Although the brand management process is determined by a company’s business activity, the final image of a brand is formed in the mind of a customer (Pitcher, 1985; Brozowska-Woś, 2020). Therefore, it is important to link the category of 'brand’ with the concept of customer perceived value, which is a nodal marketing category. Contemporary customers look for a dimension of value that will take into account more of their expectations because they are increasingly better informed, know their own needs and, most importantly, are aware of their growing importance, and, at the same time, expect a partner-like, individualized relationship from businesses (Drapińska, 2020). Therefore, they can be described as engaged customers or value (co-)creators (Pluta-Olearnik, 2019), who participate in various forms of non-transactional activity in a relation with the enterprise. They act as prosumers.

The main goal of this article is to identify the brand as a value driver for customer perceived value. The sub-goals are to define two relationships: (1) between the brand and customer engagement, and (2) between customer perceived value and customer engagement.

In the article, a value driver is understood as a product, process or any other result of the company’s business activity that satisfies identified or unconscious customer needs. It is also worth noting that we are inclined to a behavioral understanding of customer engagement, while perceiving value as a customer perceived value, also referred to in the literature as a customer value, perceived or expected (Sojkin, 2015). 'Identification’ is understood as a means of causing a certain cognitive effect, 'establishing the identity of the phenomenon or object under investigation on the basis of its most characteristic features’ (Szarucki & Bugaj, 2016), while the concept of relation is treated as 'a connection, relationship or dependence between objects, concepts, phenomena and quantities’ (New Dictionary of Correct Polish, 1999).

Brand as a customer perceived value driver

There is no commonly accepted definition of the term 'brand’ in the literature on the subject. It has several levels of meaning. Firstly, a brand may be a name, a term, a symbol, an inscription, a pattern, or any combination thereof, a color composition, melody, or an aggregation of all these elements, which are used to distinguish a specific product from competing products (Altkorn, 2001). Secondly, a brand name is treated as an element that makes it possible to recognize the company’s product and a certain level of quality (de Chernatony, McWilliam, 1989). In other words, a brand is a form of guarantee statement, an assurance of consistent quality of the product. Moreover, in the literature it is treated as a factor that determines the perceived value (Barari et al., 2021). Finally, a brand defines specific intangible assets, and, in this aspect, it is a value judgment, so it has a specific personality, hence it goes beyond the dimension of functionality and usability (de Chernatony, McWilliam, 1989). As Kall concludes (2001), in the United States, brands are limited to the added values that exist beyond the physical form of the offer.

The values and emotions symbolized by an organization become important elements in distinguishing a given company or its products (Maciejewski, Mokrysz & Wróblewski, 2020). A brand gives individual features to a specific product, generates trust, and reduces sensitivity to business cycles (Rytel, 2008). When analyzing brand-related benefits, it is worth adopting two perspectives, i.e., the company’s and the customer’s, as presented below (Tab. 1).

An analysis of the table shows that the brand is a benefit not only for the company, but also for customers. The brand of a given company is an intangible resource and, at the same time, a component of a product. Company brand creation is one of the main strategic investment decisions that result in an increase in goodwill (Rytel, 2008; Howaniec, 2008) and a competitive advantage (Pabian, 2020). The subjectively perceived value of a company or product is a result of how that company’s brand is perceived by its customers (Dolińska-Weryńska, 2018). A brand can be defined as the feelings and experiences of those who use it (Ogilvy, 1985).

When treating a brand as a perceived value driver, terms that are involved in this topic should be defined: brand strength, brand value, brand equity, consumer-based brand equity, brand awareness, brand reputation, brand identity and brand image (Tab. 2). And in this area, there are no clear definitions, as researchers often use different meanings (Polański, 2011).

When analyzing all these research categories, it is worth paying more attention to brand equity, i.e., the added value (and therefore customer perceived value) obtained by a product through the use of a trademark (Farquar, 1989). This value can be defined in three ways (Polański, 2011): (1) from the point of view of an enterprise: it involves increasing the competitiveness of an organization, which is related, inter alia, to facilitating the launch of new products and licensing; (2) from the point of view of distribution channels: brand equity results in a higher level of sales compared to other products in a given category; (3) from the customer’s point of view: brand equity involves a positive attitude towards a specific product. It aims, inter alia, to reduce the risk related to the purchase decision and provide the customer with a positive experience when using a product. This is related to how a brand is interpreted as a risk reducer. A brand reduces the risk perceived by a customer and makes customers aware that a specific product represents a value presumed for them (Jones & Nonewac, 2013).

The concept of 'brand equity’ is defined as the difference between marketing effects and the effects that would accumulate if the product did not have the same brand (Alnsour & Subbah, 2018). Five components (dimensions) of brand equity are highlighted in the literature on the subject (Aaker, 1991): (1) brand loyalty, (2) brand awareness, (3) perceived quality, (4) brand association, (5) other proprietary brand assets (i.e., patents, trademarks, relationships taking place in distribution channels). Importantly, the first four components of brand equity create the so-called consumer-based brand equity, while the last refers to the enterprise (Schivinski & Łukasik, 2017).

It is extremely important to distinguish brand value from brand equity. It should be assumed that brand equity is responsible for what a brand means to customer, while brand value is related to what that brand means to a specific organization. Many researchers do not distinguish these two, which unfortunately does not help in understanding the scientific discourse (Raggio & Leone, 2007). Brand value is mainly related to the financial sphere. It can be discussed when trying to evaluate a brand: it is a financial value that depends on the current and expected strength of the brand and the financial effect of the management board’s ability to use this strength strategically (Kurzyk, 2014). On the other hand, brand equity should be placed in the marketing sphere of an enterprise (Dębski, 2009). As the definition itself indicates, brand equity reduces or increases the value of the product with this brand. It is also symptomatic that some researchers (Leuthesser, Kohli & Harich, 1995) define brand equity as simply a perceived value obtained in comparison to a non-branded product.

Customer associations with a brand involve psychological relationships with a specific brand that are divided into three approaches in the literature (Aaker, 1996): (1) brand as a product (value proposition); (2) brand as a person (brand personality); (3) brand as an organization (associations with the enterprise). The first approach mainly involves functional benefits. The second perspective involves strictly emotional benefits, while the third can be seen when the company’s activity is seen in the broader environment and may be related to CSR activities, for example. This division is crucial in our opinion when analyzing individual dimensions of value. Associations with the product involve the functional dimension of the product (e.g., the location of the trade format), while the approach to the brand personality is more related to the hedonistic dimension, and the perspective of a brand as an organization involves the perception of the company’s activities in the field of the so-called corporate brand.

The concept of customer perceived value was introduced into economics by Drucker in the 1950s (Drucker, 2007), and was developed by Porter (1985). As Khalifa (2004) claims, customer perceived value is a category that is often misused in the social sciences, and in particular in the economic sciences. This is due to the characteristics of the construct, because customer perceived value is treated as personal (i.e., the perception is different from customer to customer) and is truly situation-related in that it depends on the situational context. The consequence of this is a large number of construct definitions (Tab. 3).

The definitions of customer perceived value can be divided into four groups. In the first, the attributes of a product and service are emphasized, in the second, the relationship between the enterprise and the customer, in the third, value is perceived as a result of benefits and costs perceived by the recipient, whereas in the fourth, the value is recognized in the context of the goals that the recipient achieves as a result of purchase or use of a product.

Value creation with an enterprise improves brand image not only among the cooperating process participants, but also among less engaged customers. Therefore, the process of value creation is antecedent to brand image creation. It is also worth referring to the research by Ind, Iglesias and Schulz (2013). According to these researchers, customers who participate in value co-creation strongly associate with a specific brand. Participants like these are often more are inclined to express positive opinions about a particular company, thus promoting its brand (Dijk, Antonides & Schillewaert, 2014). Therefore, customer engagement is an inherent element of this process. Brands with a strong capital equity generate greater commitment, which in turn influences the motivation for customer engagement (van Doorn et al., 2010). In the literature on the subject, statements can be found that brand equity is a collection of judgments, attitudes, and customers’ behaviors. Thus, this construct is directly related to value creation by customers (Polański, 2010).

Relationships Between Customer

Engagement and a Brand Customer engagement (CE) has become one of the most thoroughly exploited categories in the theory of marketing management (Vohra & Bhardwaj, 2019; Kucia, 2018; Krowicki, 2022). However, it is not a homogeneous concept — its meaning is far from being unambiguous, which raises controversy (Chan, Zheng, Cheung, Lee & Lee, 2014). Researchers agree that the customer’s power is growing. Customers are increasingly interested in creating value both for theirselves and for others. Free access to information and to the ways it is spread through virtual customer communities have empowered the customer in relation to the enterprise. The contemporary customer has become more educated, aware of their role and, as a result, encounters the company’s employees or other stakeholders more frequently, which makes them more engaged. From a passive recipient of marketing messages, the customer has transformed into a co-creator of communication.

CE is defined in various ways (Tab. 4) and can be considered from three perspectives: (1) three-dimensional, cognitive-emotional-behavioral (Patterson, 2006; Gołąb-Andrzejak, 2021), (2) two-dimensional, cognitive-emotional (Bowden, 2009) and (3) one-dimensional, mainly behavioral (Żyminkowska, 2018a; Maciejewski & Krowicki, 2021). The latter perspective treats CE as customer behavior towards a brand or company that is not related to purchasing and results from motivational factors (van Doorn et al., 2010). The authors of the present article stand for a narrow behavioral approach to customer engagement. This behavioral interpretation of CE does not overlap with the constructs of affective and cognitive commitment or customer involvement (Harmeling, Moffett, Arnold, & Carlson, 2017). Importantly, the narrow, non-transactional approach to CE does not overlap with the behavioral loyalty approach — the non-transactional nature of the customer engagement construct differs from purchasing regularity. In our view, customers’ transactional behavior should be eliminated from the conceptual frames of the CEB concept. Then, this approach does not coincide with the concept of relations with a customer and thus, it only applies to intangible sources of customer value (Żyminkowska et al., 2018a).

Customer engagement is related to the concept of customer perceived value. According to the theory of consumption values (Sheth, Newman, & Gross, 1991; Grzegorczyk, 2019) and the concept of customer value (Holbrook, 2006), the customer’s motivation to engage depends on the values they expect to obtain. This is confirmed by Vivek et al. (2012). According to these researchers, value is both an antecedent and a consequence of customer engagement (Vivek, Beatty, & Morgan, 2012). Maslowska, Malthouse and Collinger (2016) show that engagement affects customer perceived value, and this is also confirmed by Sobocińska (2015). Hollebeek (2013) also notes that customer engagement generates customer perceived value: therefore, CE is a perceived value driver. Interestingly, Hollebeek analyzed brands with both a hedonistic and a utilitarian orientation, and it turned out that in the case of both types of brands, CE is a perceived value generator. After testing the model of customer engagement/value interface, she showed that in the case of hedonistic brands, customer engagement affects the customer perceived value more. In Polish research, the analysis by Witczak (2013) is noteworthy. In his view, user involvement in the brand profile can be used in building brand identity and, as a result, it can increase its value.

The study by Dong, Evans, and Zou (2008) on customer participation in the repair service showed that customer perceived value leads to customer engagement, whereas a subsequent analysis by Carlson, Rahman, Taylor, and Voola (2019) confirmed that value in the brand page experience (VIBE) contributes to customer engagement and also confirmed that various forms of CE are stimulated by this value. The research by Brzozowska-Woś (2020) also indicated that the perceived value of a brand has a positive impact on customer engagement, as did the analysis by Ngo, Nguyen and Kang (2019) conducted in Vietnamese restaurants. It is also worth noting that, according to Gupta and Pandey (2021), CPV (customer perceived value) is a factor that precedes customer engagement in the retail area. Barari, Ross, Thaichon, and Surachartkumtonkun (2021) see perceived value in a similar way. The concept according to which value is the antecedent of customer engagement is associated with the fact that customers are engaged by a specific value (benefit) that they expect to get through that engagement. Jaakkola and Alexander’s offline research conducted in an offline real environment is extremely interesting. It shows that customer engagement behavior can generate a wide range of benefits for a company, customer(s) and other stakeholders. It is also worth observing that the researchers noticed that the nature of the customer engagement process is cyclical. According to these researchers, the motives, manifestations and consequences of CE are repetitive, because the positive antecedents of customer engagement motivate them to stay active, whereas the company is motivated to support this kind of behavior. This is confirmed by the analyses by Żyminkowska (2018b), who, based on means-ends models, states that the benefits of CE (expected effects of customer engagement) can be treated both as consequences and motivating factors of CE.

To sum up, it should be clearly stated that the concepts of customer perceived value and customer engagement are closely related to each other. In the literature on the subject, various formulations of CE are presented where customer perceived value is treated as a motive of engagement or as an effect.

When analyzing model views of customer engagement and brand, van Doorn et al.’s (2010) concept is worth looking at, according to which brand characteristics and company image are a prerequisite for CE, while brand commitment is an important factor from the customer’s perspective. The issue of brand is also raised by Żyminkowska and Żyminkowski (2016). In their model, the attitude towards the brand is treated as an antecedent of customer engagement.

In the literature on the subject, the influence of brand equity on the online customer engagement in relation to a brand has already been shown. In other words, the more brand equity is perceived as higher, the more actively the customer reads, comments, shares and creates brand-related content (Schivinski & Łukasik, 2017). Research also shows that a high brand reputation increases recipient interest in the marketing communication of this brand and makes reception of such a message more positive (Brzozowska-Woś, 2020).

When identifying the relationship between CE and brand, it is impossible not to pay attention to the concept of customer engagement in its relationship with the brand (CBE). Therefore, interactions with the brand are subsumed in customer engagement. This category is precisely defined by Martí et al. (2014), while defining CBE as the 'customer’s mental state shaped as a result of interaction with a specific brand’. According to Algesheimer, Borle, Dholakia, and Singh (2010), CBE is 'a mechanism that lets you strengthen a customer’s relationship with a brand’, whereas Hollebeek (2011) defines this construct as 'a level of customer engagement triggered by a brand as well as the customer attitude and mood formed by the customer’s direct and indirect contacts with a brand.’ These relationships can have various dimensions: cognitive, affective and/or behavioral (Kieżel & Wiechoczek, 2016). In our view, the behavioral interpretation is also the most appropriate in the case of this construct. CBE is nothing but a type of customer engagement, where the brand is the subject of interest. The psychological approach to CBE will introduce chaos in the interpretation. Brand engagement is influenced by brand activities, brand quality and brand value, brand innovation, brand responsiveness and delivering the brand promise (Hollebeek & Chen, 2014).

The brand helps customers to build their own identity, and the show effect and the need to belong are crucial in this process. This is confirmed by the research by Muntinga, Moorman, and Smit (2011). According to these researchers, it is the personal identity that is the factor that motivates customers to contribute content and create content in the online environment. It is also worth paying attention to the research by Bartkowiak and Michalak (2020), which showed that recognition and selfesteem are among the motives of customer engagement. Shah (2004) also draws attention to how important it is to build and maintain an individual’s reputation and strengthen identity and self-image in the CE process.

Conclusions and recommendations

Brand is a value driver. Creating a specific customer perceived value is closely related to the stage of its communication. With that, the brand image is created. Furthermore, it can be said that a brand can have a meaning like value because it speaks of values delivered to a customer.

Brand exists in the area of communication (Polański, 2010), hence it can be assumed that communicating the value is the key stage in identifying the relationship between the concept of customer perceived value and the brand. This phase is one of the elements of the value creation process aimed at positioning, and thus shaping the brand image.

On the other hand, customer engagement is becoming progressively more important in the effective and efficient management of this communication. In the marketing value network, the customer becomes the sender of messages, engaging in various forms of customer engagement, i.e., word of mouth marketing (WOM), participation in marketing events, reactions in social media, or content contributions in a virtual environment. By co-creating value, positive customer engagement can strengthen the brand’s image.

An analysis of the literature on the subject allows us to state that in some perspectives brand image is close to customer perceived value, while brand identity is a construct related to the value proposition. Brand identity refers to a set of features and benefits that the product is to provide to the customer, while brand image is the result of the constructed identity. Therefore, it is worth noting that this relationship resembles the relationship presented in the literature on the subject between two perspectives of value for the customer, i.e., customer value proposition and customer perceived value. The customer perceived value is the actual result a company developing a set of distinguishing attributes (Landroguez, Castro, & Cepeda-Carrión, 2013).

Incorporation of brands into the process of building one’s own identity is also a specific feature of the contemporary customer. Brand personalization allows a customer to emphasize their place in the social hierarchy (Mazurek-Łopacińska, 2021). In the postmodern era, consumption is more important than production, while value is not only a feature of a product, but also becomes a feature of a created image (Maciejewski, 2014). Brand is a condition of customer engagement. It is of great importance in creating your own image. By engaging in contact with a brand and its community, a desire to present one’s individuality, unique identity and one’s own preferences is emphasized. This is also one component in a customer society that glorifies self-creation.

The company’s goal should be to manage the brand so that it confirms the customer perceived value. This is related to the aspect of risk reduction, which is extremely important in the context of a constantly increasing number of brands on the market and the crisis of confidence. Customers, who are an integral part of branding, should be part of brand management. From this perspective, a brand can be treated as a risk reducer and customer perceived value. Therefore, to build a brand so that it encourages various forms of engagement and thus creates customer perceived value is a challenge.

We are aware of the limitations of this research. The conclusions of the critical literature review should be treated as an incentive for further discussion on the relationship between the brand and customer perceived value as well as CE. In addition, it is worth looking at the issue of customer value through the prism of the company. From this perspective, it is necessary to link the issue of customer value with the construct of the value of the company, which has been described by B. Dobiegała-Korona (2014; 2015). In other words, customer value should generate value for the company. Undoubtedly, empirical research that analyses these relationships would be of great theoretical and applied value.

Acknowledgements
This research received no funds

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The oldest identified use of the word „dandy” is to be found in the correspondence between two English poets — Lord Byron and Thomas
Moor. In a letter dated 25 July 1813, Byron admitted that he himself had been a „dandy” in his youth (Okulicz-Kozaryn 1995, p. 27). At its core, dandyism was not just a distinctive way of truly elegant dressing, especially in the nineteenth century, but a complete philosophical current that elevated elegance and aesthetics in the field of clothing to the status of almost transcendent values, creating a closed club (almost an alternative society) made up of true individualists (Maciejewski and Lesznik 2020, Howells 1996). The dandies, mainly young men (Smith 1974), tried their best to be seen as the most elegant members of society — almost heroes, often undertaking an ever-futile and romantic fight against the omnipresent mediocrity. A formally secondary goal (although it is difficult to say if it might not have unofficially been the main one) was to spark interest around oneself, to generate controversy and — above all — to stand out from the crowd (Visser 2011, Rhodes 1928).

The over-elegance of representatives of this trend is considered to be a sign of the Decadent movement, while the dandies themselves are thought to have been guided only by an aesthetic scale (Niedziałkowska 2011). Generally it is believed that dandyism as such constitutes a closed chapter in history — that the trend either died out or evolved in a new direction, losing its fundamentally philosophical traits in favour of simplistic, hedonistic consumption of certain types of luxury goods — for example, stylistically matched sports clothes (Ferrero-Regis 2017).

However, dandyism could be reduced to a niche in the clothing market, more broadly within the elegant clothing segment. It has also been suggested that in the twenty-first century this trend may have common points with metrosexuality, and may even potentially constitute the distant source of the latter, as a certain type of seduction strategy (Halligan 2011, Maciejewski 2012, Gheorghe 2015).

The purpose of this study is, therefore, not only to describe the behaviour of elegantly-dressing Polish males (including self-declared „dandies”) in a clothing market, but also to juxtapose their characteristics against those of metrosexuals, thus searching for any potential tangential points between these two groups of consumers.

Dandyism in the new era

The dandies of the nineteenth century can be considered the original „hipsters” who set canons of fashion, while themselves not being
subordinate to them (Okulicz-Kozaryn 1995, p. 13). It is difficult to say the same thing about those people who consider themselves dandies today: clearly they do not dictate canons, in fact quite the contrary — they are in some ways opposed to them. Within slightly modernized types showing some connections with dandyism, the authors define in the broadest sense the: the classical, the romantic and the sportive. The „classics” are inspired by the golden, nineteenth-century Brummel epoch (a progenitor of all dandies), but adapt their clothes to contemporary reality. They are elegant in the classical sense, somewhat closer to the model of a gentleman, whose clothing is to be a part of the overall image of a person (Przybylski 1982, Skrucha 2012). On the contrary, the „romantics” are characterized by a historical regression of clothes that are matched according to their mood. The most progressive type is „sportive”, while its representatives prefer the so-called smart casual (d’Hamilton 2015) — for example a combination of a blazer, jeans and sneakers, which brings to mind the metrosexual style.

Metrosexuals, in turn, are defined as young, wealthy men from large cities who spend a significant part of their income on clothes and improving their self-image (Casanova, Wetzel, and Speice 2016). Because of this characteristic, some authors even classify metrosexuals as narcissistic dandies (Gębala 2008). Metrosexuality does not constitute a life philosophy, rather focusing only on the hedonistic domain of consumption: its individualization (apparent in the postmodern era, Maciejewski 2014) and the so-called well-being (Cheng et al. 2010). However, it is not indicated what style of clothing the expenses are related to. Metrosexualism therefore resembles in some points a reduced form of dandyism, burdened with the casualization of clothing that is characteristic of highly developed postmodern societies of the twenty-first century. On the other hand, it cannot be said that in the new millennium there is a shortage of men interested in classical elegance, as evidenced by the success of blogs (see www 1), internet forums (see www 2) and books devoted to this subject (see Kędziora 2013). Contemporary elegance on the one hand succumbs to the hedonism of new design, cuttings and fabrics, while on the other, fits into ideas of slow fashion (especially due to the relative stability of classic canons in time, Hirscher 2013) or the broadly understood goals of sustainability of the fashion market — in particular thanks to customers’ profound awareness and paying close attention to the quality of the product, which is intended to serve for a longer period of time (Gurova and Morozova 2016).

Some authors, while searching for contemporary elements of dandyism, point to the existing ethnic trends, two of which have been described in depth in the literature: the so-called Muslim dandies and the Swenkas. Muslim dandyism means wearing a suit primarily as a mark of own heterosexuality, as well as being a mature man — a serious candidate for a life-time partner to safely build a family with (Khabeer 2017). Therefore, a symbolic significance of clothing serves as an element that builds a man (similarly to classic gentlemen). South African participants of the Swenkas subculture fall slightly more into the characteristic of classical dandyism. So-called swenking is a culture based on a distinctive style and good manners. In essence, following its rules grants prestige and social status. Like the classical type, the Swenkas combine classic with modernity, but without trying to be just another copy of the European style. Swenking can take quite grotesque forms due to the modest living conditions of Swenkers and at the same time their clothes and accessories exorbitantly expensive by local standards (Goeller 2014).

Considering how much dandyism is associated with male elegance, the question arises whether a woman could / can be a dandy. Potentially it might be considered possible, but more likely in terms of the „fashionable woman” — an elegant and well?groomed lady with some features of a dandy. However, it is difficult to identify actual, historical representatives, hence dandyism should be considered a strictly male phenomenon, also today (Gill 2007).

Research methodology and sample description

After researching secondary sources on the roots and theoretical background of dandyism, we decided to conduct a study using an online survey technique among Polish consumer e?communities gathering together enthusiasts of elegant clothing (hence among a deliberately selected research group), on the assumption that such thematic discussion groups constitute natural communities in which people claiming to be modern dandies might appear.

Due to the difficulty in reaching out to the target group, being a scattered niche, links to our questionnaire were posted on forums and groups devoted to male-elegance enthusiasts, in October and November 2020. This original questionnaire consisted of 21 thematic questions — covering a wide spectrum of behaviours and characteristics to describe the image of contemporary dandyism, but also the elegant segment of the clothing market — and 7 demographic questions. Respondents could provide their e-mails in order to be sent the published article based on the results of this study — approximately 39% of the participants expressed interest in the final results. It is estimated that invitations to participate in the study may theoretically have reached a maximum of 7,000 people.

Based on the analysis of the targeted consumer e-communities, it was estimated that the group of men highly interested in elegant style in Poland does not exceed 10,000 in number. Most of them, however, cannot be considered active community participants, hence the number of actual users, deeply interested in the subject, most likely would not exceed 2,000–3,000, of which self-declared „dandies” can be expected to constitute only a fraction (according to the literature, claiming that this is a vanishing trend). A total of 167 completely and correctly completed questionnaires were obtained and were qualified for further analysis, which was carried out using the SPSS 26 statistical package, as well as the WordClouds text visualization and sentiment evaluation software.

The sample as a whole consisted only of men with a median age of 25 years, a mean age of 27.5 and a dominant age of 22. The respondents may generally be described as relatively young; their characteristics are presented in Table 1.

Due to the relatively young age of the respondents, as many as 67.1% of them were unmarried. The vast majority of respondents had higher education (64.7%), whereas less than 1/3 had secondary education. The declared occupations of the participants suggest that most of the interviewees in the latter subgroup were still in course of their highereducation studies. Another tangential point with metrosexuality was found in the size of the respondents’ place of residence: 64.1% of them lived in large cities. However, the distribution of monthly earnings compared to the national average was more uniform: more than half of the respondents had an income equal to or lower than the average wage in the Polish economy. Particular attention should be paid to the percentage of respondents describing themselves as a „dandy” (dandys in Polish), which was slightly less than 30%: this number stands in stark contrast to the theoretical considerations in the literature, which describe dandyism as fading out at the end of the twentieth century.

Figure 2 presents the professions declared by the respondents in the form of a tag cloud, where the larger the word, the more often it was mentioned in the respondents’ answers.

Participants predominantly declared professions traditionally associated with or requiring elegant attire: lawyers, managers, entrepreneurs or economists. There was also a large group of students.

Results

The broadly-defined elegant style was divided into three currents / subtypes: smart casual (e.g. combining blazers and sneakers), business and strictly formal (the most elegant types of clothing). The respondents’ declarations about the preferred sub-types in their own style are presented in Table 2.

Almost 72% of the respondents generally opted in favour of a more casual style. Among older respondents (26 and over), there was a higher percentage of those choosing a business style, probably for work-related reasons (30.4% compared to 12.5% among interviewees aged 25 and under).

It is worth noting, however, that younger participants and those from smaller towns relatively more often opted for a formal style as compared to older respondents and those from larger cities. Similar discrepancies were noted in terms of monthly income. A strictly formal style was preferred by 18.4% of dandies and only 2.5% of non-dandies.

The reasons as to why the respondents chose a given style were classified into several recurring categories, which are presented in Figure 3.

Interviewees generally indicated well-being and improved self-esteem when they felt they were properly (in that case — elegantly) dressed. Factors also significant were a sense of uniqueness and a desire to stand out from the crowd, as well as an original sense of aesthetics and treating elegant clothing as a hobby — a distinguishing feature of a person. The argument of professional attire was also often cited, even if such requirements were not explicitly stated in respondents’ places of work.

A vast majority of respondents (almost 72%) have been interested in male elegance for at least several years. Only 3% of participants were just starting their adventure, which indicates that people active in this niche generally have quite „lengthy experience”. A detailed breakdown of the respondents is presented in Table 3.

It is not surprising that older respondents generally had a longer history in the field of elegant clothing. This relationship was also observed in terms of marital status, where fewer than 30% of married respondents had been interested in this subject for several years, analogically in the breakdown based on the level of monthly income. No major differences were found between self-declared dandies vs. non-dandies.

The main sources of knowledge and inspiration indicated by the respondents are thematic Internet blogs devoted to men’s elegance (88.6% of respondents declared using them) and discussion groups (70.7%). Details are presented in Table 4.

Traditional media, including television and literature, are currently the least frequently used source of information about fashion elegance for the respondents, although they are still used by almost one third of participants. The declarations of the respondents were similar in most of the points, but differences emerged as to the use of discussion forums and channels on YouTube. In the case of the younger and unmarried respondents, forums were used only by 46.6% of them, while for the older and married, this percentage was 74%. The reverse relationship occurred in the case of YouTube channels. Online discussion groups are used by more than 9 out of 10 dandies, while amongst non-dandies it is about 3 out of 5. This supports the claim that that Facebook groups, in particular, may constitute modern dandy clusters.

Although respondents are relatively eager to learn and take inspiration from other participants of e-communities, they are not too eager to actively participate in them themselves. Table 5 contains declarations on the level of activity in discussions on a scale ranging from 1 (does not participate at all) to 5 (participates very actively).

At most 8 out of 10 respondents were „moderately active” (answers 1–3). Notably, the older respondents as well as dandies were, on average, more willing to participate in discussions. Among the latter, the share of respondents declaring answers 4 or 5 was almost 35%, while for non-dandies it was around 13%.

On an annual basis, interviewees spend on average EUR 1,173 on elegant clothing, shoes, accessories and other related products, which was roughly close to the average monthly gross national salary in Poland at the time the study was conducted. However, the median salary was notably lower — EUR 682, with the dominant at EUR 455. The breakdown of the statistics is presented in Table 6.

Older respondents (with average earnings of EUR 1,792, as compared to EUR 618 for the younger ones) and married respondents could afford to spend more on clothing shopping. The case is similar when it comes to participants from larger cities, but in such a cross-section the dominant for residents of smaller towns was higher (EUR 682 against EUR 455). In general, however, in the sample the determinants of larger sums allocated to shopping were: older age, being married, living in a larger city and, naturally speaking, earnings above the average. This image differs in several points from the indicators of metrosexuality proposed in the literature. Given the average and the dominant of spending, there were no major differences between self-declared dandies and non-dandies. For the former, however, the dominant was significantly higher (EUR 1,136 against EUR 682) as was the standard deviation (EUR 2,297 against EUR 1,472). Figure 4 shows the box plots of annual expenditures of both of these groups.

While the first quartile and the median for both dandies and nondandies were more or less equal, the third quartile suggested a certain discrepancy. In the case of the dandies, Q3 was about EUR 1,150, whereas for the rest of the respondents it was around EUR 1,360.

The retail price of the most expensive item in the respondents’ wardrobe was on average slightly over EUR 500, with the median of EUR 364. The statistics broken down into research sections are presented in Table 7.

Older, married and respondents earning above average could afford to buy things about 2 times more expensive than the respondents with the opposite characteristics. The average for dandies was slightly lower than for non-dandies (EUR 472 vs. EUR 553), while the median was similar. In most cases, the most expensive thing in the respondents’ wardrobe was a suit (40% of respondents), for which the average purchase price was around EUR 580. Another 20% of respondents indicated shoes that cost an average of EUR 366, and 18% of respondents named a coat worth around EUR 500. Less than 9% of respondents named a blazer, with an average price of EUR 474.

The respondents were asked to indicate on a 7-point scale how closely in their opinion the currents of dandyism and metrosexuality are related, where 1 meant absolutely no relationship, while 7 — a very close relationship. Table 8 presents the results.

The responses were generally quite balanced, but suggested no close relationship: in general more than 70% of the respondents gave a score of at most 4 on the scale. The average of the declarations was 3.53, with the dominant and the median at the level of 3. A slightly closer relationship was indicated by younger and unmarried respondents, as well as those earning no more than the national average. More affluent respondents more clearly showed no relationship (mean 3.12 vs. 3.87 in the opposite cross-section). Self-declared dandies themselves also claimed to be somewhat more distinct: with an average of 3.24, no more than three-fourths of them gave a maximum score of 4. In the case of non-dandies, these figures were 3.65 and 67.7% respectively.

When asked to name the determinants or characteristics of a modernday dandy, the respondents most often indicated elegance in clothing and attachment to impeccable appearance. Their responses are visualized in Figure 5 in the form of a word cloud.

Notably, the responses did not mention at all the aspect of the philosophical foundation with which dandyism was originally associated. Currently, it seems to be solely reduced to an aesthetic domain, just one of many styles of dressing, or a set of certain personality traits. A modernday „dandy” is considered to be a man who dresses to impress and is especially fond of classic, elegant clothing. Attention to detail and high quality were also indicated, as well as a tendency to sometimes go a bit overboard (going to the extreme in terms of elegance, being overdressed for the occasion).

Conclusions

The Polish sympathizers of male elegance whom we surveyed generally proved to be generally young, well-educated and from larger cities. At the same time, they did exhibit significant income stratification. The respondents generally held professional positions that required elegant attire or were still university students (perhaps with aspirations to hold such positions in the future). At the same time, they claimed that their main reasons for choosing an elegant style were their own well?being, their sense of aesthetics and above all — their desire to project a professional self-image at work.

The gallant Polish men we surveyed focus mainly on so-called everyday elegance (smart casual), in which, on average, they generally have several years of dressing „experience”. However, there is no shortage of young people just starting out on their adventure with elegant dressing — they obtain the necessary knowledge for such a quest primarily from internet blogs and thematic discussion groups, pointing to the importance of opinion leaders within these e?communities. Despite their eagerness to draw upon the knowledge of others in this way, however, the respondents were not very keen to actively participate in such discussions themselves. Their annual budgets for elegant items of clothing fluctuated around EUR 1,200, which was about equivalent to the national average gross monthly salary in Poland at the time of study. In order to satisfy all their clothing needs, they have to ration their expenses, so that the most expensive items in their wardrobes (most often suits) generally cost around EUR 500.

Despite the fact that dandyism is described in the existing literature as a trend nearly vanished, nearly 30% of our respondents did indeed describe themselves as „dandies” (dandys in Polish). These participants relatively more often preferred business and formal style, as well as more often made use of thematic discussion groups, hence it may be expected that such e-communities are in fact contemporary „meeting places” for dandies. At the same time, self-declared „dandies” were somewhat more keen to participate in discussions there. It cannot be concluded that respondents considering themselves „dandies” had larger budgets for clothes — in fact quite the contrary, some statistics indicated a slightly lower level of their expenses. The self-declared dandies were amongst those most critical of the notion of a possible connection between „dandy” style and metrosexualism. However, the respondents as a whole did not rule out such a connection, indicating some existing similarities. It remains an open question to what extent contemporary dandies may actually be considered heirs to their nineteenth-century ideals, and not just sartorialists gravitating more towards mere hedonism in the domain of elegance.

In general, this study has a number of obvious limitations: above all, it was conducted on a non-representative sample, and thus the results presented should be analysed with caution. Nevertheless, we believe that the findings shed some new light on an under-researched segment of highend men elegant dressing. The authors encourage other researchers to participate in discussion on the subject and undertake further joint research in this area of study.

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W ekonomii pojęcie konsumpcji zrównoważonej jest już od pewnego czasu pojęciem znanym. Stanowi bowiem kluczową kategorię teorii użyteczności konsumenta. Jednak wobec lawinowego przyrostu ludności w skali globalnej i kurczenia się zasobów planety pojawia się problem długookresowej trwałości spożycia. Ważną kwestią jest także równowaga między możliwościami konsumpcji obecnego i przyszłych pokoleń, związana z kwestią ich dostępu do zasobów zużywanych i użytkowanych w procesach konsumpcji (Kiełczewski, 2007). Nie jest zatem dla nikogo zaskoczeniem, że w obecnym stuleciu zrównoważona konsumpcja, w tym również zrównoważona konsumpcja żywności, znalazła się w centrum zainteresowania ekonomistów.

Celem artykułu jest ukazanie stosunku konsumentów do koncepcji zrównoważonej konsumpcji żywności poprzez identyfikację ich zachowań na rynku i w gospodarstwach domowych. W pracy przyjęto założenie, że konsumenci odnoszą się pozytywnie do koncepcji zrównoważonej konsumpcji, kiedy działają na rynku i w swoich gospodarstwach domowych w sposób zrównoważony, czyli unikają nadmiernej konsumpcji, marnotrawstwa żywności, konsumują żywność ekologiczną i produkty etyczne, a także odpowiedzialnie dysponują zasobami (woda, energia elektryczna, gaz ziemny) oraz odpadami pokonsumpcyjnymi.

Artykuł ma charakter badawczy i zorganizowany jest w sposób następujący: w części drugiej przeprowadzony został krótki przegląd literatury pozwalający na zdefiniowanie kwestii zrównoważonego rozwoju oraz odniesienia jej do idei zrównoważonej konsumpcji i zachowań zrównoważonych. W części trzeciej opisano podstawy źródłowe artykułu oraz sposób przeprowadzenia badania i analiz danych. W części czwartej przedstawiono uzyskane rezultaty, odnosząc je do innych badań w tym obszarze. Artykuł kończy podsumowanie, w którym przedstawiono główne wnioski płynące z przeprowadzonych analiz. Opisano tam także ograniczenia opisanego badania.

Wnioski płynące z zaprezentowanego materiału nie wyczerpują w pełni podjętego tematu, mogą jednak stanowić głos w dyskusji nad rozwojem badań i analiz dotyczących postaw i zachowań konsumentów wobec idei zrównoważonej konsumpcji, a także nad strategiami marketingowymi przedsiębiorstw kierujących swoją ofertę żywnościową do współczesnych konsumentów.

Przegląd literatury

Traktując ekonomię jako naukę o racjonalnym dysponowaniu zasobami znajdującymi się w niedoborze i posiadającymi alternatywne wykorzystanie (Sowell, 2014), można zauważyć wzajemne powiązania zrównoważonej konsumpcji z ekonomią, a zwłaszcza z takimi jej subdyscyplinami jak ekonomia środowiska, ekonomia ekologiczna, sharing economy, a także z coraz wyraźniej krystalizującą się w okresie ostatnich dwudziestu lat ekonomią zrównoważonego rozwoju (Zalega, 2016; Zrałek, 2018). Widoczne są również wyraźne związki zrównoważonej konsumpcji z naukami o zarządzaniu, a zwłaszcza z marketingiem, w tym marketingiem zrównoważonym, ekologicznym i społecznym (Arunachalam i Kumar, 2018; Lutz i Newlands, 2018; Maciejewski, Mokrysz i Wróblewski, 2019).

Zrównoważona konsumpcja stanowi rdzeń definicji zrównoważonego rozwoju (Kramer, 2011), który w dokumentach ONZ (2019) jest opisywany jako rozwój, który zaspokaja podstawowe potrzeby wszystkich ludzi oraz zachowuje, chroni i przywraca zdrowie i integralność ekosystemu Ziemi bez przekraczania długoterminowych granic pojemności ekosystemu planety.

Fundament przedstawionej definicji stanowią dwa pojęcia: pojęcie potrzeb i pojęcie ograniczeń, narzuconych przez zdolność środowiska naturalnego do zaspokojenia potrzeb obecnych i przyszłych. Zrównoważona konsumpcja oznacza zatem takie wykorzystanie dóbr materialnych i usług, które pozwala zaspokoić podstawowe potrzeby i osiągnąć wyższą jakość życia, minimalizując przy tym zużycie zasobów naturalnych, toksycznych i szkodliwych dla środowiska materiałów, które powstają na wszystkich etapach produkcji, nie ograniczając jednocześnie praw następnych pokoleń do takiej konsumpcji (NME, 1994).

W świetle przyjętych definicji można wyodrębnić grupę zachowań konsumentów, które określa się mianem zrównoważonych. Zaobserwować można je zarówno na rynku, jak i w gospodarstwie domowym. Za Zrałek (2018) do rynkowych zachowań zrównoważonych należy zaliczyć nabywanie produktów ekologicznych, nabywanie produktów etycznych (odpowiedzialnych społecznie) oraz unikanie marnotrawstwa. Te ostatnie można także zaliczyć do zrównoważonych zachowań w gospodarstwie domowym.

Ponadto zrównoważone zachowania w gospodarstwie domowym to także zachowania dekonsumpcyjne, kolaboratywne (konsumpcja wspólna) oraz dysponowanie odpadami pokonsumpcyjnymi.

Konsumenci zachowujący się w sposób zrównoważony przyjmują pozytywne postawy wobec konsumpcji zrównoważonej i jej celów (Annunziata, Agovino i Mariani, 2019). Dlatego też ważne jest, by jak największy odsetek społeczeństw przyjął i zaczął realizować cele zrównoważonego rozwoju, mając świadomość, że Ziemia znajdująca się w ich rękach nie została odziedziczona po przodkach, tylko pożyczona od przyszłych pokoleń. Kwestia ta jest szczególnie istotna w sferze konsumpcji, w tym zwłaszcza w sferze konsumpcji żywności (Aertsens, Verbeke, Mondelaers i Van Huylenbroeck, 2009), gdzie z jednej strony występuje konsumpcjonizm, konsumpcja ostentacyjna i tony przeterminowanej i nieskonsumowanej żywności wyrzucanej na śmietniska bogatej Północy, a z drugiej — bieda i wielkie obszary głodu na biednym Południu. Z jednej — choroby cywilizacyjne, takie jak otyłość, cukrzyca wzrost zachorowań na nowotwory, z drugiej — niedożywienie, śmierć z wyczerpania i pragnienia.

Zrównoważona konsumpcja jako cel i warunek ekorozwoju jest i powinna być wzbogacana wiedzą o różnych jej aspektach (Gustavsen i Hegnes, 2020). Wciąż bowiem zarówno definicja, jak i elementy składowe tego pojęcia z naukowego punktu widzenia nie wydają się w pełni rozpoznane i kompletne.

Źródła i metody

Podstawę źródłową empirycznej części opracowania stanowią badania bezpośrednie, przeprowadzone w ramach projektu badawczego pt. „Zmiany modeli konsumpcji żywności w Polsce” realizowanego w Katedrze Rynku i Konsumpcji UE w Katowicach w latach 2018–2019 i finansowanego przez Ministerstwo Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego. Część badań przeprowadzonych w ramach projektu dotyczyła identyfikacji zrównoważonych zachowań konsumentów obserwowanych na rynku żywności i w ich gospodarstwach domowych. Badania te wykonane zostały metodą ankiety, techniką ankiety rozdawanej. Pytania w kwestionariuszu zostały sformułowane w formie skal porządkowych, dwubiegunowych, siedmiostopniowych oraz skal przedziałowych. Oceny rzetelności użytych skal dokonano, obliczając dla nich współczynnik alfa Cronbacha i, jeśli przyjąć za dopuszczalny poziom współczynnika α > 0,7, to wykorzystane w badaniu skale można uznać za rzetelne (Henson, 2001).

Badania przeprowadzono wśród nielosowo dobranych osób reprezentujących swoje gospodarstwa domowe z województw mazowieckiego i śląskiego oraz ze Słowacji¹. Decyzja o wyborze nielosowego doboru do próby podyktowana była przede wszystkim brakiem odpowiedniego operatu losowania oraz koniecznością ograniczenia kosztów badań. Ograniczone środki finansowe determinowały także obszar prowadzonych badań. Do próby kwalifikowano osoby pełnoletnie, odpowiedzialne za dokonywanie zakupów żywności i przygotowanie posiłków. Były to w zdecydowanej większości kobiety — panie domu (82,2% polskich respondentów i 88,7% słowackich).

W wyniku przeprowadzonych badań oraz po weryfikacji formalnej otrzymanego materiału badawczego do analiz zakwalifikowano 900 w pełni poprawnie wypełnionych kwestionariuszy (po 300 z województw mazowieckiego i śląskiego i 300 ze Słowacji).

W próbie polskich konsumentów znaleźli się respondenci z różnolicznych gospodarstw domowych. Najczęściej były to gospodarstwa 4-osobowe (30,2%) oraz 2- i 3-osobowe (odpowiednio 20,7% i 20,8%). Stosunkowo mniej liczniej reprezentowane były gospodarstwa 1-osobowe (16,0%) oraz 5-osobowe i więcej (12,3%). W próbie przeważali konsumenci z miast (81,0%), wśród których najliczniejszą grupę stanowili badani z miast liczących powyżej 200 tys. mieszkańców. Konsumenci mieszkający na wsi stanowili 19,0% ankietowanych. Uczestnicy badania, zapytani o ocenę sytuacji materialnej swojego gospodarstwa domowego, najczęściej przyznawali, że jest ona dobra lub przeciętna (odpowiednio 47,5% i 34,5%).

Złą lub bardzo złą sytuację zadeklarowało 2,8%, natomiast bardzo dobrą — 15,2% badanych. Ankietowani w zdecydowanej większości legitymowali się wykształceniem średnim. Najmłodszy respondent liczył 19 lat, najstarszy — 82 lata. Mediana wieku pani domu wyniosła 45 lat, pana domu — 48 lat.

W próbie badanych ze Słowacji najwięcej było respondentów z gospodarstw 4-osbowych (27,8%) i 2-osobowych (26,1%). Niewiele mniej zaobserwowano także gospodarstw 3-osobowych (24,4%). Najmniej liczny odsetek w badanej próbie stanowiły osoby samotne oraz z gospodarstw 5-osobowych i więcej (odpowiednio 12,4% i 9,4%). W badanej próbie konsumenci mieszkający na wsi stanowili 18,4%. Pozostali zamieszkiwali miasta liczące do 50 tys. mieszkańców (27,1%), od 51 do 100 tys. (26,4%) i więcej niż 100 tys. mieszkańców (28,1%). Uczestnicy badania ze Słowacji, zapytani o ocenę sytuacji materialnej swojego gospodarstw domowego, najczęściej przyznawali, że jest ona dobra (48,8%) lub przeciętna (29,5%). Złą lub bardzo złą sytuację zadeklarowało 1,8%, natomiast bardzo dobrą — 20,4% badanych. Badani w większości legitymowali się wykształceniem średnim. Najmłodszy respondent liczył 21 lat, najstarszy — 89. Mediana wieku pani domu wyniosła 46 lat, pana domu — 48 lat.

W przeprowadzonym badaniu wykorzystano 12 zmiennych diagnostycznych, charakteryzujących zrównoważone zachowania konsumentów na rynku artykułów żywnościowych i w ich gospodarstwach domowych (tabele 1 i 2). Tworzyły one siedmiostopniową skalę porządkową, gdzie liczba –3 oznaczała odpowiedź „całkowicie się nie zgadzam”, a +3 odpowiedź „całkowicie się zgadzam”. Wartość alfa Cronbacha wyniosła 0,764 (wersja polska) oraz 0,811 (wersja słowacka), co świadczy o dobrym poziomie rzetelności zastosowanej skali.

Do opisu uzyskanych wyników badań, oprócz wskaźników struktury i miar położenia, wykorzystano test niezależności zmiennych χ2 Pearsona oraz współczynnik V Cramera. W obliczeniach wykorzystano program IBM SPSS Statistics 25.

Rezultaty i dyskusja wyników

Respondenci z polskich województw deklarowali podejmowanie zachowań, które należy uznać za umiarkowanie zrównoważone (Me = 1 w ośmiu na dwanaście analizowanych zachowań). Badani najczęściej deklarowali zrównoważone zachowania dekonsumpcyjne, czyli zakupy po uprzednim określeniu swoich potrzeb i zwracanie uwagi na termin przydatności do spożycia. Stosunkowo ważne było też dla nich odpowiednie dysponowanie odpadami pokonsumpcyjnymi, a więc sortowanie i recykling odpadów. Ankietowani na ogół uważają, że odżywiają się zdrowo, dlatego też najczęściej deklarowali brak zainteresowania poradami i zaleceniami dietetyków (tabela 1). Deklaracje takie nie powinny dziwić, patrząc choćby na wyniki lipcowych badań CBOS, według których 80% Polaków jest przekonana, że odżywia się zdrowo lub bardzo zdrowo (CBOS, 2019).

Niepokoić może natomiast stosunkowo niewielka świadomość badanych odnośnie do ograniczoności zasobów i konieczności racjonalnego wykorzystywania źródeł energii. Zaledwie 14,3% badanych w pełni zgadza się z koniecznością oszczędzania energii elektrycznej i gazu podczas przygotowania posiłków. Jeśli chodzi o oszczędzanie wody jest ich jeszcze mniej, bo zaledwie 13,5% (tabela 1).

Słowaccy badani również deklarowali podejmowanie umiarkowanie zrównoważonych zachowań. Najważniejsze akcenty postawione zostały na te same kwestie, które dominowały wśród polskich badanych: zwracanie uwagi na termin przydatności do spożycia, zastanawianie się przed zakupami, co jest naprawdę potrzebne, czy zwracanie uwagi na recykling i sortowanie odpadów. Podobnie też jak wśród polskich respondentów przeważa przekonanie, że w gospodarstwach domowych badanych przygotowuje się zdrowe posiłki, więc nie jest konieczne korzystanie z porad i zaleceń dietetyka. Z kolei deklaracje zachowań dotyczących ograniczania zużycia wody oraz energii są jeszcze rzadsze. Tylko 8,4% słowackich respondentów całkowicie zgadza się z koniecznością oszczędzania wody, a zaledwie 6,0 — energii elektrycznej i gazu (tabela 2).

Deklarowane zachowania polskich i słowackich konsumentów są podobne, podobny jest także poziom wydatków na żywność i napoje bezalkoholowe w tych krajach. Według danych Eurostatu w 2016 r. Słowacy wydali na żywność 1400 euro na osobę, Polacy zaś 1100; wydatki te stanowiły w ich budżecie odpowiednio 17,8% oraz 17,1% ogółu wydatków (Maciejewski, 2018).

Do kluczowych zachowań zrównoważonych w obszarze konsumpcji należy zaliczyć unikanie marnotrawstwa. Na problem wyrzucania żywności zwracano już niejednokrotnie uwagę (Dąbrowska i Janoś-Kresło, 2013; Śmiechowska, 2015). Uzyskane wyniki badań potwierdzają istnienie tego zjawiska wśród ankietowanych w obu krajach. Analizując deklaracje obu grup respondentów, można zauważyć, że żywność wyrzucana jest częściej w Polsce niż na Słowacji. Ważną kwestią staje się także uświadamianie mieszkańcom obu krajów konieczności zwracania uwagi na racjonalne korzystanie z zasobów takich jak woda, energia elektryczna czy gaz ziemny — tabele 1 i 2.

Wykorzystując test niezależności zmiennych χ2 Pearsona oraz współczynnik V Cramera do badania siły związku zmiennych, stwierdzono, że zmienne deskryptywne — takie jak wiek osoby odpowiedzialnej za zakupy żywności i jej przygotowanie, miejsce zamieszkania, sytuacja materialna czy liczba osób w gospodarstwie domowym — mają umiarkowany wpływ na podejmowanie zachowań zrównoważonych w gospodarstwach domowych ankietowanych (V < 0,3; p ≤ 0,1).

Podsumowanie

Podsumowując, warto zauważyć, że badani konsumenci deklarują podejmowanie zrównoważonych zachowań wobec konsumpcji żywności zarówno na rynku, jak i w swoich gospodarstwach domowych. Określić by je można mianem umiarkowanie zrównoważonych. Cieszy ich racjonalizowanie konsumpcji i troska o zdrowe odżywianie — niepokoi niska świadomość ograniczoności zasobów oraz ignorowanie problemu zużycia wody i gazu czy korzystania z energii elektrycznej, której wytwarzanie nie pozostaje bez wpływu na stan środowiska naturalnego.

Wciąż zatem dużo jest do zrobienia w zakresie promowania idei zrównoważonej konsumpcji, ale można już liczyć na dość liczny odsetek konsumentów świadomych, chcących działać na rzecz zrównoważonego rozwoju. Wskazują na to badania także innych autorów (m.in. Zrałek, 2018).

To ważny przekaz zarówno dla instytucji szukających wsparcia dla koncepcji zrównoważonego rozwoju wśród zwykłych mieszkańców Ziemi, jak i dla przedsiębiorstw, które w swoich strategiach marketingowych powinny brać coraz częściej pod uwagę cele związane z realizacją zrównoważonych wartości. Mogą się one przejawiać choćby w produkowaniu tylko zdrowej żywności dostarczanej na rynek w opakowaniach przyjaznych dla środowiska naturalnego czy propagowaniu zdrowiej diety.

Autor ma jednak pełną świadomość, że do zaprezentowanych wyników badań należy podchodzić z ostrożnością z uwagi na obciążenia błędem pomiaru, wynikającym przede wszystkim z nielosowego doboru próby, jej wielkości, jak też stosunkowo wąskiego obszaru prowadzonych badań. Autor ma jednak nadzieję, że choć w pewnym stopniu przyczynia się do podkreślenia wagi i znaczenia badań nad zrównoważonymi zachowaniami konsumentów i zrównoważoną konsumpcją.

Przypisy

¹ Autor chciałby w tym miejscu podziękować prof. dr hab. Irenie Ozimek z Katedry Polityki Europejskiej, Finansów Publicznych i Marketingu SGGW w Warszawie za pomoc merytoryczną i techniczną w przeprowadzeniu badania w województwie mazowieckim oraz doc. Ing. Pavolowi Kita z Katedry Marketingu Uniwersytetu Ekonomicznego w Bratysławie za pomoc merytoryczną i techniczną w przeprowadzeniu badania na Słowacji oraz pomoc w tłumaczeniu kwestionariusza na język słowacki. Tłumaczenie kwestionariusza odbyło się zgodnie z zasadami ekwiwalencji badań międzynarodowych o czym piszą m.in. Jaciow (2018) i Barska (2019).

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