Consumer Environmental Attitude and Willingness to Purchase Environmentally Friendly Products: An SEM Approach

Abstract

It has been found that in spite of showing concern for the environment and advocating environmentally safe activities, the Indian consumer is still not ready to accept the hard truth that it the responsibility of one and all to minimize their contribution to the overall environmental pollution. This article aims at studying socio-psychological factors which contribute in the formation of environmental attitude of consumers. It further aims at establishing the connection between environmental attitude of the consumer and his/her willingness to buy environmentally friendly products (WTB-EFPs). A conceptual model has been proposed and tested using structural equation modelling (SEM). It has been found that the dimensions, such as environmental knowledge (EK), perceived seriousness of environmental (PSE) problem, interpersonal influence (IPI), collectivism and long-term orientation (LTO), have positive relationship with consumer environmental attitude (CEA). It has also been observed that consumer with favourable environmental attitude expresses their WTB-EFPs. This is an original study conducted for the first time in India using five antecedents of CEA with the application of SEM. No demographic factors have been studied in this article in order to put more focus on their socio-psychological dimensions.

Keywords

Consumer Environmental Attitude Willingness to Buy Environmentally Friendly Products Environmental Knowledge Interpersonal Influence Long-term Orientation Value Orientation

Introduction

In the last decade, consumers have become more enlightened on environmental issues. Global environmental issues, such as global warming, ozone layer depletion, air and water pollution and others, are the major concerns of the state governments besides increased awareness of general public regarding the same. However, the issue of environment degradation was at its peak during 1970s but was only confined to the concerns of governments of the states. General public was either not concerned or aware of the issues (Akehurst, Afonso & Goncalves, 2012). Late 1980s witnessed number of environmental disasters which forced people to think again and be aware of environmental issues (Titterington, Davies & Cochcrane, 1996). The decade of 1990 was considered as the ‘decade of the environment’ or ‘the Earth decade’, and it was during these years (and indeed up to the present day) the social and environment concern got its place in the market and people started collecting more information about the environmental issues (Prothero, 1996). It was the decade of environmental awareness of the consumers. Consequently, people became more sensitive about environmental degradation and started taking initiatives in their individual and collective capacity.

This can be reflected in the involvement of consumers in environmental caring activities, such as (i) showing no inhibition in using recycled products, helping in the process of recycling the packaging or the used products, saving energy through using lesser energy consuming appliances, (ii) acceptance of lower technical performance of the product purchased due to its better eco-performance, (iii) purchase of CFC free, biodegradable and organically produced products and (iv) willingness to pay premium on eco-friendly products, tendency to prefer eco-friendly service provider in the areas of hospitality and tourism (Aitken, 2006).

Having said that, organizations and consumers separately have been accused of being responsible for environment degradation and ecological imbalance. Organizations use non-recyclable materials, outdated machinery or equipments causing high carbon emission, and substantial industrial waste. Consumers, on the other hand, have also been blamed for their uncontrollable consumption of goods, and irresponsible treatment of the environment (Banerjee, 2002; Menon & Menon, 1997).

Organizations have different motives for working in the direction of protecting the environment. Long-term gain through casting a green company image and tapping the market of the environmentally friendly consumers by becoming the ‘first in the show’ are major motives among other. Organizations, by deeper understanding of the characteristics of green consumers, may design an efficient and effective sustainable marketing strategy. On the other hand, organization may help alleviating the part of environmental problem by understanding and finally influencing the motives, attitude, behaviour and actions of the consumers (Roberts & Bacon, 1997).

However, there is no clear consensus in the extant literature regarding the factors which positively influence the consumers towards pro-environment behaviour. To be more specific, the socio-cultural, psychological and demographic factors have manifested divergent relationship between attitude and behaviour (Diamantopoulos et al., 2003). There is inadequate understanding of antecedents of consumer’s environmentally friendly attitude and willingness to buy environmentally friendly product (WTB-EFP). Some authors argue that many consumers claim that they care about the environment; their buying behaviour does not always reflect this concern (Gardyn, 2003; Kalafatis, Pollard, East & Tsogas, 1999).

Previous studies on environmentally friendly behaviour have demonstrated different results in terms of pattern and relationship with socio-psychological factors. A number of research works have focused on identifying psychological factors (attitude and normative influence) that affect consumers’ pro-environmental behaviour resulting into a consensus on key motivational factors (De Groot & Steg, 2007; Stern, 2000). Much of the studies on consumer environmental behaviour (CEA) have been done in developed countries, and there is need to conduct such studies in developing countries like India.

A conceptual model is proposed in this study to understand the influence of various socio-psychological factors on WTB-EFPs in Indian context. This study empirically tests the conceptual model in question.

To understand and study the willingness of consumers to buy environmentally friendly products, the study is divided into two parts. First, it investigates the correlation of five antecedents derived from literature with CEA; second, it identifies the relationship of CEA with consumer WTB-EFP.

The five antecedents of consumer environmentally friendly attitude which are proposed in this study are environmental knowledge (EK), perceived seriousness of environmental (PSE) problem, interpersonal influence (IPI), long-term orientation (LTO), collectivism and individualism-value orientation (VO). However, various previous studies have proved the positive relationship of VO, IPI and EK with attitude towards environmentally friendly products (Chea & Phau, 2011), but still there are gaps in taking more than three antecedents together and applying the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and proposing a structural equation model (SEM) for the same.

Relevant Literature and Hypotheses Formation

Social and psychographic information about consumers has received much attention within the context of environmental marketing (Laroche, Bergeron & Forleo, 2001; Ottman, 1993). Socio-psychographic information includes values, level of education in a specific area, IPI, opinions and attitudes. It is being felt by many researchers that these variables have the potential and ability to predict the consumer behaviour to certain extent many studies have proven the same (Banerjee, Iyer & Kashyap, 2003).

The environmental attitude of consumers (also called as CEA) and the environmental behaviour are very important and pertinent concepts which are required to explain the profile of ecologically conscious consumer behaviour (ECCB) (Roberts & Bacon, 1997). Several research works have been done to investigate the impact of demographic and psychographic dimensions on the environmental attitude of consumers and concluded the positive relationship between psychographic variables and the CEA and also established the correlation between favourable environmental attitude and positive purchase decision (McCarty & Shrum, 1994). In the same way, negative attitude discourages the consumers for favourable purchase decision (McCarty & 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’. This can be understood in the sense that the perceived importance of the product and convenience (in the overall process of product purchase, use and disposal) is very important for the consumers before taking any purchase decision. It can also be taken as whether consumers view environmentally compatible behaviours as important to themselves (self-interest) or to the society as a whole. For example, organic foods and energy-efficient appliances are environmentally friendly products that consumers are willing to purchase, simply because these products are believed by consumers to appeal directly to their self-interest while at the same time promoting environmental benefits (Ginsberg & Bloom, 2004). On the other hand, the term ‘inconvenience’ refers to how inconvenient it is perceived by the individual to behave in an ecologically favourable fashion (Roberts & Bacon, 1997). For example, a person may feel that recycling is important for the long-term benefit of the society, but he or she may also feel that it is personally inconvenient and they might show negative behaviour for recycling due to the inconvenience factor.

However, green consumer profile has been explained by several authors through demographic and social characteristics, but it has been argued that psychographic attributes play more important role in defining green consumer (Awad, 2011; Chan, 1999). Straughan and Roberts (1999) studied the following psychographic variables: perceived consumer effectiveness (PCE) and environmental concern (EC), altruism and liberalism. However, due to defining the limit of the number of antecedents to be taken, we would not be including these variables in our study.

Perceived consumer effectiveness (PCE): It is defined as the consumer perception of the extent to which their action can make a difference in solving environmental problems (Ellen, Wiener & Cobb-Walgren, 1991), for instance, in purchasing green products, recycling, subscribing to e-invoicing, among others. According to Moisander (2007), consumer will act proactively if they feel their actions are effective for environmental preservation. Perceived consumer effectiveness has been taken as antecedent of environmental attitude in several studies and can be considered as important predictor. When we compare all major socio-demographic and psychographic variables with each other, PCE gets its due importance among all (Kinnear, Taylor & Ahmed, 1974).

Environmental concern (EC): EC is most commonly defined as the individual’s awareness of environmental problem and their willingness to be a part of the problem solution (Chan & Lau, 2000; Dunlap & Jones, 2002). Most of the previous studies on awareness of environmental issues and the willingness of people to exhibit environmentally friendly behaviour have included EC as a construct and demonstrated a significant correlation of EC with environmentally friendly behaviour (Roberts & Bacon, 1997; Straughan & Roberts, 1999). Most of the authors argued that EC is commonly related to the emotional quotient and overall EK of the consumer and its willingness to change behaviour (Maloney, Ward & Braucht, 1975). Kim and Choi (2005) point out that consumers that are more concerned about the negative change in environmental health are showing more readiness and willingness to purchase environment friendly products than those who are less concerned. The following hypothesis can therefore be made:

H₁: Environmental concern (EC) is positively related to consumer environmental attitude.

Consumer’s negative perception of their contribution towards the solution of deteriorating environment plays an important role in the manifestation of their behaviour towards ECs. It directly indicates the PCE (Antil, 1978; Berger & Corbin, 1992; Ellen et al., 1991) of the degree to which the consumer feels that he or she can make a difference in improving the quality of the environment. Therefore, as an inference, we can say that attitude of an individual towards the seriousness of environmental issues may influence his intention or willingness to purchase environment friendly product.

Laroche, Toffoli Chankon and Muller (1996) have verified that the individual’s knowledge about the environment and its associated issues plays an important role in deciding his behaviour towards environmentally friendly products. According to Laroche et al. (1996) the EK leads to the strategic decision-making of the individual through shaping individual’s attitude and intention. With the term ‘environmental knowledge (EK)’, two important aspects evolve, first, the knowledge related to the impact of the product (package, usage, disposal) on the environment and, second, the knowledge of the consumers that whether the product itself is produced in environmentally safe conditions (D’Souza, Taghian & Lamb, 2006). Education of the consumers plays an important role in becoming opinionative regarding environmental issues and deciding about the purchase behaviour (Laroche et al., 2001). This EK may be termed as ecoliteracy, which is found to be correlated with attitude and WTB-EFP. Thus, on the basis of above discussion, we may assume the following:

H₂: Environmental knowledge (EK) is positively related to consumer environmental attitude.

Another relevant and important antecedent of individual’s behaviour is the IPI, that is, influence of others (Bearden, Netemeyer & Teel, 1989). The IPI may be defined as the impact of acting to convince or persuade others for a desired effect. According to Bandura (1986), IPI advocates a bi-lateral directional interaction that also occurs between environment and personal characteristics. The relationship of IPI with the behavioural tendencies has various dimensions including social structure, values and beliefs and human cognitive competencies. Social environment involving friends, family and peer networks influences the individual decision-making for the purchase of environmentally friendly product. As the reference group, influence can take three forms, informational, normative and value-expressive influence; individual’s behaviour can be determined by any one of them, two of them or all of them. Therefore, we can formulate another hypothesis as:

H₃: Interpersonal influence (IPI) is positively related to consumer environmental attitude.

Value orientation is another important determinant of CEA. The term ‘value’ has been defined as an enduring prescriptive or proscriptive belief that a specific mode of conduct is preferred to an opposite mode of conduct for living one’s life (Rokeach, 1986). Individualism and collectivism are the two most relevant values which are used in the research studies on environmentally friendly consumer behaviour (Hui & Triandis, 1986; McCarty & Shrum, 1994).

Fulfilment of personal goal, taking utmost care of immediate family and thinking personal benefit on each and every decision are the typical indicators of individualism. This includes personal gratification, which concerns the need for a sense of accomplishment, social recognition and enjoying the finer things in life (Ang et al., 2001). Studies show that individualistic consumers do not exhibit environmentally friendly behaviour. On the other hand, collectivism ignores personal gratification but exhibits cooperation, inclination towards group achievement and helpfulness (Crane, 2000; Laroche et al., 2001; McCarty & Shrum, 1994). A collectivist is more open and receptive to undertake activities which provide benefits to the group or the society. McCarty and Shrum (2003) and Triandis (1993) concluded that collectivist people tend to be more environmentally friendly, while individualist people do not follow this trend. Therefore, consumers who value personal gratification will have a less favourable attitude towards the environment, and vice versa. We may, therefore, hypothesize:

H₄: Value orientation (VO) is positively related to consumer environmental attitude.

Long-term orientation (LTO) refers to the prospects perceived by an individual that a society will be in a position to overcome its problems over time (Hofstede, 1980). It can be defined as the extent to which an individual has a pragmatic future oriented perspective rather than conventional historic or short-term point of view (Furrer, Liu & Sudharshan, 2000). For an individual who is long-term oriented, traditional preservation, family values, empathy and responsiveness play an important role in their behaviour and are likely to be more environmentally friendly. Such people are likely to be more concerned about the preservation of the ecosystem and may direct or inherit the tradition to their families as well. The following hypothesis can therefore be made:

H₅: Long-term orientation (LTO) is positively related to consumer environmental attitude.

Consumers who adopt environmentally friendly attitude believe that the environmental issues are increasing gradually and it is imperative to think of environmental impact of their activities including their purchase behaviour (Banerjee & Mckeage, 1994; Schlegelmilch, Bohlen & Diamantopoulos, 1996). This is in consistency with the cognitive consistency theory (Festinger, 1957) which argues that individual who is concerned about ecological problems will be very likely to take action to minimize them. However, many studies (Kilbourne & Picket, 2008; Mostafa, 2007; Roberts & Bacon, 1997; Schlegelmilch et al., 1996) have empirically proven that consumers who are environmentally sensitive are very likely to change their behaviour and show their willingness to purchase products that are friendly to environment. Based on the above argument, we may formulate the following hypothesis:

H₆: Consumer environmental attitude (CEA) is positively related to consumer wiliness to buy environmentally friendly products.

Research Model

Based on the available literature, the research model is proposed linking the five important variables as the antecedents of the consumers’ environmental attitude and the willingness to purchase the green product. The model has EK, LoT, VO, PSE problem and IPI as the antecedents of the environmental attitude to the dependent variable ‘willingness to purchase the green product’.

Research Methodology

This study was conducted by collecting and analyzing the primary data from 300 respondents in Delhi NCR. To ensure the content validity, first 30 respondents were only considered for pilot survey. The suggestions of the respondents and experts’ opinion were duly considered and incorporated into the final questionnaire. With the confirmation in the qualitative assessment, the structured questionnaire developed from different scales was then distributed to the various fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) consumers irrespective of age, gender and educational qualification in the Delhi NCR region during July–September 2015. Convenience sampling technique was used to meet the respondents. To ensure the representation of all the categories of the respondents and to lessen the impact of non-probability sampling, the meeting points were the major metro stations and famous shopping malls. A seven-point Likert scale ranging from ‘strongly disagree’ to ‘strongly agree’ has been used to explore the antecedents of the consumers’ environmental attitude and their willingness to purchase the green product. Convenience sampling method was employed to collect the primary data from the FMCG consumers in the Delhi NCR region. In a non-probability sample, the sample size is at the discretion of the researcher (Shiu et al., 2009). But to represent fairly the results of the research study, data have been collected from 300 respondents. The demographic characteristics of the FMCG consumers are summarized in Table 1. Respondents in the age group 20–25 years (30 per cent) and 26–35 (50 per cent) are the major contributors. Further, 60 per cent of the respondents are female and 40 per cent of the respondents are male. Fifty-seven per cent of the respondents are having post-graduation as their highest qualification, 23 per cent of the respondents are only graduation and 20 per cent of the respondents were having qualification higher than the post-graduation. All the respondents are the regular users of FMCG products.

Table 1.

Demographic Profile

Respondents Characteristics	Classification	No. of Respondents
Age	20–25	90
	26–35	150
	Above 35	60
Educational qualification	Up to PG	171
	Only graduation	69
	More than PG	60
Gender	Male	180
	Female	120

Source: Primary Data.

Reliability and Validity of Measures

Cronbach’s alpha is the measure of reliability of the scale and the internal consistency of the data. The reliability of all the constructs is measured through Cronbach’s alpha and has been presented in the Table 2. The recommended value of alpha should be greater than 0.6. The reliability coefficients of all the constructs are greater than 0.6, and therefore, the scale is reliable.

Table 2.

Cronbach’s Alpha of the Constructs

Name of the Construct	No. of Items	Alpha
Environment knowledge (EK)	7	0.821
Long-term orientation (LoT)	3	0.621
Value orientation (VO)	5	0.642
Perceived seriousness of environmental problem (PSE)	5	0.767
Interpersonal influence (IPI)	7	0.713
Attitude (AT)	7	0.681
Willingness to purchase the green product (W)	5	0.723

Source: Result of Reliability test conducted using IBM-SPSS.

Table 3 presents the convergent validity of all the constructs using composite reliability. Individual item’s reliability was checked using Cronbach’s alpha, whereas to test the reliability of the construct or latent variables, composite reliability was used. The composite reliability varied from 0.63 to 0.80, satisfying the criteria of 0.6.

Table 3.

Convergent Validity of Constructs

Name of the Construct	Composite Reliability
Environment knowledge (EK)	0.828
Long-term orientation (LoT)	0.602
Value orientation (VO)	0.662
Perceived seriousness of environmental problem (PSE)	0.795
Interpersonal influence (IPI)	0.705

Source: Convergent Validity Test using IBM-AMOS.

Data Analysis

Exploratory Factor Analysis

Exploratory factor analysis is used to explore the underlying dimensions of the antecedents of the FMCG consumers’ environmental attitude. The appropriateness of factor analysis for data has been checked by Bartlett’s test of sphericity and Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) measure of sample adequacy. Bartlett’s test is applied to test the overall significance of correlation matrix. Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin measure indicates the proportion of variance in the variables, which is a common variance. The results show that the value of KMO statistics is high (0.829) and Bartlett’s test if sphericity is significant (0.000) which reveals that data are appropriate for factor analysis. Thus, only the factors having latent roots or eigenvalues greater than 1 were considered significant; all the factors with latent roots less than 1 were ignored. Only five components have eigenvalues greater than one, total variance accounted for by these factors is 70.2 per cent and remaining variance was explained by other factors. The factor loadings of all the statements are above 0.70 confirming the discriminant validity of the constructs.

The rotated component matrix reveals five factors (which represent the five broad dimensions of consumers’ environmental attitude termed as EK, Law of Trust, VO, PSE problems and IPI) derived from 27 statements. To confirm the five-dimensional antecedents of consumers’ environmental attitude (as obtained by EFA), a CFA is done.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis

Confirmatory factor analysis is a measurement model that estimates latent variables based on observed indicator variables and also checks the reliability of the model. CFA is the technique to find out the exact relationship between the common factors and the items used to measure them as well as the linkages among the factor with reliability (Joreskog & Sorbom, 1989; Salisbury et al., 2001). In addition, CFA is useful for an interpretation of model fit indices (Shumacker & Lorax, 1996) as well as it provides enhanced control over the unidimensionality (the extent to which items on a factor measure one single construct) of the model. CFA has been done on the 27 statements using maximum likelihood extraction method to confirm the dimensionality of the derived instrument. For the model to be considered fit, it should support the criteria of the various indices such as X²/df < 3, goodness of fit (GFI) > 0.90 (Joreskog & Sorbom, 1989), adjusted goodness of fit (AGFI) > 0.80, comparative fit index (CFI) > 0.90 and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) < 0.10. There is no single measure to conclude about the validity of the model (Tanaka, 1993).

Structural Model

SEM is a multivariate technique combining aspects of multiple regression and factor analysis to estimate a series of interrelated dependence relationships simultaneously. Here, SEM has been used to represent the multiple and interrelated dependence relationships among five dimensions (exogenous variables) consumers environmental attitude (endogenous variables), and finally with the consumers’ willingness to purchase green product (endogenous variable).

SEM is useful for estimating the interdependent multiple relationships and representing the latent concepts (willingness) in these relationships. The prime objective is to understand and measure this complex relationship between antecedents of the consumers’ environmental attitude and willingness to purchase green product.

The model (Figure 1) is developed to evaluate the statistical significance of the proposed relationship between the five variables (EK, LoT, VO, PS and IPI) with the environmental attitude and the consumers’ willingness to purchase the green product. The structural model proposes to examine two relationships. The first relationship is being examined among the EK, LoT, VO, PS and IPI with the consumers’ environmental attitude. EK, LoT, VO, PS and IPI are taken as the exogenous variables and environmental attitude as endogenous variable. All the exogenous variables are inter-correlated with each other depicted by the double-sided arrows.

Figure 1.

Source: Structural Model developed using IBM-AMOS.

The second relationship is examined between the environmental attitude as exogenous variable with the willingness to purchase the green product as endogenous variable.

SEM at first did not come significant as the fit indices are not within the range. The model has been modified with the help of modification indices. Wherein, the error terms of the different constructs have been correlated to improve the model such as e13–e16, e7–e9, e8–e10, e20–e22, e22–e23, e27–e28, e28–e29, e29–e30, e30–e31, e34–e35 and e36–e38. The modified model is shown in Figure 1.

All the fit measures indicated that the structural model was moderately acceptable X²/df = 3 at p = 0.00; GFI = 0.925; AGFI = 0.781; CFI = 0.903; and RMSEA = 0.092.

Besides the fitness of the model, all its parameters are tested to check the proposed relationship in Figure 1. All the five exogenous constructs are significantly related with the environmental attitude at 5 per cent level of significance thereby confirming it to be the antecedent of environmental attitude. All the constructs have positive parameter estimates. The environmental attitude also has a significant relationship with the willingness to purchase the green product. Therefore, it can be concluded that the overall model is fit and the estimated model results supports all the six hypotheses as shown in Table 4.

Table 4.

Testing of Relationships

Hypotheses	Relationship	Standardized Coefficient	p-value	Results
H1	EK Attitude	0.303	0.000	Accepted
H2	LoT Attitude	0.249	0.000	Accepted
H3	VO Attitude	0.136	0.014	Accepted
H4	PS Attitude	0.337	0.000	Accepted
H5	IPI Attitude	0.192	0.006	Accepted
H6	Attitude Willingness	0.777	0.000	Accepted

Source: Standardised regression coefficients with their corresponding p-values using IBM-AMOS.

The squared multiple correlation of the willingness to purchase the green product is 60 per cent which indicate that the predictor consumers’ environmental attitude explains 60 per cent of the variance in the consumers’ willingness to purchase the green product.

Discussion and Concluding Comments

The study contributes to the marketing research literature in multiple ways. First, it is one of the very few studies done in India and abroad, wherein five antecedents of CEA have been taken together and their relationship with CEA is checked and established using CFA. These five antecedents, EC, IPI, LTO, VO and EK, have shown a positive relationship with CEA. Second, this study simultaneously examines the societal, cultural and ethical issues in forming environmental attitude by consumers. Third, this study draws a clear-cut distinction between environmental attitude and environmental behaviour in terms of willingness to purchase environmentally friendly products, whereas most of the previous research have used both the terms interchangeably. Finally, this study combines micro- and macro-green marketing issues, often examined separately by previous research.

The main findings of the study can majorly be divided into two sections. First section is related to the relationship of five antecedents, EC, IPI, LTO, VO and EK, with CEA construct. The result is consistent with number of findings in previous studies. Laroche et al. (1996) suggested that individual’s knowledge about the environment plays a multifaceted role in influencing his or her behaviour. In addition to that, Bandura’s (1986) social cognitive theory supports the findings, which reflect the triadic relationship between personal, environmental and behaviour factors. The findings show that the level of eco-literacy (i.e., the EK) significantly correlates with the consumer attitude and behaviour tendencies (Laroche et al., 1996; Roberts & Bacon, 1997). The findings further reinforce that if the consumer has sufficient knowledge about the environment and the causes of environmental pollution, then their overall awareness level towards green products will increase and, thus, they will form more favourable attitude towards environmentally friendly products. Therefore, it is crucial for marketer and public relation practitioners to disseminate information regarding the environmental impact of their product and educate consumers through communication initiatives such as environmental support campaigns. However, EK does not necessarily mean that the consumer will make a green purchase.

With regard to consumers’ susceptibility to the IPI and environmental attitude, the findings of the study coincide with the previous studies done by Bearden, Netemeyer and Teel (1989) and Stafford and Cocanougher (1997). This means that the IPI from peers and family members will have a significant effect on the consumer’s attitude towards the environment. However, this result deviates from the findings of the study done by Cheah and Phau (2011). Talking about the VO, the study shows that collectivism plays a positive role in framing the positive attitude towards the environment. In other words, collectivist consumers tend to exhibit more friendly behaviour towards the environment than the individualistic consumers. These results correspond to the findings of McCarty and Shrum (1994) and Cheah and Phau (2011), wherein it was proposed that collectivist consumers tend to be friendlier towards the environment than the individualistic consumers. According to Joreiman et al. (2004), long-term-oriented people tend to develop favourable attitude towards the natural environment. Sarigollu (2009) proposed that long-term-oriented people have a favourable attitude towards the protection of natural environment. Findings of our study coincide with the literature. Long-term-oriented people exhibit favourable attitude towards the natural environment.

Second section pertains to the relationship between CEA and consumer’s WTB-EFP. The study finds out that there is positive relation between CEA and WTB-EFP. In other words, consumers with positive environmental attitude are more willing to buy eco-friendly products. These findings echo previous findings by McCarty and Shrum (1994), Meneses and Palacio (2006) and Robert and Bacon (1997). Supported by the theory of reasoned action Ajzen and Fishbein (1980), the findings of the study would help in formulating various communication strategies and advertising appeals in order to promote and establish the product’s image. We may also extend this reasoning to support decision-making regarding product packaging, design, labelling and positioning of eco-friendly products (Polonsky & Rosenburger, 2001).

Limitations

Convenience sampling technique is one of the limitations as this might not truly represents the entire population of Delhi-NCR in India. Socio-demographic statistics can be seen to fluctuate, and hence, the associated consumer attitude towards green products may deviate from the findings of the model over a period of time. Antecedents of environmental attitude in this study are not exhaustive. Other antecedents which are associated with attitude formation are subjective norms, past experience and PSE problem. Cultural, political and ethical parameters can also be taken for future research. There are factors which may moderate the relationship between environmental attitude and willingness to buy green products. Product necessity, product involvement and pricing concepts are few of moderating factors which may influence the attitudinal tendencies.

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Consumer Environmental Attitude and Willingness to Purchase Environmentally Friendly Products: An SEM Approach

Abstract

Keywords

Introduction

Relevant Literature and Hypotheses Formation

H1: Environmental concern (EC) is positively related to consumer environmental attitude.

H2: Environmental knowledge (EK) is positively related to consumer environmental attitude.

H3: Interpersonal influence (IPI) is positively related to consumer environmental attitude.

H4: Value orientation (VO) is positively related to consumer environmental attitude.

H5: Long-term orientation (LTO) is positively related to consumer environmental attitude.

H6: Consumer environmental attitude (CEA) is positively related to consumer wiliness to buy environmentally friendly products.

Research Model

Research Methodology

Reliability and Validity of Measures

Data Analysis

Exploratory Factor Analysis

Confirmatory Factor Analysis

Structural Model

Discussion and Concluding Comments

Limitations

References

H₁: Environmental concern (EC) is positively related to consumer environmental attitude.

H₂: Environmental knowledge (EK) is positively related to consumer environmental attitude.

H₃: Interpersonal influence (IPI) is positively related to consumer environmental attitude.

H₄: Value orientation (VO) is positively related to consumer environmental attitude.

H₅: Long-term orientation (LTO) is positively related to consumer environmental attitude.

H₆: Consumer environmental attitude (CEA) is positively related to consumer wiliness to buy environmentally friendly products.