DETERMINANTS OF GREEN PURCHASE BEHAVIOUR AMONG YOUNG CONSUMERS: AN ONLINE PERSPECTIVE

Transcription

1 DETERMINANTS OF GREEN PURCHASE BEHAVIOUR AMONG YOUNG CONSUMERS: AN ONLINE PERSPECTIVE Adeline Kok Li-Ming Sunway University, Malaysia Teoh Boon Wai Green Possibilities Frontier, Malaysia ABSTRACT Consumers concerns over the environment especially the usage of environmental product have been growing over the recent years. This study explored the relationship between three drivers which include usability, trust and information toward consumers' attitude towards online green advertising and their green buying behaviour. The research also emphasized on the mediating effect of consumers' attitude toward online green advertising. As the focus of the research was on young consumers, 321 respondents aged 16 to 28 were carefully selected via purposive sampling. The study found that all the drivers were significantly related to consumers' attitude toward online green advertising. Besides that, consumers' attitude towards online green adverting and their green purchase behaviour relationship was found to be significant. Information was found to be the most significant driver in this study. Keywords: Green buying behaviour, online green advertising, young consumers in Malaysia Corresponding Author s Address: adelinek@sunway.edu.my I. INTRODUCTION The interest for environmental issues in the society has led to more environmentally focused consumers. This has consequently led toward organizations displaying willingness to respond to the consumers interest of environmentally safe products (Ekstrom & Gustafsson, 2012). Due to the higher consumer awareness of environmental issues, companies have adopted a more green profile in order to gain an advantage over competitors and also to create a more favourable image of the brand (Habib, Shah & Khirsheed, 2010). Based on the Nielsen s 2011 Global Online Environment & Sustainability survey Nielsen Company, 83 percent of global online consumers found that it is important that companies implement programs to improve the environment. The survey was conducted across 51 countries and had a total of 25,000 online respondents. In the same report, 90% of Malaysian shoppers noted their concern for environmental issues particularly climate change. Many consumers reported a personal preference for eco-friendly goods, but large percentages of respondents report setting aside this preference and buying whichever product is cheapest. Hence, only 22 percent of them were willing to pay more for green products. In Malaysia, Kaur (2005) found that consumers like to go online. However, there is a further need to understand these online consumers attitudes and behaviours towards advertising that uses online platform. Moreover, the rapid growth of this advertising medium is apparent. Malaysia s broadband subscriber market increased an annual growth of 32.9% from 2004 to Malaysian advertising industry had an increase of 15.8% in 2010 compared to the year before (Nielsen Company, Global Online Environment and Sustainability Survey, 2011). From this amount RM52,1549,000 was spent on online advertising. Chan (2006), in his study found that young consumers is an important market and is a growing segment. This is one of the reasons why this study is focused on young consumers. As a developing nation with high percentage of consumers indicating their concern for the environment and the increasing socio-economic standing of the population, their considerations for environmentally friendly products, services and related green technologies present favourable conditions for green marketers. The link between the upward trend of online usage among Malaysian consumers and their environmental concerns becomes imminent which forms the basis for firms to understand consumers green purchasing behaviour towards online green advertising in order to capture this strategic market. Many studies focused on the general environmental behaviour but ignored areas of research with regards to green purchase behaviour towards green products specifically from an online advertising perspective (Gan, Han, Ozanne & Tzu, 2008). A study in conducted in America by the Grocery Manufactures Association and Deloitte Development (2009), indicated that green shoppers are active shoppers where they are less price sensitive and are likely to repurchase. In the same research, it was found that young consumers want a sustainable lifestyle but have not

2 integrated it into their shopping behaviour. So in order to encourage these consumers, information and promotion is essential. Hence, this study investigated the consumers green purchasing behaviour; and their attitude towards online green advertising. This is done by examining the causal link between usability, information and trust and their green purchasing behaviour towards online green advertising. The main objective of this research is to determine the factors that influences young consumers green purchase behaviour. The study also takes a look at the mediating effects of young consumers attitude towards online green advertising between the advertising attributes and their green purchase behaviour. II. LITERATURE REVIEW Firms are making efforts to incorporate environmental messages into their advertisements to enhance their green communication strategies in providing a green brand identification or green brand image in response to the increasing number of consumers willing to consider environmentally friendly products in their purchase behaviour (Özkoçak & Tuna, 2011). As such, the increase in popularity and relevance of green advertising is undeniable and plays an important role to green marketing strategy. Awareness and concern about environmental issues do not necessarily be reflected in purchase behaviours (Kaplan, 2000). Most researchers used Ajzen s Theory of Planned Behaviour as the basis to study the gap between consumers reported attitudes and their actual purchasing behaviour whereby attitudes, perceived control and subjective norms determine intentions towards an act. Thus, intention may lead to actual behaviour (Ali, Khan & Ahmed, 2011). There are many factors that would influence or have an impact on whether environmentally conscious attitude leads to the actual behaviour of purchasing green products (Nordlund & Garvill, 2002). As identified by Ali et. al.( 2011), one of these factors includes credibility of green advertising which was examined in this study (Thogersen, & Olander, 2002). III. THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK Theory of planned behaviour by Ajzen and Fishbein (1980), clarifies the relationship between a person s belief and attitude which in turn form the intention to purchase. Based on this theory, perceived behavioural control and behavioural intention will be used to forecast a consumer s behaviour. This means that attitudes are associated to intent to employ certain behaviour and this could be the consumers purchase behaviour. So in this case, based on the theory of planned behaviour, consumers attitude toward online green advertising will influence their green purchase behaviour. Technology acceptance model which was produced by Davis in 1986 is used to predict behaviour intent towards information technology usage (Ramayah & Jantan, 2003). This model is used in this study as it can predict and explain the consumers online behaviour and in this case online green advertising. In this study, the framework was developed based on adapting and combining four different models by Ahmad, et. al (2010), Haytko and Matulich (2010), Wang and Sun (2010) and Lodorfos, et.al (2006). Ahmad, et. al (2010) and Haytko and Matulich (2010) created models on green advertising and green purchase behaviour. Wang and Sun (2010) research model was to study attitudes, attitudes and response toward online advertisements in three different countries. Lodorfos (2006) established a model in understanding consumers online attitude and behaviour in the online commodities. This study s model was to explain the relationship between the drivers, consumers attitude toward online green advertising and their green purchase behaviour. Consumers attitude toward online green advertising was used to mediate the relationship. This study adapted and adopted Lee s (2008) items for measuring green purchase behaviour. FIGURE 1. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Advertising attributes Usability Trust Consumers attitude toward online green advertising Consumers green purchase behaviour

3 Information The hypotheses of the study were established based on this research model. The hypotheses of the study are as follow: H1: Usability has positive influence on consumer s attitude towards online green advertising H2: Trust has positive influence on consumer s attitude towards online green advertising H3: Information has positive influence on consumer s attitude towards online green advertising H4: Consumers attitude towards online green advertising are positively related to green purchase behaviour IV. METHODOLOGY This research studied the causal relationship between the green consumer purchase behaviour and the independent variables. It also looked at the relationship between the consumers attitude toward online green advertising and their purchase behaviour. The attitude toward online green advertising served as a mediating variable in this research. The survey method was employed and conducted through a structured and standardized close ended questionnaire and data was collected using a Likert-7 point scale. Based on the objective this study, the purposive sampling method was chosen as the most appropriate method for this research. This is because the researcher understands what is required in order to conduct the study. This is aligned with Bernard (2002) who highlighted the criteria for purposive sampling where researcher selects what needs to be known and sets out to search for relevant right people who can provide the relevant information according to their knowledge or experience. Besides that, the researcher was very clear of the availability of survey participants. In this study, the researcher has identified young consumers within the university students. Three universities were selected to participate in this study. Purposive sampling is particularly illustrated through the key informant method. The respondents were carefully chosen from undergraduates who were studying marketing and business management subjects. This is because they would have the knowledge and understanding about of the research area. V. RESULT AND DISCUSSION TABLE I. PROFILE OF RESPONDENTS Demographics Frequency Valid Percent Gender Male Female Race Malay Chinese Indian Others Time spend on internet daily Less than 1 hour to 3 hours More than 3 hours Monthly Allowance Less than RM RM501- RM RM RM More than RM

4 A total of 400 questionnaires were distributed, the researchers manage to collect back 321 filled questionnaires which indicates a high 80% response. The age of the respondents was between 16 to 28 years old as the focus of the research was young consumers. The summary of the descriptive statistics of the profile of respondents are shown in table I above. In this study, to test the reliability coefficient, Cronbach s alpha was used. Nunnally (1978), suggested that an alpha of 0.70 be the minimum acceptable standard for demonstrating internal consistency. Cronbach s alpha for usability was 0.79, trust was 0.67, information was 0.81, attitude toward online advertising was 0.78 and consumers green purchase behaviour was This demonstrates acceptable internal consistency for all the variables. The Cronbach s alpha for trust was slightly low but still acceptable as according to Kline (1999), when dealing with psychological constructs, values below 0.70 can, realistically, be expected because of the diversity of the constructs being measured. Sekaran (2005), argued that a valid study should look at the authenticity of the cause-and effect relationship as well as their generalizability. This research was conducted to assess young consumers green purchase behaviour from the aspect of usability, trust and information and the mediating role of attitude towards online green advertising. Prior to factor analysis, KMO test was carried out. KMO measures the sampling adequacy. It should be higher than 0.5 in order to conduct factor analysis. In this research, the KMO was 0.88 which indicate an adequate sampling to proceed with factor analysis. In analysing the items in using factor analysis, a varimax rotation together with the principal components method was conducted. All the items were retained as all items loading were above Correlation was conducted to detect multicollinearity. If multicollinearity was not examined properly, it could lead to other problems. One of the problems could be that the variables could be included incorrectly. In this study, multicollinearity did not occur. Based on Cohen (1998), correlation is strong if above 0.5, medium relationship if it is between 0.3 to 0.49 and considered as fragile relationship if it is between 0.1 to 0.2. In this study, all the independent variables had strong relationship with the dependent variable as the correlations between these variables were above 0.5 except for the variable trust. This variable had a medium relationship with green purchase behaviour as it scored Multiple regression analyses were used to test all the study s hypotheses. All hypotheses were supported. Usability, H1 (t = 6.15, p < 0.001) has a positive influence on consumer s attitude toward online green advertising. Trust, H2 (t = 2.65, p < 0.01) has positive influence on consumer s attitude toward online green advertising. Information, H3 (t = 6.83, p < 0.001) has positive influence on consumer s attitude toward online green advertising. Attitude towards online green advertising, H4 (t = 11.97, p < 0.001) has positive influence toward consumer s green purchase behaviour. The independent variables which consist of usability, trust, information and attitude toward online green advertising explained 45% of consumer s green purchase behaviour (R 2 = 0.45). Multiple regression analysis also showed that information was the most significant determinant (β = 0.37) followed by usability (β = 0.31) then trust (β = 0.13). Multicollinearity in this research was not an issue as the Variance Inflation (VIF) are very low. VIF values that are more than 10 are usually indicative of multicollinearity. In this study all the VIF values are equal to 1. In this study, all the independent variables which include usability, trust and information do have an influence on the consumer s attitude toward online green advertising. These findings were consistent with results of past researches (Wolin, Korgaonkar & Lund, 2002 and Bloch, Sherrell, & Ridgeway, 1986). Information was the most significant factor to influence consumer s attitude toward online green advertising which was also found to have positive influence on green purchase behaviour (Hindol, 2012). According to Bloch et. al. (1986), consumers choose to read online advertising mainly because they want to source for more information. Trust on the other hand was least significant factor to influence consumer s attitude toward online advertising. This is because based on previous studies; consumers will still click on the online advertising even though they are unsure of the internet merchants as they are more interested to obtain the information from the particular website (Lee, Turban, 2001). The mediating effect of young consumers attitudes towards online green advertising between the advertising attributes and their green purchase behaviour is also revealed in this study. This study proposes numerous insights into the role of usability, trust and information in determining consumer s attitude toward online green advertising and their green purchase behaviour. This research recommends suggestions for marketers who choose online advertising as part of their green communication tools. Marketers must bear in mind consumers concern when they develop online advertisements as consumers attitude toward online green advertising do influence their green purchase behaviour. Advertising agencies can propose online advertising approaches that assist young consumers in making their purchase decision where green products, services and green

5 related technologies are concerned. Emphasis especially on relevant information must be incorporated into online green advertising which includes websites as this is the most important factor for young consumers. VI. CONCLUSION The development of green marketing is on the rise especially in Malaysia. In this research, it was concluded that usability, trust and information do influence young consumer s attitude toward online green advertising and their green purchase behaviour. Consumers attitude towards online green advertising also has a positive significance toward green purchase behaviour. This study serves as a basis and a vital starting point in understanding young consumers attitude and green purchase behaviour through an online perspective. REFERENCES Ahmad, H., Ali, S. & Ahmad, K. Factors in Environmental Advertising Influencing Consumer s Purchase Intention, European Journal of Scientific Research, 2010,vol. 48(2), pp Ajzen, I. & Fishbein, M. Understanding attitudes and predicting social behavior, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Ali, A. Khan A., & Ahmed I., Determinants of Paskitani Consumers Green Purchase Behaviour: Some insights from a developing country, International Journal of Business and Social Science, 2011, vol. 2(3), pp Bernard, H.R. Research Methods in Anthropology: Qualitative and quantitative methods, California: AltaMira Press, Bloch, P.H., Sherrell, D.L. & Ridgeway, N.M. "Consumer Search: An Extended Framework," Journal of Consumer Research, 1986, vol. 13, pp Chan, K. Young consumers and perception of brands in Hong Kong: a qualitative study, Journal of Product & Brand Management, 2006, vol. 15(7), pp Cohen, J. Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences 2 nd ed. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Davis, F.D. Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, and User Acceptance of Information Technology, MIS Quarterly, 1989, vol.13, pp Ekstrom. A. & Gustafsson, N. Consumers Attitudes toward Print Advertising: A study of Attitudes among Swedish Consumers, 2012, Master Thesis in Business Administration. Gan, C. Han Y.W., Ozanne, L. & Tzu H.K., Consumers purchasing behavior towards green products in New Zealand Media, Innovative Marketing, 2008, vol. 4(1), pp Grocery Manufactures Association & Deloitte Development, Finding the green in today s shoppers, 2009, GMA/Deloitte Green Shopper Study. Habib, A. Shah & Khirsheed A., Factors in Environmental Advertising Influencing Consumer s Purchase Intention, European Journal of Scientific Research, 2010, vol. 48(2), pp Haytko, D.L. & Matulich E., Green Advertising and Environmentally Responsible Consumer Behaviors: Linkages Examined, Journal of Management and Marketing Research, 2010, vol. 1, pp.11. Hindol, R. Environmental Advertising and its Effects on Consumer Purchasing Patterns in West Bengal, India Research Journal of Management Sciences, 2012, vol. 1(4), pp.16-20, Kaplan, S. Human Nature and Environmentally Responsible Behaviour, Journal of Social Issues, 2000, vol. 56, pp Kaur, K. Consumer protection in e-commerce in Malaysia, Journal of the UNE Asia Centre, 2005, vol.10,pp Kline, R. B., Review of Psychometric theory, Nunnally and Bernstein 1994, in Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 1999, vol. 17, pp Lee, K. Opportunities for green marketing: young consumers, Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 2008, vol.26 (6), pp Lee, M.K.O & Turban, E., A Trust Model for Consumer Internet Shopping, International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 2001, vol. 6(1), pp

6 Lordofos, G.N., Trosterud, T.N. & Whitworth, A., E-consumers attitude and behavior in the online commodities, Global Perspective, 2006, vol.21, pp Nielsen Company, Global Online Environment and Sustainability Survey. Retrieved on March, 2014 from Nordlund, A.M. & Garvill, J. Value Structures behind Proenvironmental Behavior, in Environment and Behavior, 2002, vol. 34(6), pp Nunnally, J.C. Psychometric Theory, New York: McGraw-Hill, Özkoçak, L. & Tuna, Y. A Content Analysis: Environment Themes and Tools in Newspapers Advertisements, Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, 2011, vol. 1(3), pp. 1-13, Ramayah, T. & Jantan, Intention to Purchase through the World Wide Web (WWW): The Malaysian Experience The Third International Conference on Electronic Commerce Engineering, Hangzhou, China, Sekaran, U., Research Methods For Business: A Skill Building Approach, India: Wiley Pvt. Ltd., Thogersen, J. & Olander, F. Human values and the emergence of a sustainable consumption pattern: A panel study Journal of Economics Psychology, 2002, vol. 23, pp Wang Y. & Sun, S. Examining the role of beliefs and attitudes in online advertising: A comparison between the USA and Romania, International Marketing Review, 2010, vol. 27(1), pp Wolin, L., Korgaonkar, P. & Lund, D., Beliefs, Attitudes and Behavior towards Web Advertising, International Journal of Advertising, 2002, vol.21, pp