The Intention to Adopt Green IT Products in Pakistan: Driven by the Modified Theory of Consumption Values

Saqib Ali,Muhammad Shoaib Sajjad,Faiz Muhammad Khuwaja,Muhammad Danish,Hasan Zahid

doi:10.3390/environments6050053

Abstract

Over the last decades, prompt economic growth and the resulting overconsumption has deteriorated the environment in an accelerated way. This environmental deterioration has prompted academicians and practitioners to study ecological consumption behavior. E-waste and energy consumption play a major part in this environmental deterioration, which makes consumer conscious regarding their consumption pattern. In this regard, the emergence of green Information Technology (IT) enables individuals to become involved in environmental protection and sustainability programs to reduce the negative impact of IT products on the environment. This study aims to investigate individual intentions to adopt green IT products in Pakistan by the theoretical foundation of the theory of consumption values (functional value, social value, epistemic value, emotional value, and conditional value). Whereas, an additional value, i.e., the religious value, is included in the model, due to its significant impact in green consumption behavior of individuals. Cross-sectional data is used to obtain a total of 536 valid questionnaires to test the hypothesis. The Partial Least Square Modeling approach is used to test the proposed model (variance-based SEM). The results infer that functional value, social value, epistemic value, emotional value, conditional value, and religious value have significant positive impact on the consumer intention to adopt green IT products. The reasons for the results and implications for the practitioners are discussed. Furthermore, directions for future research have also been suggested.

Highlights

Environment sustainability and protection have become an extensively debated issue around the world, for the organizations, and for the consumers [1,2]
The results showed that religious value (β = 0.490, t = 12.860 > 1.64, p < 0.05), functional value (β = 0.098, t = 1.763 > 1.64, p < 0.05), social value (β = 0.079, t=2.204 > 1.64, p < 0.05), epistemic value (β = 0.101, t = 2.080 > 1.64, p < 0.05), emotional value (β = 0.186, t = 5.327 > 1.64, p < 0.05), and conditional value (β = 0.060, t = 1.752 > 1.64, p < 0.05) were quite significant on the intention to adopt green Information Technology (IT)
This study used the theory of consumption value i.e., functional value, social value, epistemic value, emotional value, and conditional value as the predictors to find the intentions of individuals

Summary

Introduction

Environment sustainability and protection have become an extensively debated issue around the world, for the organizations, and for the consumers [1,2]. In consumption decisions, considering the physical environmental issues (e.g., air pollution, water pollution, ozone layer depletion, waste disposal, irresponsible use of non-renewable resources) is increasingly important for the quality of life of the future generations [5,6]. Environment sustainability has changed consumer preferences towards different products [7]. Information Technology (IT) has changed the way of interaction with each other and how mankind interacts with the environment [8], because IT worked in both ways i.e., enabler and barrier. That is why the relationship between environment and IT is complex due to its first and second order negative impact on the environment [10]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion