Conclusions & Future Directions for Research

Conclusions

This qualitative analysis of college students’ attitudes toward sustainable goods was designed to add nuance to the way we understand how consumers perceive sustainable goods. In the semi-structured interviews I noticed a consistent way of framing “sustainable brands” as compared to “unsustainable brands.” Namely, sustainable brands were associated with small businesses, transparent operations (U.S., local, co-ops), and expensive goods, while unsustainable brands were associated with big businesses, opaque operations (overseas production), and cheap goods. Moreover, sustainable brands were also associated with certain positive affective qualities – concern (for the community, employees, and the environment) and an authentic image. Unsustainable brands were widely associated with negative affective qualities – namely disregard (for the community, employees, and the environment) and a constructed image, which participants did not consider trustworthy.

When participants were asked to sort a series of corporate behaviors associated with sustainability into a hierarchy according to which behaviors the participants believed were most important, the resulting hierarchies reflected a real concern for ethical business generally, but less dedication to spending capital to ensure that ethical business is practiced. Indeed, participants consistently sorted sustainable business behaviors that require companies to adhere to regulations or expend capital toward the bottom of their hierarchies. This is “concern for capital,” or the idea that although a person may feel positively about purchasing sustainable products and enjoy the concept of sustainable business, they are simultaneously worried that operating a sustainable business is antithetical to accumulating capital and thus an inappropriate strategy to prefer. I consider concern for capital an additional barrier to purchasing sustainable products along with barriers identified by participants: (1) high price, (2) lack of information, and (3) lack of availability.

If the opinion of my study participants is any indicator, it seems that one of the reasons we see a significant attitude-behavior discrepancy when it comes to American consumption of sustainable goods is because Americans don’t always think sustainability makes good business sense. They are concerned for capital, and see sustainability as at least somewhat antithetical to it. To temper this concern for capital I recommended two global policies that could serve to tip the scales in favor of sustainable production: establishing a pigouvian tax on carbon and a large scale attempt to reproduce the California Effect by raising sustainability standards in developed countries while conditioning market access on adhering to those standards. These are undeniably difficult policies to implement, especially on a global level. Nonetheless, they bear mentioning.

My more reasonable recommendations deal with breaking down the three barriers (1) high price, (2) lack of information, and (3) lack of availability, which may serve to temper the attitudes of consumers toward purchasing sustainable products, and diminish the persistence of (4) concern for capital. These recommendations are designed to encourage growth in the market for sustainable products through consumer demand.

Future Directions for Research

Further research is needed to fully understand sustainability as a concept, how consumers interact with sustainable goods and what is likely to convince or dissuade them from purchasing these goods.

Beyond Early Adopters

To evaluate whether sustainable business practices and purchasing sustainable goods are of concern to groups that do not fit the ‘early adopter’ description it would be interesting to employ this survey methodology to other groups. I recommend exploring the viewpoints of relatively economically disadvantaged populations, elderly populations, and relatively uneducated populations. Applying this survey design to other groups may require some adjustment of the brands used as primers so that the particular group is able to recognize the brand and make judgments about it. In this case it may be helpful for the researcher to be familiar with the population, at least through empirical study and/or observational research.

Small Companies & Sustainable Business

Participants consistently noted that small companies have a heightened capacity to operate their business sustainably. Small businesses, however, are often legally exempt from reporting information about their operations. This isn’t bad thing, by any means. Indeed, transparency can be a very onerous apparatus, and it may not be appropriate for every “mom and pop shop” to spend the time and money it would take to document their business practices. To evaluate whether small businesses deserve to be associated with sustainability I recommend a survey of small businesses in an effort to understand just how sustainable they are. The survey could be administered to small business owners and would ask them to take account of their sustainable business practices, which could be modeled on the eleven sustainable business practices I used in this project (The Semi-Structured Interview Process / April 15, 2010).

Situational Primers and Sustainable Consumption

Social science research has continually showed the effects of priming on attitudes and actions. In one study, participants were primed with words related to elderly stereotypes were likely to walk more slowly down the hallway after finishing the experiment than the control group (Bargh, Chen, & Burrows, 1996). It would be interesting to evaluate whether situational primers might make a consumer more likely to purchase a sustainable product.

The study might take place in a grocery store with a pair (or several pairs) of brands, to be displayed next to one another. One of the two products should be marked in some way that distinguishes it as sustainable. Before entering the store to do their shopping, consumers would be primed to think about values related to sustainability; for instance, they may witness a small group of people planting a tree or see some information the reminds them of social instability like a poster about child laborers. Would these positive primers actually affect real life purchasing decisions? Additionally, prices between the sustainable and unsustainable brand could be altered to be either more egalitarian or more differentiated as a method of determining at what cost people would choose the sustainable good in a primed vs. unprimed condition.