Who will be prosocial consumers? The relationship between environmental value and sustainable consumption

Abstract

This study explores who will be prosocial consumers based on the effect of consumers' environmental value on their sustainable consumption after the COVID‐19 lockdown. The study aims to examine (1) the relationship between environmental value and sustainable consumption and (2) compare the pathways between environmental value and sustainable consumption depending on delivery service usage frequency. This study unitizes Structural Equation Modeling to analyze (1) mediation and (2) multi‐group analysis by SmartPLS. Six hundred thirty‐seven respondents are collected from Mass Rapid Transit and Bangkok Mass Transit System stations in Bangkok and nearby shopping malls using a systematic random sample method. Affective and cognitive sustainable consumption mediates the relationship between consumers' egoistic and biospheric environmental concerns and their conative sustainable consumption. There is no significant difference between groups that utilize fewer or more delivery services on the path between environmental concerns and sustainable consumption. This study demonstrates that prosocial consumers with biospheric environmental concerns must engage in affective and cognitive sustainable consumption to engage in conative sustainable consumption. Prosocial consumers who emphasize the environment and sustainability tend to use delivery services less frequently.