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Sustainability, encompassing the economy, the environment, and society in equal parts, is an increasingly prominent topic that is gaining in importance and awareness due to the climate crisis and the resulting urgent need for action. It is essential to simultaneously focus on the global and on the local scale in order to create a paradigm shift. This study addresses the attitude-behavior gap of employees in the daily operations within companies and evaluates how nudges can be implemented to narrow this gap. A literature review was conducted to understand the separate topics of sustainability, the attitude-behavior gap, and nudging. Based on these three topics and their interrelation, exemplary nudges on habits and on infrastructure to be applied in a company and modified to its needs are developed. The method of implementation of nudges cannot be generalized because (1) attitudes and behavior and their interrelation are individual and influenceable factors and (2) the corporate context and how nudges are communicated impact the effectiveness of the interventions. Investing in internal sustainability practices in combination with indispensable external practices leads companies to a holistic, authentic, and successful approach towards becoming a sustainable business.
Keywords: Attitude-Behavior Gap, Nudging, Corporate sustainability
Pro-environmental attitude is, on many occasions, a weak indicator for pro-environmental behavior. Personal interests interfere with the human desire to follow normative goals during the decision-making process, which may result in the unpleasant state of attitudinal ambivalence. The more balanced two contrary attitudes are, the higher is the chance for external persuasion as it may decrease the internal ambivalent conflict. However, moral informational interventions seem not to cause the desired behavioral change but may instead increase the sense of resignation and guilt. This paper aims to set focus on the attitude-behavior relationship in the concrete example of plastic-packed food and how post-decisional evaluations vary when either individual (hedonic or gain goal) or collective motives (normative goal) are being followed. Measured indications for actual disengagement or attitude adaption are relatively weak but felt ambivalence in the case of immoral decisions could be demonstrated in the form of response times. Practical conclusions that may facilitate pro-environmental behavior are being presented at the end of the work.
To achieve sustainable development, appropriate individual consumer behavior is required. However, the increasing statements expressing the intention to buy green products by consumers are reflected in only a fraction of actual purchases. This paper presents a literature review on the attitude-behavior gap phenomenon, focusing on the controversial role of green marketing in promoting sustainable consumption and its influence on the gap between intentions and behaviors.
The attitude-behavior gap is attributable to various situational and internal factors, with the prevailing price sensitivity and routine purchase behavior for low-involvement products playing a critical role in the fast-moving consumer goods industry. Counteracting these factors with the help of a green marketing approach that encompasses internal, strategic, and tactical marketing orientations was examined in this work. While it has been found that creating credibility and transparency through a holistic marketing orientation and targeting the origins of the attitude-behavior gap with the respective green marketing tools can positively contribute to its narrowing, divergent green marketing strategies can lead to the opposite. Greenwashing as a strategy to give companies a greener image without adapting their business activities accordingly leads to a negative impact on the attitude-behavior gap.
On the basis of this analysis, the study found that according to the way a company employs green marketing strategies, it may either widen or narrow the gap.