The effect of consumption selfishness on ecological footprint awareness and consumer preferences: The case of green restaurants

Study aimed to determine the effect of consumption selfishness on ecological footprint awareness and green restaurant preferences. For this purpose, a survey was conducted for potential domestic tourists visiting Istanbul and data was collected from 459 participants. The obtained data were subjected to various analyzes and some results were obtained. This study basically consists of five chapters. The first part consists of the purpose, importance, problem, definitions, assumptions and limitations of the research. The second section under the relevant literature heading includes the conceptual framework of the study and related research. In the conceptual framework of the study, the concepts of consumption, selfishness and consumption selfishness, ecological footprint and green restaurant are examined. Under the heading of related research, there are studies addressing the concepts of consumption selfishness, ecological footprint awareness and green restaurant preference. The third section includes information about the research model, the population and sample of the research, the data collection process, and data collection tools and techniques. In the fourth chapter, where the data obtained are analyzed, the findings and interpretations of the statistical tests are included, and finally, in the fifth chapter, the results obtained as a result of the findings and the suggestions developed in line with these results are included. As a result of the findings of the research, it was seen that male participants had higher consumption selfishness than female participants. At the same time, it was concluded that as the education level of the participants increased, their consumption selfishness decreased. With this, when the ecological footprint awareness of the participants is taken into consideration, it was seen that the ecological footprint awareness of the female participants was higher than that of men. Another result can be given that as the education level increases, ecological footprint awareness also increases. When looking at the green restaurant preferences of the participants, it was concluded that women have a higher intention to choose a green restaurant and that they are willing to pay more for green restaurants compared to a normal restaurant. The relationship and impact levels between the variables of the research were based on the theoretical framework. As a result of the findings, it was concluded that consumption selfishness has a negative significant effect on ecological footprint awareness. At the same time, it has been observed that consumption selfishness has a negative significant effect on green restaurant preferences. At the same time, one of the research results is that ecological footprint awareness has a positive and significant effect on green restaurant preferences. Finally, it has been determined that ecological footprint awareness has a highly positive mediating effect on the effect of consumption selfishness on green restaurant preferences. As a result of the analyses, all research hypotheses were accepted. Some suggestions have been developed based on the research results.