Sustainable Consumption: Opportunities for Consumer Research and Public Policy

This essay explores sustainable consumption and considers possible roles for marketing and consumer researchers and public policy makers in addressing the many sustainability challenges that pervade the planet. Future research approaches to this interdisciplinary topic must be comprehensive and systematic and would benefit from a variety of different perspectives. There are several opportunities for further research; the authors explore three areas in detail. First, they consider the inconsistency between the attitudes and behaviors of consumers with respect to sustainability. Second, they broaden the agenda to explore the role of individual citizens in society. Third, they propose a macroinstitutional approach to fostering sustainability. For each of these separate, but interrelated, opportunities, the authors examine the area in detail and consider possible research avenues and public policy initiatives.

Keywords:

consumer attitudes  consumer behavior  consumer behaviors  consumer research  consumer- citizen  consumer-citizen  consumption (economics)  essays  government policy  macroinstitutional forces  marketing research  sustainability  sustainable consumption 

Citation:

Andrea Prothero, Susan Dobscha, Jim Freund, William E. Kilbourne, Michael G. Luchs, Lucie K. Ozanne, and John Thgersen (2011). Sustainable Consumption: Opportunities for Consumer Research and Public Policy. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 30(1), Pages 31-38. https://doi.org/10.1509/jppm.30.1.31