Disability and pro environmental behavior – An investigation of the determinants of purchasing environmentally friendly cars by disabled consumers

Abstract

Although it is often assumed that physically disabled people have different environmental attitudes and behavior, there has been very little empirical evidence supporting this claim. This study is the first to shed light upon the determinants of physically disabled consumers’ pro environmental purchase intentions. We gathered survey data from (net) 118 physically disabled consumers about their purchase intentions for environmentally friendly cars. Structural equation modeling is used for the analysis. The results show that attitude and social norms are important predictors of environmentally friendly purchase intentions. Both hedonic and functional motivation have an indirect effect, while attitude has a direct effect on physically disabled people’s purchase intentions for environmentally friendly cars. Apparently, physically disabled people value the opinions of others in their living and working environment. Notably, we did not observe an expected impact of behavioral control or lack thereof on the purchase intention of environmentally friendly cars. The study offers insights that can be helpful to marketing managers and policymakers in tailoring their strategies to the purchase intentions of physically disabled consumers.