Factors Influencing Consumer Behavior to Purchase Sustainable Cosmetic Products in a German Context

Abstract

In today's markets, corporate social responsibility is a new consumer expectation. Organizations across all industries are trying to meet these expectations by building a positive reputation and sending a signal to their stakeholders. However, consumers’ environmental behavior is not always the result of their positive attitudes towards environmental issues. Potentially, their environmentally friendly attitudes are contradicted by their actual behavior. This means that people, who have positive attitudes about sustainable products and state that they would purchase them, may not actually buy them after all. In addition, consumers often do not wish to spend more money on buying sustainably, even if they have higher expectations towards sustainable products or companies. Further research is therefore needed to explain the gap between consumer awareness and actual purchasing behavior. In several contexts, environmentally friendly consumption, called sustainable consumption, has been explained by the theory of planned behavior (TPB), such as when buying food or apparel. Sustainable consumption often results from planned decisions rather than hedonic reasons.