Abstract

This paper aims to examine the determinants of green purchasing intentions among different resident groups in a developing-country context. We first expand the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and build a theoretical model based on green purchasing intention, including attitude, perceived behavioural control, subjective norms, environmental concern, habit, and socio-demographic characteristics (i.e., age, gender, residential area, and educational level). Following this, we collect 552 questionnaires from residents in Tianjin Municipality, China. We use partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) to analyse the green purchasing intention of the population sample and then employ a multi-group analysis (MGA) to explore the group differences in residents’ green purchasing intention. The results show that green purchasing intention is significantly and positively influenced by attitude, perceived behavioural control, subjective norms, and environmental concern but not by habit. The relationship chain of environmental concern→subjective norms→purchasing intention is the strongest. The results of the MGA show that for residential-area groups, the relationships between attitudes, perceived behavioural control, and habits and purchasing intention differ significantly between the downtown group and the outside-the-city group. For the educational-level groups, the relationship between environmental concern and subjective norms differs significantly between the high-education group and the low-education group. Finally, these findings contribute to the literature on the TPB model on green purchasing intention and provide some suggestions for the local government and green marketers.

Highlights

  • Green consumption is a ‘hot topic’ in sustainable development discourses

  • To examine internal consistency, composite reliability (CR) was used, which suggested that the value of CRs should be greater than 0.700 or should range above 0.800 [70]

  • The direct effect of subjective norms on purchasing intention was higher than environmental concern, perceived behavioural control, and attitude

Read more

Summary

Introduction

Green consumption is a ‘hot topic’ in sustainable development discourses. A 30% to 40% decline in environmental quality is caused by people’s purchasing behaviour [1]. Developing countries with a large population and rapid economic development, such as China [3] and India [4,5,6], play an important role in implementing green and sustainable development. China presents a rapid increase in residents’ green consumption. According to the Report on the Development of Green Consumption of Chinese Residents in 2017 from the National Development and Reform Commission, the number of green consumers on Ali’s retail platform increased 14-fold from 2012 to 2015, accounting for 16% of its active users [7]. Tianjin plays an exemplary role in the country’s green development, while green development has a direct impact on the environmental status of Beijing. The study of Tianjin residents’ purchasing intentions is helpful to understand the overall green purchasing behaviour of people in China’s developed provinces and to provide a demonstration for the country

Objectives
Results
Discussion
Conclusion

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call

Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.