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Above and beyond? How businesses can drive sustainable development by promoting lasting pro‐environmental behaviour change: An examination of the IKEA Live Lagom project
Author(s) -
Elf Patrick,
Isham Amy,
Gatersleben Birgitta
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
business strategy and the environment
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.123
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1099-0836
pISSN - 0964-4733
DOI - 10.1002/bse.2668
Subject(s) - psychological intervention , behaviour change , sustainable development , marketing , sustainable business , business , set (abstract data type) , corporate social responsibility , public relations , sustainability , political science , psychology , law , ecology , psychiatry , computer science , biology , programming language
Current global changes require new business approaches driving sustainable development on all fronts. To date, most business approaches have focused on sustainable marketing and corporate social responsibility initiatives. In this field study, we examine IKEA's Live Lagom project, a 3‐year behaviour change initiative that aimed to explore how to go above and beyond conventional approaches demonstrating how businesses could support sustainable development by supporting their customers' attempts to live more sustainable lifestyles. We examined the effectiveness of the project involving multifaceted behaviour change interventions, testing for behavioural changes both during and after the project period. In addition, we explored changes in participants' attitudes towards the company. Findings show that the extensive set of interventions led to changes in pro‐environmental behaviours across all three participant groups with potentially positive impacts on the customer–company relationship. The article thus provides a call for further businesses to engage in similar behaviour change projects that would allow citizens to engage in more sustainable lifestyles and behaviours across contexts.