Consumer Engagement and the Change to a Sustainable Transport Consumption Pattern
(A2022-106421)

AUTHORS

John Thøgersen, Aarhus University; Ting Zhang, Sun Yat-sen University, Business School

ABSTRACT

Consumer engagement attracts increasing attention in marketing. Here, we study the impact of engagement in environmental issues for consumer willingness to adopt new pro-environ- mental behaviors in the transport domain: “green” leisure travel and buying an electric car. A representative sample of residents of Denmark (N = 550) were surveyed on pro-environmen- tal behavior, pro-environmental self-identity and intentions to adopt these, in the context, new behaviors. We find that past behavioral engagement has a strong effect on the willingness to engage in these new pro-environmental behaviors, partly mediated through and amplified by pro-environmental self-identity (psychological engagement). For the purchase of an electric car we also find a significant interaction between PEB and PEI, which suggests that to moti- vate difficult behaviors such as this both psychological and behavioral engagement are needed.