1、外文翻译 原文 Determining the characteristics to profile the “green”consumer: an exploratory approach Materical Source： Int Rev Public Nonprofit Mark (2008) 5:129140 Author： Arminda M. Finisterra do Pao Vastag et al. 1996; Carrigan and Attalla 2001). Such events placed the theme of the environment in the
2、forefront of public concerns and priorities. This paper begins by presenting a brief evolution of the concept of green marketing and examines some alternative ways of characterising this concept. Next, the importance of the study of environmental variables to market analysis and segmentation is high
3、lighted, together with a presentation of the most relevant criteria for differentiating individuals in terms of their environmental behaviour. After this contextualisation, which is based on the existing literature, the most relevant aspects of research methodology are presented, as well as the empi
4、rical results and respective conclusions. 2 Concept and evolution of green marketing The first attempts by researchers to establish a relationship between marketing and the environment were made in the early 1970s. Authors such as Kassarjain (1971), Fisk (1973) and Kinnear et al. (1974) published th
5、e first articles relating to this theme in the Journal of Marketing. For Kilbourne and Beckmann (1998) and Webster (1975), in these first attempts, stress was laid on the study of environmentally concerned consumers. In turn, Dam and Apeldoorn (1996) show that, at that time, attempts were also made
6、to develop a more social approach within the area of marketing. This idea opened up the possibility of marketing specialists providing a more active response to social and environmental problems, changing social values and the emergence of a new consumer movement (Kotler 1972; Fisk1974). In 1975, th
7、e first workshop organised by the American Marketing Association on Ecological Marketing (Polonsky 1994) took place. This workshop resulted in one of the first books on green marketingEcological Marketing by Henion and Kinnear 2 (1976a)and in a definition of ecological marketing as the study of the
8、positive and negative aspects of marketing activities on pollution, energy depletionand nonenergy resource depletion (Henion and Kinnear 1976b: 1). This publication was preceded by another book by Fisk (1974)Marketing and the Ecological Crisis whose work at that time had a fairly powerful impact in
9、academic circles. After a period of intense academic activity centred upon environmental questions, discussion of such matters declined considerably in the second half of the 1970s, continuing in this same vein until the mid-1980s (Crane 2000). This period also seems to have coincided with an increa
10、se in legislation and greater intervention on the part of governments with the aim of protecting the environment (Dam and Apeldoorn 1996; Baksi and Bose 2007). The 1990s have been identified as the decade of the environment (McDougall 1993; Brown and Wahlers 1998) or as the the Earth decade (McDanie
11、l and Rylander 1993). During this decade, social and environmental concerns (ECs) took on great importance for consumer purchasing decisions (Prothero 1996; Menon et al. 1999). It can therefore be said that ECs and the consumer demand for green products were driving forces behind the resurgence of g
12、reen marketing, the aim of which is achieving a balance between the objectives of sales and profits, on the one hand, and a concern for society and for the environment, on the other (Karna et al. 2002). 3 Environmental variables Next, an attempt will be made to provide an overall perspective of the
13、various environmental or green variables that could be very useful, for example, for profiling studies or for the conception of behavioural models. Environmental concern may be defined as an attitude that is related to environmental consequences (Antonides and Van Raaij 1998). This attitude is influ
14、enced by direct personal experiences, by the experiences of other individuals and by the communication produced by the media. It results in an environmentally friendly behaviour based on a number of conditions such as price, the performance of the product, social norms and knowledge about the enviro
15、nment. In their formulation of an EC measurement scale, Kinnear and Taylor (1973) also stressed that the level of EC demonstrated by an individual is related to his attitude and behavior. For Maloney et al. (1975), EC refers to the degree of emotionality, level of knowledge and 3 readiness to change
16、 behavior. Some research studies are based on the premise that peoples response to environmental appeals is increasingly linked to the belief that individuals can positively influence and contribute to the solution of environmental problems (Ellen et al. 1991). Perceived consumer effectiveness (PCE)
17、 was one of the variables studied by Straughan and Roberts (1999), who concluded that it was one of the variables that best explained ecologically conscious behavior. The results suggest that individuals who are concerned about the environment will only display a more proactive behavior if they feel
18、 that their individual action may be effective in solving environmental problems (Moisander 2007). Another factor that the literature review showed to be important and fairly influential in the relationship between environmental knowledge (EK), attitude and behavior is the so-called perceived behavi
19、oral control (PBC). This variable reflects the extent to which the consumer believes that his participation may be effective in the preservation of the environment. Consumers with a high PBC have a more intense environmental behavior (De Pelsmacker et al. 2002). However, there are contradictory stud
20、ies that have shown the existence of a causal relationship with low levels of correlation (Antil 1984). Environmental knowledge refers to how much an individual knows about environmental issues (Chan 1999). The variable EK has been recognized by marketing research as a factor that influences every p
21、hase of the buying decision process. Knowledge is an important concept that affects the way in which consumers gather and organize information and determines how they evaluate products and services (Laroche et al. 2001; Coad et al. 2008). Nevertheless, the empirical evidence supporting the influence
22、 of EK on behaviour is contradictory (Martin and Simintiras 1995). On the one hand, Maloney and Ward (1973) reported that there was no significant link between EK and favourable environmental behaviour. Cope and Windward (1991) also maintain that the green consumer, despite being profoundly concerne
23、d about the environment, may not completely understand the links between the environmental impact and the purchase of green products or, in reality, may have no consistent knowledge about theenvironment. On the other hand, Chan (1999) and Vining and Ebreo (1990) showed that knowledge about environme
24、ntal issues was a variable that was fairly useful for predicting favorable environmental behavior. 4 Environmental affect refers to the degree of emotionality that an individual displays in relation to environmental issues (Chan 1999). There seems to be consistent empirical evidence supporting the p
25、ositive association between environmental affect and environmental behavior (Maloney andWard 1973; Chan and Yam 1995). These studies also show that individuals with a low level of EK may nonetheless exhibit a close emotional relationship with the environment. In the case of the research undertaken b
26、y Chan (1999), the author noted that Chinese consumers demonstrated a powerful environmental affect, but that their actions in defence of the environment were still insignificant. Verbal commitment refers to the readiness or intention expressed by an individual to do something for the benefit of the
27、 environment (Chan 1999). In general, the studies that have been carried out have shown that there is a significant relationship between environmental intention and environmental behaviour (Chan and Yam 1995; Maloney and Ward 1973). Another of the factors that is recognised as preceding pro-environm
28、ental behavior is ecological consciousness (Schlegelmilch and Bohlen 1996; Chan and Lau 2000; Mostafa 2007). Such consciousness is sustained by a new consumer prepared to transfer his concern with nature to his consumption decisions. However, there appears to be no consensus in the literature about
29、the conceptual boundaries of this concept, due, on the one hand, to the heterogeneous approaches that make use of it (psychology, sociology, political science, etc.) and, on the other hand, to its different contextual applications (consumption of green products, energy saving, recycling RE, etc.). B
30、eside the variables mentioned above, another ones can be used to profile the green consumer, as the subjective norms (Shaw and Shiu 2003), the activism (Thogersen 1996), the green products buying behaviour (Chan and Lau 2000), the information search (Cope and Windward 1991), the willingness to pay f
31、or green products or services (Roe et al. 2001), the RE (Davies et al. 2002) and the skepticism towards environmental communications (Mohr et al. 1998). 4 Research methodology The data were collected through a survey of Portuguese consumers, aged over 18. The model of data collection was a survey co
32、nducted by self-administered 5 questionnaire. From a total of 1,350 questionnaires distributed, 887 were considered valid (the final sample). The questionnaire is composed of two sections. In the first part, data are collected about the demographic characteristics of respondents (gender, age, income
33、, educational level, job/occupation). The second part examines the environmental dimension (several variables collected from the literature review). The questionnaire include 55 statements and each of them was measured on a five-point scale anchored by I strongly disagree and I strongly agree. After
34、 collection, the data were statistically analysed and interpreted using the statistical software SPSS 15.0 (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). The data obtained were submitted to a multivariate statistical analysis, which included the statistical treatment factor analysis. 5 Results Based on
35、the fact that there are differences between individuals in regard to their pro-environmental behaviour and attitudes and that the number of variables used in this research is quite extensive, an exploratory factor analysis was used to simplify the interpretation of the variables. To carry out the fa
36、ctor analysis, the principal components method was used to extract the factors. The variables were grouped into 11 factors and, all together, account for 57.37% of the total variance. To facilitate the understanding and interpretation of the results, the factors were rotated using the varimax method
37、. The results of this rotation are shown in Table 1. As can be seen, according to the score obtained in the KaiserMeyerOlkin measure, the results of the analysis can be considered excellent (Kaiser 1974). Bartletts test of sphericity has a significance level of 0.000, showing that there is a high de
38、gree of correlation between the variables, which means that the factor analysis was suitable (Hair et al. 1998). A reliability analysis was also carried out using Cronbachs alpha coefficient (Table 2). The scores obtained showed that the first nine factors displayed satisfactory levels of internal c
39、oherence, because in this respect, the usual threshold level for this coefficient is 0.7, although it may be reduced to 0.6 in exploratory research (Hair et al. 1998: 118). It was therefore decided to eliminate the last two factors. Cronbachs 6 alpha coefficient was also calculated for the new group
40、 of factors, with a result being obtained of 0.9276. Taking into account the variables that appear to be most closely correlated with each of the factors, it can be said that: The first factor reflects a tendency for consumers to be careful when shopping, buying more energy-efficient, less polluting
41、, environmentally friendly, recycled and biodegradable products, as well as products whose packaging causes less harm to the environment. This factor is referred to as environmentally friendly buying behaviorr (EFBB). The second factor essentially brings together the variables related with the inter
42、est in and search for information, collaboration with environmentalist Table 1 Rotated component matrix Items F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 F7 F8 F9 F10 F11 I read the labels to see if 0.467 the products are environmentally safe I am willing to stop buyingproducts 0.548 from firms thatare guilty of polluting I
43、try to buy energy efficien thousehold a 0.627 Ppliances When there is a choice, Ichoose the 0.714 product that causes the least pollution I have switched products /brands 0.566 for ecological reasons I usually buy productsmade 0.640 from recycled materials I make a special effort to 0.761 buy biodeg
44、radable products I buy products in refillable 0.735 containers I will not buy products that 0.689 have excessive packaging I prefer to buy products not 0.445 tested on animals I use environmentally safe 0.698 7 soaps and detergents I avoid buying products in 0.583 aerosol containers I prefer to buy
45、durable 0.385 goods I am interested in reading 0.445 reports/articles on environmentally friendly products I help a group whose main 0.785 aim is to preserve the environment I give money to a cause or 0.788 an environmental group I have taken part in a 0.784 protest or demonstration related to an en
46、vironmental cause I know how to preserve and 0.395 not cause damage to the environment I know the meaning of 0.872 global warming I know the meaning of 0.855 acid rain I know what the problem of 0.853 ozone depletion is I know that plastic bags 0.526 take many years to decompose and cause pollution
47、I am very concerned 0.654 about the problem of pollution in general 8 I am very concerned 0.714 about air pollution and the problem of ozone depletion I become angry when I 0.693 think about the harm being caused to life by pollution When I think of the ways in 0.666 which industries pollute, I get frustrated and angry I usually hand in at the 0.327 chemists any medicine that is left over or past its sell-by date I usually keep separate 0.817 piles of rubbish for RE I am pr
