Determinants of Organic Cotton Apparel Purchase: A Comparison of Young Consumers in the U.S.A. and South Korea

Tae-Im Han

doi:10.3390/su10062025

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to examine consumers from distinct cultural groups and identify similarities and differences in their green purchase behaviors. The sample consisted of consumers from the U.S.A. and South Korea and the theory of planned behavior was used as a theoretical framework to test the influence of diverse constructs on consumers’ purchase intentions toward organic cotton apparel. For both countries, perceived behavioral control (PBC) and descriptive norms were strong predictors of purchase intentions and injunctive norms strongly influenced attitude formation. However, the study also found different results between the two groups. For example, while attitude was the strongest predictor of purchase intentions in the U.S.A. group (strength of influence on intentions: attitude > descriptive norms > PBC > injunctive norms), it had an insignificant effect in the South Korea group. For the South Korea group descriptive norms and PBC had strongest effects on consumers purchase intentions (strength of influence on intentions: descriptive norms = PBC > injunctive norms > attitude). South Koreans were more affected by the social pressure: their purchase intentions were strongly influenced by both injunctive norms and descriptive norms in contrast to the findings from American consumers. Injunctive norms were an insignificant predictor of purchase intentions in the U.S.A. group. This result is consistent with previous research that suggest conformity is a crucial factor for people belonging to a collectivistic culture. Exposure of others’ purchasing behavior is particularly important in motivating consumers’ buying in collectivistic culture. Marketers of organic cotton apparel may consider using diverse formats of media to display consumers’ ethical buying behaviors or creating product design or packaging that can directly reveal the ethical features of the product to display greater exposure in the market.

Highlights

Once seen as a niche minority, environmentally conscious consumers have become an important consideration and a valuable opportunity for many marketing departments [1]
A theoretical model based on the theory of planned behavior was tested to see the influence of TPB constructs on consumers’ intentions to purchase organic cotton apparel
Majority of the TPB studies in this domain are focused on Western consumers and there is a lack of studies comparing consumer behaviors in different cultural settings, making it difficult to generalize study results to a broader group of consumer segments

Summary

Introduction

Once seen as a niche minority, environmentally conscious consumers have become an important consideration and a valuable opportunity for many marketing departments [1]. As a result of the growing number of environmentally conscious consumers, marketers often incorporate environmental features into marketing activities such as offering green products and packaging [2,3]. According to Textile Exchange, the organic sector has been dramatically expanding in recent years [4]. The number of organic producers was 2.3 million in 2014, which was a 13% increase from the previous year. The averaged proportion of organic cotton from the overall cotton usage in these top 10 companies was reported to be 29.6% which directly shows an increased adoption of organic in the textile market [4]

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Conclusion