The Relationships between Socio-demographic Variables and Concerns about Environmental Sustainability

Abstract

Researchers have studied many variables to understand consumer behavior and the choices consumers make, with regard to environmentally friendly products. Past research has tried to find the relationships between socio-demographic variables and preferences for environmentally sustainable products. The findings, however, are still relatively mixed, especially those concerning income; previous results are far from being conclusive in that past studies have found income to be negatively, positively, and insignificantly related to green consumer choices. This study investigates why the previous empirical studies of income are so varied, and, using an empirical study, demonstrates that the inconsistency of earlier findings might come from the non-linear relationship between income variables and environmental concern. © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.