The concern for the state of our environment has grown among consumers. Value surveys undertaken in Germany have repeatedly placed "concern for the environment" first among the German consumers' values. Particularly forest sector has been scrutinized in environmental debate. It has been a question of destruction of natural forests by intensive loggings, effluents of the production processes, toxic ingredients in forest industry products and the disposal and recycling of these products.
From the viewpoint of environmentally driven consumer behavior and marketing, this study attempts to understand the linkages between consumer choice of forest industry products and environmental issues. Models and measurement of environmentally driven buying behavior are developed to assist the planning of environmental marketing communications in the Finnish paper industry.
Environmentally driven consumer behavior is approached with the theory of reasoned action as a starting point. A causal model of attitude-behavior relation is constructed and examined in the light of the most central theoretical challenges: multidimensionality of the cognitive structure, crossover effects between model variables, and effects of moderator variables as past behavior and consumer involvement with environmental issues. Furthermore, product choice is integrated into the model.
Empirical study is examining consumer choice between two types of household paper; one including purely recycled fiber and the other primary fiber. A mail questionnaire is sent to a sample of Helsinki citizens and to a smaller control sample including members from non government environmental organizations. The data is analyzed by applying LISREL modeling with latent variables.
This research project is supported by the Foundation for Research of Natural Resources in Finland and the Finnish Forest Research Institute.
Key words: environment, paper products, consumer behavior.
Correspondence: Martti Makkonen, Department of Forest Economics, P.O. Box 24, FIN-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland
Telefax: +358-0-1917729
E-mail: martti.makkonen@helsinki.fi