Predicting sustainable consumption behavior of Europeans using the CVPAT

This chapter aims to explain and predict the sustainable consumption behavior among Europeans. We build on the study by Saari et al. (2021) and use the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach to construct an alternative model. Thereby, we rely on the ISSP Environment III dataset and select nine European countries (N = 11,675). Subsequently, we test both models in terms of their predictive ability by using the cross-validated predictive ability test (CVPAT). We find that the proposed alternative model shows a significantly lower average loss and, hence, inherits higher out-of-sample predictive power than the established model. Our study adds value to research regarding sustainable consumption behavior, in that we do not only consider the explanation of the effects in our model but also include a predictive angle by applying a novel methodology.

Subjects

Consumption behavior

CVPAT

Explanation

PLS-SEM

Prediction

Sustainability

DDC Class

300: Social Sciences

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Predicting sustainable consumption behavior of Europeans using the CVPAT