Consumers’ climate change engagement: Conceptualization, scale development, and assessment

Abstract

Amid growing climate-related challenges and widespread global calls for urgent action, understanding and fostering consumers’ engagement with climate change through consumption is paramount. In a series of five studies, the authors develop and validate the Consumers’ Climate Change Engagement scale (CCCE scale), a parsimonious nine-item scale designed to measure the extent to which consumers invest cognitive, emotional, and behavioral resources in response to climate change in consumption situations. Integrating the multifaceted nature of engagement, the CCCE scale is a practical tool that may stimulate and advance research on how deeply and in what ways individuals are committing their resources to climate-positive consumption patterns. The CCCE scale also seeks to inform the work of marketers, managers, and public policy actors to better leverage consumer engagement toward achieving key environmental objectives, directly aligned with global initiatives such as the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.