The Impact of Human Values and Knowledge on Green Products Purchase Intention

Introduction

Rapid economic development, technological advances, unsustainable consumption and the increasing global population can no longer be separated from the negative impacts on the environment. This has led to major environmental degradation and disasters faced today. Drastic changes in climate, water and air pollutants, damage to flora and fauna, ozone layer depletion, acid rain and deforestation are among the so often occurring negative environmental disasters and events. Ecological destruction continues unabated due to human activities and economic growth (Selles, 2013). the An effective way of reducing this consequence on the environment would be through the green consumption at an individual’s level (Yadav & Pathak, 2017). According to Sreen et al. (2018), companies have started concentrating on ‘Sustainability’ as a business aim by embracing strategies of green marketing to encourage green product purchase to potential as well as current customers. This gives an opportunity for marketers to venture into a new category of green products to increase and maximize profits while expanding their market share but in the meantime, they face a big challenge to develop and communicate strategies effectively to arouse intentions to buy green products and ensure optimal sales. Godelnik (2012) states that although consumers’ spending increases, including for green products, “green glass ceiling” still unbreakable and its market share is still very small. The author further clarifies based on the company's market report by Mintel, that despite that millions of people around the world have adopted an alternative to the traditional use (sustainable consumption) in 2012; this shift seems to still represent a minor share of overall economic activity. In the following year, Gleim et al., (2013) estimated the market share for green products is less than 4% worldwide.

Accordingly, numerous investigations have been carried out over the last 20 years to identify and understand the factors that promote pro-environment behavior among consumers (Suki, 2015; Wu et al., 2015; Thongplew et al., 2013), however, most have addresses marketing strategies rather than consumer behavior. Without an in-depth understanding of consumer behavior for this product category, this seems to be among the greatest barrier to sustainable consumption (Tseng and Hung, 2013) and also difficult to devise effective marketing strategies. Thus, based on mentioned the alarming condition of the environment, very small market share of green products as well as previous research findings, the main objective of this study is to investigate the factors motivating consumers' intention to purchase green products. Based on an extensive review of the literature and to the best of author’s knowledge, only a few studies focused on the impact of cultural values on green products purchase intentions. This study focuses on purchase intentions rather than behavioral, for intentions has broader implications and often will have a positive impact on individual actions (Schlosser et al., 2006; Pierre et al., 2005; Ajzen & Driver, 1992).