Do Sustainable Consumers Have Sustainable Behaviors? An Empirical Study to Understand the Purchase of Food Products

Abstract

Sustainability and the circular economy (CE) are issues of increasing interest to governments, investors, industry, and civil society; for this reason, the implementation of a business model for circularity and/or sustainability is becoming crucial for achieving and maintaining a competitive advantage for various organizations. In this context, consumers play a crucial role in reducing the environmental impact of business processes through their choices and behaviors. “Sustainable consumption” is a growing global concern that will link human behavior with the planet’s future. Negligent behavior by individuals in their daily lives has a significant impact on the environment, with devastating consequences for the survival of humankind itself. However, even though sustainability issues and the circular economy have now widely involved consumers, making them seem aware of how the behavioral ran has a direct impact on the environment, the percentage of people who accompany this awareness with truly sustainable behavior and who are therefore willing to embrace the goal of “saving the planet” is small. Therefore, this study hypothesizes that from a sample of consumers with a particular interest in environmental and sustainability issues, there are subsamples of consumers who show a particular interest in adopting sustainable purchasing behavior regarding food products. Our analysis adds essential results to the existing literature by using a methodology that can improve the homogeneity of a sustainable consumer dataset to assess consumer behavior. Through cluster analysis, one of the most widely used techniques, it is possible to extract a sub-sample of consumers with conceptions on environmental and sustainability issues that may influence their awareness of buying sustainable food products. The results show the presence of four different consumer clusters, Some consumers are sustainability and environmentally aware, other consumers are indifferent to environmental issues, and finally, some consumers show minimal attention to sustainability but little involvement in activities. The study shows that attention to environmental sustainability has clear policy and managerial and scientific implications that can increase consumer awareness.