Review Reports

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The idea for the present article is as interesting as it is also necessary in the current context, where we see economies developing due to individual actions and decisions, or, as they say, the economy is the sum of people’s actions. Thus, is no longer just an authority responsibility, but also the responsibility of each individual to make his own contribution to a sustainable future. Furthermore, developing and validating a scale which can measure…

Before going on details recommendations about minor editing changes, I will like to ask authors about a part of consumer behavior that seems to be omitted – buying habits. As we see in the theoretical part of the present article, the authors focus on the mindfulness, where consumers are very much aware of their actions. But what about the other part, that those automatisms in buying behavior that are related to habits very well rooted in one’s life. There are a lot of daily life actions that people take not because they analyzed first the consequences, but because the decision was taken in the subconscious, like for example buying different brands in the store just because there was a song which influenced the mind of the customer (“The Influence of In-Store Music on Wine Selections” by North, Hargreaves and McKendrick).

Considering that the present study considered only Malaysian consumers, I recommend authors to mention this element from the beginning, as cultural influence is very important in consumer behavior.

Going further now, in order to make the paper even better, as the quality is there, I recommend a series of improvement on the editing part:

• At the end of the abstract, as well as at the end of paragraphs in row 33, 84 there is no dot at the end of the sentence;
• Remove the comma after “that” in row 162;
• Row 216 – remove the space between the word “behavior” and closing quotation marks;
• Row 307 – I think that the correct word would be “questionnaire”, not “questioner”;
• Row 353 – there is a bracket that needs closing;

 

The sentence from rows 284-285 (The selection of homogenous focus group participants is consistent with suggestions made by Malhotra et al. [64]) needs more details for the current research methodology.

In Table 3, I have 2 suggestions:

• The order should be from cognitive to conative variables;
• Remove the comma after the word “that” in Cog12, Cog19, Cog 20 and Cog21.

Considering that the variables are in Table 3 presented as sentences (before which there is a code and a number), but in Table 5 the number is changing (going consecutively from 1 to how many factors are in each of the 3 dimensions of the SC), I recommend that authors finds also some short titles for each variable, this way Figure 3 and 4 will have more meaning, as we will not just look at codes, but rather at names for each variable.

In the end, I will like to praise the authors for their effort in designing and conducting such rigorous researches, which are the base of their proposed scale of measurement for SC!

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 1 Comments

Point 1: Before going on details recommendations about minor editing changes, I will like to ask authors about a part of consumer behavior that seems to be omitted – buying habits. As we see in the theoretical part of the present article, the authors focus on the mindfulness, where consumers are very much aware of their actions. But what about the other part, that those automatisms in buying behavior that are related to habits very well rooted in one’s life. There are a lot of daily life actions that people take not because they analyzed first the consequences, but because the decision was taken in the subconscious, like for example buying different brands in the store just because there was a song which influenced the mind of the customer (“The Influence of In-Store Music on Wine Selections” by North, Hargreaves and McKendrick).

 

Response 1: In this paper, we are not referring to habitual buying behavior. In general, habitual buying behavior occurs when consumers' involvement is low and differences between brands are small. However, when we are talking about green products, then the difference between brands are not that small. This is because, usually green products are comparatively high priced than conventional products.  Even if we are talking about habitual buying behavior, mindfulness can change the buying pattern even if it is habitual buying.

 

 

Point 2: Considering that the present study considered only Malaysian consumers, I recommend authors to mention this element from the beginning, as cultural influence is very important in consumer behaviour.

 

Response 2: As advised, we mentioned about this element in the abstract.

 

 

Point 3:  Going further now, in order to make the paper even better, as the quality is there, I recommend a series of improvement on the editing part:

 

• At the end of the abstract, as well as at the end of paragraphs in row 33, 84 there is no dot at the end of the sentence. As advised, we put dot at the end of these paragraphs
• Remove the comma after “that” in row 162. As advised, comma was removed.
• Row 216 – remove the space between the word “behavior” and closing quotation marks. As advised, space was removed.
• Row 307 – I think that the correct word would be “questionnaire”, not “questioner”. As advised, we replace questioner with questionnaire.
• Row 353 – there is a bracket that needs closing. As advised we put the bracket.

 

Response 3: Response to point 3 already provided.

 

 

Point 4: The sentence from rows 284-285 (The selection of homogenous focus group participants is consistent with suggestions made by Malhotra et al. [64]) needs more details for the current research methodology.

 

Response 4: More detail about the homogeneity of respondents as suggested by Malhotra et al was provided. Please refer to page 7 lines 285 to 288 in maroon colour. The detail that we provide is shown below:

 

“Particularly, Malhotra et al [64] argued that homogeneity of respondent for focus group is important because: individuals are more likely to  participate and communicate more, feel greater self-esteem and less anxiety, be more supportive, trusting of other members, , and be more efficient in accomplishing the group goals. In addition, homogenous respondents enable the researcher a more accurate theoretical prediction [64].”

 

 

Point 5: In Table 3, I have 2 suggestions:

• The order should be from cognitive to conative variables; As
• Remove the comma after the word “that” in Cog12, Cog19, Cog 20 and Cog21.

 

Response 5: •

1. The order should be from cognitive to conative variables; As advised we revised the order of the variables in table 3
2. Remove the comma after the word “that” in Cog12, Cog19, Cog 20 and Cog21. As advised, we removed the comma

 

 

Point 6 Considering that the variables are in Table 3 presented as sentences (before which there is a code and a number), but in Table 5 the number is changing (going consecutively from 1 to how many factors are in each of the 3 dimensions of the SC), I recommend that authors finds also some short titles for each variable, this way Figure 3 and 4 will have more meaning, as we will not just look at codes, but rather at names for each variable.

 

Response 6: As advised, we include the full name of each variable in table 5. Please refer to page 14 and 15, table 5.

 

 

 

 

Note. We used different colour i.e. maroon for major changes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

This article addresses in a complete and complex manner the ideology of sustainable development and sustainable consumption. The review of scientifically based sources of information up to this moment adds value to the exhaustiveness of the paper. However, one of the possibilities for improvement could be made to research on students. In this case we understand that students are part of reality and their consumption behavior can be compared to consumer behavior in general, but no references were made to the representativeness of the sample, how to select its size and the formula used to calculate the sample size. Also, for the quantitative research on a sample of 181 respondents, the same stages should be followed according to the methodology, namely: establishing the purpose and objectives, establishing the hypotheses and the formula used to calculate the sample size. Also, its representativeness should be highlighted by arguments regarding the characteristics of the general population in relation to the respondents.

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 2 Comments

 

Point 1: 1) This article addresses in a complete and complex manner the ideology of sustainable development and sustainable consumption. The review of scientifically based sources of information up to this moment adds value to the exhaustiveness of the paper. However, one of the possibilities for improvement could be made to research on students. In this case we understand that students are part of reality and their consumption behavior can be compared to consumer behavior in general, but no references were made to the representativeness of the sample, how to select its size and the formula used to calculate the sample size.

 

Response 1. As advised, we provide clear discussion about the representativeness of the sample, also equation that was used to determine the sample size for the first study (EFA study) was provide. Kindly refer to page 8 in maron colour. The discussion is shown blew as well

 

“The first study was carried out to refine the SC scale. A questionnaire was developed and distributed based on the 81 items that were retained after the validity assessment and distributed to a sample of students at the university level. Considering university students for the first study is justified since employing university students is a common practice in consumer studies [68]. Ok et al. [69] suggested that the choice of students as respondents is justified because they act as the surrogate for other consumers. Some researchers argue that responses generated from students are not significantly different than those from other groups of consumers [70, 71]. Students are 'real life consumers' of many sustainable products and services, and they are familiar with the present research agenda. Therefore, the choice of students as the subjects of this study is justifiable.

Around 1000 questionnaires were distributed in 13 Malaysian universities; among which 522 questionnaires were returned, and 500 cases were considered usable. 22 cases were deleted due to missing value (13 cases), random answers (6) and outliers (3). The required sample size to run EFA in this study was decided based on Hair et al. [72] recommendation, i.e., to have at least five times as many observations as there are items to be analysed. The total number of the items was 81. Thus the sample size (81 x 5 = 405) for the first study was sufficient to run the EFA”

 

 

Point 2. Also, for the quantitative research on a sample of 181 respondents, the same stages should be followed according to the methodology, namely: establishing the purpose and objectives, establishing the hypotheses and the formula used to calculate the sample size. Also, its representativeness should be highlighted by arguments regarding the characteristics of the general population in relation to the respondents.

 

 

Response 2. As recommended, the objective of second study, the hypotheses development, and how we calculated that sample, size for second study was provided in page 11 and 18 in marron colour. Same discussion is shown below:

 

“In order to validate the newly developed SC scale, the second study was conducted. In this regard, data were collected via an online survey. A Google form was produced for this purpose. The purified questionnaire was distributed via email and Facebook and yielded 181 usable responses. The respondents were real life consumers. The minimum sample size required for CFA was decided based on power analysis using G power [77]. The result indicated that a sample size of 125 is necessary to achieve a statistical power greater than 0.80, R2 greater than 0.10, and effect size greater than 0.15. Profile of the two samples (study 1 and study 2) is shown in Table 4.”

 

“In assessing nomological validity, this study examines the relationship between the newly developed SC construct and environmental activism (see Figure 4). Environmental activism is equally important as sustainable consumption [29]. It is regarded as the function of pro-environmental behavior [97]. By considering the theory of motivation [98] this study postulates that SC has a positive influence on environmental activism behaviour. By utilising the theory of motivation, Pelletier et al. [99] found that the 'motivation towards environment' is positively correlated with recycling and reuse behaviour and also with environmental activism. Therefore, this study postulates that sustainable consumption is positively correlated with environmental activism, and thus, the following hypothesis is proposed:

Hypothesis 1 (H1): SC significantly and positively affects environmental activism

 

 

 

Note. We used different colour i.e. maroon for major changes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf