The Mediating Role of Green Purchase Intention between Antecedents of Green Purchase Intention and Consumer’s Green Buying Behaviour: Empirical Evidence in Ethiopia

Abstract

Today, many companies have accepted responsibility to produce products and “go green”, because they have realized that they can reduce pollution and increase profits at the same time. The primary objective of this study was to investigate the role of green purchase intention as a mediator between antecedents of green purchase intention and green purchasing behavior in the Ethiopian context. Through a comprehensive literature review, the influencing factors of consumers’ green purchase were explored. This study is cross sectional and quantitative in nature. The unit of analysis for the study is green product consumers, and data is gathered through a cross-section survey research technique. Data were collected from five major cities in Ethiopia using self-administered questionnaires and the mall intercept method. Field researchers approached over 500 people over the course of four weeks in five cities and asked them to complete a questionnaire and only 319 completed questionnaires were used for analysis. According to the findings, cognitive factors, green perceived value, green perceived quality, green perceived risk, consumer individual characteristics, green trust, collectivism, environmental advertisement, ecological packaging, high prices for ecological products and consumer spiritual orientation all have a significant positive influence on consumers’ intentions to make green purchases. However, Perceived Behavioral Control; Perceived consumer effectiveness, Environmental Concern, Social Factors and Subjective norm all have insignificant effect on consumers green purchase intention. This study used structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the hypotheses. The results of the study also demonstrated that green purchase intention mediates the relationship between green purchase intention’s antecedents and consumer purchase behavior because indirect effect estimates are higher than direct effect estimates (0.305 > 0.278). The findings of this study will provide orientations for enterprises engaged in green product diffusion and organizations responsible for environmental protection.