapport aux autres modes de comportements environnementaux. Par philanthropie environnementale, nous entendons les dons faits aux diverses organisations non gouvernementales (ONG) environnementales et le bénévolat dans ces organisations, et par comportement environnemental, nous nous référons à des comportements quotidiens dans la vie privée ayant des conséquences écologiques. Nous émettons l'hypothèse que bien que les cinq pays divergent sur plusieurs caractéristiques, les populations d'élèves -qui sont jeunes, instruits et exposés à des idées et à des normes mondiales -seront relativement semblables les uns aux autres quant à leurs comportements environnementaux et philanthropiques et aux facteurs de ces comportements. Pour tester cette hypothèse, un questionnaire standardisé a été distribué à 8,477 étudiants sur cinq campus. Les résultats montrent des différences significatives entre les élèves en ce qui concerne leurs comportements philanthropiques environnementaux ainsi que les facteurs démographiques et comportementaux de ces comportements.Zusammenfassung Dieser Beitrag vergleicht in einer Gegenüberstellung die ökologische Philanthropie, das Umweltverhalten und deren...

Community perceptions of local enterprises in environmentally degraded areas

“…Regarding factors explaining these perceptions, female respondents were more concerned about the level of environmental quality confirming previous studies about gender differences where often women have a lower level of environmental knowledge compared to men but at the same time are more concerned about environmental issues (Glass et al, 2016;Kollmuss and Agyeman, 2002). In this context, previous studies have confirmed the importance of environmental behavior and involvement of women in local environmental management and conservation practices (Katz-Gerro et al, 2013).…”

Materialism, Awareness of Environmental Consequences and Environmental Philanthropic Behaviour among Potential Donors

“…Similarly, Katz-Gerro et al (2015) found that biospheric concern explained volunteering for the environment, but this association was found only in two of five countries. Furthermore, biospheric concerns have been found to explain donating to environmental causes (Greenspan et al, 2012;Katz-Gerro et al, 2015).…”

“…Thus far, only few studies (e.g. McDougle et al, 2011;Greenspan et al, 2012;Katz-Gerro et al, 2015;McDougle et al, 2015) have attempted to examine the connection between egoistic, altruistic and biospheric concerns and environmental philanthropic behavior using convenience samples of university students, but the results have remained inconclusive. While McDougle et al…”

Modelling Preservice Science Teachers’ Environment-Friendly Behaviours

“…Another factor that can influence the proenvironmental behaviours was gender. With respect to gender, diverse results were reported based on type of behaviour measured, place of the study, selection of other variables, and control of these variables (Dietz, Kalof, & Stern, 2002;Katz-Gerro, Greenspan, Handy, Lee, & Frey, 2015;Zelezny, Chua, & Aldrich, 2000). Accordingly, studies consistently revealed that females have stronger proenvironmental attitudes than males (Lee, 2009;Torgler, Garcia-Valiñas, & Macintyre, 2008;Vinz, 2009;Xiao & Hong, 2010;Zelezny et al, 2000) while Mostafa (2007) reported that women have lower environmental attitudes compared to men.…”

“…On the other hand, gender roles in environmental identity remained inconclusive. While some studies (Karpiak & Baril, 2008;Tikka, Kuitunen, & Tynys, 2000) claimed that concerns and favourable relations of females toward environment were better than males, some studies (Katz-Gerro et al, 2015;Koc & Kuvac, 2016;Macdonald & Hara, 1994) indicated that males were more positive attitudes or behaviours toward environmental concerns. Nonetheless, there were some studies claiming that gender did not play significant role in environmentalism (Uyeki & Holland, 2000;Ozturk & Teksoz, 2016).…”