Diana Gregory-Smith

Emotions and dissonance in ‘ethical’ consumption choices

Abstract This paper investigates the role of emotions and the prevalence of dissonant/incongruent choice behaviour within the context of ethical consumption. Based on 31 in-depth interviews with British consumers, the findings demonstrate that consumers consciously indulge in ‘ethical’ and ‘unethical’ behaviour (as defined by respondents themselves), often within short time frames, and that they often compensate for unethical choices by making ethical choices later on (and vice versa). The study provides evidence that positive and negative emotions are a key driver of this dissonant behaviour. Guilt is the most salient emotion, and a taxonomy of guilt in this context is derived from the data. Consumers are found to employ guilt-management strategies in order to sustain contradictory behaviour and manage cognitive dissonance. A conceptual framework is derived in order to summarise the observed role of emotions in ethical consumer choice. The paper also provides additional explanations of the manifestation of the attitude–behaviour gap.

An environmental social marketing intervention among employees: assessing attitude and behaviour change

Abstract The paper examines the impact of individual and organisational factors on two simultaneous environmental social marketing interventions (SmartPrint and heating/cooling) and types of behaviours (recycling, printing and heating/cooling), among employees of a British City Council. Using a quantitative methodology, in the form of a situated experiment, self-reported attitudes, perceptions of organisational support, self-reported behaviours and actual behaviours were measured before and after the interventions. The interventions generated significant changes in employees’ overall environmental behaviour, heating/cooling behaviour and in some perceptions of organisational support (support and incentives/rewards). Findings are used to detail recommendations for future campaigns aiming to improve organisations’ environmental performance and to drive enduring employee behavioural change.

Health marketing communications: An integrated conceptual framework of key determinants of health behaviour across the stages of change

Despite the development of many health behaviour theories across various topics, the inconsistency in empirical support for their propositions and the on-going criticism about their limitations highlight the need for an adjusted and integrated approach. These theories have never been ‘abandoned’ or altered significantly to address their limitations, since their conceptualisations. The aim of this paper was to make a conceptual contribution by integrating distinct health behaviour theories (i.e. Health Belief Model, Extended Parallel Process Model, Transtheoretical Model), with a popular information-processing and attitude change theory from the marketing communications arena (namely, the Elaboration Likelihood Model). The specific objectives of this paper were: (1) to address limitations of prevailing health behaviour theories, by identifying key determinants of health behaviour across the most commonly used health behaviour theories; (2) to identify source, consumer, channel, and message characteristics, in addition to executional/situational factors and attitudinal variables, which may influence health behaviour; and lastly, (3) to explain under which conditions (i.e. stage of change) these determinants and factors are likely to impact health behaviour change and maintenance. In doing so, four assumptions and several propositions are developed. Future research directions and practical implications for creating health marketing communication messages are also discussed.

An exploratory investigation of barriers and enablers affecting investment in renewable companies and technologies in the UK.

The last few years have seen considerable research expenditure on renewable fuel technologies. However, in many cases, the necessary sustained and long-term funding from the investment community has not been realized at a level needed to allow technologies to become reality. According to global consulting firm Deloittes recent renewable energy report (http://www.deloitte.com/energypredictions2012), many renewable energy projects stalled or were not completed because of issues including the global economy, the state of government finances, difficulties in funding and regulatory uncertainty. This investigation concentrates on the funding aspect and explores the perceived barriers and enablers to renewable technologies within the investment and renewables community. Thematic analysis of 14 in-depth interviews with representatives from renewable energy producers, banks and investment companies identified key factors affecting the psychology of investor behaviour in renewables. Eight key issues are highlighted, including a range of barriers and enablers, the role of the government, balance between cost/risk, value/return on investment, investment time scales, personality/individual differences of investors and the level of innovation in the renewable technology. It was particularly notable that in the findings the role of the government was discussed more than other themes and generally in quite critical terms, highlighting the need to ensure consistency in government funding and policy and a greater understanding of how government decision-making happens. Specific findings such as these illustrate the value of crossing disciplinary boundaries and highlight potential further research. Behavioural science and economic psychology in particular have much to offer at the interface of other disciplines such as political science and financial economics.

The influence of prior knowledge structures on website attitudes and behavioral intentions

The Persuasion Knowledge Model identifies three knowledge structures (i.e., topic knowledge, persuasion knowledge and agent knowledge) that an individual has prior to exposure to a persuasive attempt. This study extends these knowledge structures by distinguishing between objective and subjective topic knowledge conceptualizations. Specifically, this study examines empirically how an individuals different knowledge structures, held prior to exposure to a web-based intervention, influence subsequent website attitudes and behavioral intentions. The UKs National Health Service (NHS) Live Well website relevant to weight control is used as the web-based intervention in this study. Results suggest that agent (i.e., NHS) knowledge is the most important predictor of website attitudes, while both agent and persuasion knowledge are associated with behavioral intentions to take weight control actions. The results also reveal that the distinction between objective and subjective weight control knowledge is essential given their differential effects on agent and persuasion knowledge. Goal frames, as indicated by the choice between the healthy eating and lose weight Live Well intervention web pages, are found to moderate the identified Knowledge-Attitude-Behavior links. Theoretical contributions, implications for practice and public policy and future research directions are discussed. Prior knowledge structures influence website attitudes and behavioral intentions.Objective and subjective knowledge have different effects on agent and persuasion knowledge.Agent knowledge is the most important predictor of website attitudes.Agent and persuasion knowledge predict behavioral intentions.Goal frames moderate the Knowledge-Attitude-Behavior links.

An environmental social marketing intervention in cultural heritage tourism: a realist evaluation

ABSTRACT Following Pawson and Tilleys principles of realist evaluation and the context–mechanism–outcome (CMO) framework, this paper conducts a process evaluation of an environmental social marketing intervention in a heritage tourism organisation. Social marketing and employee environmental interventions have received relatively scant attention in tourism. Additionally, prior literature mostly focused on the evaluation of intervention outcomes (i.e. how far the intervention produces precise targeted outcomes) and ignores the importance of process evaluation (i.e. identifying what works, for whom, under which circumstances and how, plus issues of intervention maintenance). This paper fills this literature gap using realist evaluation theory and academic perspectives, as well as via the reflections of practitioners involved in intervention design and delivery. Findings suggest that a good understanding of the tourism and organisational context (regarding the dimensions of structure, culture, agency and relations) and the use of tailored, action-focused mechanisms (for each context dimension) are critical to achieving transformational outcomes in environmental interventions in cultural heritage organisations. Based on these findings, it is concluded that the CMO is a useful framework for assessing environmental social marketing interventions in tourism (both for heritage and other tourism organisations). Implications for tourism practice and further research directions are also discussed.

Consumers’ identities and compartmentalisation tendencies in alcohol consumption

ABSTRACT This longitudinal study explored how consumers justify their alcohol consumption by compartmentalising or integrating their various drinking identities (i.e. description of one’s drinking behaviours and extent to which these are part of person’s overall identity). Thirty-one participants were interviewed twice. The findings revealed that identities are continuously altered/created according to context and social interactions. Consumers’ movement between social fields generated different perceptions of what constitutes ‘healthy’ drinking, leading to displays of different identities. After interviewees compared their alcohol consumption perceptions with results from an online 14-day alcohol tracker, some consumers reported a ‘newly perceived’ drinking identity and displayed integration tendencies. Others denied their consumption results and continued to exhibit compartmentalised identities, justified by various social selves, roles and responsibilities. Social marketing and policy recommendations are discussed.

Investigating the Impact of Individual Attitudinal and Organizational Variables on Green Behaviors and Commuting at the Workplace

This paper responds to recent calls for further research on both individual attitudinal and organizational variables on employees’ green behaviors and sheds light on the influence and associations of these variables with four green employee behaviors: recycling, energy saving, printing reduction behaviors and commuting-related behavior, simultaneously. An initial theoretical model that identifies both individual (general environmentally friendly attitudes, the importance of organization’s environmentally friendly reputation) and organizational (perceived incentives from organization, perceived support from organization, perceived environmental behavior of organization) variables that can increase different types of green behaviors is put forward. Quantitative data from 1204 employees were drawn from seven different British organizations (the first study of its type to do this) by Global Action Plan, a leading UK environmental charity. The data were collected via internet surveys, prior to employees’ exposure to interventions, in order to assist in the design of the interventions. The questionnaires employed to collect the data were not originally designed with these specific analyses in mind, which imposes some limitations. However, by using field data, this study has reduced some of the limitations of datasets collected primarily for academic research such as the lack realism and generalizability, and artificiality. SEM results suggest that creating separate interventions for each type of environmental behavior, as well as for each sector, and type (private vs. public) of organization, and each organization, might be needed. The variables accounted for 10 % of the variance in recycling behavior; 15 % in energy saving behavior; 5 % in printing behavior; and 8 % in commuting behavior. In addition to these variables, commuting behaviors are influenced by many factors: distance of work from home, weather conditions, financial constraints etc., many of which are out of the organizations’ control. Organizations aiming to increase commuting behaviors should first ensure that adequate infrastructure exists (i.e., frequent and accessible public transport from and to work) for individuals to be motivated to engage in such activities, without those activities affecting work/outputs in a negative way. Surprisingly, the research also found that the more favorable the perceptions of an organization’s environmental behavior, the lower the employees’ environmentally friendly commuting behaviors are. This might be because an employee’s commuting behavior is not seen as a contributor to the organization’s overall environmental behavior and that commuting behaviors can be seen as related more to the self, than to the organization. Further research is required to explore the reasons behind these results related to commuting behaviors.

‘Student Switch Off!’: how do university students respond to a corporate-sponsored pro-environmental social marketing campaign?

ABSTRACT Sponsorship in pro-environmental social marketing campaigns has received limited academic attention within a higher education (HEI) context. This study examines how multi-level variables, i.e. individual (general environmental attitudes), organisational (scepticism toward the HEI’s environmental corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives; perceived HEI behaviour) and campaign-related (attitudes toward the advertisement; attitudes toward the corporate sponsor) factors, influence university students’ environmental intentions in response to a corporate-sponsored environmental initiative; using mixed methods (231 surveys and 40 interviews). Questionnaires revealed that scepticism toward the HEI’s CSR initiatives led to less positive perceptions of the HEI’s environmental behaviour, which decreased positive attitudes toward the advertisement and environmental intentions. Interviews revealed that the corporate sponsor seemed to motivate environmental behavioural intentions due to product discounts related to the sponsorship. Thus, a corporate sponsor may have confounding effects on pro-environmental behaviour campaigns. This has implications for the use of sponsorship in environmental social marketing campaigns.

A Process Evaluation of an Environmental Intervention: The Case of a Heritage Tourism Organization: An Abstract

Using a case study methodology, this paper assesses an environmental intervention among employees of a cultural heritage tourism organization. The intervention took a downstream social marketing approach and focused on influencing individual employee behaviors within the heritage organization, such as energy saving (i.e., lighting and heating) and recycling (i.e., waste reduction). It was delivered via a customizable “sustainability toolkit.” The assessment of the intervention process is based on data collected from the heritage organization’s employees and the reflections of sustainability practitioners (external to the organization) who designed and delivered the intervention. More specifically, using Pawson and Tilley’s (1997) context-mechanism-outcome framework, we carry out an evaluation of the environmental intervention, and we uncover that a good understanding of the tourism and organizational context (regarding the dimensions of structure, culture, agency, and relations) and the use of tailored, action-focused mechanisms (for each context dimension) are critical to achieving transformational outcomes in environmental interventions within cultural heritage organizations. Implications for future interventions and for tourism management and practice are discussed along with further research directions.