Pro-environmental Concern Influencing Green Buying: A Study on Indian Consumers

TLDR: In this paper, the authors investigated if consumers' proenvironmental concerns among consumers in India are predictive of their any green buying behaviour and found that consumers' awareness towards eco-friendly products and their environmental concern significantly affect their green buying behavior.

Abstract: Objectives – The main objectives of the study are to determine the consumers’ pro-environmental concerns,knowledge of environmental issues, awareness of eco-friendly products, and to make recommendations based onthe findings about their “Green Buying” behaviour in Indian context. Research suggests that consumers who arehighly involved and concerned with the environmental issues prefer to buy eco- friendly products and are willingto pay a higher price for such products. This study investigates if pro-environmental concerns among consumersin India are predictive of their any green buying behaviour.Methodology – Data for this study was collected from a highly educated sample of 200 respondents using astructured questionnaire. The questionnaire contains questions to measure general consumers’ environmentalconcern, awareness of eco-friendly products, trust in performance of eco-friendly products and green buyingbehaviour. Descriptive statistics, factor analysis and correlation techniques were used to analyze the findings ofthis study.Results – The results indicate that consumers’ pro-environmental concerns significantly affect their green buyingbehaviour. Also, consumers are willing to buy eco-friendly products but not many are willing to pay a higherprice for such products. The survey findings disclose that consumers’ awareness towards eco-friendly productsand their environmental concern impacts their green buying behaviour.Conclusions – While environmental concerns could emerge as one of the powerful drivers that influencepurchase, it has actually not resulted in the ability to command a sustainable premium: consumers are willing tobuy eco-friendly products, but not pay the higher price. Increased consumer demand will help reduce costs inproduction of eco-friendly products. Awareness among consumers that their buying choices can make adifference to the environment should be promoted to accelerate the consumption of eco-friendly products.