Examining the Impact of Collectivism on Environmental Beliefs and Attitudes of Business Students: A Cross-cultural Study

Research indicates that concern for the environment has grown rapidly in recent years among environmental stakeholders. However, in the context generally of global trade, and particularly of NAFTA, the environmental concern of business and marketing has been found wanting. Furthermore, there is little research focused on the environmentally concerned beliefs and attitudes (ECBA) and their antecedents among potential NAFTA players— tomorrow's business and marketing managers, namely business students. The purpose of this study is to conduct an empirical investigation of ECBA and their antecedent, collectivism, among business students in two NAFTA member countries, the U.S.A. and Mexico. A survey conducted among students at two business schools, one in the U.S.A., and the other in Mexico (n= 435) reveals a significantly lower mean score on collectivism as well as ECBA in the U.S.A., compared to Mexico. The model explained about 62 per cent of the variance in ECBA. Support was found for the main effects of collectivism on ECBA. Moreover, support was found for the main effects of country and student standing on ECBA. The study also discusses implications for business schools in strengthening ECBA to improve NAFTA's green agenda, and offers directions for future research and towards that goal.