Guest editorial: In Search of Sustainable and Responsible Consumption

Sustainability entails meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs (WCED, 1987). It has become a major norm of behaviour of various societal groups in recent years, and it is an increasingly prominent topic of academic research (Cervellon and Carey, 2014), public policy-making (European Commission, 2016) and marketing practice (Skroupa, 2017). The core idea of sustainability is based on the rethinking of consumption (Hofmeister-Tóth et al., 2011). Numerous researchers have emphasized that consumption patterns are seen as a major contributor to the current environmental and social problems (Peattie and Collins, 2009). On the one hand, companies recognize stakeholders’ expectations and respond to them by committing to more sustainable activities, while, on the other hand, consumers are also expected to behave sustainably and in doing so contribute to sustainable development. This expectation has led to seeing consumers as “agents of social change” (Balderjahn et al., 2013, p. 181).