The New Generation of Eco-Innovators – Beyond Purism and Biospheric Values

The economic damage of environmental pollution is remarkable. Consequently, there is a need for companies to consider environmental issues in product development and to understand why consumers adopt ecological innovations. By integrating two areas of consumer characteristics, environmental consciousness and innovativeness with a special focus on young consumers the present study answers this question. 425 consumers completed the questionnaire. The result of structural equation modelling showed that joyful consumption is an important antecedent of domain-specific eco-innovativeness. Additionally, biospheric values increase, whereas altruistic values reduce ecological innovativeness. The results show that product designers have to consider benefits for nature and hedonic components of a new product.