Exploring relationship between environmentalism and consumerism in a market economy society: A structured systematic literature review

Abstract

Managing environmental sustainability has become a critical challenge and an essential agenda for academics and corporations alike. This study conducted evidence-based research to explore whether it is possible to maintain a balance between environmentalism and consumerism in a capitalist society. A triangulated approach is followed by combining systematic literature review (SLR) and text mining for cross-validation, thus, limiting subjective bias. The findings suggest that, although, it is possible to achieve a balance in the long run but this necessitate enormous amount of efforts and resources due to the complexity and paradoxical nature of environmentalism and consumerism coupled with the current way of capitalist societies’ life. Building on the findings and the Operations Management Input-Transformation-Output model, a research framework is proposed. The proposed framework suggests that to keep a balance between environmentalism and consumerism in a capitalist society, a progressive and transformational change could be instrumental for a viable solution. Finally, building on current gaps in the research domain, six future research directions are proposed to carry forward the notion of environmentalism and consumerism in a capitalist society.

Keywords

• Environmentalism
• Consumerism
• Capitalist society
• Sustainability
• Cleaner production and COVID-19