One world, one environment, one vision: are we close to achieving this? An exploratory study of consumer environmental behaviour across three countries

Abstract The environment as an issue has been central to a number of conferences and debates held worldwide. This indicates the growing concern regarding environmental issues on the part of various nations. It is apparent that both public support and political efforts are required to halt environmental deterioration. Members of the public need to display a change in attitude and governments need policies and strategies to channel this change in appropriate directions. The present study concentrates on the aspect of public awareness and how this translates to their purchase of environmentally friendly products. The theoretical framework incorporates respondents from three countries. The main aim is to investigate differences in public awareness and behaviour based on individual variables, such as Cognitive style and Involvement, and broad factors, such as the economic and developmental stages of the countries included in the sample. Data has been collected from a sample of 132 respondents. The results indicate that the attitudes and behaviour of UK respondents are generally non‐committal, whereas the sample from India displays a more involved attitude, which is reflected in their purchasing behaviour. The ‘availability’ and the ‘price’ of environmentally friendly products have been identified as the most significant issues common to India, Greece and the UK. Cognitive style analysis indicates that innovators are responsible for generating a range of qualitative differences, whereas the differences highlighted by Involvement are quantitative in nature. Copyright © 2002 Henry Stewart Publications.