Understanding Water Consumption in Qatar: Evidence From a Nationally Representative Survey

This paper presents an analysis of a nationally representative (n = 1,002) telephone survey conducted in Qatar on habits, perceptions, and religious attitudes related to water use. Our empirical analysis yields three main findings. When asked whether religious obligation was a reason to save water, (Formula presented.) of respondents agreed with the statement, showing it to be an important stated motive for water conservation. However, we find no statistically significant relationship between stated attitudes towards water use and actual water consumption. Second, when asked to estimate their monthly water use, participants' actual water consumption was similar to how they perceived it to be, on average, but different at the decile level. Third, certain household water usage characteristics are associated with significantly higher levels of water consumption. These include: nationality, education, number of adults in the residence, among others. 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.We thank the editor, Christos Makropoulos and three anonymous reviewers, for very helpful feedback. Additionally, we thank Alecia Cassidy for useful discussions. This paper was made possible by NPRP grant # NPRP10-0131-170-300 from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of Qatar Foundation). The statements made herein are solely the responsibility of the authors. In addition, we thank the Eng. Nasser A. Al Khuzaei, Conservation and Energy Efficiency Department, the Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation "KAHRAMAA" for his very helpful feedback and support.Scopu

An intentional profit-generating strategy can be detrimental to a sustainable organisation

Sustainable organisations have to be profitable to maintain their economic and social activity. However, prior literature finds that people are reluctant to associate profitability with sustainability, which leads to negative judgement. Through experimental evidence, the current research supports this idea but shows that profitability actually backfires within sustainable organisational contexts when it is intentional, rather than unintentional. Results indicate that consumers use a zero-sum heuristic on resource allocation when they are presented with a green product that is intentionally (vs. unintentionally) profit-generating. They infer from intended (vs. unintended) profitability that the organisation devoted greater resources to make profit rather than to make the product more sustainable. This product thus appears less sustainable to consumers and they are less interested in buying it. The article concludes with a discussion on the implications of this research for sustainable organisations

Understanding Water Consumption in Qatar: Evidence From a Nationally Representative Survey

This paper presents an analysis of a nationally representative (n = 1,002) telephone survey conducted in Qatar on habits, perceptions, and religious attitudes related to water use. Our empirical analysis yields three main findings. When asked whether religious obligation was a reason to save water, (Formula presented.) of respondents agreed with the statement, showing it to be an important stated motive for water conservation. However, we find no statistically significant relationship between stated attitudes towards water use and actual water consumption. Second, when asked to estimate their monthly water use, participants’ actual water consumption was similar to how they perceived it to be, on average, but different at the decile level. Third, certain household water usage characteristics are associated with significantly higher levels of water consumption. These include: nationality, education, number of adults in the residence, among others.This paper was made possible by NPRP grant # NPRP10-0131-170-300 from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of Qatar Foundation)