Understanding Consumers’ Motivations and Product Preferences for Deconsumption

The modern era features dramatic changes in consumer attitudes and behaviors related to consumption; this article investigates the motivations and product preferences of consumers who alter their consumption habits to obtain products that cause less damage or use fewer resources. The authors offer an empirical definition of such deconsumption and compare it with other terms used in prior literature to refer to resource-restricted purchases; they also propose consumer-oriented measures of deconsumption motivations and product preferences. The results reveal ten motivation factors that help explain why people choose to deconsume. Regression analysis further shows that product choice varies across these motives. Thus, businesses, public policy makers, and non-profit organizations can modify their communication and product strategies, for both green and conventional products and services, to appeal to different subgroups of consumers that deconsume for distinct reasons