Increasing sustainable consumer behaviour: for reasons of desirability and feasibility? : the case of organic cotton

Summary

In order to understand and to identify important drivers for sustainable consumer behaviour to successfully promote sustainable consumer behaviour, the research at hand aims at answering the following research questions: 1. In the light of Construal-Level Theory, what are important drivers for sustainable consumer behaviour? 2. How can sustainable products be presented in order to increase sustainable consumer behaviour? 3. Which implications can be derived in order to promote sustainable consumer behaviour? The structure of the research at hand is as follows: Chapter 2 describes organic cotton production´s sustainability contribution as compared with the conventional cotton production´s impact. Besides organic cotton´s collective social and long-term temporal benefits, also personal benefits are described. Chapter 3 gives a theoretical background on Construal-Level Theory and on the socio-temporal dilemma inherent in sustainable consumer behaviour. Moreover, Chapter 3 analyses important drivers for sustainable consumer behaviour in the light of Construal-Level Theory. From this analysis the research hypotheses are derived. Chapter 4 describes the methodology of the research at hand. The experimental design chosen to test the research hypotheses is introduced. In Chapter 5 and 6 the research results are presented. These are discussed in Chapter 7. Furthermore, Chapter 7 presents conclusions and implications to increase sustainable consumer behaviour.