Green purchasing behaviour: A conceptual framework and empirical investigation of Indian consumers

Consumers' increased knowledge and awareness of environmental issues have not translated into a pervasive rise in purchasing green apparel, resulting in a phenomenon known as the ‘attitude-behaviour gap’. The current study seeks to explicate this gap by examining the drivers of green apparel buying behaviour. Towards this end, the study examines the association of environmental knowledge, green trust, and environmental concern with environmental attitude and green apparel buying behaviour. It further investigates the association of labelling desire and labelling satisfaction with this type of buying behaviour as well. In addition, the study uses the theoretical lens of the knowledge-attitude-behaviour model and attitude-behaviour-context theory to anchor its hypotheses. Cross-sectional data from 387 Japanese consumers analysed to test the conceptual model revealed that green trust, environmental attitude, and labelling satisfaction are positively associated with green apparel buying behaviour. Furthermore, green trust, environmental concern, and environmental attitude partially mediate the proposed associations, while age and gender moderate the association between environmental knowledge and environmental concern. The study's empirical insights thus lay the foundation for future research in this area and provide strategically relevant inferences for green apparel marketers and retailers.

With the textile industry satisfying steadily increasing consumption levels, excessive usage of valuable natural resources provokes a major environmental footprint: 118 billion cubic meters of water are expected to be utilized for global clothing production in 2030. Therefore, consumers' clothing consumption behavior needs to be shifted towards a more sustainable one. While green purchase behavior in general is well understood, research still lacks a comprehensive approach to explain consumers' purchase behavior of sustainable clothing. To provide a holistic framework which determines the main antecedents of purchase behavior of sustainable clothing and further, to shed light on the gap between purchase intention and subsequent purchase behavior of such clothes, we extended the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) approach with well-established constructs from green literature (i.e., perceived environmental knowledge and environmental concerns) and novel constructs derived from prior exploratory findings (i.e., greenwashing concerns, perceived economic risk, and perceived aesthetic risk). Four hundred sixty-four participants were inquired to assess these constructs in the context of sustainable clothing. Our findings indicate that attitude towards sustainable clothing has the highest impact on purchase intention. However, this relation is negatively influenced by consumers' greenwashing concerns. Moreover, we find evidence that consumers’ perceived aesthetic risk negatively impacts the intention-behavior relation, whereas perceived economic risk has no significant effect on this relation.

Rapidly increasing demand for eco-friendly products is an example of responsible purchasing intention of customers. That responsible behaviour forces businesses not only to understand their responsible purchase intention, but also helps them to sustainability in the market for the long term. In this regard, very little discussion is available in current literature, especially in the context of apparel product consumption. Therefore, to contribute to literature in this field, this work aims to build a predictive sustainable model through an empirical study to examine the relationships among different factors such as attitude, social norms, perceived behaviour control, environmental consciousness, willingness to pay (WTP) premium and consumer purchase intention for environmentally friendly apparels. The data of two hundred and thirty-two respondents were analysed by structural equation modelling (SEM). With the help of the findings, it can be concluded that Indian consumers are aware of green apparels, have a positive attitude to them and show a responsible purchase intention to protect the environment. This is in contrast to the old saying that Indians are price sensitive given the emergence of higher WTP premiums for green apparel products. Other factors such as subjective norms, perceived behaviour control and environmental consciousness are also positively affecting consumer purchase intention. From the study findings, retail managers can benefit through more focused strategies for environmental protection to make a reduction in apparel material while educating their consumers about green apparel.

Across the globe, the awareness for environmental degradation and its harmful effects is rapidly growing. The whole world has come together to work in the direction to protect the environment. Consumers are increasingly becoming cautious towards the impact of their consumption pattern on environment and organisations can attain a competitive edge by leveraging this cautiousness by offering them green products/brands. However, it is importance for the marketers to understand that how increasing levels of sustainability awareness impacts other factors which explain pro-environmental behaviour of customers. To fill the existing gap in the current literature in this regard, the current study aims to build a structural model which includes social and environmental sustainability awareness in measuring customer altruism, buying intention, loyalty and customer evangelism. The theoretical model extends the existing framework of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and explores the decision-making framework regarding ethical behaviour. Through existing literature review and expert input, the indicators (variables) for each construct were recognised. After that, data was collected from 331 respondents through a structurally designed questionnaire; the hypothetical model was test using the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) technique. The findings of the study indicate that sustainability awareness positively influence the consumer altruism which in turn enhances the consumer purchase intention, green brand loyalty and green brand evangelism and altruism can and can bridge value-action gap for green brands. Current analysis supports the view that there are significant positive associations among the identified constructs.

This article examines the moderating influence of environmental consciousness and recycling intentions on green purchase behavior (GPB) in an emerging economy. Through this study, we attempt to significantly contribute to the existing body of knowledge on green marketing by ascertaining the role of those ethical constructs, on GPB. A hypo-deductive research design was adopted and a theoretical model was conceptualized by linking the moderating effects of environmental consciousness and recycling intentions to GPB. To collect the data for the study, a self-administered questionnaire was run with 312 consumers from India. The data were analyzed for assessment of the measurement and structural models via structural equation modeling. The findings indicate that environmental consciousness and recycling intentions significantly moderate the impact of perceived consumer effectiveness (PCE) and willingness to be environmentally friendly (WEF) on GPB. The study offers managerial insights for green marketers to operate in fast growing emerging markets. The present study is significant as it is the first of its kind which links the moderating effects of environmental consciousness and recycling intentions in light of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) on GPB in such a context.

With consumers’ increasing awareness of environmental problems, green marketing is becoming an important approach for firms to gain a competitive advantage. However, green marketing decoupled from substantive action tends to be perceived as greenwashing by consumers. Compared to a large body of green marketing research, little work has focused on consumers’ greenwashing perceptions and its associated consequences. Thus, based on the attitude-behaviour-context theory, this study explored whether and how consumers’ greenwashing perceptions influence their green purchasing intentions by integrating the mediating role of green word-of-mouth (WOM) and the moderating role of green concern. Using a questionnaire survey of 553 consumers of batteries in China, the results demonstrate that consumers’ greenwashing perceptions not only have a direct negative impact on green purchasing intentions, but also have indirect negative effects via green WOM. Further, green concern strengthens the negative relationship between greenwashing perceptions and green purchasing intentions. Hence, this study suggests that firms should promote substantive environmental initiatives rather than greenwashing to ensure consumers and increase sales.