Sustainable Choices and Behaviors among Eco-Friendly Museum Travelers: Exploring the Drivers of Sacrifice, Visit, Pay, and WOM Intentions.

Heesup Han,Elena-Nicoleta Untaru,Linda Heejung Lho,Hyeon-Cheol Kim

doi:10.3390/ijerph18020845

Abstract

This research developed a sturdy theoretical framework that offers a better comprehension regarding customer approach intentions for eco-friendly museum products. Using a quantitative process, the apparent role of ecological value, connectedness to nature, social pressure, pro-environmental reputation was explored. Data quality testing demonstrated the validity of the construct measures. The critical mediating nature of customer-product relationship quality and feeling of pride was unveiled by conducting a structural analysis. In addition, the feeling of pride was a prominent factor determining sacrifice, visit, pay, and word of mouth (WOM) intentions. Social pressure played a major role in building relationship quality, whereas pro-environmental reputation was a key contributor to increase the feeling of pride. The model contained a strong prediction power for intentions. Results of this study contribute to enriching the extant knowledge regarding customer pro-environmental decision-making process, which is helpful for an eco-friendly museum and its success.

Highlights

The museums, along with the hospitality and tourism industry, are one of the major contributors to environmental contaminations [1,2,3]
Our result showed that ecological value (β = 0.157, p < 0.01), social pressure for pro-environmental choices (β = 0.242, p < 0.01), and pro-environmental reputation (β = 0.372, p < 0.01) had a significant and positive indirect effect on sacrifice intention
Our research apparently uncovered the impact of ecological value, connectedness to nature, social pressure, and pro-environmental reputation on environment-friendly decision-making procedures among museum customers

Summary

Introduction

The museums, along with the hospitality and tourism industry (e.g., museums, hotels, restaurants, airlines, resorts, cruises), are one of the major contributors to environmental contaminations [1,2,3]. Facing the environmental issue is unavoidable for museum operators [3,4,5] as the museum industry has been constantly expanding together with the development of the tourism industry [6]. Greening museums is nowadays inevitable for all museum operators [4,7]. Inducing visitors’ eco-friendly approach intentions/behaviors for a museum by practicing pro-environmental management and implementing green technology is becoming an essential goal for museum operations [2,3,5]

Methods

Results

Conclusion