Abstract:
Consumption choices are significant in determining sustainability outcomes.
Therefore, an area of particular interest for both scholars and practitioners is that of
consumer behaviour and the challenge of encouraging sustainable consumption habits.
Sustainable consumer behaviour is important, yet slow to change, with many
individuals stating that they care about being sustainable, yet not demonstrating this in
their actual behaviour choices. This research proposes two related new theoretical
routes to sustainable product choice, namely through self-accountability and through
recalled emotions.
First, a systematic review of the extant literature was deemed necessary. A conceptual
framework was developed that identified the antecedents to and moderators of
sustainable behaviour change, informing a number of testable propositions and future
research directions. Moreover, this synthesis uncovered the gaps in current knowledge
that informed the research question and design of the empirical research that follows.
Adapting aspects of self-standards and self-discrepancy theory, the second stage of this
research explored the construct of self-accountability for influencing anticipated pride
and guilt about sustainable purchase behaviours, and thereby influencing the behaviour
itself. Two field surveys tested a number of structural models to measure the effect of
self-accountability on purchase intentions, mediated by feelings of anticipated pride
and guilt. The results found that consumers with higher levels of self-accountability
are more likely to be influenced by anticipated feelings of pride towards the outcome
of sustainable purchase behaviour. The third part of this research tested a manipulation of recalled pride and guilt across
two experimental studies, to explore their effect on feelings of anticipated pride and
guilt and hence on sustainable purchase intentions. The studies showed that the
manipulation of recalled pride was more significant than that of recalled guilt, as
compared with a neutral recall, in influencing purchase intentions. There was a
significant mediation effect of both anticipated pride and guilt, with anticipated pride
again showing higher significance.
Overall, this research highlights the significant role of pride and guilt for encouraging
sustainable purchase choices. Specifically, it highlights the superior role of pride and
offers two complementary mechanisms for engendering feelings of anticipated pride
and guilt. A manipulation is proposed whereby appraisal of pride and guilt can be a
suitable mechanism to trigger sustainable purchase intentions, contributing to both
theory and practice.
