Environmental concerns, financial sacrifice, and motivation as predictors of Gen Z sustainable behaviour

Sustainable consumer behaviour is critical to improving the natural environment and protecting natural resources. The paper explores selected factors influencing the home sustainable behaviour of Generation Z consumers. Particular attention was paid to concern for the environment, willingness to make financial sacrifices, which is understood as the willingness to incur higher costs resulting from pro-ecological behaviour, and motivation for sustainable behaviour. The research was conducted among 492 consumers belonging to Generation Z. A serial mediation model was developed to test four research hypotheses. The results indicate a significant mediation relationship between environmental concerns, motivation, and pro-environmental consumer behaviour and an insignificant mediation associated with willingness to make a financial sacrifice. This implies that financial sacrifice did not play a crucial role in explaining the relationship between environmental concern and pro-environmental home behaviour. However, in the model in which motivation for sustainable behaviour and willingness to financial sacrifice were serial mediators, we observe a significant positive relation between motivation and willingness to financial sacrifice.