Theorising the emerging green prosumer culture and profiling green prosumers in the green commodities market

This paper explores the phenomenon of green prosumption with a view to theorising the phenomenon and highlighting the challenges and opportunities this particular subculture creates for marketers of green commodities. Narratives of young green prosumers were gathered from 18 phenomenological in-depth interviews. Capturing green prosumer experiences and subjective meanings, three thematic categories of green prosumption practices, (a) contraction, (b) control, and (c) creation, are postulated in the study. It also highlights several unforeseen challenges as well as a vast array of opportunities emerging from the three green prosumer segments identified in the study: semi-green prosumers, empowered green prosumers, and liberated green prosumers. This study provides green commodity marketers with a set of recommendations to exploit opportunities in these largely untapped market segments.