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Forms of Conscious Consumption
73-80Views:259Globalization and its effects can be found almost everywhere. Among the effects of globalization the improvement of international trade, the technological progress, the increasing influence of multinational companies, the strengthening power and influence of international institutions such as the WTO, IMF, and World Bank, greater mobility of human resources across countries, greater outsourcing of business processes to other countries have to be pointed out. As one of the results of globalisation we can buy even such products that have been produced somewhere on the other side of the world. It is not always clear for the consumers where, how and by whom the product has been produced. For conscious consumers the information provided on the packaging of the product, labels, trademarks can help a lot when making their purchasing decision. Of course there are several other ways to collect the necessary information. For these consumers the origin of the product, the producer, the production process, the ingredients, the environmental and social impacts of the production, as well as ethical concerns are really important questions.
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Analysis of the Values of Sustainable Development and the Health Conscious Lifestyle Among Secondary School Students
41-62Views:188Health, together with the social- and natural environment has become the most important and core value recently. The current research would like to explore the presence of sustainable development related values and the elements of health consciousness among the consumption behaviour of secondary school students. The aim of the first part is to provide an overview of conscious consumption, sustainable development and the literal researches connected to this particular generation. In the second part of the work, we present the results of a research made between April 2015 and 2016 involving 1 002 students of 13 institutions. During the selection, we kept in mind to choose institutions of all different profiles (human, sport, art, general) and different types (grammar school, vocational high school, technical school). During creating the questionnaire, the basis of the questions and statements since was the consumption trends that can be found in the literature sources as well. We analysed the data with the help of frequency indicators together with factor- and cluster analyses. During the primary examinations, we identified five factors that were created along with the values of the following behaviours: trend-following individualistic, health- and environmental conscious, authentic patriot, altruistic-ethical and business ethical. With the help of them, we could name four well-divided groups after the cluster analysis, where the values of the created factors can be realised at different rates. The groups were the Trend-avoiding Conscious, the Responsibility-blamers, the Passive “freshmen” and the Conscious individualists. The first group can be related to the trends of voluntary simplicity, whereas the fourth segment shows a strong similarity to the values of the LOHAS consumer group. These groups – and their different socio-demographic features – raise the attention to the fact that knowledge, messages and examples-to-follow are worth conveying with a differentiated marketing communicational strategy. This secondary school generation undertakes their connection to the particular sustainable and health conscious values, and – at least in a theoretical field – the majority of the students admit their responsibility in shaping the environment and their own health. In the case of conscious consumption, the peculiarities of this generation (digital, “Always on” generation) demand a quite new communicational approach in transporting messages and possibilities of act.
JEL codes: A13, D70, I12, Q56
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Interpretation of Health-conscious Food Consumption Behavior on the Basis of LOHAS Concept
39-46Views:281In our study, the information search behavior of sustainability committed consumer group is analyzed. Furthermore, consumer opinions about nutrition labels on food packaging are highlighted. According to the international literature, LOHAS (Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability) group is the most committed consumer segment to sustainability.
Exploration of Hungarian sustainability committed consumer groups’ opinion about food labels is supported by the closing part of a research chain which was started in 2010. This, last research was carried out in 2012, where, with the aid of quota sampling, Trend followers’ and Unconcerned’s judgment on food labels was investigated. The quota and the two mentioned groups were formed on the basis of a national representative research, which was performed in 2011. Information search behavior was evaluated according to the structure of Grunert-Wills’ information search model. In this study we focus on our research results, which connect to the last two steps (understanding, interferences and use) of the mentioned model.
Goal of this research is to investigate in a practical aspect of information search behavior of domestic sustainability committed consumer group (“Trend followers”) in connection with food labels proving health effects of foodstuffs. Four hypotheses were defined to reach our goal:
H1: Among health information on food packaging, labels stating energy value, are getting a higher influencing role in food purchasing process, where conscious consumer groups have a deeper knowledge about the objective meaning of food labels.
H2: Consumer knowledge about objective meaning of food labels is getting a highlighted role in formation of brand loyalty.
H3: Trust has an essential role in consumer acceptation of food labels, where common qualifier activity of different organizations (state, profit and nonprofit area) come into the front.
H4: Correct understanding of food labels has a positive influencing effect on acceptation of higher prices and on real use of food labels during food purchasing.
One- and multivariate analysis and cross table analysis were calculated to investigate our assumptions. In the closing part of our study, three practical recommendations are defined, which relate to follows: optimization of communication strategy of food industries, way of introduction of new food labels and need of objective guidance of consumers about food information. -
Consumer Perception of Corporate Social Responsibility
3-14Views:134Several studies have drawn attention to the importance of and the impact on consumer behavior of the corporate efforts in order to promote sustainable consumption in the last decades. The concept and framework of sustainable consumption appear at global, European and national levels. Several studies have examined the possible design and modeling opportunities for sustainable societies. The socially responsible operation of companies and their efforts for sustainable consumption can be the driving force behind social changes. In our study, we examined the consumer’s perception of social responsibility of companies on based on a national representative sample of 1,038 respondents over 15 years of age. In our analysis, opinions and attitudes related to sustainable development are presented, followed by the characterization of the groups that can be separated on the basis of the monitoring of sustainable corporate activities. The research shows that only a minority the consumers do not believe that consumers could make to sustainable development through their decisions. In contrast, nearly a third of domestic consumers is neutral or attaches importance to the efforts of companies for sustainable development, which is average by European standards. The company moves which lead to better opinions of domestic consumers, or which may lead to the rejection of shopping are introduced. Four groups of consumers are separated according to the monitoring of sustainable business activities.
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Awareness and Effect of CSR on Consumer Decisions
15-27Views:222Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a common topic, both at national and international levels. Profit maximisation is essential for companies, but they should not forget the social and environmental impacts of their activities. The question of sustainability is also a common topic requiring examination. The future of the Earth, our natural resources and the generations that will come after us also impact on the responsibilities of companies. For many companies, this kind of responsibility is natural and they take such CSR and sustainable steps that are worth following. From modern society, there is a high expectation and even strong pressure on companies to conduct responsible business practice. The number of responsible companies is increasing due to this pressure. What do we mean by CSR? What sorts of activities and steps are covered by CSR? What are the motivators of the CSR strategies, CSR activities of companies? What are their reasons? Many researchers investigate the motivators of CSR. From them, opinion on the company, image of the company, “consumers will prefer us”, are among the most frequent ones. However, are the CSR actions of companies appreciated by consumers? The results of many researchers demonstrate that they are not appreciated. In general, responsible business practise is a high expectation from consumers, but when purchasing a product, this aspect is one of the least important factors. The aim of this paper is to collect some of the most relevant research findings on CSR, to introduce the informedness of Hungarian respondents on CSR in general, to find out the main influencing factors of their purchasing decisions, and also find correlations between the received results and the demographic variables based on our primary research. Our results support the present practice in terms of the definition of CSR. Almost all the listed alternatives are strongly associated with CSR by the respondents. The highest average received for the “creating workplaces, employment” alternative indicates the importance of this activity. Regarding the different factors influencing purchasing decision, our results underline the importance of price and price value ratio. This research finding is in line with other research findings, which shows that CSR actions of companies, responsible business practice is not the number one influencing factor of actual consumer decision.
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Nutritional Significance of Eggs as a Basic and Functional Food
7-22Views:623The image of table eggs and egg consumption habits were negatively influenced by the American National Cholesterol Education Program based on the misperception that dietary cholesterol affects serum cholesterol levels in blood. Research in recent years, which is less well-known and widespread in the public awareness, has refuted this theory. Eggs are miracle foods containing 40 proteins and 18 amino acids, and rich in vitamins and minerals, with the same biological value as breast milk. Moreover, eggs have functional properties which can make it one of the possible tools for improving public health because it reduces the risk of a large number of diseases, and helps brain function and foetal development, and strengthens the immune system. Nevertheless, the Hungarian egg consumption and production were down in recent years. Stopping and reversing this trend are needed as quickly as possible. The aim of this study is to summarize the latest research results on eggs and its nutritional significance, which is able to provide a basis for adequate information to consumers and updating the knowledge of related disciplines.
JEL codes: I10, M30, Q13
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The Investigation of Sustainable Values among the Students of the University of Debrecen
3-20Views:311The aim of the research was to define sustainable values among the students of the University of Debrecen. We analysed the lifestyle of two sustainable consumption groups, the LOHAS (Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability) and the LOVOS (Lifestyle of Voluntary Simplifiers). As a first step, connection points were being looked for between the LOHAS and the LOVOS segments with the assistance of the literature review. Secondly, a questionnaire-based survey was carried out involving 298 students of the University of Debrecen. In this step appearance of sustainable values was analysed using factor analysis both for LOHAS and LOVOS segments separately. Next, we made a value-based lifestyle segmentation of the students with the assistance of hierarchical analysis in the case of the LOHAS segment and k-means analysis in the case of the LOVOS segment. According to the results, four value-based segments could be distinguished in both the LOHAS and the LOVOS groups. In the case of the LOHAS consumer group, the ambitious trend followers (the cluster size was 25.1% of the asked students) reflect the characteristics of the LOHAS consumers’ lifestyle to the greatest extent. In the case of the LOVOS consumer group, the most dedicated cluster was the conscious simplifiers (the cluster size was 34.55% of the asked students). However, this segment does not entirely reflect all the values of the LOVOS consumers’ lifestyle, so further research is necessary in the future.
JEL codes: A13, Q56, D70