TY - JOUR
T1 - The influence of environmental self-identity on the relationship between consumer identities and frugal behavior
AU - Gil-Giménez, Domingo
AU - Rolo-González, Gladys
AU - Suárez, Ernesto
AU - Muinos, Gabriel
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was funded by Ministerio de Econom?a, Industria y Competitividad del Gobierno de Espa?a, grant number PSI2016-76246-P.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2021/9/1
Y1 - 2021/9/1
N2 - The need to reduce consumption is evident, and a way of achieving this is through austerity and frugal practices. The aim of this research was to advance the understanding of frugal behavior and its relation to consumer identities, and to analyze any possible mediating effects of environmental self-identity. In Study 1 (n = 492), the factor structure of the consumer identities scale was tested and three distinct identities were defined: moral, wasteful, and thrifty consumer identities. In Study 2 (n = 500), the influence of consumer identities on frugal behavior was studied and the possible mediating effect of environmental self-identity was analyzed. Environmental self-identity completely mediated the relationship between moral identity and frugal behavior and partially mediated the relationships of both wasteful and thrifty identities with frugal behavior. The model was able to predict 27.6% of the variance of environmental self-identity and 47.9% of the variance of frugal behavior, with a strong influence by the thrifty consumer identity. This emphasizes the economic dimension of frugal consumption patterns and the importance of considering how people view themselves, both as individuals and as consumers, in order to more effectively engage and maintain long-term sustainable frugal actions.
AB - The need to reduce consumption is evident, and a way of achieving this is through austerity and frugal practices. The aim of this research was to advance the understanding of frugal behavior and its relation to consumer identities, and to analyze any possible mediating effects of environmental self-identity. In Study 1 (n = 492), the factor structure of the consumer identities scale was tested and three distinct identities were defined: moral, wasteful, and thrifty consumer identities. In Study 2 (n = 500), the influence of consumer identities on frugal behavior was studied and the possible mediating effect of environmental self-identity was analyzed. Environmental self-identity completely mediated the relationship between moral identity and frugal behavior and partially mediated the relationships of both wasteful and thrifty identities with frugal behavior. The model was able to predict 27.6% of the variance of environmental self-identity and 47.9% of the variance of frugal behavior, with a strong influence by the thrifty consumer identity. This emphasizes the economic dimension of frugal consumption patterns and the importance of considering how people view themselves, both as individuals and as consumers, in order to more effectively engage and maintain long-term sustainable frugal actions.
KW - Consumer identities
KW - Environmental self-identity
KW - Frugal behavior
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85113927823&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/su13179664
DO - 10.3390/su13179664
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85113927823
VL - 13
JO - Sustainability
JF - Sustainability
SN - 2071-1050
IS - 17
M1 - 9664
ER -