How does the government's sustainable consumption policy enkindle sustainable consumption behaviors in the consumer public?

Abstract

Sustainable consumption is increasingly considered critical for the sustainable growth of developing countries. Consequently, these countries exert significant efforts to foster sustainable consumption behaviors among the consumer public to maximize their sustainability outcomes. This research, while making appeals to the sustainable consumption theory and the stakeholder theory, aims to determine the role of a few critical antecedents, namely the attitude of consumers towards sustainable consumption, their overall satisfaction with the consumption of sustainable products/services, consumers' environmental knowledge and sustainable consumption promotions together with social media influence in engendering sustainable consumption behaviors among consumer publics, along with the role of governments' sustainable consumption policies in enabling such effects. After performing PLS-based structural equation modeling on 500 data points, we found a significant positive role in the consumers' attitude towards sustainable consumption, their sustainable consumption promotions, the impact of social media, and the environmental knowledge possessed by the consumers in inducing sustainable consumption behaviors. In addition, the mediating effects of sustainable consumption promotions and the instrumental role of the government's sustainable consumption policy have also been empirically substantiated. Besides contributing to advancing the body of knowledge encompassing sustainable consumption and sustainable growth/development, the study puts forward several practical implications for the consumers, practitioners, and public policymakers to transmogrify sustainable consumption behaviors by influencing consumers' attitudes, enhancing their environmental knowledge and social media enabled discourse enkindled by an efficacious sustainable consumption policy put in place by the government.