Chapter 10
Sustainable Consumption Behavior Among
Romanian Students
Rodica Ianole-Călin, Magdalena Rădulescu, and Elena Druică
Abstract The aim of this chapter is to assess the inclination toward sustainable
consumption among Romanian students, using the young consumers’ sustainable
consumption behavior (YCSCB) scale pertaining for two dimensions, food and
clothing, a scale developed by Daniel Fischer and his colleagues in 2017. We applied
the questionnaire to a sample of 352 students from various Romanian universities
and explored the association between their inclination toward sustainable food and
clothing consumption, after controlling for age, gender, and residence. The importance of our work is multifold. First, to our knowledge, this is the first study
addressing the problem of sustainable consumption in Romanian students. We
claim that understanding the drivers of their consumption for areas like food and
clothing can provide insights into their perceptions and awareness level on the
sustainability issue and thus contribute to building up a more realistic approach of
behavioral change. Last, but not least, we were able to compare the results with other
studies conducted in different parts of the world. The limitation of our approach lies
in the convenience sample based on which we conducted our study.
Keywords Sustainable consumption behavior · Sustainable food consumption ·
Sustainable clothing consumption · Factor analysis · Romania
10.1 Introduction
For more than a decade now, the sustainability concept has reached a buzzword stage
(Scoones 2007) in terms of popularity and further progressed into being considered a
megatrend (McDonagh and Prothero 2014). However, this is by no means the result
of a consensus in the conceptual perimeter, especially taking into account the
R. Ianole-Călin (*) · E. Druică
Faculty of Business and Administration, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania
e-mail: ianole.rodica@gmail.com
M. Rădulescu
Department of Finance and Accounting, University of Pitesti, Pitesti, Romania
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020
A. Omran, O. Schwarz-Herion (eds.), Sustaining our Environment for Better Future,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7158-5_10
159
Sustainable Consumption Behavior Among
Romanian Students
Rodica Ianole-Călin, Magdalena Rădulescu, and Elena Druică
Abstract The aim of this chapter is to assess the inclination toward sustainable
consumption among Romanian students, using the young consumers’ sustainable
consumption behavior (YCSCB) scale pertaining for two dimensions, food and
clothing, a scale developed by Daniel Fischer and his colleagues in 2017. We applied
the questionnaire to a sample of 352 students from various Romanian universities
and explored the association between their inclination toward sustainable food and
clothing consumption, after controlling for age, gender, and residence. The importance of our work is multifold. First, to our knowledge, this is the first study
addressing the problem of sustainable consumption in Romanian students. We
claim that understanding the drivers of their consumption for areas like food and
clothing can provide insights into their perceptions and awareness level on the
sustainability issue and thus contribute to building up a more realistic approach of
behavioral change. Last, but not least, we were able to compare the results with other
studies conducted in different parts of the world. The limitation of our approach lies
in the convenience sample based on which we conducted our study.
Keywords Sustainable consumption behavior · Sustainable food consumption ·
Sustainable clothing consumption · Factor analysis · Romania
10.1 Introduction
For more than a decade now, the sustainability concept has reached a buzzword stage
(Scoones 2007) in terms of popularity and further progressed into being considered a
megatrend (McDonagh and Prothero 2014). However, this is by no means the result
of a consensus in the conceptual perimeter, especially taking into account the
R. Ianole-Călin (*) · E. Druică
Faculty of Business and Administration, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania
e-mail: ianole.rodica@gmail.com
M. Rădulescu
Department of Finance and Accounting, University of Pitesti, Pitesti, Romania
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020
A. Omran, O. Schwarz-Herion (eds.), Sustaining our Environment for Better Future,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7158-5_10
159