The impact of degenerative and regenerative business practices on consumer norms and preferences

Abstract

This study examines how consumers' intentions to purchase environmentally friendly products differ across regenerative and degenerative gastronomy business contexts. The proposed model includes Problem Awareness, Ascription of Responsibility, Personal Moral Norm, perceived Environmental Corporate Social Responsibility, Attitude towards the Use of Eco-Friendly Products, and Purchase Intention. Data were collected through an online survey of 394 consumers with gastronomy-related experience and analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling. The findings suggest that Problem Awareness increases Ascription of Responsibility, which in turn strengthens Personal Moral Norm. While perceived Environmental Corporate Social Responsibility positively influences Attitude towards the Use of Eco-Friendly Products, both Personal Moral Norm and this attitude construct enhance Purchase Intention. However, some relationships were found to be significant only in the regenerative business context. In addition, the model explained substantially less variance in the degenerative context, particularly for Personal Moral Norm (R2 = 0.036) and Purchase Intention (R2 = 0.127). Overall, the results indicate that eco-friendly consumption is shaped not only by consumers’ moral and cognitive processes, but also by the environmental value-creation logic adopted by businesses.