The Role of Perceived Consumer Effectiveness in Motivating Environmentally Conscious Behaviors
Abstract
While perceived consumer effectiveness (PCE) has consistently been linked to socially conscious attitudes, the concept appears to have been confounded with other related constructs in the empirical studies measuring its effects on behavior. In addition, the few studies which have considered the effects of PCE on reported behavior have done so only in aggregate. This research demonstrates that PCE is distinct from environmental concern and contributes uniquely to the prediction of certain pro-ecological behaviors. In addition, differences in PCE are shown to be associated with differences in demographics and political affiliation. The results suggest that motivating consumers to express their concern through actual behavior is to some extent a function of increasing their perception that individual actions do make a difference.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The results confirmed the relevance of perceived consumer effectiveness as described in the literature.
“On the one hand, our results confirmed the relevance of PCE as described in the literature (Ellen et al., 1991;Jaiswal & Singh, 2018;Kinnear et al., 1974;Niedermeier et al., 2021;Roberts, 1996;Zhao et al., 2018).”
From Sustainable clothing: Why conspicuous consumption and greenwashing matter (2023) · cites this paper as Ellen et al., 1991
Cites
From Intentions to Actions: A Theory of Planned Behavior
Ajzen, I. (1985) · Action Control · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-69746-3_2 · Cited by 19,057 · see citing works
Attribution versus persuasion as a means for modifying behavior.
Miller, R. L., Brickman, P., & Bolen, D. (1975) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/h0076539 · Cited by 348 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Sustainable food consumption: Exploring the consumer “attitude–behavioral intention” gap
Vermeir, I., & Verbeke, W. (2006) · Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics · doi:10.1007/s10806-005-5485-3 · Cited by 2,524 · see citing works
Green consumers in the 1990s: Profile and implications for advertising
Roberts, J. A. (1996) · Journal of Business Research · doi:10.1016/0148-2963(95)00150-6 · Cited by 1,603 · see citing works
Atkinson, L., & Rosenthal, S. (2014) · Journal of Advertising · doi:10.1080/00913367.2013.834803 · Cited by 620 · see citing works
Choi, D., & Johnson, K. K. P. (2019) · Sustainable Production and Consumption · doi:10.1016/j.spc.2019.02.001 · Cited by 377 · see citing works
Willingness to pay more for green products: A critical challenge for Gen Z
Gomes, S., Lopes, J. M., & Nogueira, S. (2023) · Journal of Cleaner Production · doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.136092 · Cited by 369 · see citing works
Hwang, J., & Griffiths, M. A. (2017) · Journal of Consumer Marketing · doi:10.1108/jcm-10-2015-1560 · Cited by 288 · see citing works
How Does Green Product Knowledge Effectively Promote Green Purchase Intention?
Wang, H., Ma, B., & Bai, R. (2019) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su11041193 · Cited by 238 · see citing works
The Effect of Misleading Environmental Claims on Consumer Perceptions of Advertisements
Newell, S. J., Goldsmith, R. E., & Banzhaf, E. J. (1998) · Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice · doi:10.1080/10696679.1998.11501795 · Cited by 202 · see citing works
Which are the determinants of green purchase behaviour? A study of Italian consumers
Dangelico, R. M., Nonino, F., & Pompei, A. (2021) · Business Strategy and the Environment · doi:10.1002/bse.2766 · Cited by 172 · see citing works
Jaiswal, D., & Singh, B. (2018) · Business Strategy & Development · doi:10.1002/bsd2.12 · Cited by 140 · see citing works
Lee, Y. K. (2017) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su9101930 · Cited by 128 · see citing works
Tucker, E. M., Rifon, N. J., Lee, E. M., & Reece, B. B. (2012) · Journal of Advertising · doi:10.1080/00913367.2012.10672454 · Cited by 123 · see citing works
The effect of food shape abnormality on purchase intentions in China
Loebnitz, N., & Grunert, K. G. (2015) · Food Quality and Preference · doi:10.1016/j.foodqual.2014.08.005 · Cited by 103 · see citing works
Sustainable clothing: Why conspicuous consumption and greenwashing matter
Apaolaza, V., Policarpo, M. C., Hartmann, P., Paredes, M. R., & D'Souza, C. (2023) · Business Strategy and the Environment · doi:10.1002/bse.3335 · Cited by 92 · see citing works
Atkinson, L., & Kim, Y. (2015) · Environmental Communication · doi:10.1080/17524032.2014.932817 · Cited by 89 · see citing works
Altintzoglou, T., Honkanen, P., & Whitaker, R. D. (2021) · Journal of Cleaner Production · doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.125487 · Cited by 73 · see citing works
Country Differences in Determinants of Behavioral Intention towards Sustainable Apparel Products
Jung, H. J., Oh, K. W., & Kim, H. M. (2021) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su13020558 · Cited by 53 · see citing works
Conflicting norms highlight the need for action.
McDonald, R. I., Fielding, K. S., & Louis, W. R. (2014) · Environment and Behavior · doi:10.1177/0013916512453992 · Cited by 52 · see citing works
Zhang, W., & Luo, B. (2021) · Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy · doi:10.1007/s10098-021-02061-8 · Cited by 54 · see citing works
Green Skepticism: Review and Research Agenda
Sivapalan, A., Jebarajakirthy, C., Saha, R., Mehta, P., Balaji, M. S., & Maseeh, H. I. (2024) · Marketing Intelligence & Planning · doi:10.1108/mip-04-2023-0179 · Cited by 35 · see citing works
Determinants of the Consumers Green Purchase Intention in Developing Countries
Butt, A. (2017) · Journal of Management Sciences · doi:10.20547/jms.2014.1704205 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
- Authors
- Ellen, P. S., Wiener, J. L., & Cobb-Walgren, C.
- Affiliations
- Assistant Professor of Marketing
- Oklahoma State University (US)
- Associate Professor of Marketing at Georgia State University, Atlanta
- Venue
- Journal of Public Policy & Marketing
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 1991-09
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 102-117
- ISSN
- 0743-9156 (ISSN-L)
- 1547-7207
- OpenAlex
- W2904546170
- Cited by
- 979
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 66 · 2025: 62 · 2024: 50 · 2023: 55 · 2022: 66 · 2021: 65 · 2020: 53 · 2019: 43 · 2018: 48 · 2017: 59 · 2016: 46 · 2015: 40 · 2014: 59 · 2013: 43 · 2012: 38
- FWCI
- 22.26
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Public Policy & Marketing (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law › Environmental Education and Sustainability
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Environmental Sustainability in Business
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Consumer behavior in food and health
- Keywords
- perceived consumer effectiveness, pro-environmental behavior, environmental concern, political affiliation, demographic differences, consumer motivation
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
