What Impacts Sustainable Purchases in Uncertain Times? A Longitudinal Empirical Investigation
(R2024-122615)

AUTHORS

Benjamin Klink, Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences; Philipp Brüggemann, FernUniversität in Hagen; Luis Martinez, Nova School of Business and Economics, Universidade Nova de Lisboa; Manuel Chica Serrano, University of Granada

ABSTRACT

According to the United Nations, one of the most significant challenges facing our society is to balance environmental sustainability with economic growth and welfare. In today’s “multi-crises era”, the push towards more sustainable consumption has become under serious threat by pandemics, economic crises, and wars. Consequently, there is a pressing need for research that explores the potential impact of crises on sustainable consumption. Against this background, we examine the effects of soaring inflation rates and COVID-19 on sustainable consumption. We integrate household panel data from 12,010 households over 8 years with Google Trends data as a measure of perceived crisis severity. Our findings show that while inflation, the pandemic, and individual attitudes significantly shape consumers sustainable purchase behavior, consumer habits have a considerably greater impact.