Cleaner Engineering and Technology 2 (2021) 100047 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Cleaner Engineering and Technology journal homepage: www.journals.elsevier.com/cleaner-engineering-and-technology Exploring relationship between environmentalism and consumerism in a market economy society: A structured systematic literature review Nina Panizzut a, Piyya Muhammad Rafi-ul-Shan a, Hassan Amar b, Farooq Sher c,*, Muhammad Usman Mazhar b,Jirí Jaromír Klemes d,** a School of Strategy and Leadership, Faculty of Business and Law, Coventry University, Coventry, CV1 5FB, UK b Department of Management, Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK c School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Automotive Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Environmental and Computing, Coventry University, Coventry, CV1 5FB, UK d Sustainable Process Integration Laboratory – SPIL, NETME Centre, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Brno University of Technology - VUT Brno, Technicka 2896/2, 616 69, Brno, Czech Republic ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Keywords: Managing environmental sustainability has become a critical challenge and an essential agenda for academics and Environmentalism corporations alike. This study conducted evidence-based research to explore whether it is possible to maintain a Consumerism balance between environmentalism and consumerism in a capitalist society. A triangulated approach is followed Capitalist society by combining systematic literature review (SLR) and text mining for cross-validation, thus, limiting subjective Sustainability bias. The findings suggest that, although, it is possible to achieve a balance in the long run but this necessitate Cleaner production and COVID-19 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. 1. Introduction Recent catastrophes and natural disasters such as rising temperatures, pandemics, fires, floods, hurricanes and tsunamis (e.g. COVID-19 and Factors such as greenhouse gas (GHG) emission, household con- events in California, Australia, Brazil, Japan and Siberia in the Russian sumption and mass production have placed unprecedented stress on the Federation etc.) exhibit increased humankind vulnerabilities and planet earth leading to drastic climate changes and environmental ca- reduced resilience of existing environmental, social security and pro- tastrophes (Donmez-Turan and Kiliclar, 2021). Household consumption tection systems. Thus, leading to a call for relooking at the current eco- alone contributes nearly 60% of global GHG emissions, including nomic and social structural systems for more robust interventions to 50–80% natural resources use (Reisch et al., 2021). Modern production transform existing production, consumption and behavioural patterns methods based on quick response and Just-in-Time philosophies, into more sustainable, clean and resilient (Reisch et al., 2021). time-based competition and short product life cycle along with the Capitalist economic system fundamentally based on the market availability of information and choice further transformed consumer economy with credit creation, private enterprise and ownership (Berend, behaviour increasing insatiable appetite to replenish products and ser- 2015). The largest rise of societies based on the capitalist model appeared vices, destined to landfill (Rafi-Ul-Shan et al., 2018). Such production, during the industrial revolution in countries such as the United States consumption and behavioural issues not only question the availability of (Levy, 2017). Capitalism expressed through the organisation of produc- natural resources for our future generations but worry more for the tion and distribution in commodity form of goods, services, outputs and current (Donmez-Turan and Kiliclar, 2021). values with a profit motive (Brayshay, 2009). The economic globalisation * Corresponding author. ** Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: [email protected], [email protected] (F. Sher), [email protected] (J.J. Klemes). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clet.2021.100047 Received 9 November 2020; Received in revised form 22 December 2020; Accepted 29 January 2021 2666-7908/© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by- nc-nd/4.0/). N. Panizzut et al. Cleaner Engineering and Technology 2 (2021) 100047 characterised by international flows of goods, services, and production there is no public administration body that has the capacity to direct factors have significantly increased and strengthened the globalisation of MNCs to consider sustainable development and be socially responsible in capitalism (Dahaj and Cozzarin, 2019). Since the 1980s, multinational their production and use of resources (Atkinson, 2014). corporations (MNCs) became the dominant form of capitalist company in To address these gaps, this study carried out a structured systematic almost every economic sector and region of the world (Radice, 2014). literature review to synthesise fragmented literature and explore rela- The literature sees capitalism both as a useful model that reduce poverty tionship between environmentalism and consumerism in a capitalist so- and raise income through economic growth but also as a model that ciety. The contributions in carrying out this study and analysing the brought individualism and high inequalities (Aulenbacher et al., 2018). extant empirical research are as follows: First, the novelty is to adopt a Industrialisation and mass production further give rise to consum- triangulated approach by combining systematic literature review and erism (Berend, 2015). Consumerism movement boomed in the industrial text mining and, thus, limiting the biasness to ensure research quality. revolution due to resource abundance and technological productivity and Second, knowledge gaps are identified by categorising key contributions efficiency (Cowan et al., 2009). Historically, research on consumerism to the topic from various perspectives and proposing six future research largely associated it with the spread of capitalism (Ali and Wisniesk, directions to advance the scholarly debate in the research domain. Third, 2010) and considered it as cultural attitudes ensuring that rising income an Input-Transformation-Output model is proposed suggesting a gradual is used to purchase an ever-growing output (Brayshay, 2009). Consum- transformation of capitalist society for environmentalism by minimising erism has deeply influenced our way of life by transforming consumer attitude behaviour gap through various interventions in the trans- needs and desires, continuously pushing for consumption and thus pro- formation process. The novelty of the proposed model lies in its iterations duction (Yani-de-Soriano and Slater, 2009). Consumerism incorporates based on the desired-undesired outputs, modifications of interventions factors such as the omnipresence of advertising and an overarching idea and inclusion of diverse inputs for desired outputs. that to be happier and successful, people must have more and better resources . Consumers in a capitalist society enjoy unprecedented indi- 2. Methodology vidual comfort, convenience and choice (Lim, 2017). Advancements in information and communication technologies has This study followed a SLR method that is an evidence-based approach increased consumer awareness of ethics, morality, human welfare and to identify, select and analyse the most relevant secondary data providing environmental issues (Kutaula and Gillani, 2018). Today’s consumer is deep understanding about already known and highlighting knowledge aware of the environmental impact of business operations and those of gaps for the future research (Rafi-Ul-Shan et al., 2018). Its key principles the products and services they are buying and consuming (Rafi-Ul-Shan (i.e. transparency, inclusivity and an explanatory and heuristic nature) et al., 2018). Consequently, consumers can choose to avoid buying allow a more objective overview of search results and reduce issues of products that are incompatible with their environmental ideology (Golob bias and error (Denyer and Tranfield, 2009). The applications of SLR is and Kronegger, 2019). As a result, businesses have started focusing on more pronounced in certain contexts, for example, when there is un- sustainable production through sustainable materials and initiatives and certainty about the effectiveness of a policy and when evidence of the promoting sustainable consumption (Rafi-Ul-Shan et al., 2018). Sus- likely effect of an intervention is required. Finally, when a general or an tainable consumption includes a range of distinct behaviours and con- overall picture of evidence in a topic area is needed to direct future sumption types (Akehurst et al., 2012) and, ethical and green research efforts (Makhashen et al., 2020). Fig. 1 shows various phases of consumerism is no longer