Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to engage with the concepts of green consumer and green consumerism and to perform a bibliometric analysis of the related publications. To this end, the studies are examined in WoS and Scopus between 1965 and 2023, using the keywords “green consumer” and “green consumerism.” The study imposed certain constraints, resulting in the acquisition of a total of 7238 articles derived from 1728 sources. For this analysis, the Bibliometrix R Package Program was applied. An initial phase of the study was to conduct a descriptive analysis to provide an overview of the data. The subsequent phase involved examining several elements: the number of publications and citations by year; the most published journals on these subjects and their H-index values; the number of publications and H-index values of the authors; productivity of countries; most frequently used words; and collaboration networks of words, countries, and authors. Additionally, a factor analysis was carried out within the scope of the study to facilitate the observation of cluster formations.
TopIntroduction
The world has come to a consensus on the need for a sustainable, ecological, and green environment, as the consequences of damage to the natural order are felt increasingly with each passing day. All segments of society—particularly nations, statesmen, businesses, and consumers—are making a concerted effort to address these challenges. Environmental problems, ecological imbalances, non-recyclable waste, ozone layer depletion, reduction of natural resources, toxic emissions, and global warming pose a threat to our present and future. Thus, the journey towards sustainability should be pursued urgently, and green consciousness should be instilled in every segment of society. This constitutes a social duty incumbent upon us for the betterment of society. Businesses have responded by adopting a green marketing approach, a strategy that has significantly reshaped the behavior of both enterprises and consumers.
In implementing green marketing strategies, businesses have begun to produce goods and services that either prevent or minimize environmental pollution, while simultaneously catering optimally to consumer demands and needs. In response, consumers have gravitated back towards green practices, showing a preference for eco-friendly businesses, and demonstrating increased awareness about this issue. Unfortunately, not all consumers are equally cognizant of the importance of sustainability. A significant portion of society still fails to comprehend the importance of the 'green' concept, is unable to distinguish between green and non-green products and remains unaware of businesses' green initiatives. Conversely, some consumers, despite their awareness, continue to choose non-green options. As a result, businesses have started to emphasize green initiatives more prominently in their promotional activities, underscoring the concepts of green products, green consumers, and green consumption. This trend is reflected in industries across the board, as seen in automobile advertisements featuring electric cars, banks refusing loans to environmentally harmful businesses, and home appliance advertisements promoting the use of recyclable materials.
In light of the prevailing belief that the planet is on the brink of environmental catastrophes due to climate change, the European Union seeks to catalyze a sustainable green transition. In response to the threats posed by global warming, climate change, and air pollution, the European Commission has proposed the “European Green Deal,” demonstrating its leadership in this critical area. The European Green Deal strives for a fair and competitive transition to zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 for the countries and citizens of the European Union (European Commission, 2021).
The Green Deal action plan seeks to increase resource efficiency, restore biodiversity, and reduce pollution by transitioning to a clean, circular economy. This plan encompasses various policy areas, including clean energy, sustainable industry (i.e., sustainable, environmentally friendly production cycles), green construction and renovation, sustainable food systems (from farm to fork), pollution elimination, sustainable mobility (more sustainable means of transportation), and biodiversity (measures to protect fragile ecosystems) (Akilli Hayat 2030 Blog, 2022).
The policy areas in question aim to achieve zero carbon emissions, decarbonize the energy sector, invest in environmentally friendly technologies, stimulate innovation in production, and terminate dependency on resource extraction. In reaching these objectives, the plan ensures that no region or community is left behind, signifying an inclusive enhancement in quality of life. The realization of these goals necessitates the participation of all sectors and stakeholders.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Environmental Friendly Product: It can be defined as ecological and environmentally friendly products that take their raw materials from nature, do not contain chemicals that harm nature and living things, and whose waste does not harm nature.
Performance Analysis: It is the bibliometric analysis stage that shows the evaluation of the research and publications of individuals and institutions, and performs publication-related metrics, citation-related metrics, citation, and publication analyzes.
Scientific Mapping: It is a bibliometric analysis stage that examines the relationships between research components, reveals interactions and structural connections, and includes citation analysis, co-citation analysis, bibliographic coupling, co-word analysis, and co-authorship analysis.
Green Consumer: It refers to individuals or organizations that do not buy or do not want to buy the products of enterprises that endanger the health of living things and negatively affect the environment, are environmentally conscious, examine all stages from the production of the product to after use, and make efforts to make the environment more livable with these decisions.
Green Marketing: With the awareness of social responsibility, it is the creation of marketing activities covering the processes from the production of environmentally friendly products to the after-use of the products without harming the environment and the living things in the environment or with minimal damage to satisfy the needs of the society and consumers and to achieve the goals of the enterprise.
Green Consumerism: It indicates to a consumption style that aims to sensitively approach the relationship of the goods or services offered for consumption with nature, in which the criteria for the efficient use of recyclable environmental resources, produced by consumers, are observed.
Bibliometric Analysis: It is a quantitative data compilation method that makes use of secondary data that numerically analyzes the books, articles and other publications produced by individuals or institutions in a certain area, in a certain period and in a certain region, and the relations between these publications.
Network Analysis: Network metrics is the bibliometric analysis phase, which includes clustering and visualization analysis, and is used to enrich the evaluation of bibliometric analysis.
Conscious Consumer: It is referred as a responsible, sensitive consumer who researches before purchasing a product, thinks about the economy and limited resources by not buying more than they need, and calculates not only the purchasing stage but all the steps after the purchase.