A new composite index to assess environmental consciousness using survey data and big data: Empirical evidence from European consumers

Abstract

Environmental consciousness is a multi-dimensional construct that encompasses several dimensions related to pro-environmental attitudes, beliefs and behaviours. The academic literature has attempted to conceptualise and operationalise environmental consciousness over the last 20 years, resulting in a wide variety of measures.

However, the available measures are country-specific and with a predominant U.S. focus, based on convenience samples, and rather limited in terms of interpretability and external validity. To overcome these limitations, the present study develops an index of environmental consciousness at both the micro (consumer) and macro (country) levels, taking into account the four main dimensions of environmental consciousness: the affective, cognitive, active and dispositional dimensions. By analysing more than 27 000 “Eurobarometer 92.4” responses from consumers in the 28 EU Member States in 2019, this paper develops a comprehensive measure of consumer environmental consciousness that captures the heterogeneity across European countries. To assess the robustness of the index, the link between environmental consciousness and life satisfaction is also examined. The index is also compared with a big data-based index using Google Trends data on environmental search categories. The results show differences in environmental consciousness between European countries. The link between environmental consciousness and life satisfaction is also supported, in line with previous research in this area. Finally, the index appears to be strongly correlated with actual consumer search patterns on Google. The findings have implications for businesses willing to enter in new markets and policy makers on how to measure and assess environmental consciousness.