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Jingle bells or ‘green’ bells? The impact of socially responsible consumption principles upon consumer behaviour at Christmas time
Author(s) -
Robinot Élisabeth,
Ertz Myriam,
Durif Fabien
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
international journal of consumer studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.775
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1470-6431
pISSN - 1470-6423
DOI - 10.1111/ijcs.12373
Subject(s) - consumption (sociology) , theory of planned behavior , atmosphere (unit) , psychology , social psychology , consumer behaviour , situated , sample (material) , advertising , control (management) , sociology , economics , business , geography , social science , chemistry , management , chromatography , artificial intelligence , meteorology , computer science
Socially responsible consumption (SRC) behaviours have progressed over the last few years and appear to show signs of a lasting trend. Situations of atypical consumption such as Christmas time, however, raise an important and as of yet unexplored question: What are the influences of unusual situations upon the relationship between people's socially responsible profile and their socially responsible purchase intentions (SRPI)? The objective of this article is thus to use the theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen, [Ajzen, I., 1991]) and environment‐based variables, called ‘atmospherics’, to answer to this question. A Web survey on a total sample of 301 Canadian consumers, shows that people's past SRC behaviours are positively related to their SRPI in unusual situations. Moreover, the atmosphere of the place consumers are situated in has a negative moderating influence upon this relationship. This result is explained by a change in people's attitude toward SRC. However, this negative moderating effect of atmosphere is contained and constrained by social desirability in the form of subjective norms on SRC and the level of behavioural control consumers perceive.