Consumer Resistance to Responsible Energy Behaviour: An Abstract

Abstract

In the symptomatic case of energy use, despite insistent messages prompting consumers to reduce energy consumption, many people do not change their behaviour in buying and/or using more energy-efficient products (Paço and Lavrador 2017; Sempels and Vandercammen 2009). Few studies have focused on the concept of non-adoption of environmentally responsible behaviour despite its importance for firms and public policies in the energy sector (Bartiaux et al. 2006; Pierce et al. 2010; Steg 2008). To improve our understanding of consumers’ non-adoption of energy-efficient behaviours, we referred to recent literature on anticonsumption and consumer resistance (Nepomuceno et al. 2017; Roux 2007). To address the lack of research on this topic, we conducted a two-level qualitative study that examines two phases of purchase and use of products and equipment with low energy consumption considered as environmentally friendly. The first level embodies an exploratory participative online study consisting of discussions on five French online forums combined with a second study based on twenty semi-structured and thematically focused interviews. This research revealed an oppositional behaviour that can be considered as a form of resistance to deconsumption and thus as a kind of ‘resistance to consumption resistance’. Moreover, this research proposes a consumer typology towards saving energy (The influenced and the opportunistic; The convinced environmentalist; The extrinsically constrained and the revolted; The inherently constrained, the indifferent and the counter resistant). This typology is obtained by crossing two variables: whether the consumer adopts or not an energy-efficient behaviour and the attribution of the cause of this behaviour to the self (internal cause) or to external factors (i.e. public policy, social pressure). Finally, this study attempts to derive managerial implications that may help relevant organizations and companies to make households adopt more environmentally responsible behaviour towards home energy consumption by influencing those who do not adopt energy-efficient behaviour to change their attitude.