International Journal of Management, Knowledge and Learning, 5(2), 263-281 q The Impact of Media on Consumers' Environmental Behaviour Gregor Jagodic International School of Social and Business Studies, Slovenia People, companies and society are becoming more mindful about the environment, and thus the market demand environmentally-sustainable merchandises and services. Today consumers act more pro-environmentally, as in the past decades they have changed their behaviour. We all recognise that the development of different types of media, especially the Internet and social media, has generated a different approach from societies and traders towards the individual consumer. In this research, we have established that the Internet, social media and TV have at the moment the largest influence on consumers' environmental behaviour, due to the fact that companies and marketers are targeting at the same time different target groups of consumers. In the case of the Internet or social media, the marketers are very aggressive, although many consumers have the sense that they are something special for the companies and, therefore, change their environmental behaviour following the marketers and companies' desires. Keywords: media, Internet, social media, consumers, environmental behaviour Introduction Environmentally sustainable products have become mainstream in today's consumer-oriented society. For that reason, it is very important for producers to adopt their products and their marketing approach to the factors that influence the consumers' environmental behaviour (Driessen, 2005). We focused our research on the influential role of marketing (especially different media) on consumers' environmental behaviour. We want to find out if the use of different marketing approaches and media can affect and influence consumers' environmental behaviour. Different media have an important influence on consumers' values, beliefs and environmental behaviour (Hoyer & MacInnis, 2004). Different consumers' environmental values have a primary role in their behaviour (different personal beliefs lead to different environmental behaviours) (Stern, 2000; Jagodic, Dermol, Breznik, & Roncelli Vaupot, in press). As we can find out from the different above-mentioned research, pro-environmental values lead to pro-environmental behaviour but do not guarantee pro-environmental behaviour. In addition, recent studies showed that environmentally conscious people do not necessarily behave pro- www.issbs.si/press/ISSN/2232-5697/5_263-281.pdf 264 Gregor Jagodic environmentally (Kollmuss & Agyeman, 2002; Ohtomo & Hirose, 2007). Some other authors (Crane, 2000; Pickett-Baker & Ozaki, 2008) have concluded that consumers who claimed being environmentally friendly do not purchase environmentally-friendly products on a regular basis. Moreover, research (Kees, Burton, &Tangari, 2010; Sung & Choi, 2011) shows us that advertising and different marketing activities have an important role in the persuasion of consumers' environmental behaviour. That is the main reason why producers use different marketing and advertising approaches to environmental consumers, and try to show them a positive impact on the society (Mintel, 2012). The environmental purchasing behaviour of consumers is mainly based on their subjective motives and subjective issues, and often not on objective, measurable indicators (Pickett-Baker & Ozaki, 2008; Peters, Agostl, Popp, & Ryf, 2011). In this paper, we would like to explore the impact of media on consumers' environmental behaviour in Slovenia. We would like to find out how Slovenian consumers behave in order to save the environment. Another important part of this research is to elucidate which media they use and how they impact on consumers' environmental behaviour. In this paper, we at first introduce the basics of what the environment is, why we have to take care of our environment and what does environmental behaviour consist of. Secondly, we present the media and how they can impact on consumers' behaviour. In addition, we go through the research methodology and analysis of the results. Finally, we set forth the conclusions and the reference list. Environment and Environmental Behaviour The word 'Environment' comes from the French word 'Environ,' which means 'surrounding.' Everything that affects an organism and its surrounding is collectively known as the environment. In other words, we can say that environment consists of water, air and land, and also of the interrelationships with other human beings, organisms and property. The environment includes the physical and biological surrounding and their interactions (Kalavathy, 2004). The environment is a complex system with many variables interrelated with all the elements above. But firstly we have to define the term 'attitude.' The term is in the literature defined as: • An enduring combination of emotional, perceptual, motivational, and cognitive processes with a connection to the environment (Krech & Crutchfield, 1948). • Learned predisposition, how to react to consistent stimulus in connection to the environment (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). International Journal of Management, Knowledge and Learning The Impact of Media on Consumers' Environmental Behaviour 265 • A person's overall evaluation of objects and issues (Petty & Wegener, 1998). Very often attitudes are divided into two parts: an effective and a cognitive component (Kraus, 1995). Disinger and Tomsen (1995) described attitudes as 'to be in close relation with a worldview,' but we have to be aware, that a worldview is dynamic and changeable, and for this reason, McKenzie (1998) described worldview as constructed and changed by the influences of knowledge and experiences of the person. The term 'behaviour' is mostly understood intuitively and, from the psychological and sociological point of view, we cannot find any suggested definitions. We usually understand the term 'behaviour' as any active response to something, in our case, to environmental issues. We usually perceive an environmental attitude as a precondition for environmental behaviour. Hines, Hungerford, and Tomera (1987) found out that the most important determinant of pro-environmental behaviour is the 'intent to act,' which can consist, among other variables, of a connection between attitude and behaviour. Hungerford and Volk (1990), Chawla (2006) and Bamberg and Moser (2007) got the same results. All of this research regarding the process of influencing attitudes indicate that those persons with stronger attitudes are more stable and have a larger impact on their behaviour. Stronger attitudes can be identified by their point of view on the problem/situation and confidence that they are right. Different authors (Stern, 2000; Winter & Koger, 2004) have researched the environment and human behaviour towards the environment and they all agree that the most important parts are the attitude and the behaviour of adults. They found out that adults' environmental attitudes are based on beliefs, and they have to be critical to non-environmental attitudes and behaviours. They also pointed out that adults with higher education have more pro-environmental beliefs, attitudes and behaviours. Diekmann and Preisendorfer (1992), Auhagen and Neuberger (1994) and Grob (1995) discovered three important environmental attitude components (affect, knowledge - recognition and intention or purpose) and, consequently, environmental attitudes are occasionally measured independently of their components. Several researchers (Abrahamse, Steg, Vlek, & Rothengatter, 2005; Swim et al., 2011) have described the categories of factors of pro-environmental behaviours. Some of them include a variety of factors but, according to Gifford (2006), non-psychological factors, like geophysical conditions and political influences, are also important. Some other authors mentioned the values-beliefs-norm model (Stern, 2000), the theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen, 1991) and the focus theory of normative con- Volume 5, Issue 2, 2016 266 Gregor Jagodic duct (Cialdini, Reno, & Kallgren, 1990). Latest research has shown that the above-mentioned elements could be expanded to include other personal and social factors (Chen & Tung, 2010; Raymond, Brown, & Robinson, 2011). One of the most important elements of environmental behaviour depends on childhood experiences, and some authors (Palmer, 1993; Eagles & Demare, 1999) concluded that children are more environmentally concerned if they talk and read about the environment at home. In recent studies, some authors (Robelia & Murphy, 2012; Fielding & Head, 2012; Levine & Strube, 2012) have inferred that a high level of knowledge about environmental problems and perceived difficulties with the environment can be considered (seen) as a behavioural prediction. However, the level of the knowledge also depends on the education. Persons with higher education in general show higher concern about the environment (Klineberg, McKeever, & Rothenbach, 1998; Chanda, 1999). On the other hand, persons who studied business (Synodinos, 1990) and technology (McKnight, 1991) are mostly less environmentally concerned than persons from other disciplines (Tikka, Kuitnen, &Tynys, 2000). The personality of the individual consumer is also an important factor of environmentally-oriented behaviour. People must be open to experiences, which leads them to engage in more pro-environmental activities (Markowitz, Goldberg, Ashton, & Lee, 2012). Hirsh (2010) investigated the connection between the environmental concern and agreeableness of individuals, their emotional stability and conscientiousness. Following the studies of Milfont and Sibley (2012), openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness are strongly linked to the environmental engagement of people. It looks like that locus of control acts as a link between values and pro-environmental behaviour, and we can understand that as a great willingness to buy environmental products (Ando, Ohnuma, Blobaum, Matthies, & Sugiura, 2010; Fielding & Head, 2012). Consumers' personal values have a strong influence on environmental attitudes (Schultz & Zelezny, 1999). It is the same with personal norms, which we can identify as a moral obligation towards taking action. Personal norms are subjective and they represent someone's behaviour, which is very much the same as from society expected behaviour and that the personal norms have a heavy impact on environmental attitudes and behaviours (Matthies, Selge, & Klockner, 2012). New studies (Gilg, Barr, & Ford, 2005; Pinto, Nique, Anana, & Herter, 2011) ascertained that older people have more pro-environmental-oriented behaviour than younger people. If we call for a look on gender, recent studies (Luchs & Mooradian, 2012; Scannell & Gifford, 2013) show us that women have stronger environmental attitudes, business organisation and behaviour International Journal of Management, Knowledge and Learning The Impact of Media on Consumers' Environmental Behaviour 267 than men, as personality mediates the effect of gender on environmental behaviour. We can assess the environmental attitude by the relationship of environmental and ecological behaviour (Berger & Corbin, 1992; Moore, Murphy, & Watson, 1994; Grob, 1995). Agreeing with Lynne and Rola (1988), the environmental attitude consists of the strong connection between environmental knowledge (effect), environmental values and ecological behaviour intention. As we can deduce from the theory of planned behaviour, someone's subjective norms is the combination of normative beliefs concerned about the environment and the effect on his/her intention to behave ecologically (Midden & Ritsema, 1983). Environmental values relate to ecological behaviour intention; merely they are sometimes mediated with the third variable, which is, according to the theory of planned behaviour, the environmental behaviour intention (Stern, Dietz, & Kalof, 1993; Grob, 1995). The environmental behaviour intention has an important connection with ecological behaviour. Simply, we have to note that ecological behaviour is affected by environmental attitudes, environmental knowledge, environmental values or environmental behaviour intention (Berger & Corbin, 1992). However, specific environmental attitude measures are better predictors than general ecological measures, because the general ones usually show us findings of not comparable measures (Smith, Haugtvedt, & Petty, 1994). The Media and Their Impact on Consumers' Behaviour We can define medium as a channel of communication. People understand a medium as a mean through which they send and receive information. We know different media such as printed, spoken, electronic, written and video. Today the most important ones are mass media, which are ordinarily applied to the transfer of information to a large number of people (audience), and for which different sorts of media can be used. • We can define mass media as a transmitter of information in different forms using different channels to large numbers of people. We classified mass media as a 'one-to-many' communication, where the one who is delivering the information does not receive simultaneous feedback from the audience. Dutton, O'Sullivan and Rayne (1998) suggest that, traditionally, the definition and the understanding of mass media has been differentiated from other types of communication, and they mentioned the following essential differences:Communication between the people who send and a person who receives messages is implemented with a distance and is impersonal, with a lack of immediacy, and directed just in one direction; Volume 5, Issue 2, 2016 268 Gregor Jagodic • Mass media require a receiver (TV, printer, telephone, network,...) and technological equipment that enables the broadcasting of the message or the information; • One of the most significant characteristics of mass media is the wide scope of audiences, which can be reproduced and created at the same time almost all over the globe; • A really interesting feature of mass communication is the commodity of use, but we need to have the appropriate receiver, or we have to pay for the service that can accompany the messages. We live in a society where it is not possible to clearly distinguish between mass media, which involve a one-to-many communication, and non-mass media, which mostly mean a one-to-one communication. The development of different forms of communication technologies (mobile phones, e-mail) gives us the possibility to use technology in both ways, i.e, for interpersonal (one-to-one) and for mass (one-to-many) communication. The way of using it depends on what we want and what we want to achieve across the communication. The growth of computer networks, mobile telephone networks and accessibility to the required equipment to utilise services that have become incredibly important has changed our ways of communicating: computer networks, for instance, open the possibility of a many-to-many communication, where a mass audience can simultaneously communicate and interact with each other at the same time (e.g., e-classrooms, chat-rooms, social networks). For that understanding, we have to redefine the concept of mass media and create a distinction between: • Old (traditional) mass media, such as TV, books and newspapers, involving a one-to-many communication and based on a one-way process from a producer who uses equipment for transmission to a large number of consumers; and • New mass media, such as social networks and computer networks, involving a many-to-many communication, based on a two-way communication with several participants in the communication, and where it is irrelevant if the participant is a producer or a consumer. We should likewise note the dimension of the communication that marks separates from the traditional configuration of mass media and some new media, as some new media apparently blur the traditional differences between consumers and manufacturers. An important fact is that past traditional forms of mass media are based on the clear distinction between who is producing the media and who is consuming them, but today new forms International Journal of Management, Knowledge and Learning The Impact of Media on Consumers' Environmental Behaviour 269 of media do not necessarily fall into such an easy and clear differentiation. Crosbie (2002) indicates that the characteristics of new mass media are in a case that we combined them, we build them entirely different from other forms of media, which include: • That this media cannot exist without appropriate computer technology; • Messages are individualised (tailored) to each participants' particular needs and desires, and we can deliver them to the differential and the vast number of participants; and • Each participant in the network has the potential ability to share, change and develop the content of exchanging information. In the last decades, we can see increasing recognition of the importance of behaviour influence to attain suitable outcomes. Jackson (2005) researched sustainable consumption, Darnton (2008) investigated the changes of behavioural models in general. Hine, Peacock, and Pretty (2008) explored the impact of volunteering on environmental behaviour and Southerton, McMeekin, and Evans (2011) looked into other relevant behavioural contexts. They all agree that behavioural theories and examples of behavioural changes can inform of the implements regarding the alterations and the reasons that caused behavioural changes. Michie, Johnston, Francis, Hardeman, and Eccles (2008) mentioned that their theory can provide a helpful basis for preparing intervention for behavioural modification, but they provide little information about how to do this. We have to be aware of the best way to influence consumer behaviour. If we wish to modify behaviour, we need to recognise the answers to the following questions: 1. Whose behaviour do we want to change? 2. What behaviour do we want to change? 3. What change do we wish to see? 4. Why this behaviour should be modified? The behaviour is very resistant to change, Mearns found out (2012), because people are a creation of habits, and we want with the minimum effort to achieve the maximum results. Branson, Duffy, Perry, and Wellings (2012) came to the conclusion that we do not necessarily respond well, if someone told us what, why, when and how to do something. Jackson (2005) discovered that marketing and advertising influence consumers' behaviour, so we have to incorporate different internal and external factors if we want to influence or modify the behaviour. His further research shows that financial and non-financial costs and benefits of the Volume 5, Issue 2, 2016 270 Gregor Jagodic individual consumer also have an influence on purchase behaviour. His theory describes the relationship between attitudes, intention and behaviour, while Courtenay-Hall and Rogers (2002) emphasise the gap between intention and behaviour. However, Maio (2011) emphasises the gap between value/attitudes and activity. Butt (2000) found out that behaviour depends on specific beliefs and values, and he manages to integrate the aforementioned internal and external elements of influencing behaviour into an 'attitude behaviour.' Evidence show us that learning (as a change in behaviour) can occur without any changes in attitude and also attitude (and behaviour) changes can occur without acceptance of the persuasion message (Jackson, 2005), because the empirical evidence establishes that social learning is very important for behavioural changes. The social learning theory highlights the right environmental behaviour, as we are learning by observing how others behave and by modelling our behaviours (by what others do, how they do things, what we see around us and how we understand our living environment). By his research findings, it is much more difficult to influence routine behaviour. Darnton (2011) established a practice theory as a model to help the description of these elements, which comes together in practice if we want to influence or change the behaviour, so he mentioned that it is not necessary to target the individual consumer directly. In this sense, the research findings of Uzzell (2012) also suggest that the focus on the practice is very important. For an effective influence on behaviour, we must have a focus on the conditions and reasons that drive the behaviour of an individual consumer (and also of a group of consumers) rather than on the behaviour itself. On the other hand, we can see the advancement of the Internet in the development of different social media (Lu, Zhao, & Wang, 2010): the Internet and other electronic and virtual communities have deeply transformed and changed society, consumers and companies with widespread access to information, higher levels of social networking and enhanced communication abilities. As a consequence, social media can have a very important influence on consumer behaviour (Mangold & Faulds, 2009). The most significant part of social media is how they changed the way of communication between consumers and marketers (Hennig-Thurau, Gwinner, Walsh, & Gremler, 2004). Social media has given individuals the opportunity to contribute, interact and generate the content in different possibilities of communication, without any need for physical meetings (Gruzd, Wellman, & Takhteyev, 2011). The development of social media gives individuals the opportunity to share and access information in the easiest possible way (Chen, Xu, & Whinston, 2011a). International Journal of Management, Knowledge and Learning The Impact of Media on Consumers' Environmental Behaviour 271 Consumers have today access to a wide range of information sources and information. Recommendations from other consumers can facilitate them (Senecal & Nantel, 2004), and that can be a very important factor of marketing activities from customer involvement in social media. Wu, Chen, and Chung (2010) stated that individual consumers provide and share values through networking on social media. Moreover, for that reason, companies can develop marketing strategies, which will help influence and modify the individual consumers' behaviour by using social media for building trust from individual consumers (Liang & Turban, 2011). Ridings and Gefen (2004) found out that social media and online communities offer companies the opportunity to organise a better consumer relationship management system. As Mersey, Malthouse, and Calder (2010) have stated, social media provide an opportunity for companies and marketers to engage and interact with potential consumers as individuals, increasing the sense of intimacy with consumers, which helps to build trust and good relationships. Consequently, it is key for companies to have a business model that will allow them to adapt to those social media that are mostly used by their target consumers (Liang & Turban, 2011). Social media, therefore, allow companies to become more universally attractive to different groups of target consumers (Chen, Fay, & Wang, 2011b). Some marketers believe that companies can use social media and their intimacy relationship with the consumer by using an aggressive promotion approach (Moise, 2011). Potential target consumers use social media on a daily basis for various reasons,and, because they join different groups, the marketers can use social media to inform them and to influence the behaviour of all the members of the group at once (Kozinets, Valck, Wojnicki, & Wilner, 2010). It is also significant the fact that the use of social media is a low-cost tool for companies and marketers, which allows them to have a great influence on consumers' behaviour (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). Research Methodology, Sample and Analysis We developed a new measurement scale for the present research, by using the combined scales developed by Picket-Baker and Ozaki (2008) and Kim (2011), and we combined them with some of our own questions. We made statistical verification of the scale in the sample of 50 participants. Scales were originally in English, and we translated them into the Slovenian language, following the approach suggested by Harkness (2010), which meant translating the questions, making a review of the translations and adjudicating them with back translations. In nearly all of the measurement scales (except the demographic data - gender, earnings, the post number,...) we used the 5 points Likert Scale. For the processing of survey collected data, we used the program package tool IBM SPSS 22.0. Volume 5, Issue 2, 2016 272 Gregor Jagodic To gather the research information, we used the method of the interview. We gathered data at the beginning of November 2015 at a shopping centre by asking passing people to answer to our structured interview questionnaire. We collected 585 completed questionnaires filled correctly. 77% (453) of the questionnaires were completed by females and the rest 23 % (132) by male respondents. 45% (264) of the respondents in the sample were aged up to 25 years, 28% (165) were between 25 and 40 years old, 20% (117) were between 40 and 55 years old, and 7% (39) were aged over 55 years. The average age of the respondents was over 38 years. 38% (223) of the respondent earned less than 400 EUR, 24% (138) earned between 400 and 800 EUR, 31% (181) earned between 800 and 1.500 EUR, 5% (30) earned between 1.500 and 2.500 EUR and 2% (13) of respondents earned more than 2.500 EUR per month. On average, respondents earned 840 EUR per month. 64% (375) of the respondents lived in a house and 36% (210) lived in an apartment. About 10% (58) of the respondents lived alone, 20% (119) lived with someone in the same household, 25% (147) lived in the household of 3, 28% (162) of the respondents lived in the household of 4, 9% (51) of respondents lived in the household of 5 and 8 % (48) of the respondents lived in the household of 6 or more persons. On average, respondents lived in households of 3.45 persons. We all recognise that different respondents accompany different media. The scale for assessment of the media was between 1 and 5, where 1 is never and 5 whenever possible. In Table 1, we have established the importance of media for respondents. We can conclude that the Internet was the most important media for respondents, with an average score of 4.33 points out of 5 potential spots. The next most important media were social networks, with an average score of 3.86 points out of 5, and very close to that is TV, with an average score of 3.57 points out of 5 potential spots. We found out that newspapers had an average score of 2.45 points out of 5 and Journals and magazines had an average score of 2.30 points out of 5 possible stops, which make them the least important media for respondents. There is a significant positive relationship between the environmental behaviour of the respondents and advertising on different media (Table 2). For research data, we have four predictors (TV, Journals and magazines, Internet and Social Networks) with positive B-values indicating positive relationship, but 2 of these predictors (Radio and Newspaper) have negative B-values and indicate a negative relationship. If the company invests in advertising, it has to choose the right media. For instance, if they choose to invest in radio and newspapers, they will hardly spend money, but the advertisement will not have a positive influence on the environmental behaviour of clients. International Journal of Management, Knowledge and Learning The Impact of Media on Consumers' Environmental Behaviour 273 Table 1 Importance of the Media for Respondents Media (1) (2) (3) TV 3.57 1.201 460 Radio 3.16 1.172 460 Newspapers (daily, weekly) 2.45 1.124 458 Journals and magazines 2.30 1.072 460 Internet 4.33 1.035 461 Social networks (Facebook, Twitter,...) 3.86 1.393 460 Notes Column headings are as follows: (1) mean, (2) standard deviation, (3) N. TV, as a medium with a positive influence on the customers' behaviour, has a very strong influence (B = 0.153, sig. = 0.011). Journals and magazines also have a strong positive influence (B = 0.173, sig. = 0.22). However, on the other hand, newspapers have a very strong negative influence on customers' behaviour (B = -0.185, sig. = 0.012). Multiple regression model: Influence = 2.035+ (0.153 x TV) + (-0.32 x radio) + (-0.185 x newspaper) + (0.173 x journals and magazines) + (0.015 x internet) + (0.032 x social networks). (1) If a company invests in one advert on TV, in a journal or a magazine, on the Internet and social media, it will get a positive influence on consumers. We can conclude that companies and marketers should invest into advertising on TV and in journals and magazines if they want to have a strong positive influence on consumers' environmental behaviour. They have to avoid advertising on the radio and in newspapers, as they have a negative influence on consumers' environmental behaviour. Investment in advertising on the Internet and social networks will influence consumers' environmental behaviour, but we have to put in a lot more energy, effort and money to achieve the same results as on TV, journals and magazines. The SPSS output (Table 4) tells us that the value of t is different, and between 2.768 and 2.807 the number of degrees of freedom on which this was based was 541, and that it was not significant at p < 0.05. We can also see the means of each group (Table 3). On average, we can see from Table 3 and Table 4 that advertising has a more significant influence on women (M = 2.7, SE = 0.067) than on men (M = 2.31, SE = 0.122). The difference is not significant t(541) = 2.768, p > 0.05 and it represents a very low sized effect r = 0.12. Therefore, women are more likely to change their behaviour if they see advertising or if they get information about environment topics. This is a Volume 5, Issue 2, 2016 Table 2 Coefficients for Regression Model Media (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) Constant 2.035 0.323 6.296 0.000 1.400 2.671 TV 0.153 0.060 0.134 2.565 0.011 0.036 0.271 0.129 0.120 0.785 Radio -0.032 0.061 -0.027 -0.523 0.601 -0.153 0.089 0.001 -0.025 0.788 Newspaper (dally, weekly) -0.185 0.073 -0.151 -2.529 0.012 -0.329 -0.041 -0.047 -0.118 0.596 Journals and magazines 0.173 0.075 0.135 2.300 0.022 0.025 0.321 0.077 0.108 0.622 Internet 0.015 0.080 0.011 0.192 0.848 -0.142 0.172 0.067 0.009 0.603 Social networks (Facebook, Twitter,...) 0.032 0.058 0.033 0.558 0.577 -0.081 0.146 0.083 0.026 0.622 2 ai 3 ai era n> 3 n> 3 * 3 O S n> O. m a> ai 3 a. i-