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The COVID-19 Effect on Sustainable Consumption

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (18 February 2024) | Viewed by 1826

Special Issue Editors

Department of Management, Marketing, and Operations, Country University of Illinois Springfield, Springfield, IL, USA
Interests: consumer behavior and decision making; sustainable consumption (both at business and consumer levels); retail management; public policy issues; gender issues
School of Business, Stockton University, Galloway, NJ, USA
Interests: consumer decision making and well-being; artificial intelligence and sustainability; sustainability marketing; digital consumer behavior; consumer environmental and social behavior; corporate social responsibility

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Prior to the emergence of COVID-19, an increasing number of consumers showed an interest in protecting the environment and society and were actively engaged in sustainable consumption to a certain extent. However, these shifts in sustainable consumer behavior were slow, as consumers resisted changing old habits. Prior research suggests that consumers’ habitual consumption patterns can be altered by disruptive changes resulting from catastrophic events such as the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., Forbes, 2017; Hüttel and Balderjahn 2021). As a result of the anxiety, stress, and fear triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers may be forced to forgo their old habits and rethink their consumption practices. Thus, the pandemic may have provided an opportunity to shift consumer behavior towards sustainable consumption practices.  For example, consumers have increased their purchase intention and willingness to pay for sustainable products, exhibited growing attention to environmental issues, and started to behave more sustainably (Rosa Maria et al., 2022). Furthermore, individuals were forced to live more sustainably due to ongoing restrictions (e.g., no traveling, dining out, shopping in stores, etc.) (Weder et al., 2022). Consumers cooked, ate, socialized, and shopped all from home, spending less on non-essentials and focusing on the self, family, and health. However, the pandemic may have also negatively affected collective sustainable behaviors; for example, there was a decrease in the use of public transport and ridesharing (Degli et al., 2021). Further, the desire to consume more to counteract the many constraints of the pandemic negatively affected consumers’ willingness to spend sustainably, such as by consuming less or donating to climate organizations.

Although understanding sustainable consumption pre-COVID-19 gained momentum, little research has addressed how the COVID-19 pandemic may have influenced sustainable. As sustainable consumption becomes vital, there is a critical need for academic research that can determine how COVID-19 may have forced consumers to rethink their sustainable consumption behavior. To this end, we are seeking theoretical and empirical research addressing topics including (but not limited to):

  • Pre and post-pandemic sustainable consumption trends among consumers.
  • The influence of consumers’ demographic characteristics on their sustainable consumption.
  • Anti-consumption.
  • Consumer social responsibility.
  • Innovative use of social media to promote sustainable consumption.
  • Consumers’ post-pandemic travel preferences and habits.
  • Consumer sustainable consumption values and priorities.
  • Homentertainment, digitalization, and sustainable behaviors of consumers.
  • Reduced consumer mobility and on the go consumption (such as coffee).
  • Redefined daily routines of consumers and their sustainability impacts.

References

Chae, M. J. (2021). Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on sustainable consumption. Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal49(6), 1-13.

Dangelico, Rosa Maria, Valerio Schiaroli, and Luca Fraccascia. "Is Covid‐19 changing sustainable consumer behavior? A survey of Italian consumers." Sustainable Development (2022).

Degli Esposti, P., Mortara, A., & Roberti, G. (2021). Sharing and Sustainable Consumption in the Era of COVID-19. Sustainability13(4), 1903.

Forbes, S.L. (2017) Post-disaster consumption: analysis from the 2011 Christchurch earthquake. The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research, 27(1), 28–42.

Hüttel, A., & Balderjahn, I. (2022). The coronavirus pandemic: A window of opportunity for sustainable consumption or a time of turning away?. Journal of Consumer Affairs56(1), 68-96.

Perkins, K. M., Velazquez, L., & Munguia, N. (2021). Reflections on sustainable consumption in the context of COVID-19. Frontiers in Sustainability2, 26.

Severo, E. A., De Guimarães, J. C. F., & Dellarmelin, M. L. (2021). Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on environmental awareness, sustainable consumption and social responsibility: Evidence from generations in Brazil and Portugal. Journal of cleaner production286, 124947.

Weder, F., Mertl, S., Hübner, R., Elmenreich, W., & Sposato, R. (2022). Re-Framing Sustainability in a Pandemic. Understanding Sustainability Attitudes, Behaviors, Visions and Responsibilities for a Post-Covid Future. Journal of Sustainability Research, 4(2).

Dr. Shipra Gupta
Dr. Naz Onel
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

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Keywords

  • sustainable consumption
  • COVID-19 pandemic
  • consumer behavior

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

22 pages, 652 KiB  
Article
Understanding Factors Affecting Consumers’ Conscious Green Purchasing Behavior
by Omar. A. Alghamdi and Gomaa Agag
Sustainability 2024, 16(2), 705; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16020705 - 13 Jan 2024
Viewed by 1214
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on customer behavior. A transition from traditional to environmentally friendly purchasing has been observed in the buying- and consuming-goods setting. Our research sought to discover the factors that influence customers’ conscious green purchasing behavior (GPB), [...] Read more.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on customer behavior. A transition from traditional to environmentally friendly purchasing has been observed in the buying- and consuming-goods setting. Our research sought to discover the factors that influence customers’ conscious green purchasing behavior (GPB), even though these factors had not been extensively studied before. Additionally, it investigated how COVID-19 has impacted consumers’ conscious GPB. Drawing upon the S–O–R model, we developed an integrated model to understand factors affecting conscious GPB. A total of 884 responses were gathered and analyzed by employing the structural equation modeling technique. Our study collected data from consumers in Saudi Arabia. The findings indicate that media and peer influence have a significant effect on activating both altruistic and egoistic drives, whereas family influence was shown to be insignificant. The correlations between media exposure and peer influence were significantly mediated by altruistic and egoistic motivations. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a beneficial influence on the formation process of conscious GPB. The results suggest that peers have a greater impact on conscious GPB through multiple motives, as compared to the influence of media. The findings of this examination provide several meaningful theoretical and managerial implications for marketers in the green consumption setting. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The COVID-19 Effect on Sustainable Consumption)
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