Customer behavior has always been of interest for business researchers. However, it is just in recent years that there has been an increasing interest in the phenomenon of the sharing economy. It has been suggested that there is an ongoing shift in the traditional way of consuming. The idea behind the sharing economy is that two different parties can make use of their underused assets through an online platform. Previous quantitative research in the area of interest mainly focuses on the motivational factors for participation in the sharing economy; four of the most prominent factors were therefore identified and further investigated. In this thesis, these factors are referred to as drivers and more specifically, the drivers of enjoyment, sustainability, convenience, and financial benefits. Further, previous research gives an indication of a discrepancy between customer attitudes and actions when making a decision in the sharing economy. With this in mind, the purpose of this thesis is to describe customer behavior in the sharing economy. More specifically, this thesis seeks to study the relationship between attitudes and actions of customers in the sharing economy. Taking this into account, the following research question was formulated:   What is the relationship between attitudes and actions of the customers participating in the sharing economy of Rentl AB?   In order to fulfill the purpose of this thesis, the Swedish sharing economy business Rentl was addressed. To answer the research question a quantitative research strategy was followed where a survey was sent out to randomly chosen customers of Rentl and 145 responses were collected. The collected data was statistically analyzed by the use of Paired T-tests and Regression Analyses. Further, the empirical findings regarding the four identified drivers were analyzed in accordance with the theoretical framework. The identified attitude-action gap is therefore analyzed by the application of basic customer decision-making, the theory of Bounded Rationality, the Theory of Reasoned Action & the Theory of Planned Behavior, and finally the Self-Determination Theory.   The authors established that there is a positive relationship between attitudes and actions regarding the extrinsic drivers, convenience and financial benefits. However, it was further established that the intrinsic drivers, enjoyment and sustainability, do not have a significant influence on the actual actions. In other words, a positive attitude toward enjoyment and sustainability as drivers for participation in the sharing economy does not necessarily translate into actions. Thus, the authors identified that there is an attitude-action gap in the sharing economy.     In addition to the theoretical contributions, this research further contributes with practical aspects. More importantly, the sharing business Rentl is provided with a better understanding for the customer behavior in their business. Considering that the findings of this research identify convenience and financial benefits as significant drivers for participation, this can be emphasized in marketing contexts by managers.

Denna studie undersöker konsumenternas beteende vid köp av bärkassar i livsmedelsbutiker. Konsumtionen av bärkassar är ett problem på flera sätt, denna rapport kommer undersöka konsumenternas kunskap om resurs och energiåtgång vid tillverkning, miljömedvetet beteende och konsumenternas förslag till beteendeförändring vid konsumtion av bärkassar. Syftet är att undersöka om kunskap får konsumenten att agera på ett visst sätt. För att kunna utföra arbetet har en enkätundersökning utförts, både i en vald ICA butik och på Facebook. Enkäten innehöll frågor om konsumtionen, som till exempel vad konsumenterna brukar köpa för bärkasse och hur ofta. Även hur konsumenten tagit sig till butiken är av intresse likaväl konsumentens tidigare kunskaper om resursåtgång vid tillverkning kommer att frågas efter. Sist kommer konsumentens inställning till ett infört förbud efterfrågas och vad som skulle kunna få personen att minska sin egen konsumtion. Studien har kommit fram till att det inte finns några kunskapsskillnader mellan de som köper och de som inte köper bärkassar. Det finns alltså ett value-action gap, konsumenten är medveten om att konsumtionen inte är hållbar men agerar inte utefter sin kunskap. Det mest effektiva sättet att minska konsumtionen anses därmed inte vara bättre kunskap om miljöpåverkan. Istället föredras ett förbud mot plastpåsar baserade på olja. Följaktligen borde butiker endast erbjuda miljökassar och de svenska papperspåsarna. Relativt få av de som deltagit i enkäten är mot ett förbud av engångsbärkassar och eftersom även konsumtionen av miljökassar och svenska papperspåsar har en negativ miljöpåverkan är också minskad konsumtion av alla dessa att föredra. Detta kan åstadkommas med ett ökat pris. / This study examines consumers’ behavior in the purchase of grocery bags in food stores. Consumption of all types of bags is a problem in several ways, and this report will examine consumers’ knowledge about resource and energy use in manufacturing, pro-environmental behavior and consumers’ suggestions to behavioral change while purchasing grocery bags. The purpose is to investigate whether knowledge causes the consumer to act in a certain way. To achieve the purpose, a survey was conducted, both in a selected ICA store and on Facebook. The survey contained questions about consumption such as, what bag consumers usually buy and how often. Even how the consumer went to the store is of interest as well as the costumers’ knowledge previous to the study regarding resource utilization in manufacturing. Lastly, the consumers’ attitude towards a potential ban was asked for, as well as what could make the person reduce his or her own consumption. The study found that there is no difference in knowledge between those who buy bags and those who do not. This leads to the conclusion that there is a value-action gap, one is aware that the consumption is not sustainable, but one does not act according to his or her knowledge. Thus, the most effective way of reducing consumption is not considered to be a better knowledge of environmental impact. Instead, a ban on plastic bags based on oil is preferred. Hence, environmental bags and Swedish paper bags would be more promising options. Relatively few of those who participated in the survey are against a ban on disposable bags. Because even the consumption of environmental bags and Swedish paper bags has a negative impact on the environment, a reduction of consumption of all bags is therefore preferable. This can be achieved with an increase in price.

Syftet med studien är att studera deltagarnas uppfattade beteendeförändringar som medverkande i medborgarforskningsprojektet Växtkalendern. Ett vidare syfte med studien är att studera hur medborgarforskningsprojektet Växtkalendern kan påverka klyftan mellan medvetenhet och handlingskraft hos deltagarna i frågor rörande klimatförändringen, så kallat action gap. Studien har sin utgångspunkt ur en abduktiv ansats, där det empiriska materialet påverkar litteraturen och omvänt. Relevant empiri har samlats in genom en enkätundersökning. Undersökningen har skickats ut till alla deltagare i forskningsprojektet Växtkalendern, dessutom har intervjuer och samtal med specialister inom området medborgarforskning genomförts. Resultatet visar att medborgarforskningsprojektet Växtkalendern har potential att påverka deltagarna. Ur enkäten framkommer det att deltagarna anser att möjligheten att hjälpa forskningen är den klart viktigaste anledningen till deltagande. Med hjälp av de teoretiska utgångspunkterna och det empiriska materialet analyserades medborgarforskningsprojektets möjlighet att förändra beteenden hos deltagarna i frågor gällande klimatförändringen. Studien visar att klyftan mellan medvetenhet och handlingskraft kan minskas med hjälp av medborgarforskning då deltagarna upplever en ökad medvetenhet och ett förändrat beteende i och med deltagandet i projektet. / The purpose of the study is to study the behavioral changes in participants in the citizen science project "Växtkalendern". The purpose is also to study how the citizen science project "Växtkalendern" can influence the gap between awareness and action in terms of climate change issues, so-called action gap, among the participants. The study is conducted based on an abductive approach, where the empiric material influences the literature study and vice-versa. The relevant empirical was collected through a survey sent out to all the participants in the project "Växtkalendern". In addition, interviews and discussions with specialists in the field of citizen science research have been conducted. The results shows that the citizen science project "Växtkalendern" has potential to influence participants. The survey revealed that the participants felt that the opportunity to assist research was clearly the most important reason for participation. Using the theoretical standing points and the empirical material, the citizen science project ability to create behavioral changes in the participants in terms of climate change issues was analyzed. The study shows that the gap between awareness and action can be reduced with the help of citizen science as participants experienced increased awareness and a changing behavior through participation in the project "Växtkalendern".

The increasing levels of comfort have caused an increased electricity consumption over the last couple of years, leading to an increase in carbon dioxide emissions. At the same time, the interest and awareness regarding sustainability and climate change is growing, imposing a pressure on companies to incorporate sustainable businessmodels in their business. While the new levels of comfort might be difficult to change, bringing awareness to one's consumption and its' impact is still possible and can bedone through an Eco-Feedback Technology. However, this requires an understanding of the users' environmental consciousness and willingness to adapt their behaviour. To understand the effect that the environmental consciousness has on the design of an Eco-Feedback Technology and the risks and benefits said technology may pose on abusiness, interviews were conducted and a survey was distributed to gain an understanding of the environmental consciousness of the users of an video creationservice. The results were analysed using theoretical frameworks concerning environmental consciousness and the value-action gap. Additionally, experiments were conducted to calculate the environmental impact of the video creation process. The results indicated a high overall environmental consciousness amongst the users. However, the consciousness was found to be lower regarding the impact of electricity consumption and video creation. This suggests that the consciousness is dependent on the context of the users and the three aspects of consciousness should be viewed separately too, upon which the Eco-Feedback Technology should be adapted. Additionally, the users were not fully convinced an increased awareness would cause a behavioural change, suggesting a gap between attitude and action. The two mainbarriers for the gap were identified as lack of information and shift of responsibility which should be targeted by the Eco-Feedback Technology / Den ökande nivån av komfort i samhället är en av orsakerna till en ökning av elektricitetanvändningen de senaste åren, vilket har lett till ökade koldioxidutsläpp. Samtidigt växer intresset och medvetenheten gällande hållbarhet och klimatförändringar i samhället vilket sätter press på företag att integrera hållbara affärsmodeller i företaget. Trots att den ökade komfortnivån kan vara svår att förändra går det ändå att öka medvetenheten kring ens konsumtion och dess effekter, vilket är möjligt genom en Eko-Feedback Teknologi. Detta kräver dock en uppfattning av användares miljömedvetenhet och vilja att förändra deras beteende. För att undersöka effekten av miljömedvetenhet på designen av en Eko-FeedbackTeknologi samt eventuella risker och möjligheter som teknologin kan utgöra har intervjuer utförts och en enkät distribuerats för att få en förståelse för miljömedvetenheten hos användare av en tjänst för videoskapande. Resultaten analyserades med hjälp av teoretiska ramverk angående miljömedvetenhet och valueactiongap. Dessutom utfördes experiment för att beräkna och uppskatta miljöpåverkan av att skapa och rendera en video. Resultaten indikerade en hög övergripande miljömedvetenhet hos användarna. Däremot var medvetenheten gällande påverkan av elektricitetkonsumtion och videoskapande lägre. Detta föreslår att medvetenheten beror på sammanhanget avanvändarna och att de tre delarna av medvetenhet bör även analyseras separat utifrånvilket Eko-Feedback Teknologin ska anpassas. Dessutom var användarna inte övertygande om att en ökad medvetenhet skulle leda till en förändring i deras beteende gällande videoskapande, vilket föreslår ett gap mellan attityd och beteende. Studien identifierade två huvudbarriärer för gapet; brist på information och ansvarsförskjutning;som båda bör bemötas av Eko-Feedback Teknologin.

This study is based on discussions with three focus groups on the issue of individuals' views on environmental responsibility in everyday life. Responsibility is the red thread that emerged from the empirical material from the focus groups and the theoretical framework. The discussions have been focused on whether the problems from household related environmental issues are caused by individual or structural reasons and whether they should be resolved through changes in individuals' behavior or helping structures. Car usage has been a particular focus, since from all household activities that is the one causing the greatest environmental impact (SCB 2015b). Objectively speaking, most participants argued that environmental problems are or should be easy to solve and that the solutions should involve influencing individuals' values ​​and norms, thus referring to internal factors. Based on the individual's own situation, however, most participants indicated mainly external factors as obstacles from living out environmental responsibility in the way that they felt they should. Tendencies of various psychological and sociological defense mechanisms could be distinguished, which is an expected impact of the cognitive dissonance that many apparently are experiencing regarding environmental responsibility. Working for enabling structures is an important conclusion from this study. Regarding the car's role it is likely that it is about finding more ways of helping individuals to change their travel mode since the environmental impact of car usage is something that most people are aware of, but feel unable to change. Solutions must therefore involve external factors. / Denna uppsats bygger på samtal med tre fokusgrupper i frågan om individers syn på miljöansvar i vardagen. Ansvar är den röda tråd som vuxit fram mellan det empiriska materialet från fokusgrupperna och det teoretiska ramverket. Det har handlat om huruvida problem kopplade till hushållsrelaterade miljöfrågor är orsakade av individuella eller strukturella anledningar och om de bör lösas genom förändringar i individers beteenden eller hjälpande strukturer. Bilanvändningen har getts ett särskilt fokus, då det av hushållens olika aktiviteter är den som orsakar allra störst miljöpåverkan (SCB 2015b). Rent objektivt konstaterade de flesta deltagarna att miljöproblem är eller borde vara enkla att lösa, att lösningarna handlar om att påverka individers värderingar och normer, alltså inre faktorer. Utifrån individernas egen situation angavs dock främst yttre faktorer som hinder från att leva ut det miljöansvar på de sätt som de kände att de borde. Tendenser till olika psykologiska och sociologiska försvarsmekanismer kunde skönjas, vilka är väntade effekter av den kognitiva dissonans som många tycks uppleva i fråga om miljöansvar. Att arbeta för möjliggörande strukturer är därför en viktig slutsats. Gällande bilens roll, kan förmodas att det även här handlar om att hitta fler hjälpande sätt för individer att ändra färdsätt, då miljöeffekterna av bilanvändningen är något som de flesta är medvetna om men själva känner sig oförmögna att förändra. Lösningarna måste därför handla om yttre faktorer. / <p>Alternativ svensk titel:</p><p>Ingen kan inte göra allt, men alla kan göra något? - En komparativ studie om hur individer resonerar kring miljöansvar i vardagen</p>

The purpose of this thesis was to explore if there are emotional dilemmas in environmentally aware individuals, stemming from conflicts, resulting in their environmental personal transportation behaviour. This study uses the dialogic, relational interview method to explore possible conflicts in participants' personal transportation choices. The analysis seems to indicate that there is an apparent emotional tangle in individuals when confronted with possible double binds that put their environmental beliefs in conflict with other important aspects in their lives. The personal dilemmas they feel revolve around social pressures and their personal identities and leave them feeling conflicting emotions and strong amounts of guilt. The findings show the importance of reframing pro-environmental activities in ways that help negate the secondary injunctions that may people feel.

Environmental realities such as resource depletion and climate change require us to rethink many of the processes in place in the global system. The clothing industry as one of these processes has become wasteful of resources, calling for the application of both circular solutions and, as argued here, sufficiency to reach higher resource efficiency. Being critical of the desired level of material accumulation has the potential to spare resources and reduce the burden on the environment. The aim of this thesis is to explore potential ways to shift the clothing industry towards more resource efficient and sustainable practises through a case study approach. This exploration focuses on solutions that could potentially help shifting both the demand and the business/provision side towards a sense sufficiency. The perspectives on sufficiency by Swedish customers and clothing company employees were investigated through interviews and online surveys and reflected upon based on existing literature. Based on the findings of this study, there is no clear path around barriers that both customers and businesses face, but many of the solutions that have already been suggested hold potential. Customers should exert customer pressure and companies should react to this by shifting their business and marketing tactics to accommodate the new kind of consumption and a shift in modes of thinking. The two sides should meet half-way, expecting and demanding change in business and consumption. Although with limitations, policies also have potential to accelerate change by incentivising and easing certain actions.

Using an online charitable dictator game experiment (n=214), we explored how different, randomly assigned experimental treatments (social media posts) containing anti-climate-change sentiment (n=77, 36%), misinformation (n=74, 34.6%) and a control condition (n=63, 29.4%) impacted the real donation behaviour of pro-environmentalists to an environmental non-governmental organisation. Participants were recruited through social media (Facebook, Linked-In, and Reddit). We found that the treatments resulted in minimal differences to donation likelihood and amount. We used the same charitable dictator game experiment (n=56) to explore how these experimental treatments containing anti-climate-change sentiment (n=20, 35.7%), misinformation (n=26, 46.4%) and a control condition (n=10, 17.9%) impacted the social media response behaviour of pro-environments, as well as their real donation behaviour. We found that the treatments resulted in differences to reply frequency (p=0.02935) and minimal differences to reply tone (p=0.05698), while donation behaviour was unaffected. Donation behaviour did not stratify with demographic factors with the exception of geographic location (p=0.04825). These results suggest that the donation behaviour of pro-environmentalists is resistant to climate-change misinformation and anti-climate change opinions presented through social media, while these treatments may influence social media reply behaviour. Further research into the effect of this reply behaviour on other social media users and online spaces as well as whether these observations apply to the general population is necessary. These results also call into question the necessity of moderating misinformation and climate scepticism in online spaces, as there is some evidence that this content does not negatively affect prosocial behaviour, and instead may encourage cross-attitudinal discussion. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

In order to slow down, if not stop, climate change, we all need to contribute to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions. This knowledge has been with us for a long time, but nevertheless emissions have not decreased, but rather increased. To understand the reason why we don't act in line with what we know, we need to study behaviors. In this paper we focus on behaviors at the individual level. The gap that exists between what we know and what we do has many names where it is studied from different perspectives, and to understand what creates this gap is very complex. There is therefore not just one answer to this question and many different complementary theories and models are needed. The majority of the studies carried out on the subject examine perceptionsof the gap among people without higher education in environmental science, which has contributed to knowledge being, in many cases,seen as one of the main contributing factors to inaction.In our study, we want to contribute with a perspective on the gapin people who already have a higher education in environmental science. We conducted a qualitative study with three focus group interviews with environmental science students at Linköping University. The results show that, despite higher education and knowledge, there are variousindividual, structural and responsibility factors thathinder individuals fromactingenvironmentally friendly. Throughout the analysis the situational aspect comes into play and that knowledge of the complexity of environmental and climate issues can in many cases contribute to inaction. / För att kunna bromsa, om inte stoppa, klimatförändringarna behöver vi alla bidra till att minska våra växthusgasutsläpp. Denna vetskap har funnits med oss länge, men trots det har inte utsläppen minskat utan snarare ökat. För att förstå orsaken till varför vi inte agerar i linje med vad vi vet behöver vi studera beteenden. I denna uppsats fokuserar vi på beteenden på individnivå. Det gap som finns mellan vad vi vet och vad vi gör har många namn (e.g. value-action gap, attitude-behavior gap) där man studerar det utifrån olika perspektiv. Att förstå vad som skapar detta gap är mycket komplext. Det finns därmed inte ett rätt svar på denna fråga utan det behövs många olika kompletterande teorier och modeller. Majoriteten av de studier som gjorts undersöker uppfattningar om gapet hos personer utan högre utbildning inom miljövetenskap. Vilket har bidragit till att bristande kunskap i många fall setts som en av de största bidragande faktorerna till overksamhet. Vi vill därmed i vår studie bidra med ett perspektiv på gapet utifrån personer som redan har en högre utbildning inom miljövetenskap, och kallar således gapet för knowledge-action gap. Vi genomförde en kvalitativ studie med tre fokusgruppsintervjuer med miljövetarstudenter från Linköpings universitet. Resultatet visar på att det, trots en högre utbildning och kunskap, finns många olika, individuella, strukturella och ansvarsrelaterade, faktorer som gör att en individ inte agerar miljövänligt. Genomgående i analysen för dessa är att den situationella aspekten spelar in samt att kunskapen om miljö-och klimatfrågans komplexitet i många fall kan bidra till overksamhet.

Problem: Although modern people are more aware than ever about the environment and responsible sourcing of raw materials, a gap exists between consumers’ preferences on eco-friendly products and their actual purchasing behaviour. Companies operating in the electronic mobile device industry have been unable to bridge this value-action gap and relatively little research has been conducted on this industry.   Topic &amp; Purpose: This paper aims to investigate and discover the preferences and purchasing behaviour of young Swedish consumers operating in the electronic mobile device industry. This paper will focus on purchasing intentions, willingness to pay, and identify which consumption values have the highest effects on these consumers’ intent to purchase eco-friendly mobile devices.   Method: A descriptive strategy and a deductive approach were applied in order to understand the impact of consumption values, CSR, brand image, and product information on young Swedish consumers. Eight hypotheses were developed to test the influence of each of these factors. The empirical study was was based on a quantitative approach and the data collection was made through an online survey and face-to-face interviews targeted towards young Swedish consumers between the ages of 18 and 28. The data analysis was conducted by using the SPSS program in order to gain numerical values which could be used to analyse the validity of each hypothesis.   Conclusion: This study discovered two out of five consumption values to have a clearly higher impact on young Swedish consumers’ purchasing intentions towards eco-friendly mobile devices. These values were emotional and conditional value, indicating that environmental awareness and situational factors have the highest influence on shaping the consumption values of these consumers. In addition, brand image was seen to be an influential factor for these consumers, as opposed to CSR, or product information. Based on these findings, suggestions for further research were presented.