In the quest of fostering green consumer behavior, companies are developing green marketing communications. However, do green consumer behaviors gets influenced by such marketing practices or it is result of green consumption values? The research-based chapter answers this question by developing a conceptual model against the background of green consumer behavior theories. The explanatory research design with quantitative research method was employed. Empirical data was collected using self-administered online questionnaire from 234 Singaporean consumers of green products. Collected data was then subjected to a range of analysis techniques using IBM SPSS AMOS 24. The findings suggest that green consumption values have stronger impact on consumer behavior as compared to that of marketing communication. However, impact of both independent variables was found to be positive and significant. In addition, it was identified that no mediating effect of marketing communication exists in relationship between green consumption values and consumer behavior.
TopIntroduction
Over the last few decades sustainable development has become important topic. In layman’s term sustainable development means that to meet the requirement of people without harming the environment or atmosphere. In other words, sustainability can be reflected as concept of using the resources and completing the requirement of human not only in present but also in the indefinite future which reflect that to meet human needs without depleting the resources. There are three mains constitute of this sustainability development (Yue, Sheng, She, & Xu, 2020). First one is environmental sustainability, second one is sociopolitical sustainability and third one is economic sustainability. The development of human life from all aspects affecting sustenance is called sustainability. It involves social equity, environmental quality, economic prosperity and these three are well-known dimensions of sustainability which means that between various competing goals resolving the conflicts.
Nowadays the concept of sustainability has been evolved as the field to protect the resources of world and at the same time by this agenda the depletion of resources at worldwide can be controlled in a better way. As to protect the depletion of resources at global level is very important and these days to ensure the sustainable development one of the key business strategies has taken the shape of green marketing (White & Simpson, 2013). From social marketing the concept of green marketing has been evolved. To make a product or resource environmentally friendly the concept of green marketing is being used. This is a part of marketing business in which the general interest of whole society is considered rather than focusing on the individual interest to satisfy the particular customers. This is very significant point which should be kept in mind while making the policies of an organization and setting the goals because these kinds of activities affect the business. The trend of greening the companies has been gained famed in business world (Haws, Naylor, Coulter, & Bearden, 2012).
The process of promoting the services or products by keeping their environmental benefits in view is called ‘Green marketing’. These kinds of services or products can be environmentally friendly in itself or these are produced in that way which is itself environmentally friendly these products could be manufactured in a sustainable fashion. Distribution, pricing, and product development are included in the strategies of these kind of products or services (Victor, Thoppan, Nathan, & Maria, 2018). By green marketing the sales of a company can be enhanced and this also very helpful in reducing the production and operating costs of a company because by adopting this concept the usage of energy can be reduced. Green consumer behavior is very important in the field of green marketing, as the communication of green marketing had been found to impact consumer behavior and increase the awareness of green consumptions, this study will try to find out the real impact of green consumption values in Singapore and knowing whether it is stronger than that of marketing communication as it shall be recommended to scholars, academicians and managers.
It is insightful to discuss about the research context of green marketing consumption around the world. Comprehensively, there are several studies pointing out the explanation of green consumers’ value and behavior in general (Shukla, 2015; Zhao et al, 2020; Tezer & Bodur, 2021). As the study of Zhao et al, (2020) tries to understand the mapping of green consumption knowledge via meta-analysis followed and supported by the study of Tezer and Bodur, (2021), which is an important one to comprehend the green consumption effect based on the method of green products utilization in order to improve the consumption experience of consumers. Nevertheless, there are several other studies which are specific to rich countries or developed countries as the demand of green consumptions in those countries are high.