Understanding the factors influencing green purchase intention.
Loading...
Date
2020
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Rapid worldwide economic growth has given rise to increased consumption by consumers, raising
concern about the ecological decline and overconsumption of natural resources. Environmental
sustainability issues and problems encountered around the world are affecting and altering the
consumption patterns of humans lives and actions. Stimulated by the seriousness of the deterioration of
the environment, consumers’ attitudes and behaviours in consumption matters are steadily changing,
but consumption levels of sustainable products in South Africa are still low. Factors such as perceived
high price, perceived inferior quality of green products, and greenwashing has been found in some
studies to affect consumers’ perceptions of green products. The focus of this study was to determine the
extent to which these negative perceptions limit consumers’ green consumption amongst a sample of
South African consumers. To understand the factors potentially limiting green behavioural intentions
the following factors were investigated: perceived quality, perceived price, social value, environmental
concern, trust in green products and demographics. A casual research design with a survey of 301 adult
respondents was used. Descriptive analysis of the profile of the sample presented, and the subsequent
analysis of the reliability and validity tests carried out. Univariate analysis was also carried out and to
conclude, a multivariate analysis was examined to determine how well the independent variables predict
the dependent variable and to test the hypotheses.
Findings showed that the independent variables (perceive quality, perceived trust, environmental
concern, and social value) positively influence South Africa consumers’ intention to purchase green
products, while perceived price had a negative influence. However, the two main variables that had a
greater impact were environmental concern and perceived trust. The perceived higher price of green
products was found to be a significant but relatively minor constraint’ to consumers purchasing these
products. Given the major findings from this study, it is recommended that green products should be
advertised more intensively and positioned in a way that portrays the benefits that are associated with
purchasing and using them. This will raise awareness and trust in green products and may reduce the
sensitivity to the higher prices. Marketers should invest in the quality of green products and both
marketers and government should put in place environmental awareness campaigns to increase green
consumer knowledge on the effect of not going green on the environment. This will raise a concern and
in turn intention for green consumption. Limitations are identified and recommendations for future
research are proposed.
Description
Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg.