Marketing sustainability: Use of information sources and degrees of voluntary simplicity

Oates, Caroline; McDonald, Seonaidh; Alevizou, Panayiota J.; Hwang, Kumju; Young, William; McMorland, Leigh-Ann

doi:10.1080/13527260701869148

Cited by 84 publications

(83 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…In the absence of this sort of information, the behaviour we have described in the small electrical products sector suggests that they will ignore green or ethical criteria altogether, or simplify the process into a buy/don't buy decision. Overall, the simpler the information supplied (providing it is from a trusted source) the more likely it is to be incorporated into green consumer decision making (Oates et al, 2008). However, that is not to say that just because an eco-labelling scheme exists and that it is simple to understand that it will be well used and trusted by consumers.…”

Section: Table 5: a Comparison Of The Information Sources Used By Sectormentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparing sustainable consumption patterns across product sectors

McDonald

Oates

Thyne

et al. 2009

Int J Consumer Studies

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106

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In this paper, we present findings from two qualitative studies where we explored sustainable consumption practices through examining consumers' information search and decision‐making processes for recent purchases of five categories of goods/services: fast moving consumer goods (such as foodstuffs and household products), white goods (such as fridges and washing machines), small electrical products (such as TVs and computers), green energy tariffs (such as electricity from renewable sources) and tourism (such as flights). This research has provided us with a set of rich data which explores the nature and extent of sustainable consumption practices across different product sectors. A comparative analysis has allowed us to draw out patterns of consumer behaviour for different product and service types. Our findings suggest that even the same green consumer will not use the same information sources or decision‐making criteria, consider the same options or focus on the same industry actors, for products in different sectors. However, we have identified some degree of consistency in purchases within sectors. We present these sector‐specific patterns of consumer behaviour and highlight differences in the criteria utilized and the research norms in each sector.

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Section: Table 5: a Comparison Of The Information Sources Used By Sectormentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparing sustainable consumption patterns across product sectors

McDonald

Oates

Thyne

et al. 2009

Int J Consumer Studies

Self Cite

106

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…As mentioned earlier, the conception of VS is not new and has been used many times by different researchers to survey consumers. Furthermore, the idea of using sources of information connected with the voluntary simplicity concept has already been used by Oates et al [48]. In our approach, we developed and used an electronic questionnaire closely integrated with the scoring system based on a unique method to generate the answers.…”

Section: Methodological Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The typology can be focused more on purchase decision-making or can be scoped more broadly to include choices made in ordinary life [41]. In the approach presented here, a starting point for establishing the consumer typology was the already mentioned concept of voluntary simplicity [31,45,46] developed by the Simplicity Institute [47] and used for similar purposes by several authors [48][49][50]. Although embedded in a consumerist society characterized by a consumption-oriented lifestyle, there are individuals who deliberately refrain from excessive consumption [51].…”

Section: Methodological Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The filters were established by members of an expert panel consisting of 10 specialists in environmental science (including eco-design and life cycle management), marketing and psychology. Using these kinds of filters is a pre-existing methodology [48]; however, an entirely new mode of generating the filters (strong, moderate and weak) and scoring the answers was established and used in our approach. Universality: The approach is intended to reflect some general consumer characteristics, their mind-set, temperament, thinking perspective and a general way of decision-making.…”

Section: Methodological Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The inclusion of life cycle thinking is an essential element of the designed methodology, as well as the environmental relevance of the answers (fully modelled by using the filtration and scoring systems) as the main criterion for consumer classification. Patterned on the general categorization made by different authors in previous research [37,38,48,[67][68][69][70], the following consumer types were distinguished in our methodology: voluntary simplifiers (VS), beginner voluntary simplifiers (BVS), accidental simplifiers (AS) and non-voluntary simplifiers (NVS). The four mentioned types of consumers represent a "pure" characteristic and clear differences, reflecting different potential, interest and demand for green products and services.…”

Section: Consumer Typology (Step 1)mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Inclusion of Life Cycle Thinking in a Sustainability-Oriented Consumer’s Typology: A Proposed Methodology and an Assessment Tool

et al. 2018

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Abstract:Characterizing consumers in terms of their propensity to practice sustainable consumption represents an interesting research challenge in which a crucial role is played by the questionnaire in terms of its structure and classification criteria. Various classification rules have been proposed in the literature, which can be used to identify consumer types and signify their propensity to practice the principles of sustainable development in daily life. In this paper, we based our approach in designing a classification tool on a combination of two elements: the concept of voluntary simplicity as a pillar for consumer characteristics and the idea of assessing consumers by using filters, in a modified form introducing many new aspects of life-cycle thinking. The tool proposed provides insight into the relationship between the consumer's typology and behavior during purchasing decisions in daily life. The main function of the proposed tool is to assign respondents to one of the proposed consumer types distinguished and characterized in terms of many aspects of life cycle thinking. A pilot survey has been performed in order to verify the proposed tool, and the survey results have been presented in the paper, as well.

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