The environmental value-attitude-system model understanding the divergence between stated environmental consciousness and overt consumer behaviour

In the field of environmental consciousness consumer behaviour academics and practitioners have identified and highlighted the divergence between stated and actual overt consumer behaviour as the key problem when devising an effective environmental marketing strategy. In 1991, Meffert stressed that the greatest challenge for marketing is to progress the understanding of the divergence. Unfortunately, to date, there has been a lack of cumulative knowledge building in the field of environmentally conscious consumer behaviour, particularly about the divergence between stated environmental consciousness and actual behaviour. The following article addresses this deficiency. It identifies the key variables intervening between environmental consciousness and overt consumer behaviour. The article provides, for the first time, a synthesis of the international literature from various social science disciplines and contributes to a cumulative knowledge building in the field of environmentally conscious consumer behaviour by applying the value-attitude-system model of Vinson et al.(1977). © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.