ACADEMIC BACKGROUND AS AN INFLUENCING FACTOR IN THE GEN Y’S SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION HABITS

Millennials are defined as the group of people born between 1980-2000 [1] and maintain a positive attitude in relation to sustainability. However, there is a contradiction between how Millennials think and act when it comes to a sustainable fashion consumption [2]. It is interesting to determine which factors influence their sustainable attitude and behaviour, and those influences can be personal and situational. Personal factors are internal influences. The attitude is a personal factor important in the purchase of sustainable products but doesn't explain why the young consumers don't buy this type of products. Other examples are awareness, trust, priorities and emotion [3]. The awareness factor, for example, is defined as the amount of time that was spent in the processing of information about green and sustainable products [4] so academic background will play an important role in this factor. Situational influences are the external influences that a person cannot control. Some examples: time, opportunity or money [5].

Methodology:
The research method will be through the analysis of two focus group, one with marketing management students (IPAM) and another with fashion design students (University of Minho). Both fields of marketing and fashion were selected to be compared and analyzed because both degrees study the consumer but marketing has a special focus on management and fashion a focus on the actual fashion value chain. The analysis of the focus groups allows a better understanding between what Millennials think about sustainability and how they perceive it, with their actual consumption habits regarding footwear. In order to design a solid focus group, some influencing factors were selected from the literature review and will be further subject of analysis: Consumption habit; Economic availability; Physical availability; Personal benefits; Consumer consciousness and Perceived personal importance.

Conclusions:
After analysing the influencing factors some conclusions are now possible to obtain. Even though they have different academic backgrounds, their green purchase behaviour is identical. Both groups are fully aware of their role in society and know that they should consume green and that by doing so they are contributing positively to the environment and improving their lives. All agreed that being green adds value to their life and that is extremely beneficial. Regarding footwear, no participant could name a sustainable brand. Although fashion students have a better understanding of design, both groups stated that they have limited design choices and that is one of the main barriers that keep them from buying sustainable fashion. Also, for both groups, the economic availability presented a strong negative influence on the green purchasing behaviour.

References:
[1] Zemke R 2001 Here come the Millennials. Training Magazine 38(7) 44-49
[2] Cui Y, Trent E, Sullivan P and Matiru G 2003 Cause-related marketing: How Generation Y responds. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management 31(6), 310-320
[3] Csutora M 2012 One more awareness gap? The behaviour-impact gap problem. Journal of consumer policy p 1- 19
[4] Baker W, Hutchinson J W, Moore D and Nedungadi P 1986 Brand familiarity and advertising: Effects on the evoked set and brand preference. Advances in Consumer Research 13(1) 637-642
[5] Ajzen 2012 The theory of planned behavior. In PAM Lange, AW Kruglanski and ET Higgins, Handbook of theories of social psychology 438-459