There is evidence that most western markets have been affected by green consumer behaviour. This book deals with the questions surrounding this phenomenon, the theories and the practice. Previously only available in hardback.

Despite a century of intensive research into the human mind, our understanding of how people in everyday life actually make choices and solve problems is surprisingly limited. Understanding Green Consumer Behaviour recommends a fundamental re-orientation regarding the ideas and methods which are applied in contemporary cognitive research. Through the study of green, environmentally friendly comsumers, Understanding Green Consumer Behaviour examines basic aspects of the working of the human mind. The book adopts an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on insights from psychology and anthropology as well as the author's own intensive field research. This comprehensive interdisciplinary framework allows the author to develop an understanding of the entire cognitive process, addressing such questions as: How do consumers develop 'meaning' regarding green products? How are such processes subconciously structured by certain activities of the mind? How intelligent and successful are consumers in assessing the environmentally friendly attrubutes of products in daily life?

1. A Cognitive Study into Environmentally-Orientated Consumption 1.1 The green consumer 1.2 A research program for consumer behaviour 1.3 Researching green consumer behaviour 2. Cognitive Consumer Research 2.1 Understanding understanding 2.2 Knowledge structures 2.3 Experience, knowledge structure development and intelligence 2.4 Research questions on green
consumer cognition 2.5 Conclusions 3. Empirical Research into Green Consumer Behaviour 3.1 Qualitative versus quantitative cognitive research 3.2 Data collection 3.3 Data analysis
3.4 Conclusions 4. Classification of Consumers 4.1 Classification and cluster analysis 4.2 Analyses of scattergrams and
correlation matrices 4.3 Hierarchical cluster analyses 4.4 Sensitivity analyses 4.5 Paradigmatic subjects and cognitive
categories 4.6 Conclusions 5. Interpretation of Knowledge Structures 5.1 Knowledge content 5.2 Cognitive operations 5.3
Schematic nature of knowledge 6. Experience and Learning: Problem-Solving Behaviour of the Green Consumer 6.1 Familiarity and learning 6.2 Ability and successful green consumer behaviour 6.3 Conclusions 7. The Beginning of Knowledge 7.1 A new approach to cognition 7.2 Conceptual fruitfulness of contextual research 7.3 Practical relevance of contextual research 7.4 Issues for future research.