Sustainable consumer behavior: Socio-psychological determinants and promotion measures

More sustainable private consumption is necessary to achieve the common goal of sustainable development. This dissertation deals with the underlying socio-psychological determinants of sustainable consumer behavior in different domains, based on which promotion measures are recommended to companies and policymakers. Among others, I discuss consumers’ perceptions of their responsibilities for sustainability in contrast to their expectations on governments’ and companies’ contributions. Furthermore, I shed light on a main barrier of sustainable consumption that most consumers support sustainability but their behaviors are, to a decisive extent, driven by other motives such as customer-oriented services or offered incentives, which primarily benefit consumers themselves instead of the sustainability agenda. To tackle this barrier, I develop several promotion measures based on activating psychological concepts such as empowerment and self-determination in a single or multi-country setting. Results of this dissertation serve to more effectively understand consumers’ concerns with sustainable consumption and to add new perspectives to improve tactics to promote sustainable behaviors