Solving the luxury fashion and sustainable development “oxymoron”: A cross-cultural analysis of green luxury consumption enablers and disablers

Abstract

Green luxury is a promising stream in the environmental marketing and sustainable development literature. Yet, scholars are still investigating why green consumers show a positive attitude toward ethical consumption but then act inconsistently by preferring conventional products due to price or quality criteria, especially in the luxury sector. Building on Heider's balance theory, this study investigates the underlying mechanisms of green luxury consumption focusing on how consumers' psychological imbalance fosters their attitude–behavior gap. The authors used partial least squares structural equation modeling to assess the green enablers and disablers predicting consumers' purchase intention. Multigroup analysis is performed on a cross-cultural sample of 792 luxury consumers belonging to collectivistic (China) and individualistic (Italy) cultures. Moderation analysis shows how consumers' self-enhancement and self-transcendence impact the relationships between green enablers, disablers, and attitudes toward green luxury. An importance-performance map analysis is conducted to identify which aspects are most important in explaining consumers' intentions to purchase green luxury products.