Factors affecting the relationship between environmental concern and behaviors

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the mediating factors affecting the relationship between environmental concerns and sustainable behaviors. Design/methodology/approach – The authors survey 467 respondents and use a structural equation modeling approach to assess environmental involvement and willingness to pay more for green products as mediating variables between a multi-dimensional measure of environmental concern and sustainable behaviors. Findings – The findings suggest that environmental involvement and willingness to pay more for green products mediate the relationship between environmental concern and sustainable behaviors. But of the three dimensions of environmental concern, only concern for energy is statistically significant in the model. Research limitations/implications – The results empirically validate the multi-dimensionality of the environmental concern construct and its relationship with consumers’ sustainable behaviors. Both involvement and willingness to pay more for an environmentally friendly product play an important role in linking environmental concern to actionable behaviors. Practical implications – To reach green consumers who are willing to pay more for environmentally friendly products and ultimately engage in sustainable behaviors, marketers should target those consumers who are most concerned with energy and more involved with the environment. Originality/value – This paper is the first to study the gap between environmental concern and sustainable behaviors by utilizing involvement and willingness to pay more for an environmentally friendly product as mediators. Results provide critical insight into this often elusive gap. The authors also fill an important gap in the literature by including psychological factors driving consumers’ willingness to pay more for green products.