Index of Paper Presentations for the Parallel Sessions - Academy of ...

However, a number of studies have indicated the existence of either a moderate or a weak relationship betweenenvironmental attitudes and ecological behavior (Axelrod and Lehman, 1993; Mostafa, 2007), and the analysis ofattitudinal components alone may not accurately predict actual behavior (Foxall, 1984; Tarrant and Cordell, 1997;Antonides and Van Raaij, 1998).Hence, affective component was found to also comprise of anxieties, expectations and emotive responses of anindividual. Since, it is the emotional 'judgment‘ of the individual about the consequences of his actions to thebiophysical environment (Bruhn, 1978), environmentally conscious behavior is not necessarily the consequence ofonly rational insight into the appropriate action (Urban, 1986).Consumer belief that the efforts of an individual acting alone can make a difference, conceptualized as ‗PerceivedConsumer Effectiveness or PCE‘, is another factor determining an individual‘s willingness to engage inenvironmentally conscious consumption behaviour (Kinnear, Taylor, and Sadrudin,1974). PCE, defined as ‗theevaluation of the self in the context of the issue‘ (Berger and Corbin 1992), is distinct from environmental concernsor attitudes. Since, consumer‘s concern about the environmental issues might not easily translate into proenvironmentalbehaviors; it is supposed that, individuals with a strong belief that their environmentally consciousbehavior will result in a positive outcome are more likely to engage themselves in such behaviors in support of theirconcerns for the environment. Both, perceived consumer effectiveness and environmental concerns have foundsignificant and positive effects on environmental behavior, attitude and interest (Antil, 1978; Webster, 1975; Weinerand Doescher, 1991;Straughan, Roberts, 1999;Lepisto, 1974;Van and Dunlap, 1981; Samdahl and Robert,1989;Rowlandset al., 2003;Ay and Ecevit, 2005).Some of the researchers have emphasized on including pro-environmental behavior also as an indicator ofenvironmental consciousness in terms of both the ―incidence‖ and ―frequency‖ of engaging in the environmentalfriendly behavior. But, this paper holds the view that environmental consciousness is the mental state variable andconsumer‘s pro-environmental behavior is linked to environmental consciousness as its outcome. It is expected thatenvironmental consciousness of individuals may vary from a basic level, which may be reflected as a generalconcern towards the environment to a more specific one thus resulting into more product specific behavior. It is,however, not certain that an individual‘s environmental consciousness will directly lead to behavior change, as there