The moderating influence of environmental consciousness and recycling intentions on green purchase behavior

The 2015 Paris Agreement is the first historical global accord aiming to palliate global warming. Climate change has caused ecological, economic, and social disasters, among other things and has made not only nations review their environmental protection issues but also the consumers paying more attention to the environment and encouraging green oriented buying behaviors. This study targets Taiwan's consumers, and 649 valid questionnaires were recovered. Exploratory factor analysis was applied to extract the trait factors, whereas confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used for the verification of the scale and structural model, respectively. The result shows that the consumers' environmental knowledge, environmental consciousness, and the social norms have had a positive effect on their environmental attitude, as do their environmental knowledge and the social norms to a sense of well‐being. Consumers purchasing intention and behavior are pointing towards green products. Therefore, companies need to respond to the consumers' demand and fulfill their social responsibility to release the green products so as to satisfy the consumers' needs.

Green consumption: Environmental knowledge, environmental consciousness, social norms, and purchasing behavior

Purpose




The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between environmental consciousness (ECO), green purchase attitude (GPA), green purchase intention (GPI), perceived customer effectiveness (PCE), green behaviour (GRB) and green purchase behaviour (GPB). Based on the statistical analyses, this paper offers some further research directions to advance the extant literature.




Design/methodology/approach




The theoretical model is firmly grounded in extant literature. To test the study hypotheses, the authors have developed a survey instrument following a two-stage process. The constructs were first operationalized by the authors and then pre-tested by experts. Dillman’s (2007) guidelines were then followed to gather data. Finally, the theoretical model was tested using multivariate statistical tools.




Findings




Results indicate that ECO has an influence on GPA and PCE; GPA has an influence on PCE and GRB; GPI has an influence on PCE; and GRB has an influence on GPB. Environmental benefit still ranks at the sixth position among eight product-selection criteria, as is evident from qualitative in-depth interviews indicating a primarily rationalistic and not an altruistic purchase approach. The gap in translation of ECO into GB and GPB can be attributed to costliness, non-availability with less variety, lack of brand reputation of green products and budget constraints for customers.




Research limitations/implications




The study faces the limitation of generalizability of the results because it was carried out in a particular state in India; it may not be the perception of the country as a whole. The bias owing to social desirability, selective memory and telescoping with the use of self-reported data could also be a limitation for the current empirical study.




Originality/value




This study aimed to extend pro-environmental behaviour studies beyond developed countries and to empirically validate the models built on the theory of ECO leading to GPB, especially for India, a rising market. A novel approach to empirically discuss the situational and market factors will provide a much-needed thrust for research on these lines.

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Dynamics of environmental consciousness and green purchase behaviour: an empirical study

Consumers are paying close attention to green products to reduce the environmental impact on health issues. As the scope of this research, this current study focuses on determining consumers’ purchase decisions regarding green products using a survey conducted in a fast-growing developing country. This research was descriptive and considered a conceptual framework for extending the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), which was selected as the primary theoretical model. The significant contributions and main objectives of this study are as follows—to explore the present scenario of green marketing in Bangladesh with previous studies, and to fill a research gap regarding green purchase decisions by applying the TPB model with adding additional constructs, such as environmental concerns, green perceived quality, and future green estimates. A range of qualitative and quantitative techniques were adopted to collect data from the target groups, where a sample of young educated Bangladeshi consumers (n = 638) was used to consider the measurement and structural models by applying a partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) method. The empirical findings show that consumers’ environmental concern (EC), green perceived benefits (GPB), green awareness of price (GAP), green willingness to purchase (GWP), and future estimation of green marketing (GFE) have a strong positive influence on consumer’ green purchase decision (GPD). Still, the green perceived quality (GPQ) has a negative influence on green purchase decisions (GPD). To inform consumers about green or eco-friendly products, this study provides valuable suggestions to companies, marketers, and policymakers for designing green marketing tools such as green advertising, green branding, and eco-labels. Based on these findings, it gives some managerial insights for the promotion of green products and green marketing.

Why Not Green Marketing? Determinates of Consumers’ Intention to Green Purchase Decision in a New Developing Nation

In this paper, the concept of sustainability consciousness, an individual's experience and awareness of sustainable development, is introduced Based on UNESCO's definition of sustainable developme 

The Sustainability Consciousness Questionnaire: The theoretical development and empirical validation of an evaluation instrument for stakeholders working with sustainable development

Purpose – The paper attempts to investigate the term “environmental consciousness” and identify the underlying components of environmental consciousness and its antecedents. Also, to propose the framework explaining the linkage between environmental consciousness, its antecedents, components, and behavioral outcome, and also the variables, if any, that may intervene between environmental consciousness and environmentally conscious consumer behavior.Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews extant literature to bring conceptual clarity to the term environmental consciousness and its linkages with the related variables.Findings – Environmental consciousness – a mental state variable – is found distinct from its antecedents and associated behaviors. It is a multi‐dimensional construct varying from low general level to high product‐specific level.Research limitations/implications – This paper provides understanding for the term environmental consciousness and its relation with other variables and thus l...

Environmental consciousness, its antecedents and behavioural outcomes

The purpose of this research is to ascertain the attitude of consumers towards Green Marketing. Based on the data collected through a survey method the paper makes an assessment of the environmental concern prevalent among the consumers. The dimensions of attitude and environmental concern have been further studied on the basis of demographic variables gender, age groups. In addition, it aims at finding out the relationship between environmental concern of consumers and their attitude towards green marketing. Attempts have been made to study the existence of relationship between the attitude of consumers towards green marketing and the importance they have given to green products.

Monika Bansal

Papers

Environmental consciousness, its antecedents and behavioural outcomes

Green Marketing: A Study of Consumer Attitude & Environmental Concern

Measuring environmental consciousness