Green Consumerism in Brunei Darussalam

The aim of this chapter is to analyze the relationship of the demographic and socio-psychological determinants on consumers' green purchase behaviours in Brunei Darussalam, with the application framework of the affect-behaviour-cognition (ABC) model. A total of 119 consumers from different backgrounds participated in this study, whereby 113 respondents participated in the online questionnaire, and the other six respondents were interviewed. It is discovered that consumers who are more environmentally conscious are not necessarily likely to purchase green products, but are actually involved in green behaviours. However, in the environmental aspects of awareness, concern, and knowledge, the other factors, monthly income and educational level, did not possess major significance. The product attributes such as price and availability of the green products played a significant role in consumer buying decisions which will lead to the value-action gap phenomenon. Moreover, this study discovered the government is needed to promote and encourage green purchase behaviours in Brunei Darussalam.

Green Consumption Behaviour as a Social Process

<p>In recent years, environmental concern, sustainability and climate change have become widespread political and social issues. The prevalence of environmental issues in the social environment has encouraged the majority of consumers to develop concern for environmental issues, pro-environmental attitudes and an intention to purchase green products and practice green behaviour. However, future growth of green consumerism is threatened by an “attitude-behaviour gap”. Sustainable consumption behaviour is limited to a niche market of “green” consumers, and must expand into more mainstream consumer markets. This study is aimed at exploring how individual perceptions, personal relationships and social experiences shape green consumption behaviour. Its objectives were (1) to achieve a greater understanding of how the social environment influences the green consumption behaviour of individual consumers; and (2) to explore how pro-environmental behaviour change takes place. This study used qualitative methods and adopted an adapted case study methodology. The primary data was collected from semi-structured depth interviews with two participants from seven household cases. Four key insights of this research were: (1) “Green” and “mainstream” (i.e., not-so-green) consumers positively influence the green consumption behaviour of other consumers via social observations, comparisons and “greening strategies”, resulting in pro-environmental behaviour change; (2) “Mainstream” (i.e., not-so-green) consumers view “green” consumers as people who adopt “alternative” green consumption behaviour. A “green syndrome” has developed whereby “green” is viewed as an unattainable goal, limiting mainstream participation in green consumption behaviour; (3) “Green” and “mainstream” (i.e., not-so-green) consumers cope with their non-environmental actions with tradeoff and neutralisation arguments which reinforce the “attitude-behaviour gap” in green consumerism and (4) Personal relationships and household dynamics (i.e., household roles, lifecycle and structure) can affect the adoption and effectiveness of green consumption behaviour practiced within households. Pro-environmental behaviour can be encouraged by explicit green social norms in the social environment, as this reduces the efficacy of neutralisation techniques. Furthermore, the “mainstream” (i.e., not-so-green) population will adopt green products and practices when they are effective, convenient and cost-efficient.</p>

Green Consumption Behaviour as a Social Process

<p>In recent years, environmental concern, sustainability and climate change have become widespread political and social issues. The prevalence of environmental issues in the social environment has encouraged the majority of consumers to develop concern for environmental issues, pro-environmental attitudes and an intention to purchase green products and practice green behaviour. However, future growth of green consumerism is threatened by an “attitude-behaviour gap”. Sustainable consumption behaviour is limited to a niche market of “green” consumers, and must expand into more mainstream consumer markets. This study is aimed at exploring how individual perceptions, personal relationships and social experiences shape green consumption behaviour. Its objectives were (1) to achieve a greater understanding of how the social environment influences the green consumption behaviour of individual consumers; and (2) to explore how pro-environmental behaviour change takes place. This study used qualitative methods and adopted an adapted case study methodology. The primary data was collected from semi-structured depth interviews with two participants from seven household cases. Four key insights of this research were: (1) “Green” and “mainstream” (i.e., not-so-green) consumers positively influence the green consumption behaviour of other consumers via social observations, comparisons and “greening strategies”, resulting in pro-environmental behaviour change; (2) “Mainstream” (i.e., not-so-green) consumers view “green” consumers as people who adopt “alternative” green consumption behaviour. A “green syndrome” has developed whereby “green” is viewed as an unattainable goal, limiting mainstream participation in green consumption behaviour; (3) “Green” and “mainstream” (i.e., not-so-green) consumers cope with their non-environmental actions with tradeoff and neutralisation arguments which reinforce the “attitude-behaviour gap” in green consumerism and (4) Personal relationships and household dynamics (i.e., household roles, lifecycle and structure) can affect the adoption and effectiveness of green consumption behaviour practiced within households. Pro-environmental behaviour can be encouraged by explicit green social norms in the social environment, as this reduces the efficacy of neutralisation techniques. Furthermore, the “mainstream” (i.e., not-so-green) population will adopt green products and practices when they are effective, convenient and cost-efficient.</p>

Channel Structure Choice for Remanufacturing under Green Consumerism

In recent decades, more and more consumers—referred to as “green consumers”—are willing to incorporate environmentally responsible decisions into their purchasing behaviors. This tendency is particularly notable in the European Union, the USA, and China. From a research perspective, while recent studies on remanufacturing have investigated optimal practices in regard to green consumerism, they have failed to address the flexibility manufacturers are afforded to outsource remanufacturing operations to third parties. In practice, some brand-name manufacturers—such as IBM, Land Rover, and Sun—do indeed outsource their remanufacturing operations. To further our understanding of the implications of differentiated structures for remanufacturing operations under green consumerism, we developed two models: one for a manufacturer undertaking remanufacturing themselves (Model M), and one for a manufacturer outsourcing it to a third-party remanufacturer (Model O). Our results indicate that, for markets with significant green consumerism, Model M tends to result in more remanufactured units and creates higher profitability for the manufacturer. However, under certain conditions, this model may also result in greater harm to the environment due to the comparative excess of manufacturers in the remanufacturing process. This implies that environmental groups and agencies should not only aim to encourage green consumerism, but should also focus their attention on the channel structures for remanufacturing.

A Behavioral Economic Analysis of Carbon-Neutral Energy Purchasing

In the described experiments, we probe the ability of a novel operant demand decision making task to detect differences in community-scale “green” consumerism following introduction of choice architectural environmental manipulations. In both experiments, participants are asked to make decisions regarding their enrollment in an environmentally friendly home-energy supply at prices unique to their household experience. In Experiment 1, we assess task baseline performance by examining consistency within generated demand metrics, relation of metrics to existing measures of ecological concern, and metric predictive ability as it pertains to eco-friendly action. Results suggest adequate internal performance and conceptual divergence from existing measures. In Experiment 2, we test the performance of the task as a framework for evaluating scalable choice architectural intervention. In this case, participants indicate their willingness to enroll or remain enrolled, pending an opt-in or opt-out arrangement. Results suggest task sensitivity sufficient to detect group differences in demand: Our opt-out arrangements (i.e., default enrollment) produced significantly greater clean energy purchasing. Overall findings infer viability of our novel task for use as an evaluative instrument in prospective community intervention.

Relationship between the Constructs of Green Wash, Green Consumer Confusion, Green Perceived Risk and Green Trust Among Urban Consumers in India

Increased fervour for green consumerism has resulted in the emergence of Green Marketing as an important tool in the hands of innovative marketers looking for novel ways of satisfying customers. Green Marketing approach is often used by marketers to differentiate their products from those of the competition, based on environment and sustainability related factors. However, one of the biggest downsides of Green Marketing is the emergence of the practice of ‘Greenwashing’. Often organisations claiming to be environment friendly have been found to be indulging in the unethical practice of misrepresenting facts through deceptive and exaggerated claims (Brouwer, 2016). The aim of this paper is to explore the impact of Greenwash (GW) on Green Trust (GT) through the mediating role of Green Consumer Confusion (GCC) and Green Perceived Risk (GPR) by deploying a scale developed by Chen & Chang (2012). The relationship between demographic factors and the four constructs of GW, GT, GCC and GPR is also investigated. Through the deployment of a survey research design, questionnaires were administered to 325 respondents. The results of the analysis bring forth some interesting facts, including Greenwash being negatively related to Green Trust. However, our analysis – in contrast with that of Chen and Chang’s (2012) study - did not show a very strong mediating role played by GCC and GPR. This finding is very pertinent for companies either in the business of selling green products or positioning products on a green or eco-friendly plank.

Palm oil: Understanding barriers to sustainable consumption

Palm oil is relatively inexpensive, versatile, and popular, generating great economic value for Southeast Asian countries. However, the growing demand for palm oil is leading to deforestation and biodiversity loss. The current study is the first to employ a capability-opportunity-motivation (COM-B) framework in green consumerism, to determine which capability, opportunity, and motivation factors strongly predict the intentional purchasing of sustainable palm oil products by Australian consumers (N = 781). Exploratory factor analysis revealed four main types of predictors of SPO purchasing–Pro-Green Consumption Attitudes, Demotivating Beliefs, Knowledge and Awareness, and Perceived Product Availability. Multiple regression revealed that these four factors explained 50% of the variability in SPO purchasing behaviour, out of which Knowledge and Awareness accounted for 18% of the unique variance. Perceived Product Availability and Pro-Green Consumption Attitudes were also significant predictors but accounted for only 2% and 1% of unique variance, respectively. These results provide a valuable foundation for designing behaviour change interventions to increase consumer demand for sustainable palm oil products.