Toward A Framework Of Consumers’ Willingness To Purchase Environmentally

Friendly Products: A Study Of Antecedents And Moderator

Isaac Cheah, Dr Ian Phau, Curtin University of Technology, Curtin Business School

Abstract

This paper identifies the key antecedents and moderators with regard to willingness of
consumers in the purchase of environmentally friendly products. Three antecedents
namely, ecoliteracy, interpersonal influence and value orientation are proposed to have
strong correlations with the attitudes towards environmentally friendly products. Product
necessity is proposed to moderate the relationship between these attitudes and the
willingness to purchase environmentally friendly products. To bridge the gap that the
green marketing literature is not well supported with theoretical underpinnings, this paper
has also identified the most relevant theories to explain the antecedents and moderator as
proposed. These theories include the social cognitive theory, the theory of reasoned
action, Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory and the self-image congruity theory. A
research model is developed together with an agenda of five hypotheses. The main
contributions of the proposed research are also delineated.

Introduction

Environmentalism has fast emerged as an important global phenomenon during the last
decade owing to increase in environmental related concerns and ecological pressures
derived from non-governmental organisations, local environmentalists and governmental
agencies (Jain and Kaur 2004; Global Civil Society, n.d.; Samhat et al. 2000;
Shellenberger and Nordhaus 2005). The trend had recently shifted to the consumers
whom have also become concerned with environmental problems and have started
demanding more environmentally friendly products. Within the green marketing
literature, the concept of environmentalism has been operationalised in terms of consumer
goods, industrial goods and even services. The underlying importance of this concept
relates to an economic perspective of how people use their limited resources to try to
satisfy their unlimited wants. To put this into perspective, Polonsky (1994) defined green
marketing as “all activities designed to generate and facilitate any exchanges intended to
satisfy human needs or wants, such that the satisfaction of these needs or wants occurs,
with minimal detrimental impact on the natural environment”.

This paper proposes a research framework to study the antecedents of consumers’

attitudes toward environmentally friendly products and how product necessity can
moderate the relationship between these attitudes and the willingness to purchase green
products. The theoretical underpinnings together with relevant literature will be reviewed
and gaps identified. Justifications will be provided to support the five proposed
hypotheses.

Relevant Literature, Theory and Hypotheses

The social cognitive theory defines human behavior as a triadic, dynamic, and
reciprocal interaction of personal factors, behavior, and the environment (Bandura
1977; 1986; 1989). According to this theoretical perspective, human functioning (an
individual’s behaviour) is uniquely determined by each of these three factors; a

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 dynamic interplay of personal, behavioural, and environmental influences. This forms
the foundation of Bandura's (1986) conception of “reciprocal determinism”, the view
that personal factors in the form of cognition, affect biological events such as
behaviour, and environmental influences which subsequently creates interaction that
result in a “triadic reciprocality”. A person's behaviour will determine the aspects of
their environment to which they are exposed, and behaviour is, in turn, modified by
that environment (Bandura 1977; 1986; 1989).

As such, consumer knowledge is considered a relevant and significant construct that

affects how consumers gather and organise information (Alba and Hutchinson 1987),
how much information is used in decision making (Brucks 1985) and how consumers
evaluate products and services (Murray and Schlacter 1990). The role of product
knowledge/education affecting purchase decision is of primary importance (Wiser et al.
1999 and Zarnikau 2003). Therefore, it seemed reasonable to assume that highly educated
people more readily see the relation between environmental issues and themselves.
Laroche et al (2001) has pointed out that the education of the consumer is seen as an
appropriate method for increasing perceived convenience and establishing credibility in
terms of being environmentally friendly. This is referred to as ecoliteracy which is used to
measure the respondent’s ability to identify or define a number of ecologically-related
symbols, concepts and behaviors. It was found to be correlated with some attitudes and
behavior toward the environment.

On the other hand, an important determinant of an individual’s behavior is the influence

of others (Bearden et al. 1989). Portrayal of products being consumed in social situations
and the use of prominent or attractive spokespersons endorsing products is evidence of
this belief (Bearden et al. 1989). This elucidates a major part of consumer susceptibility
of interpersonal influence, which advocates a bilateral-directional interaction and can also
occur between the environmental and personal characteristics (Bandura 1977; 1986;
1989). In this process, human expectations, beliefs, and cognitive competencies are
developed and modified by social influences and physical structures within the
environment. Therefore, it can be assumed that attitudes toward buying decisions are
strongly influenced by their social environments, which include family, friends, and peer
networks (normative susceptibility). Moreover, it is suspected that interpersonal processes
and relationships between opinion leaders and professionals have a substantial impact on
attitude towards buying decisions (informationally susceptible). To illustrate, if a
consumer has a high ecoliteracy and interpersonal influence towards environmentally
friendly products, and the correlation turned out to be positive, their attitudes toward
environmentally friendly products will be more favourable. Our propositions are
summarised in these first two hypotheses:

H1 – A positive correlation is expected between consumer’s eco-literacy and attitudes

toward environmentally friendly products.
H2 –The correlation between high interpersonal influence and attitudes toward
environmentally friendly products is expected to be positive; that is, people who are more
open to opinions of norms will tend to conform or comply to the expectations of others.

The two most studied values in the research of environmentally friendly products and
ecological behaviour are collectivism and individualism (Triandis 1988, 1993; Hui and
Triandis 1986; McCarty and Shrum 1994, Markus and Kitayama 1990; Laroche et al.
2001; Jain and Kaur 2004). In general, individualism in cultures implies loose ties;

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 everyone is expected to look after one's self or immediate family but no one else.
Personal gratification which concerns the need for a sense of accomplishment, social
recognition, and to enjoy the finer things in life (Swee et al. 2001) is the cornerstone of
individualism. As such, the individualistic consumer that values personal gratification is
not very conductive to environmental friendliness. On the other hand, collectivism which
ignores personal gratification implies cooperation, helpfulness, and consideration of the
goals of the group relative to the individual. Collectivism implies that people are
integrated from birth into strong, cohesive groups that protect them in exchange for
unquestioning loyalty (Geert HofstedeTM cultural dimensions (n.d.). Being a collectivist
meant that one may forego individual motivations for that which is good for the group.
Triandis (1993) and McCarty and Shrum (1994) claimed that collectivist people tend to
be friendlier to the environment, while individualistic people tend to be more unfriendly.
Therefore, it is expected that consumers who value personal gratification to have a less
favorable attitude towards environmentally friendly products and vice versa. This
proposition is summarised in the third hypothesis:

H3 –The correlation between collectivism and attitudes toward environmentally friendly

products is expected to be positive; that is, people with collectivistic background will
reveal more altruistic tendencies than those with individualistic background.

With respect to attitudes to environmentally friendly products, “importance” and

“inconvenience” are most extensively looked at in the green marketing literature (Amyx
et al. 1994; Kinnear et al. 1974; Roberts 1996; Roberts and Bacon 1997; Van Liere and
Dunlap 1981, McCarty and Shrum 1994). Amyx et al. (1994) defined perceived
importance, with respect to the environment as the degree to which one expresses concern
about ecological issues. In other words, importance is simply whether consumers view
environmentally compatible behaviors as important to themselves (self-interest) or
society as a whole. On the other hand, inconvenience refers to how inconvenient it is
perceived for an individual to behave in an ecologically favorable fashion. For example, a
person may feel that recycling is important for the long-run good of the society, but he or
she may also feel that it is personally inconvenient (Laroche et al, 2001).

The theory of reasoned action popularized by Ajzen and Fishbein (1980) stated that “a
person's behavior is determined by his or her intention to perform the behavior and that
this intention is, in turn, a function of his or her attitude toward the behavior and his or
her subjective norm”. In this theory, a person’s attitude toward a specific behaviour
consists of (1) a belief that that particular behaviour leads to a certain outcome and (2) an
evaluation of the outcome of that behaviour. This introduces the self -efficacy
concept/beliefs which are capable of enhancing human accomplishment and well-being in
countless ways. The majority of the influence affects the choices in which people make
and the courses of action they pursue (Bandura 1977). For example, high self-efficacy
helps create feelings of serenity in approaching difficult tasks and activities. Conversely,
individuals with low self-efficacy may believe that things are tougher than they really are,
a belief that fosters anxiety, stress, depression, and a narrow vision of how best to solve a
problem (Bandura 1977). From the supporting literature, we can hypothesise that a
consumer who supports the “perceived importance” of being environmentally friendly
and not perceive it as “inconvenient” will likely buy environmentally friendly products
and vice versa. This proposition is summarised in the fourth hypothesis:

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 H4 – People with favourable attitudes toward environmental friendly products (or the
green phenomenal in general) will be more likely to buy environmentally friendly
products.

The self-image congruity advocates the relationship between one's self-image and
one's image of a product or service and is noted as a widely accepted consumer
behaviour theory. The theory also proposed the impact of a consumer's self-concept to
his or her purchasing behaviour in a self-image or product-image congruity model
(Sirgy 1982). According to the self-image or product-image congruity model, a
consumer's specific value-laden self-image belief interacts with a corresponding
value-laden product-image perception in terms of the typical user image in a product
purchase (Sirgy 1985). The result of such an interaction occurs in the form of the
following four congruity conditions: (1) a “positive self-image congruity” (2)
“positive self-image incongruity” (3) a “negative self-image incongruity” and (4)
“negative self-image congruity”. This has profound implication in explaining how
product necessity can dictate a consumer’s willingness to purchase an
environmentally friendly product.

Consumers perceived products differently in terms of whether those products are

necessary to them or to the domestic economy. Two product categories are examined;
these are luxury and necessity items. When a product is perceived as a necessity,
consumer’s attitudes toward environmentally friendly products should play a relatively
minor role in affecting purchase behaviour (willingness to buy environmentally friendly
products). On the other hand, consumer’s attitude towards ecological products that are
dispensable or luxury (non –necessary) should have a more substantial impact on
purchase behaviour (Sharma, Shimp and Shin 1995). On logical grounds, the researcher
expects that personal preferences and desires (product necessity) would counteract the
more altruistic and non-self centered motives contained in the “ideal” attitudinal view.

In supporting the moderating effect of a necessity product, a "positive self-image

incongruity" condition can be distinguished. This means that the individual might be
motivated to purchase the product but his or her satisfaction level would be moderated.
On the other hand, luxury products would constitute a “positive self-image congruity”
condition. This situation would result in high consumer satisfaction because the purchase
reinforces the individual’s esteem and consistency motives. Therefore, this underpins the
literature in this area, that the attitudes toward necessity products would play a minor role
or have an insignificant effect on the willingness to buy environmentally friendly
products; hence, the opposite effect for luxury products. This proposition is summarised
in the fifth hypothesis:

H5 – The impact that favourable attitudes toward products have on people’s purchase
behaviour (willingness to buy environmentally friendly products) is expected to be
moderated by the perceived necessity of the ecological product. Specifically, the effect of
favorable attitudes on purchase behaviour should be relatively stronger for products
perceived as un-necessary. Figure 1 provides a research model developed for this study.

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 Figure 1: Proposed Research Model

Ecoliteracy
H1
Attitudes toward H4 Willingness to BUY
Interpersonal H2 environmentally environmentally friendly
Influence friendly products products
H3
Value
orientation H5

Perceived product necessity

Concluding Comments and Implications

The preceding discussion provides a sound theoretical framework and highlights the
implications between a consumer’s sociological/psychological profile (ecoliteracy,
interpersonal influence and value orientation) and their attitudes toward ecologically
friendly products. In addition, it provides an understanding of the problems and
dissonances associated with the reluctance in purchase intentions of environmentally
friendly products. The next step is to design a research methodology to test these
hypotheses. Scales and measures can be developed or adopted from existing literature to
ensure validity and reliability. The significance of this study highlights new insights into
the effects of the various proposed constructs on the consumer’s attitudes and purchase
behavior within the context of environmental marketing and related divisions.
Specifically the key implications:
(a) The research model presents a greater understanding of when, why and how
individuals’ attitudes and thoughts are correlated to the findings of the study and hence
add to more significance under different circumstances.
(b) Leading to strategies (i.e. sales promotion stratagem and product packaging) which
are more likely to result in better marketing of green products and a readiness to change
socially undesirable consumption behaviors toward environmentally friendliness.
(c) Contributions also exist for the green marketing literature. As this area of research has
focused much on empirical studies such as environmental awareness and behavioral
intentions, it has not been looked at from a theoretical perspective. This has the potential
to open a new area of research, in order to examine how theoretical concepts and
constructs can affect future literature in this field.

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