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Conceptualizing sustainability from a consumer perspective

A qualitative study in the food sector

Konzeptionalisierung der Nachhaltigkeit aus der Konsumentensicht

Eine qualitative Studie im Lebensmittelsektor

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Abstract

This qualitative study explores consumers’ understanding of sustainability in the food sector. The paper identifies different mental structures of the concept (nominal, ordinal, cluster, hierarchy) and taps into the underlying motivation and goals driving evaluations of sustainability.

Diese qualitative Studie untersucht das Verständnis der Verbraucher für Nachhaltigkeit im Lebensmittelbereich. Der Artikel identifiziert verschiedene mentale Strukturen, wie das Konzept verankert ist (nominal, ordinal, Cluster, hierarchisch) und beleuchtet die zugrundeliegenden Motive und Ziele, welche die Bewertungen der Nachhaltigkeit bestimmen.

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Funding

This research was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), project TransKoll (grant 01UT1414A) as part of the framework program ‘Sozial-ökologischen Forschung (SÖF)’ with focus on ‘Nachhaltiges Wirtschaften’.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Business Administration, Department of Marketing, Kiel University, Westring 425, 24098, Kiel, Germany

    Tom Joerß, Payam Akbar & Stefan Hoffmann

  2. Department of Marketing, Grenoble Ecole de Management, 12 Rue Pierre Semard, 38000, Grenoble, France

    Robert Mai

Authors
  1. Tom Joerß
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  2. Payam Akbar
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  3. Robert Mai
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  4. Stefan Hoffmann
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stefan Hoffmann.

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Conflict of interest

T. Joerß, P. Akbar, R. Mai and S. Hoffmann declare that they have no competing interests.

Appendix

Appendix

 

Table 1 Demographic description and summary of interview participants
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Joerß, T., Akbar, P., Mai, R. et al. Conceptualizing sustainability from a consumer perspective. uwf 25, 15–23 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00550-017-0452-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00550-017-0452-9

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