The Effects of Materialism and Consumer Ethics on Ecological Behavior: An Empirical Study

Abstract

World populations have increased day by day. Thus, production volume of companies have increased depend on increasing population. Besides, fashion and/or technology influence consumer's goods or services purchasing decision. Consequently, the type and the number of product produced have increased and natural resources both more are being used and depleted. At this point has come to the fore the consumer's environmental concern and ecological behavior and has gained importance. Studies about environmental concern in marketing began depending on living of some problems in the early 1970s. Environmental concern concept assesses in terms of both individual concern and social concern. Individual concern states to abuse of the environment of individual consumers while social concern states perceived need for social, political, and legal changes to protect the environment. There is a positive relationship between environmental concern and ecological behavior. This study was examined the relationship between materialism, consumer ethics, environmental concern and ecological consumer behavior. This study was carried out between dates of September and November 2013. To test the hypotheses of the study, regression analysis has been used. Results show that consumer ethics has positive impact on both environmental concern and ecological behaviour of consumer. Besides, materialism has negative impact on ecological behaviour.

Status and sustainability

“…Sustainable consumption is often associated with self-transcendence and “collective-oriented” values that advocate selflessness, harmony, concern about public welfare and connectedness with others (Pepper et al , 2009; Segal and Podoshen, 2013; Sevgili and Cesur, 2014). Some research evidence proposes a negative relationship between materialism and sustainable consumption, with materialism being found to have a negative impact on environmental concern, environmentally responsible behaviour, ecological behaviour and engagement in pro-environmental behaviour (see Kilbourne and Pickett, 2008; Bakırtaş et al , 2014; Bergman et al , 2014; Ku and Zaroff, 2014). In general, then, it can be said that materialism and conspicuous motives are considered to be obstacles for achieving sustainable consumption and a sustainable society.…”

Environmental Protection or Self-Interest? The Public Accountability Moderates the Effects of Materialism and Advertising Appeals on the Pro-Environmental Behavior

“…4 Numerous studies have shown that higher levels of materialism are associated with less pro-environmental behavior. [5][6][7][8] In other words, materialistic lifestyles will aggravate environmental stress in the future. However, the pursuit of material enjoyment has become a universal social phenomenon.…”