Advancing sustainable consumption in the UK and China: the mediating effect of pro-environmental self-identity

In this paper, we respond to the call for more holistic and culturally diverse research to advance understanding of (non)sustainable consumption behaviour. Our conceptual model incorporates materialism, environmental concern, social consumption motivation, pro-environmental self-identity and sustainable consumption behaviours. This paper contributes to knowledge by examining the mediating role of pro-environmental self-identity to more fully explain consumers’ (non)sustainable consumption behaviour. An international online panel survey was employed in the UK (n = 1037) and China (n = 1025). Findings show that pro-environmental self-identity partially or fully mediates the relationships between materialism, environmental concern, social consumption motivation and sustainable consumption behaviours. Important cultural differences also emerged, for example, the positive effect of materialism on Chinese consumer’s sustainable consumption, which is contrary to Western evidence. We suggest bolder, culturally informed and more reflexive marketing strategies are needed to significantly advance sustainable consumption, thus effectively helping to redress the crisis facing our planet

Critiquing a Utopian idea of Sustainable Consumption: A Post-Capitalism Perspective

This paper proposes and critiques the idea of a post-capitalism sustainable consumption utopia to improve the ecological and human wellbeing of the planet. Such a notion can stimulate new imaginative thinking on a future sustainable world not dominated by neoliberalism. It can also strengthen SDG-12: responsible consumption and production. To do so, it examines the influence of pro-environmental self-identity, market-based barriers, and knowledge barriers on sustainable consumption buying, product lifetime extension, and environmental activism. Survey data was collected via online panels in Sweden (n=504) and the USA (n=1,017). Richly varied and complex findings emerge supporting the merit of this utopian idea. In particular, the importance of pro-environmental self-identity. This study illustrates how post-capitalism radical incrementalism and people power can initiate change using the civic, political, and environmental activism in sustainable consumption behaviours. Emerging implications for the viability of SDG-12 are also considered. This work offers rich opportunities for further research

Investigating Sustainable Consumption Behaviours: A US-China Perspective

In this paper we examine the sustainable consumption behaviours of two culturally distinct nations-America and China – utilising an online panel survey of 1,018 adult panel respondents in America and 1025 adult panel respondents in China. We investigate the influence of the multiple constructs of materialism, social consumption motivation, environmental concern and pro-environmental self-identity on American and Chinese consumers' sustainable consumption behaviours and whether pro-environmental self-identity acts as a mediating variable in these relationships. Our findings reveal cultural differences and similarities across our constructs, with pro-environmental self-identity emerging as a mediator, to varying degrees, in both cultures. An important cultural difference in China also materialised, namely the 'positive effect' of materialism on Chinese consumer's sustainable consumption – green materialism-which is counter to Western evidence and raises important questions about the meaning of consuming sustainably. Overall our use of these multiple constructs, combined with Eastern and Western data, enables us to enrich research evidence to increase understanding of (non)sustainable consumption behaviour and how this behaviour can begin to be advanced. It is evident that cultural tailoring of sustainability marketing strategies is necessary, and long-overdue and further cultural research is necessary to inform the effective design and delivery of them

How Does Restored Habitat For Chinook Salmon ( Oncorhynchus Tshawytscha ) In The Merced River In California Compare With Other Chinook Streams?

The amount of time and money spent on restoring rivers for declining populations of salmon has grown substantially in recent decades. But despite the infusion of resources, many studies suggest that salmon populations are continuing to decline, leading some to question the effectiveness of restoration efforts. Here we examine whether a particular form of salmon restoration—channel reconfiguration with gravel augmentation—generates physical and biological habitat that is comparable with other streams that support salmon. We compared a suite of habitat features known to influence the various life stages of Chinook salmon in a restoration project in California's Merced River with 19 other streams that also support Chinook that we surveyed in the same geographic region. Our survey showed that riffle habitats in the restored site of the Merced River have flow discharge and depth, substrate and food web characteristics that cannot be distinguished from other streams that support Chinook, suggesting that these factors are unlikely to be bottlenecks to salmon recovery in the Merced. However, compared with other streams in the region, the Merced has minimal riparian cover, fewer undercut banks, less woody debris and higher water temperatures, suggesting that these factors might limit salmon recovery. After identifying aspects in the Merced that differ from other streams, we used principal components analysis to correlate salmon densities to independent axes of environmental variation measured during our survey. These analyses suggested that salmon densities tend to be greatest in streams that have more undercut banks and woody debris and lower water temperatures. These are the same environmental factors that appear to be missing from the Merced River restoration effort. Collectively, our results narrow the set of candidate factors that may limit salmon recovery in channel reconfiguration restoration efforts. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/97512/1/rra1604.pd

Engagement and estrangement: A "tale of two cities" for Bristol’s green branding

Drawing on the service-dominant logic and taking a multi-stakeholder brand value co-creation perspective, this paper investigates whether positioning a place brand around sustainability helps or hinders stakeholders’ ability to co-create value for themselves and the brand. The paper is based on a case study of Bristol’s city branding following its award of European Green Capital, drawing on 29 in-depth interviews with key informants from multiple stakeholder groups. These interviews are supported by secondary material and field observations. The findings evidence a "tale of two cities". When sustainability is used as a positioning device, tensions are identified across three elements of brand co-creation: (1) brand meanings; (2) extraordinary versus mundane brand performances; (3) empowerment and disempowerment in branding governance. These tensions create stakeholder experiences of both engagement and estrangement. This article is based on one case study and evaluates face-to-face stakeholder interactions. Future research could access further stakeholders, across multiple cities and also examine their digital engagement. Positioning a brand as sustainable (i.e., ‘green’) requires strong commitment to other ethical principles in practice. Brand practitioners and marketers may benefit from advancing stakeholders’ everyday brand performances to reduce disillusionment. Rallying around virtuous associations, i.e., sustainability, does not in itself facilitate the generation of value for stakeholders and the brand, but instead can illuminate power imbalances and tensions in stakeholder interactions that result in a co-destruction of value

There’s a time and place: Navigating omni-temporality in the place branding process

This paper investigates how multiple stakeholders understand and navigate the interrelationship between past, present and future time-frames through what is termed omni-temporality. Despite an interest in the phenomenon within the corporate brand heritage literature, a limited understanding persists concerning how omni-temporality shapes stakeholders’ interactions with brands and with each other. These omissions are particularly pertinent in place branding where stakeholders are well-recognised as integral to the branding process. Through case studies of two city brands, our findings reveal tensions that arise when brand stakeholders prioritise the past or strive for a more contemporaneous and future-orientated framing. We identify the ways brand stakeholders navigate these tensions by utilising six (re)framing strategies that range from the reconciliatory to the destabilising. We show how facilitating stakeholders’ expressions of diversity and dissent can produce meaningful brand exchanges, ease the challenges associated with balancing continuity alongside change, and support an iterative form of temporal agency

Emissivity Results on High Temperature Coatings for Refractory Composite Materials

The directional emissivity of various refractory composite materials considered for application for reentry and hypersonic vehicles was investigated. The directional emissivity was measured at elevated temperatures of up to 3400 F using a directional spectral radiometric technique during arc-jet test runs. A laboratory-based relative total radiance method was also used to measure total normal emissivity of some of the refractory composite materials. The data from the two techniques are compared. The paper will also compare the historical database of Reinforced Carbon-Carbon emissivity measurements with emissivity values generated recently on the material using the two techniques described in the paper

Competing for legitimacy in the place branding process: (re)negotiating the stakes

Although stakeholder participation in place branding is actively encouraged, there has been a paucity of studies examining why uneven involvement persists in practice. This study builds on Bourdieu’s theory of field and capital to explain how stakeholders from the local state, destinations, businesses and local communities negotiate influence and legitimacy in the place branding process. A multi-case study of two UK cities was employed involving semi-structured interviews with 60 stakeholders. We identify the specific characteristics of cultural capital in place branding: procedural know-how and place-sensitive knowledge. Our findings show that com- munity representatives can acquire a seat at the place branding table by possessing distinct place-sensitive knowledge and drawing on procedural know-how accrued from professional settings. Nevertheless, tradition- ally dominant stakeholder groups, such as local state actors, destination management organisations and the business community, can build strategic collaborations that counter deficits in cultural capital and thus retain their status

Press protest and publics: the agency of publics in newspaper campaigns

Campaign advocacy is a common but rarely researched practice in British tabloid journalism. Newspaper campaigns give an account of ‘public opinion’ to politicians, make explicit claims to speak for ‘the public’ and authentically represent them, and also address readers in an unconventional way in order to recruit their support. This article therefore examines the effect to which agency is attributed to readers and other publics in two such campaigns, and argues that publics were portrayed as active only in relation to the newspaper’s activity, and as primarily as reacting emotionally to the problem. The campaigning press promote themselves commercially and politically as quasi-representatives who challenge distant and ‘out of touch’ political representatives with the populist impulses of ‘public’ demands, but without enhancing the democratic process, or publics’ position within it

Could renting be the 'new buying'? Perspectives on consumers' role in prolonging product lifetimes.

The circular economy (CE) has caught the interest of different stakeholders recently as a response to many of the current ‘grand challenges’ exemplified by the UN sustainable development goals. Whilst CE research outputs have increased exponentially, microlevel studies focusing on the role of users in the CE are limited to date. A lack of understanding of consumers’ attitudes is one of biggest challenges facing companies wishing to transition towards more circular production forms. This paper empirically examines consumer attitudes and perceptions towards renting everyday durable consumer goods (e.g., clothes, toys, baby clothes, leisure equipment) and explores online rental business owners’ perspectives of the challenges linked to these circular business models. It comprises an online survey with a large UK sample of 18-54 years (n=1,300) and 10 semi-structured interviews with platform owners. Drawing on and extending two established key frameworks to explain pro-environmental behaviour, i.e. the Norm Activation Theory and the Theory of Planned Behavior, we demonstrate that personal norms (i.e. perceived moral obligation to choose renting consumer goods), perceived behavioural control (i.e. perceived ability to renting consumer goods) and outcome efficacy (i.e., perceived feeling to be able to address environmental problems) are the main direct predictors of the intention to rent consumer goods for a fee. We provide empirical support for the role of personal norms as mediator and further provide insights into how personal norms are activated in the context of access-based consumption. This study has important managerial and policy implications for the transition to circular economy