Selected aspects of household consumer behavior in the context of environmental and technological changes

Ing. Martin Hlaváček

Disertační práce

Abstract:

With growing concerns about climate change, pollution, and finite resources, households are becoming more conscious of their impact on the environment. This awareness is influencing their consumption choices, such as opting for eco-friendly and sustainable products. Climate-neutral energy resources constitute another indispensable part of environmentally conscious consumption. The technological innovations provide consumers with new, climate-neutral sources of energy. Yet, the use of them is subject to public acceptance. This thesis aims to examine the main factors contributing to environmentally friendly consumer choices in green consumption and energy innovations. The thesis will primarily concentrate on green consumption on the phase of consumer choice of environmentally friendly food and non-food products and consumer source-of-energy choice on the example of acceptance of the small nuclear reactors as a climate-neutral alternative for energy produced from fossil fuels. The study relies on econometric analysis of cross-sectional survey data based on a representative sample of households in the Czech Republic. The principal component analysis will be used to reduce the dimensionality of the affecting factors and/or the indicators of consumer choices. Ordinal regression analyses will help to identify the contributing factors impacting consumer choices. The model for econometric analyses will be composed based on existing theories, empirical results, and policy-relevant ideas summarized in the literature review. The results suggest, that, besides price, the household consumer behavior in impacted by the beliefs and attitudes, which are primarily based on the information published in mass media. Health beliefs and environmental concerns play important roles.

Keywords

sustainable economy, consumption, environment, energy, survey

Jazyk práce: angličtina

Datum vytvoření / odevzdání či podání práce: 13. 3. 2024

Obhajoba závěrečné práce

• Vedoucí: doc. Ing. Inna Čábelková, Ph.D.
• Oponent: Mansoor Maitah, Ph.D. Ph.D., prof. Ing., Artan Qineti, externi, Jaroslav Halík, externi

Česká zemědělská univerzita v Praze

Provozně ekonomická fakulta

Doktorský studijní program:
Sector Economics and Economics of Enterprises