Purpose – The purpose of this research is to identify how idiocentric consumers and allocentric consumers respond to retail store environments and how such responses affect their consumer behaviors in a sustainable consumption setting.
Method – Data were collected from 422 U.S. adult consumers via a web-based survey. Two store settings were created, perceptually related (eco-friendly clothing displayed with greenery)or perceptually-unrelated (eco-friendly clothing displayed without greenery), and consumers were asked to take the survey based on the given store setting.
Results – Allocentric consumers perceived a product and its display environment were related whereas idiocentric consumers perceived the two were unrelated. Also, the former exhibited higher purchase intentions when the product and store environment were related (eco-friendly clothing displayed with greenery), but the latter did when the two were unrelated (eco-friendly clothing displayed without greenery).
Conclusions – This research suggests that retailers should consider consumer self-concept at personal-level when implementing marketing strategies. This research also demonstrates that consumers are influenced by store environment in relation to their self-concept and that self-concept can be temporarily modified by various stimuli such as visual displays.