Solving the luxury fashion and sustainable development oxymoron: A cross-cultural analysis of green luxury consumption enablers and disablers

Green luxury is a promising stream in the environmental marketing and sustainable development literature. Yet, scholars are still investigating why green consumers show a positive attitude toward ethical consumption but then act inconsistently by preferring conventional products due to price or quality criteria, especially in the luxury sector. Building on Heider's balance theory, this study investigates the underlying mechanisms of green luxury consumption focusing on how consumers' psychological imbalance fosters their attitude-behavior gap. The authors used partial least squares structural equation modeling to assess the green enablers and disablers predicting consumers' purchase intention. Multigroup analysis is performed on a cross-cultural sample of 792 luxury consumers belonging to collectivistic (China) and individualistic (Italy) cultures. Moderation analysis shows how consumers' self-enhancement and self-transcendence impact the relationships between green enablers, disablers, and attitudes toward green luxury. An importance-performance map analysis is conducted to identify which aspects are most important in explaining consumers' intentions to purchase green luxury products.

Automated summary

This study explores the underlying psychological mechanisms of green luxury consumption and finds that consumers' psychological imbalance leads to the inconsistency between their attitude and behavior. The authors use structural equation modeling and multigroup analysis to examine the relationship between purchase intention and green enablers, disablers, and attitudes toward green luxury among 792 luxury consumers from collectivistic (China) and individualistic (Italy) cultures. Additionally, an importance-performance map analysis is conducted to identify the key factors explaining consumers' intentions to purchase green luxury products.