The rise of sustainable consumerism: Evidence from the Egyptian generation Z

Abstract

Sustainable consumerism is a topic that is still being explored and developed across nations and countries. A new generation of consumers and the world’s future leaders—Generation Z—have already begun to change the marketing and consumer landscape and have accelerated the means to achieve sustainable development. Meanwhile, the Egyptian Generation Z remains unexplored and ambiguous. The purpose of this article is to gain an understanding of the behavioral aspects of the Egyptian Generation Z, their consumerism, ecological consciousness, and corporate expectations. This exploratory research adopted qualitative methods using in-depth semi-structured interviews with a selected sample of participants representing the Egyptian Generation Z. The findings reveal an infantile but informed and reactive market of consumers whose acts of marketing and branding decisions contribute to reaching corporate sustainability, despite the fact they are viewed as nescient in the broader global community. This research provides the first evidence on the Egyptian Generation Z and their behavior towards sustainable consumerism in a new context of developing countries.