Modelling household conservation behaviour among ethnic consumers: the path from values to behaviours
2015
Segev, Sigal
This article tests a model that explains household conservation behaviour among ethnic consumers. Increasing immigration into Western countries has raised serious questions about the extent to which emerging ethnic communities contribute to environmental degradation or sustainability in their host countries. Previous research focused mainly on measuring ethnic consumers' environmental attitudes, worldviews and concerns, assuming that these ultimately lead to pro‐environmental behaviours. However, these studies overlooked the reality in which pro‐environmental attitudes are not automatically being translated into corresponding behaviours. This study explores the relationship between a set of factors that drive pro‐environmental behaviour, proposing a hierarchical model that depicts a flow from values to household conservation behaviours (i.e. recycling, water, electricity and energy conservation) and the intervening cognitive, affective and psychological variables. Results from a sample of 410 American Hispanic students indicate that the cultural value of collectivism influences conservation behaviour through the more specific factors of environmental values, environmental concern, perceived consumer effectiveness (PCE) and concrete environmental knowledge. Interestingly, the influence of PCE was more apparent in routine, easy‐to‐perform behaviours such as water conservation and the behavioural aspect of electricity conservation. The influence of concrete environmental knowledge was more powerful in predicting recycling, the use of electricity‐efficient home appliances and energy conservation. Implications for the promotion of conservation behaviour and consumer education as well as directions for future research are discussed.
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