Sharing and Sustainable Consumption in the Era of COVID-19

Abstract

The pandemic triggered by the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has had a major impact on numerous collective behaviors, while also changing individuals’ consumption choices. Thus, social researchers dealing with consumption patterns need to reflect on the changes of individual practices, also in view of the growing centrality in the public debate of issues related to sustainability and responsible consumption. The presented paper takes its cue from a quantitative research project aiming at understanding the proneness of Italian people towards sustainable products in COVID-19 era, aiming to test whether and how the coronavirus pandemic has changed that attitude. Data have been collected through an online self-completion questionnaire from October to December 2020, using a snowball procedure to collect the purposive sample of approximately 500 questionnaires. Moreover, the second step of the research aimed to deepen the topic of collaborative consumption to verify how the pandemic is changing and how it will re-draft Italian consumers’ willingness to adopt specific forms of shared consumption such as car sharing or bike sharing. According to our data, respondents increased the frequency of purchase of certain products such as books and TV series, while reducing the frequency of purchase of others, such as beauty care and clothing items. Furthermore, we found a decrease in the use of public transport and ridesharing, since respondents prefer to avoid contact with strangers on shared transportations means. As for sustainability, our results highlight the commitment of our sample of young, educated women toward a more responsible attitude in consumption.