Abstract: As sustainability becomes central to contemporary business strategy and public discourse, consumer perception of sustainability has emerged as a pivotal variable in shaping market behavior. Still a persistent paradox remains despite growing awareness and favorable attitudes toward sustainability, actual consumer behavior often falls short of sustainable ideals. This review critically examines the formation, drivers, and barriers of consumer perceptions of sustainability across six key sectors food and beverage, fashion, cosmetics, electronics, automotive, and hospitality. By applying the Theory of Planned Behavior and Value-Belief-Norm frameworks across diverse empirical contexts, the study offers a multidimensional synthesis of how sustainable behavior is conceived and enacted.
Using a structured thematic review methodology, the paper identifies four key literature themes consumer perception formation, emotional and cognitive drivers, purchase intention, and sociocultural moderators and maps these across sector-specific variations. In emotionally resonant industries such as fashion, cosmetics, and hospitality, sustainability perception is strongly shaped by moral identity, emotional storytelling, and social validation. These are best explained by VBN theory, which links internalized values and moral norms to pro-environmental intention. In contrast, sectors like electronics and automotive show greater reliance on rational evaluation, feasibility, and infrastructure availability, domains where TPB’s constructs of attitude, perceived behavioral control, and subjective norms offer stronger predictive power.
Despite these theoretical strengths, the review reveals a persistent attitude-behavior gap across all sectors. Consumers frequently express ethical preferences but fail to act due to factors such as habitual behavior, price sensitivity, low trust, infrastructure constraints, or ethical fatigue. TPB captures these breakdowns through structural and normative barriers, while VBN explains how moral norms fail to activate under conditions of ambiguity or disillusionment. Greenwashing, inconsistent labeling, and weak feedback mechanisms further erode consumer trust, diminishing both cognitive confidence (TPB) and ethical motivation (VBN).
The paper also surfaces key cross-sectoral contrasts. While emotional triggers and identity alignment drive perception in experiential sectors, functional sectors require trust in technical claims and long-term performance. Demographics and culture further moderate these dynamics young, urban, and educated consumers show stronger sustainability engagement, but only when supported by behavioral feasibility and normative validation. Digital platforms amplify these processes, but their role remains under-theorized in current models.
In conclusion, the review underscores that sustainable consumption is not solely a function of awareness or product attributes. It is an outcome of systemic alignment between ethical values, market structures, and behavioral enablers. For brands, policymakers, and researchers alike, this means shifting from abstract advocacy to designing systems that empower, verify, and emotionally engage consumers. Only through such integrative efforts can sustainable behavior be moved from niche aspiration to normalized practice.

| DOI: 10.17148/IARJSET.2025.125391