Plastic pollution is one of the biggest environmental problems in the world. In modern society, the consumption of single-use plastics in the food service industry has increased along with the increase in food-away-from-home. The COVID-19 pandemic has attacked the consumption of single-use plastic in the restaurant industry. During the COVID-19 pandemic, especially the US has retracted the related laws and policies regarding using single-use plastic for fast food and carry-out food, and customers have increased their use of single-use plastic for fast food and carry-out food due to worries about hygiene. Even though sustainability has been a novel topic in hospitality literature, a majority of studies have focused on the consumers’ perception, attitude, or behavioral willingness toward sustainability. To fill this gap in research, finding an effective way to influence consumers’ behavioral change becomes important and necessary.

Sustainability rears its head in the current online marketing and virtual store -research. Sustainability considerations involve pro-environmental-, social- and economic values as well as future generations and continuous innovation (Hanss and Böhm, 2012). Central in the sustainability research is sustainable consumer behavior, which has been found to be subject of intensions varying across different types of consumers, issues, and product categories (O’Rourke and Ringer, 2016). Determining consumers’ general egoistic, altruistic and biospheric values (e.g., De Groot and Steg 2008; Steg et al., 2014) have resulted quite complex and not always so generalizable structural models for sustainable behavior. While value -research has been dominant in determining the sustainability intensions and eventual behavior, there are relatively little solid theories and understating about different psychological processes behind sustainable behavior. Furthermore, the consideration of multiple sustainable consumer behavior outcomes seems to be limited, which can also hamper the development of models and theories (see e.g., Hulland and Houston 2021).

This study examines the influence of self-identity on sustainable consumer behavior in the context of air traveling and the moderating effect of advertisement addressing these identities. Drawing on the flyers’ dilemma, the identity-based motivation theory and cognitive dissonance theory hypotheses are tested by the means of a scenario-based online experiment.

In recent years, maintaining transparency has become a trend among brands, and a better level of supply chain transparency has been demonstrated to positively affect consumer environmental concern and conscious behavior. Consumers may accept transparency efforts as a signal of the brand goodwill and perceive it as a visibly sustainable effort that can convert brand trust. In the information transparency trend, eco-certification plays an important role as a tool to inform consumers about sustainability. However, facing large amounts of information, consumers spend much time filtering information, so the accuracy of the obtained information can be compromised. The Higg index is a sustainable verification platform that reveals the entire activities of supply chains. However, most consumers are facing an overload of information that could confuse their processing of any information. In this context, the present study seeks to examine the effect of business transparency to conscious consumer behavior and purchase intention. Second, this study deals with the moderating effects of sustainable knowledge on the relationship between business transparency, environmental concern, and brand trust. Third, we explore the effects of high and low level of consume knowledge of sustainability on the relationship between business transparency and brand trust. In terms of the methodology used in the present study, an off-line survey of Korean consumers was conducted. SPSS 21.0 was used for data analysis aiming to test the proposed model and research hypothesis. The mains results of this study are as follows. First, business transparency has a positive effect on environmental concern, brand trust, and consumer willingness to conscious behavior. Second, consumer sustainable knowledge has a moderating effect on business transparency for environmental concern and brand trust. Taken together, the findings of the present study provide meaningful implications for marketers by highlighting the importance of transparency and introduction of a transparent eco-certification for communication with consumers. To successfully influence consumer willingness to assume conscious behavior, brands are advised to provide standardized transparency labels, rather than complicated information.

This study identified fashion consumers disposal behavior and analyzed the effects of consumers pursuing values in disposal, environmental awareness, and sustainable fashion consumption attitudes in regards to fashion disposal behavior. A survey questionnaire was developed and data were obtained from 460 consumers in their 20's to 50's in Korea who had experienced fashion disposal behaviors during last 12 months. As a result, there were four different fashion disposal behaviors such as economical, practical, and social disposal as well as hoarding behaviors. Consumers pursuing values in disposal affected fashion disposal behavior. Practical and economical values had positively impacted economical disposal and hoarding behaviors. While hedonic value had a negative impact on economical disposal behavior, it had a positive impact on social disposal behavior. Also, environmental-social values had positively impacted practical and social disposal behaviors. Fashion-related environmental knowledge had positively impacted economical and practical disposal behaviors and PCE affected social disposal behavior, while environmental concerns had a negative impact on economical disposal behavior. Consumers attitude toward usedfashion items, fashion recycling, and fashion innovativeness affected all of fashion disposal behaviors. Although hoarding behavior has been an under researched area, the finding implied that hoarding behavior was affected by consumer's pursuing value in disposal and sustainable consumption attitude. Also, environmental-social values and attitudes toward used-fashion items would induce practical disposal behavior such as reuse by alteration or reform. Consumers economical and hedonic values can promote donations or exchange/resale of unwanted fashion items, which can lead to sustainable consumption.

Along with the rapid development of China’s economy, the consumption of China’s consumer has also been increased. This research explores whether China’s consumers concern about product’s packaging as much as product’s quality and brand influence. It also discusses whether the product packaging is marked with recyclable logo on it and whether the packaging is harmful to human health. China’s express industry is taken as an example in this research. According to the statistics by State Post Bureau, the total amount of China’s express business was 14 billion packages in 2014, and the volume was substantially increased to 20.67 billion packages. If each package was estimated as 0.2 kg, more than 4 million tons of packaging waste would come from 20 billion packages. Recyclable packaging material would reduce the amount of waste and alleviate environmental pollution. However, whether customers are willing to pay for it is a problem. Product packaging can’t only attract customers from the visual perspective, but needs to be developed through multi-dimensional sensory conveying method. The product itself can be expressed directly through simple packaging. For instance, the Apple Inc. does not only shift consumer’s thoughts on mobile phone, meanwhile, it makes a change on high-end brand mobile phone packaging for China’s consumers. Prior to the emergence of Apple mobile phone, high-end mobile phone brand was adopted luxurious and sophisticated packaging method. With the entrance of Apple into China’s market, the unique style of Apple’s simplicity is followed by other mobile phone brands. This research is elaborated on China’s consumer’s reaction on innovative ecological packaging and their cognition to food packaging security. It also gives inspiration to enterprises how to catch consumer’s eyeballs through innovative ecological packaging and further make enterprises access to benefits.

The fashion industry, being energy and labor-intensive, has faced obstacles such as waste of resources, environmental pollution, and poor working conditions through the supply chain process. Because of the huge success of fast fashion, the consumption of fashion products has increased by 60% in the past ten years. At the same time, the problem of clothing waste is rearing its ugly head accounting for more than 30% of the entire garbage of the world. Providing clothes in cheaper price causes a poorer working condition. In April 2013, a deaths of 1,149 people in garment factory of Bangladesh is caused by the poor working condition without safety standard. Considering its direct effect on lives, consumers are now asking fashion companies to take on more social responsibilities and sustainability is emerging as a critical issue in the fashion industry (Ko, Hwang, & Kim, 2012; Yoo, 2012a). However despite consumers’ high interest in sustainability, they hardly ever seemed to connect with actual consumers according to various studies. Therefore, for a better understanding of consumers to foster their sustainable purchase behavior, this study attempts to identify consumers’ perception and attitude toward sustainable fashion and provide a suitable promoting strategy for consumer types. The role of consumers in driving a sustainable industry ecosystem is growing in importance, but few studies on sustainable fashion consumers have been conducted. Besides, there are two unsolved limitations, in particular, which have been pointed out multiple times in previous studies: first, the inconsistency between the findings (D’Souza, Taghian, Lamb, & Peretiatko, 2007; McDonald & Oates, 2006; Moisander, 2007; Peattie, 2001; Rex & Baumann, 2007; Straughan, 1999), and second, the failure to explain “the attitude-behavior gap.” (Kollmuss & Agyeman, 2002; Vermeir & Verbeke, 2006; Yoo, 2012b) In this context, this study employs Q methodology and purchase perception matrix to identify consumers. Q methodology is more effective and robust technique than self-report methods for the measurement of attitudes and subjective opinion (Stanton & Guion, 2010; Cross, 2005). And the purchase perception matrix, proposed by Peattie (1999), is known as a useful model to classify individual sustainable purchase (Peattie, 1999; Peattie, 2001; McDonald & Oates, 2006; Tan, 2011). The matrix combines two dimensions (High vs. Low confidence and compromise) to analyze four potential purchases such as win-win purchase, feeling good purchase, why not? purchase, why bother? purchase. Peattie’s matrix implies the concept of purchases but also has resonance with the concept of consumers. For example, using marketing strategy to enhance confidence and reduce compromise of each consumer makes their sustainable purchases more easy (McDonald & Oates, 2006). This study tests four types of benefit cueing using advertisement stimuli on sustainable fashion in order to suggest an effective promoting strategy to consumers. Moon et al. (2013) investigate three benefits of sustainable fashion, which are altruistic benefit (out-directed and selfless), social image benefit (out-directed and self-interested) and self-oriented benefit (inner-directed and self-interested). Hartmann et al. (2005) test two types of marketing strategy which are emotional strategy (a feeling of happiness by altruistic behavior or expression of self-identity as a green consumer) and functional strategy (excellent performance in eco-friendly function). Following the previous studies, this study investigates 2 (benefit orientation: external-oriented, internal-oriented) by 2 (benefit type: rational, emotional) benefit cueing stimuli into different types of consumer to verify four hypotheses such as first, external-oriented benefit is more effective than inner-directed benefit (Kim and Kim, 2002; Park, Oh, and Hwang, 2013). Second, based on the purchase perception matrix, high confidence and compromise consumer is more affected than low confidence and compromise consumer by external-oriented benefit. Third, high confidence and compromise consumer is more affected by external-oriented plus rational benefit (Pahbar and Wahid, 2011). And fourth, low confidence and compromise consumer is more affected by external-oriented plus emotional benefit (Vermeir and Verbeke, 2006). In study 1, Q methodology is conducted to identify the types of sustainable fashion consumer with 26 participants. As the result, four types of consumer are identified; the doubtful egoist, the single-minded bystander, the wavering intellect, and the narcissistic activist. The doubtful egoist is especially interested in personal gains and distrusts so-called sustainable fashion. The single-minded bystander has his own subjective opinion on sustainable fashion and is not easily persuaded by sustainable marketing messages. The wavering intellect is obviously interested in sustainability but also shows the highest attitude-behavior gap. The narcissistic activist sets great store by his social image and for that reason consumes sustainable fashion products. In study 2, which aims to verify the four types of consumer and test different types of benefit cueing of sustainable fashion by surveying 328 participants. Each consumer type is shown to be distinctive in terms of sustainable fashion perception, sustainable fashion behavior, fashion lifestyle, cost and benefit perception of sustainable fashion, and the degree of confidence and compromise. The four types of consumer are categorized into two types based on the purchase perception matrix. The wavering intellect is located on higher degree of confidence and compromise position but the others are on an opposite side by showing lower degree of confidence and compromise. Four types of benefit cueing are suggested to two types of consumer (the degree of confidence and compromise: high, low) with regard to the consumer types’ willingness to pay for sustainable fashion. The result shows that external-oriented benefit is more effective than internal-oriented benefit (Mex=2.84, SDex=.079, Min=2.46, SDin=.093; F=9.435, p<.005, H1 is supported). Those who show high degree of confidence and compromise are affected by external-oriented benefit than low degree of confidence and compromise consumers (Mh=3.19, Ml=2.49, F=12.130, p<.005; H2 is supported) and most of all, external-rational benefit (Mex-e=3.18, Sdex-e=.85, Mex-r=3.95, Sdex-r=1.18; t=2.351, p<.05, H3 is supported). Those who show low degree of confidence and compromise are affected by external-emotional benefit but this difference did not fall within the range of statistical significance (Mex-r=2.38, Sdex-r=1.24, Mex-e=2.61, Sdex-e=1.05; t=1.176, p>.05, H4 is rejected). This study theoretically contributes to a new and holistic perspective of sustainable fashion consumer and provides better understanding by Q methodology and purchase perception matrix. This study investigates the complex attributes of benefit such as different types and orientations and it takes a step-by-step look at how different benefit cueing leads actual behavior change of consumer. Especially, this study adopted a new variable such as consumer type and it enhances the feasibility of predicting sustainable fashion acceptance of each type of consumer. From a practical point of view, this study will be useful for offering guidelines to identify a specific target to generate a specific result for sustainable fashion company. For instance, concentrating on altruistic benefit promoting strategy with fluent information about eco-friendly attributes and socially responsible activities can strengthen high degree of confidence and compromise consumers who are relatively easy to change purchase behavior and regarded as target consumers. But those strategy does not much affect to low degree of confidence and compromise consumer who are potential consumers and as well as mass consumers in terms of their actual numbers in market. It is needed a long-term approach and in such context, this study offers guidance for expanding sustainable fashion from a niche market to a mass market.