CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY. research conducted by Straughan and Roberts (1999). The objective of this research was

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1 CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research Objectives The objective of the present research was accomplished through an adaptation of the research conducted by Straughan and Roberts (1999). The objective of this research was to determine the role of the demographic and psychographic variables in predicting ECCB (Ecologically Conscious Consumer Behavior) performance among university students in the area of Jakarta and its surroundings Hypotheses Demographic Variables of ECCB There have been previous attempts to profile the ecological consumers using demographic characteristics. These variables, if they are significant, will propose easy and efficient methods for marketers to segment the market and get the most out of green attitudes and behavior Gender Eagly (1987) stated that due to social development and gender role differences, women will think more carefully of the impact of their actions to others. 20

2 21 H1: Gender is positively correlated to the performance of Ecologically Conscious Consumer Behavior Age Straughan and Roberts (1999, p. 559) stated that it is believed that younger individuals have a higher chance of being sensitive to issues relating to the environment. H2: Age is negatively correlated to the performance of Ecologically Conscious Consumer Behavior Income Environmental sensitivity is regarded as positively related to income, because those who have higher income levels can put up with the increase in marginal costs related to supporting green causes and supporting green product offerings (Straughan and Roberts, 1999, p. 560). H3: Income is positively correlated to the performance of Ecologically Conscious Consumer Behavior Education (Classification) Straughan and Roberts (1999) found education as having a negative correlation with environmental concerns and behavior. Classification in university was determined by freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior.

3 22 H4: Education (classification) is negatively correlated to the performance of Ecologically Conscious Consumer Behavior Psychographic Variables of ECCB Previous studies have made attempts to profile the ecological consumers using psychographic correlates. Even if the previous studies have not explored psychographic correlates as much as the investigating the demographic variables, the psychographic correlates provide interesting insights into the nature of ecological consumers Perceived Consumer Effectiveness (PCE) Straughan and Roberts (1999, p.562) stated that studies (e.g Antil, 1978; Berger and Corbin, 1992; Kinnear et al., 1974; Roberts, 1995; 1996b; Roberts and Bacon, 1997; Webster, 1975; Weiner and Doescher, 1991) have addressed that the idea that consumers attitudes and responses to environmental issues are caused by the belief that individuals can positively influence the outcome to such problems, this attitude or belief is called perceived consumer effectiveness (PCE). H5: Perceived consumer effectiveness is positively correlated to the performance of Ecologically Conscious Consumer Behavior.

4 Environmental Concern Lepisto (1974) found that environmental concern is a major predictor to ECCB, suggesting that the more attractive the environment, the more an altruistic act is likely to be performed (Roberts, 1996a, p.219). H6: Environmental concern is positively correlated to the performance of Ecologically Conscious Consumer Behavior Altruism The result of the study by Straughan and Roberts (1999) found that altruism was the second most important of all of the predictor variables, suggesting that altruism should not be left out when profiling green consumers. H7: Altruism is positively correlated to the performance of Ecologically Conscious Consumer Behavior Research Questions The author added five more demographic items with the purpose of completing the profile of the ecologically conscious consumers, and whether the additional demographic items influence the performance of ECCB University ECCB? RQ1: Does university have a significant correlation with the performance of

5 Major RQ2: Does major have a significant correlation with the performance of ECCB? Area of Residence ECCB? RQ3: Does area of residence have a significant correlation with the performance of Average Spending per Month RQ4: Does average spending per month have a significant correlation with the performance of ECCB? Job (Employment) RQ5: Does job have a significant correlation with the performance of ECCB? 3.2 Scope of Research This study collected data from undergraduate students across majors, from freshmen to senior students, from universities in the area of Jakarta and its surroundings. The earlier research by Straughan and Roberts (1999) also used university students as samples. University students have been chosen due to the reason that they are young and thus will become part of the future of green consumption.

6 Research Design This research is based upon Straughan and Roberts s method in the journal titled Environmental segmentation alternatives: a look at green consumer behavior in the new millennium (1999). This research is a quantitative exploratory research adapted from the study by Straughan and Roberts (1999) Data Collection Method and Sampling Plan This research used direct interception method for the respondents to fill in the questionnaire. A total of 300 respondents were asked to fill in the questionnaire in their respective universities; some questionnaires were taken home and returned at a later date, and some were not returned. The questionnaire was distributed to a total of 8 universities (Bina Nusantara University, Bina Nusantara University International, INTI College, London School of Public Relations, Sahid University, STEI SEBI, Swiss German University, and University of Indonesia). A total of 26 questionnaires were not returned, making the total sample size of 274 respondents. The sampling method used for this study is convenience sampling among students in universities. 3.4 Survey Instruments Dependent Measure In this study the dependent variable is ECCB. The dependent variable measures the point to which individual respondents buy goods and services they believe would have a more positive or negative impact on the environment (Straughan and Roberts, 1999, p.

7 26 565). The scale has a behavioral orientation that helps to lessen the problem of which attitudes often do not interpret into behavior (Straughan and Roberts, 1999, p. 565). This problem is commonly noted in marketing research and green marketing research in particular (Straughan and Roberts, 1999, p. 565). The questionnaire was measured using the same 30-item ECCB construct, demographic construct, and psychographic constructs, used in the study conducted by Straughan and Roberts (1999) but with modifications with a reason to generate more general items compared to the unchanged items in the original study. The individual items were in a 5- scale Likert-format; never true as 1, rarely true as 2, occasionally true as 3, often true as 4, and always true as Independent Measures In this research the author used the same set of demographic measures used in the original study of Straughan and Roberts (1999), but modified some of the items and added more demographic items. Four key demographic variables that were used from the original study, some were modified to relevantly relate to the sample: age, individual income / allowance (on per month basis), gender (sex), and academic classification (this is equal to education in the original research). Occupation type was not included as a demographic item because of the targeted respondents in the present study. However, additional demographic items was added (area of residence, university, major, average spending per month, and whether the student respondent had a job or not) to better understand the demographic characteristics of the respondents which were all students.

8 27 Some items were modified in order to produce a clearer language, and to relate more to the characteristics of the respondents. Table I shows the modifications for each question (which questions were the same, taken out, added, and modified). There were three constructs used for psychographic variables: perceived consumer effectiveness, environmental concern, and altruism. Altruism items were added to the psychographic measure, whereas the original constructs only provided liberalism, perceived consumer effectiveness, and environmental concern items. Altruism items was adapted from the study Value Orientations, Gender, and Environmental Concern by Stern, Dietz, & Kalof (1993). Liberalism items were removed considering the original research was done in the U.S. where liberalism is an important factor in the U.S. society, and not relevant in the Indonesian society. In the survey that covers 40 countries and grades their performance regarding the promotion of democracy abroad in four categories (very good, good, fair, poor), Korea is in the second category (together with countries like Germany, Spain, the U.S. and the United Kingdom). India, Japan, the Philippines and Thailand are in the third group ( fair ) together with France, Nigeria and South Africa. And finally, Indonesia is ranked in group 4 ( poor ) together with Jordan, Kenya and Russia (Meinardus, 2003).

9 Table I Modification of questionnaires and decision base Straughan and Roberts (1999) Adaptation Table (Modification) Decision Base 1. Ecologically Conscious Consumer Behavior 2. Ecologically Conscious Consumer Behavior (ECCB) Items (ECCB) Items Q 1 - same Q 10 relevant Q 2 - same Q 11 relevant Q 3 - same Q 12 relevant Q 4 - same Q 13 relevant Q 5 - same Q 14 relevant Q 6 - same Q 15 relevant Q 7 - same Q 16 relevant Q 8 - same Q 17 relevant Q 9 - same Q 18 relevant Q 10 - same Q 19 relevant Q 11 - same Q 20 relevant Q 12 - same Q 21 relevant Q 13 - same Q 22 relevant Q 14 - same Q 23 relevant Q 15 - same Q 24 relevant Q 16 - same Q 25 relevant Q 17 - same Q 26 relevant Q 18 - same Q 27 relevant Q 19 - same Q 28 relevant Q 20 - same Q 29 relevant Q 21 - same Q 30 relevant changed "Kleenex" to "tissue" (for a more general Q 22 - modified Q 31 term) 28

10 Continued Q 23 - same Q 32 relevant Q 24 - same Q 33 relevant Q 25 - same Q 34 relevant Q 26 - same Q 35 relevant Q 27 - modified Q 36 removed "foreign" (for a more general item) Q 28 - same Q 37 relevant Q 29 - same Q 38 relevant Q 30 - same Q 39 relevant 2. Perceived Consumer Effectiveness (PCE) Items 3. Perceived Consumer Effectiveness (PCE) Items Q 31 - same Q 40 relevant Q 32 - same Q 41 relevant Q 33 - same Q 42 relevant Q 34 - same Q 43 relevant 3. Environmental Concern (EC) Items 4. Environmental Concern (EC) Items Q 35 - same Q 44 relevant Q 36 - same Q 45 relevant Q 37 - same Q 46 relevant Q 38 - same Q 47 relevant Q 39 - same Q 48 relevant Q 40 - same Q 49 relevant Q 41 - same Q 50 relevant Q 42 - same Q 51 relevant Q 43 - same Q 52 relevant Q 44 - same Q 53 relevant Q 45 - same Q 54 relevant 29

11 Continued Q 46 - same Q 55 relevant 4. Liberalism Items Q 47 - taken out - not relevant Q 48 - taken out - not relevant Q 48 - taken out - not relevant Q 50 - taken out - not relevant Q 51 - taken out - not relevant Q 52 - taken out - not relevant 6. Demographic Measures 1. Demographic Measures Q 53 - modified Q 2 changed from an open-end question to a close-end question Q 54 - modified Q 1 changed "sex" to "gender" (clearer language) Q 55 - same Q 4 relevant Q 56 - modified Q 7 changed to individual income /allowance per month Added Q 3 relevant Added Q 5 relevant Added Q 6 relevant Added Q 8 relevant Added Q 9 relevant 5. Altruism Items 5. Altruism Items Not mentioned Q 56 relevant Not mentioned Q 57 relevant Not mentioned Q 58 relevant Not mentioned Q 59 relevant Not mentioned Q 60 relevant 30

12 Continued Not mentioned Q 61 relevant Not mentioned Q 62 relevant Not mentioned Q 63 relevant Not mentioned Q 64 relevant Not mentioned Q 65 relevant Not mentioned Q 66 relevant Not mentioned Q 67 relevant 31

13 3.5 Data Analysis Methods The data processing software SPSS 12.0 was used to analyze the data collected from the respondents Normality Tests Normality test is for testing whether the input data is normally distributed (OriginLab Ltd.). Lilliefors (Kolgomorov-Smirnov) and Shapiro-Wilk normality tests were used in this study Reliability Test Using Cronbach s Alpha Garson (2009) stated that researchers must show that the instruments are reliable since without reliability, research results using the instrument are not replicable, and replicability is fundamental to the scientific method. Cronbach's alpha is the most common form of internal consistency reliability coefficient. Alpha equals zero when the true score is not measured at all and there is only an error component. Alpha equals 1.0 when all items measure only the true score and there is no error component (Garson, 2009) Frequencies A frequency distribution simply shows the number of responses that each question received, and is the simplest way of determining the empirical distribution of the 32

14 33 variable (Kumar, Aaker, & Day, 2002, p. 361). A frequency distribution was conducted to the demographic variables Correlations Correlations analysis was used to seek the relationships of the variables in terms of direction and significance of the relationships. The dependent variable (ECCB) was correlated with the independent variables which were demographic variables and psychographic variables. This analysis was used to answer the hypotheses and research questions Multiple and Stepwise Regression Multiple regression analysis is regression in which one variable is estimated by the use of more than one other variable (Merrian-Webster). Stepwise regression is a modelbuilding technique which finds subsets of predictor variables that most adequately predict responses on a dependent variable by linear (or nonlinear) regression, given the specified criteria for adequacy of model fit. (Babylon Ltd.). Multiple and stepwise regression were used to develop a profile of the ecologically conscious consumer (Straughan & Roberts, 1999, p. 565). The multiple regression method was between the dependent variable and independent variables. There were three pre-specified models in the multiple regression method. The first model included only the demographic variables, the second model included only the psychographic variables, and the third included demographic and psychographic variables. Straughan

15 34 and Roberts (1999) said that the stepwise procedure was designed to identify the best profile and used an alpha-to-enter value of 0.05 and alpha-to-exit value of 0.10.