The Changing Consumerism with Motivation on Environmental Behaviour

This project provides a comprehensive analysis of the evolving relationship between consumerism and environmental behavior, focusing on a global perspective. It begins by acknowledging the increasing eco-awareness in contemporary economies while highlighting existing barriers to the adoption of more sustainable consumption patterns. The study delves into the motivational and practical complexities of green consumption, examining how varying environmental viewpoints and consumption habits influence ecological behavior. The project explores the challenges of green consumerism, including conflicting motivations related to individual and collective goals, and external constraints from infrastructural, cultural, economic, and political circumstances. It examines the role of the consumer as a market actor and decision-maker, and discusses the cultural individualism-collectivism continuum. The project also discusses the challenges faced by green consumers and proposes ways to understand and promote sustainable practices, including the importance of ecological labels, consumer awareness, and strategies to mitigate motivational conflicts. The project highlights the importance of considering ethical issues, social morality, and the complexities of individual and social motivations in fostering environmentally responsible consumer behavior.

THE CHANGING CONSUMERISM WITH MOTIVATION ON
ENVIRONMENTAL BEHAVIOUR: A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE
[Author Name(s), First M. Last, Omit Titles and Degrees]
[Institutional Affiliation(s)]

INTRODUCTION
Despite the fact that eco-awareness has been increasing in contemporary western economies,
there is general recognition that certain amount of barriers still exist as far as the diffusion of
more ecologically oriented styles of consumption is concerned. In much of research as well as in
lay discourse, these kinds of the limitations are as a result of complexity in motivational and
practical sustainable consumptions. Considering the moral and conceptual complexity of green
consumption behaviour as well as the perplexity of the information in connection with the
ecology, various environmental users have varying conceptions as far as behaviour towards
ecology is concerned and in relation to the consumption habit. It is for this reason that
sustainability in terms of the motivation is focused on the green consumption. (Crocker 2013).
In addition, the responsible behaviour of the environment usually involves difficult conflicts of
motivation which arises from the fundamental incompatibility in regard to the collective goals of
the environmental protection. It is also related to the individual or personal consumer’s benefits
hence leading to the problem of free-rider. There are usually external constraints which are
severe as far as green consumerism is concerned. Such kind of the constraints arises from
infrastructural, cultural, economic as well as political circumstances in the society and market as
a whole.
There are complications concerning the integration of consumption goals both at individual and
collective level, though with the reality that occasions of choice related to issues of ecological
behaviors mostly compost of a kind of dilemma which is to assist in the analysis of the
motivational complexity in the green consumerism in some greater depth. This has been done in
broader perspective in attempts to evaluate the challenges which are faced by the green

consumers in the market. This implies that the purpose will be to contribute to the intellectual
basis of the policies of the environmental conservation (Sachdeva , Jordan & Mazar 2015).
A discussion is thus simulated on the responsibilities and roles of the consumer as an individual
who participates as a market actor as well as decision maker. Also the operation is done in
collective pursuit of the development in terms of sustainable goals. This particular study thus
comprehensively explores changing perspective of consumerism in relation to the usage of the
environment. The focus therefore has been on cultural individualism-collectivism continuum.
Frame for Analysis
There is no single stud which can be understood in its own context when it is not properly
structured. In this regard studies on the tendencies of motivation in regard to the individual
consumption are not exceptional. Despite the fact that there has never been a conventional
definition term of motivation, it can be used to tentatively refer to a question of why a particular
behaviour occurs. The underlying assumption which is present usually in a discussion on the
motivation of the consumer states that the behaviour of the consumer is always purposive. In
other words people aims to attain some goals or satisfy needs (Zhu, & Sarkis, 2016).

Similarly, it is usually accepted that the motives of the association can be both hidden and overt.
This implies that the consumers may not or may be aware of their motives for any given
behaviour. It is therefore possible to make a distinction between selective motives and primary
motives. The primary motive is used while referring to the purpose behind the decision of the
consumer to participate or not to participate in the whole classes of behaviour. Selective motive
on the other hand will refer to the consumer’s purpose in regard to decision on the exact
behaviour to be capitalized on. This implies that an opportunity will be needed for the expression
of such behaviour. This will be determining by the immediate environment aspect hence they
become the external factors which facilitate or impede behaviour (Copeland 2014).
The green consumer’s motivational challenges.
Whining the research that exists, the green consumerism is always discussed as one of pro social
form of the consumer behavior. It can be also defined as particular form of socially conscious or
even as socially responsible behavior of a consumer which consist of an environmentalism
perception or can be referred as environmentally concerned consumption. The best definition
refers ‘environmental concerned consumers’ to be individual having a behavior that exhibits and
even reflects a relatively consistent as well as conscious to the consequences of the
environmental that are related to purchase, ownership, disposed or may use either a specific
products or services (Vergragt, Akenji & Dewick 2014). However, the socially conscious
consumer, or the green consumer, is characteristically takes into an account of the consequences
of the public of their private consumption and may use their purchasing power in bringing the
social change.

However, practically it may consist of a considerable disagreement in between consumers and
the activists of environmental upon how the environmental consequences concern of the
consumption activities can be shown in the behaviors of consumers. This section, provide more
elaborated the challenges as well as complexity which involved, through the application of
motivation model shown as the above is tool for analysis basically used directly in the
processes of the motivation.
The diversity of the primary motives that is the ‘green consumerism ‘divergent objectives.
The objectives together with other reasons concerning the practices as well as actions which are
ecologically consumers oriented are considered to be engaging in during selection. Also
purchasing as well as using the products and services are multitudinous and the three are hardly
in agreement concerning the best strategies of consumption or for the green consumerism
(Brown & Vergragt 2016).
Initially it may consist of divergent views concerning the basic objectives as well as ecological
strategies which are a responsible consumption. One of the view is holding that the
environmental care is a drastically decreasing the number of the purchase of everything in order
to bare minimum. A very radical green consumer cannot purchase anything which are not
considered relevant in the same context as well as in the society which is consumption oriented.
It is from this perspective that consumption or the consumerism can be defined in line with the
perspectives of sustainability. When considering this, more liberal green consumerism view
refers as to choosing products and services carefully having the least environmental destruction
since it can also have positive environmental impact having no significant compromising to other
people lives (Halkier 2013).

There increased further through the fact that there is no agreement concerning the criteria of the
constitution of the ecologically sound as well as the safe services or products (Arthington 2016).
The general characteristic of the green product as services to be structured in a proper framework
are treated as urgent issues in the same context. Any adopted mechanism of the product
consumption must be friendly to the target environment for the consumption process.
Properties of services and goods which are sound in terms of the environmental
requirements
 They were never harmful to lives as wellbeing of animals as well to that of plant
 Never lead to any environmental damage during their manufacture, use and even when
being disposed.
 Do not use a lot of energy or their resource when being manufacture, use and dispose.
 Do not give out unnecessary waste because of their excessive packaging as well as to the
short span of life.
 Never consist in using animal or even being cruel to the animals.
 Do not consist of use of material that are derived from the threatened species as well as
environments.
However, the following criteria are reasonable and can be proved in the theory, as per the
perspective of the consumer in which they remain to be practically obscure. This may be
regarded as a matter which constitute or which are unnecessary waste, cruelty and
disproportionate the amount of energy. The ecological labels may help obviously, but the
problem is that they are only available in only few categories of the products. In some cases,

where these qualities assessments consist in difficult value judgments, therefore may vary among
people as well the groups having different interest (Huckman & Kelley 2013).
Several motives of selection: The unique ways of promoting sustainability in the concept of
green approach
The principle motive is considered to be one of the challenging characteristic of the
consumptions which are considered to be responsible ecologically. Behaviour of the consumer in
the case of the consumptions is preferred or in other words it can manifest with various selective
behaviour and motives. Such kind of the variety of the selective motives which acts in addition
to the green consumerism perplexity results from the fact that the consumptions which are
environment friendly constitutes the category of the behaviour. This implies that energy saving
behaviour can be inferred from such kind of the approaches. The behaviour will include purchase
of the appliances which are energy-efficient, use of the compact florescent lights, lowering the
temperatures of the room and finally commuting using public transport means (Passini 2013).
The complexity of the motivation which is associated with the categories of the behaviour will
basically stem from the fact that conception of people may considerably vary since it is possible
to make reference to the available data that touches on the premises which have direct bearing on
the values of judgment.
Moral complexity consciousness and Motivational conflict in terms of the social
consumptions
The view of the green consumerism can be done in a manner considered to be socially conscious.
This will go alongside consideration of the ethical issues which in some cases are pro-social
besides being complex. The issue thus rises as whether normative ethics is a preferred taste or

dispute and judgments on matters to be operated on and considered in relation to consumption as
well as protection of the environment. In addition to that, green consumerism also remains to be
a philosophical question that includes questions of individual as well as social morality. Due to
this, green consumerism proves to be more motivational complex in various ways (Vergragt,
Akenji & Dewick 2014).
To start with, green consumerism may be comprised of complex motivational conflicts. There
are two distinct kinds of motives or consumption goals that inspire consumption matters that
relate to the environment, these include; consumers’ individual (private) objectives and
collective objectives of the society concerning the protection of the environment over a long
period of time. There are complications concerning the integration of consumption goals both at
individual and collective level, though with the reality that occasions of choice related to issues
of ecological behaviors mostly compost of a kind of dilemma which is socially grounded or a
situation in which various parties are fixed in dilemma socially or state of dilemma as
elaborated in details by different scholars scholars in their literature works
The social payoff required for the change of behavior by every individual consumer is a bit
higher compared to that for cooperative behavior with no regard to the practices carried out by
other members of the society, however, every individual within the society gets little payoff in
case they all defect instead of cooperating (Brown & Vergragt 2016).
This is due to the fact that the quality of the environment including clean air is regarded as a
collective or public property, freely available to all consumers, though on their cooperation in
that, if they willingly participate in generating a quality environment without involving in
matters that destroys the environment. It is of importance that consumers participate if generating

and maintaining a high quality environment therefore it is advisable that every consumer within
the ecological space should cooperate.
For the case of an individual choice, an individual may be tantalized not to cooperate but rather
defect on his own way, i.e., the individual may be of the mind to select an alternative that
destructs the environment leaving the others to cooperate for generating a high quality
environment. The green consumerism may as well be influenced to practice a free ride option
since the services as well as the products within the ecological space appears to be more
expensive and complex in terms of cash, time among other resources compared to non-green
consumerism options offered within the market, and also may be due to the fact that the
consumers view their contribution to high quality environmental generation as very marginal.
consumption within the environment therefore, as depicted by a scholar, is likely to be composed
of individual-collective enigma in which the society collective utility over a long duration is
maximized by cooperation for the high quality environmental production while individual
consumer utility is maximized by the free ride of the defection action, as long as some people
within the environment cooperate (Brown & Vergragt 2016).
It can therefore be observed that green consumerism is composed of a commitment problem, that
is, willingness by an individual to be ecologically responsible, this will call for a cooperation as
well as contribution of an individual to generate a high quality state of the environment,
however, on the view of the marginal contribution made by a single consumer, the consumer
may be tempted to defect rather than cooperate.
Secondly, green consumerism is observed to comprise of complex moral challenges. To fully
participate in ethical debates related to the protection of the environment, green consumers need

to fully understand the associated ethical issues together with the hullaballoos within a given
environmental disputes and policies. What are some of the values and beliefs contained in the
debates and measures of a given policy? What are the possible theories that lie behind such
beliefs and values? The arguments related to green consumerism are not just self-interest
conflicts or politics but rather arguments comprising of conflicting theories of different versions
like individual rights and social justice as presented by a given scholar.
Of great idea is that the green consumers should be in a place to identify and unveil the
associated limitations to the daily ethical issues of the environment. The individuals should be in
a place to examine the appealing theories, principles and concepts applied by consumer
organizations, firms and policy makers as well in presenting the claims pertaining to sustainable
activities alongside policies of the environment. The consumers should also unveil and present
the conflicting values and interests within the prevalent controversies and conflicts of the
environment (Brown & Vergragt 2016).
CONCLUSION
Despite the fact that the scope of the current study has not taken into account any product ion
particular or the category of the product, perception of the consumers as well as attitude as a
whole towards the environment as a living unit results into giving many ideas on the potential of
the features of the environmental conservation on the cross-cultural basis. The consumerism in
the collectivists and individualistic culture on the environmental protection shows discrepancy
which is mainly based on the issues of the sustainability. The sustainability issue has been
associated with the environmental conservation attitude by the collectivists although the

individualists have considered it as an issue of privacy. This lays proper ground for the proposal
of some practical implications in terms of the management in those specific countries that have
high values of the collectivists and individualists separately.
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