The Ecological Product Buying Motive: A Challenge For Consumer Education

Abstract

This paper reviews the literature devoted to products that have been identified as having an ecological orientation. Specifically, the author presents evidence to support the idea that the consuming public has demonstrated a capacity to buy products on a voluntary basis. This voluntary consumption behavior is observable in the key research projects quoted in the text. While there is mixed evidence to support the hypothesis that consumers will voluntarily alter their buying behavior for the benefit of society in general, there are a number of positive and identifiable ways to elicit broader participation in voluntary consumption behavior. This paper makes a numbers of suggestions with respect to how important information is in the process of voluntary consumption and suggests ways to simplify the information process.