Introduction

Environmental friendly (Green) products have got more attention during the recent years and
the availability of these products is increasing in many food stores. One form of
environmental friendly products is eco-labelled products which have got more relevance for
the consumers in their buying decision and there are now more products to choose among
them. The first chapter of this thesis is going through the influencing factors that can have a
possible impact on the consumers green purchase behavior. The main purpose of this
research is to study the factors that influence the purchase behavior of eco-labelled products.
Secondly we are also looking for the possible impact of shelf space on the purchase behavior
of eco-labelled products. We start with introducing our problem background and the research
subject. Further on we define some important terms for the study. Finally, in this introductory
chapter we will go through the limitations with the study too

Environmental issues are becoming more important when it comes to climate change,
scarcity of water, natural resources and other ecological challenges. It is becoming obvious
that traditional corporate environmental management approaches based mostly on conformity
and smaller risk assessments will not be sufficient to successfully deal with the 21st century
sustainability challenges (United Nations, 2011). It is clear now that we humans do have an
impact on the environment. At the same time toxic gases are polluting the atmosphere and
dramatic changes can thereafter occur in the climate (World Wide foundation, 2011). The
released carbon dioxide gas in the atmosphere is more than what can be absorbed by the
ecosystems, oceans and geological systems.

There are already some signs that the global pollution is too much for the planet to handle in
the form of a warmer climate that is causing the glaciers to melt, sea levels to rise and at the
same time droughts and flooding are increasing. It could potentially affect life on the planet,
while others may argue that this is just some natural phenomenas. When mentioning these
sustainability challenges one important tool for environmental protection is the concept of
sustainable development. Sustainable development is offering a vision of progress that
integrates immediate and longer-term objectives, local and global actions. This sustainable
development also regards social, economic and environmental issues as inseparable and
interdependent components of human progress (European community, 2011).

To be more sustainable and to protect the environment during production and consumption
of products, governments in most developed countries have implemented policies to reduce
the environmental harm done by consumption (e.g. Pantamera in Sweden). Such reduction in
pollution has done by banning polluting ingredients or by imposing taxes on unsustainable
practices (Thgersen & lander, 2006, p. 1758-1759). Following the Rio Earth Summit in
1992, when the United Nations held their climate conference; a global action program for
sustainable development was introduced with the name of Agenda 21. In this meeting eco-
labeling was identified as a way to encourage consumers to do more sustainable
consumption choices.

Nowadays more eco-labelled products are available when it comes to almost all kind of
products in the stores, especially in the food stores. Some of the available eco-labels in
Sweden are: the Nordic eco-label (Svanen), the EU flower (which is the common label in the
European Union), KRAV 2 (promoting organic food), Bra Miljval (Naturskyddsforeningen,
2012) and finally the MSC label (Marine stewardship council) which is promoting
sustainable fishery. Presently, it is more obvious for companies what happens to products
once they have been produced (Senge, 2009, p. 2).

Unsustainable patterns of production and consumption have been identified and need further
attention. One of the major reasons for these patterns is that it is considered as a prime cause
of environmental degradation, particularly in industrialized nations (Erskine & Collins, 1997,
p. 126). Industrial competitiveness and environmental goals demand different kinds of trade-
off for companies. Competitive advantage can be gained from companies innovation and
improvement capability to solve different constraints. Many companies constantly try to
reduce their costs as much as possible and unfortunately some companies believe that
environmental regulations can raise their costs without improving their competitiveness
(Porter & van der Linde, 1995, p. 97-98).

Green purchase behavior of socially conscious consumers Green purchasing behavior can be
translated to the act of consuming products that are conservable, beneficial for the
environment, and responding to environmental concern (Lee, 2009). Webster (1975) found
that the socially conscious customer feels strongly that he/she can do something about
pollution and tries to consider the social impact of his/her buying behavior.

A green consumer can be identified to be one who avoids any product which may harm
damage to any living organism, cause deterioration of the environment during process of
manufacturing or during process of usage, consume a large amount of non-renewable energy ,
involves unethical testing on animals or human subjects (Elkington, 1994).

He also states that According to Wiener and Sukhdial (1990), one of the main reasons that
stop individuals from engaging in ecologically favorable actions is their perceived level of
self-involvement toward the protection of the environment. As the authors point out, many
individuals may have high ecological concern, but feel that the preservation of the
environment is the responsibility of the government and/or big corporations. We might expect
this attitude to impact the willingness of consumers to spend more for environmentally
friendly packaged products.

There have been a number of different factors which are instrumental in promoting green
consumers to purchase green products. Extensive research over the years identify that
heightened awareness of green issues; increased level of information availability on
environmental sustenance; green advertising by corporations; increased concern for the
environment; increase in popularity of green products by social and 780 S. Sarumathi
environmental charities as some factors. This overwhelming increase in the overall
environmental consciousness among different consumer profile there have been efforts
undertaken by firms to "go green" by presenting the concept of corporate environmentalism
(Banerjee, 2003). Today green development are identified as opportunities by business firms
as opportunities to improve their marketing niche rather than just actions which need to be
carried out.
1. Introduction 1.1 The Conceptualisation of Green Product Nowadays, to be
labelled green has become an important positioning strategy for many
businesses as the ability to gain such status somehow help them to be perceived
as the good guys or knights in shining armour for the environment. Thus,
being green has turned out to be the trend among businesses by offering their
own brand of green products-or what they refer to as the environmentally
friendly products. Through Google search engine, a search on 1 February 2013
for the term Green Products alone found more than 1.5 million potential sites
that provide viewers with various definitions and descriptions of green products.
These definitions include products that are environmentally preferable relative to
comparable products that have less impact on the environment and are less
harmful to human health, and products that meet the quality criteria of
protecting the environment, such as by replacing artificial ingredients with
natural ingredients. On the other hand, from the academic point of view, green
products can be referred to as a product that does not cause pollution to the
environment or resource depletion as well as being recyclable and conservable
(Said et al., 1993). Hence, green products can also be referred to as
environmentally friendly products that have minimum impact on the
environment, such as by using less toxic ingredients. These green products
include those that are recyclable, degradable, have longer life, better quality,
energy efficient, result in cost savings, and made of materials that can be
recycled. Online websites like ecofriend.com.my and philips.com describe green
products based on the 3R principle (reuse, reduce and recycle) or on its energy
savings green products, respectively. In general, the definition of green product
varies depending on the authors focus, whether it is on green or
environmentally related literature in which they believe will help provide a better
understanding of the issue. Similar to the Google exercise carried out earlier, the
authors found many versions of green products which were described in the
literature. These were then categorized based on the technical characteristics of
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specific features and material used to justify the definitions of green products.
From the list of technical characteristics of green products, Nimse et al. (2007)
have listed the following ten technical characteristics of such products: 1) Made
from natural and/or renewable resources 2) Bio-degradable 3) Locally obtained 4)
Easily reused 5) No Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), Hydro chlorofluorocarbons
(HCFCa) or other ozone depleting substances 6) Readily recycled 7) No
environment degrading toxic chemicals or by-products in its life cycle. 8)
Incorporates recycled content 9) Promotes good indoor air quality 10) Durable,
low maintenance In terms of specific features, Mishra and Sharma (2010)
suggested that green products can also be based on whether they are grown
naturally, whether there is usage of natural ingredients, whether there is usage
of approved chemicals, whether animal testing was carried out and whether the
products do not pollute the environment. As for the materials used, Alsmadi
(2007) stated that green products are those that use environmentally friendly
materials, minimum energy and resource consumption and are subject to
recycling; or as he defined them-these are products that do not cause any harm
to the environment. Tan and Laus (2010) view seem to run parallel with Alsmadi
(2007) they also described green products as environmentally friendly products
or an ecological product that incorporates recycling strategies (i.e. recycled
content) using minimal packaging and less toxic materials to help mitigate the
harmful effect to the natural environment. From all the definitions and
descriptions (whether technical or non-technical) given or found in the literature
on green products earlier, the authors revealed various ways that were used to
define green products. Accordingly, for the purpose of this study, it could be
summarized that green product are products with specific characteristics that are
environmentally friendly so that they do not cause any harm to the environment.