Furthering our understanding of the role of self-regulation in green consumer behaviors

Self-regulation refers broadly to an individual´s ability to control or modify their behavior to accomplish long-term goals and navigate the appeal of falling back on unhelpful habits or temptations. In recent decades there has been an increase in scholarly research focusing on this variable as it has been found to be important for the welfare of consumers and society for preventing problems such as obesity and credit card debt. While prior research has pointed to self-regulation being a good predictor of green behaviors, understanding of the underlying mechanism for this relationship is basically non-existent. From an academic perspective, this work is worthwhile as it provides an additional explanation to the intention-behavior gap on green consumer behavior. This dissertation has the primary purpose of furthering our understanding of how individual consumers’ ability to self-regulate their behavior impacts their participation in green behaviors. Additionally, from a practical perspective, this work is valuable as it helps us better understanding how we can aid consumers in strengthening their ability to self-regulate towards green behaviors. This way policy makers and practitioners can ultimately encourage these behaviors in more effective ways. This dissertation is composed of three individual studies which make up the main chapters. First, a systematic literature review was undertaken using a framework-based approach to present an organized and synthesis understanding of extant literature. Here, a thorough examination was done of the antecedents, decisions, outcomes, theories, contexts, and methods of self-regulation research between the years 2000 and 2020. One of the opportunities we identified in this literature review was a dearth of research regarding how self-regulation impacts an important social issue of our times: environmental degradation. Next, based on this identified research gap, the two following research studies were designed to deepen our understanding of how self-regulation impacts green consumer behaviors. Given that the direct relationship between self-regulation and green behavior had been previously studied, we elected to include an additional variable: collective action. Collective action was selected because despite having been amply studied in social movements such as protests and civil rights movements, there is a currently a debate in literature regarding its role in sustainable consumer behavior. It has been proposed that the requirement of collective action might make it challenging for consumers to consistently commit to green behaviors because the involvement of many is needed for sustainable actions to amount to a significant environmental change. Thus, this dissertation seeks to explore how consumers’ perception of the requirement of collective action might facilitate or hinder their ability to self-regulate towards the goal of behaving sustainably. For understanding the interplay between requirement of collective action, self-regulation, and green behaviors, two different studies were undertaken. First, we sought to establish the main effect by determining if consumers perceive that collective action is required for green behaviors to have a meaningful impact, and what impact this perception has on their intention to participate in green behaviors. For this purpose, in the second study of this dissertation, an experimental approach was used. Once this baseline effect was established, a third study was designed to test the mediating effect of self-regulation. For this third study a mediation analysis using structural equations modelling was completed with the purpose of testing how consumer perception of the requirement of collective action affects their ability to self-regulate towards green behaviors. Overall, findings of the empirical research indicate that when consumers perceive that the effort of many is required, they are more likely to commit to green behaviors. This relationship is found to be fully mediated by self-regulation. Having a deeper understanding of why consumers choose to participate in green behaviors is helpful for practitioners and policy makers who aim to encourage these behaviors. Finally, the dissertation concludes with a chapter outlining specific proposals for future research to continue advancing our understanding of consumer self-regulation towards green behaviors as it is my strong belief that this line of research will lead to an increased wellbeing for both individuals and for society at large.

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4088-013X