Environmentally Responsible Purchase Behaviour A Test of A Consumer Model
Environmentally Responsible Purchase Behaviour A Test of A Consumer Model
Environmentally Responsible Purchase Behaviour A Test of A Consumer Model
is journal is available at
http://www.mcbup.com/research_registers/mkt.asp http://www.emerald-library.com
Introduction
Over the last decade, environmentalism has matured into a significant social
issue. Widespread public acceptance of the global environmental crisis has
caused a gradual shift in the focus of the environmental movement. The
question of how to achieve public acceptance of environmentalism has been
replaced by discussions addressing the impact of environmentalism upon
public policy (National Wildlife, 1995) and corporate policy (for example, see
Porter and van der Linde, 1995). For marketers, environmentalism has become
a criterion influencing consumer purchase behaviour. In North America, 60 per
cent to 90 per cent of consumers are concerned about the environmental impact
of their purchases (Dagnoli, 1990, 1991; Klein, 1990). As a group,
environmentally responsible products have obtained market share between 20
per cent and 30 per cent in a number of retail product categories (Kohl, 1990).
Environmentally responsible consumption emanated from criticism that the
marketing concept ignored the impact of individual consumption upon society
as a whole (Feldman, 1971; Kotler, 1972; Lavidge, 1970). In response to ``the
challenge of rising consumption to human survival'', Fisk (1973, p.24) called for
government, consumers, and business to consider the environmental costs and
benefits when making consumption decisions. Fisk (1973, 1974) stressed that
consumers should reduce their consumption of resources in scarce supply and
substitute their current products for ones that are ecologically less damaging.
European Journal of Marketing,
Vol. 34 No. 5/6, 2000, pp. 723-746.
The authors are grateful to two anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions. # MCB University Press, 0309-0566
European Webster (1975) defined a socially conscious consumer as a consumer who takes
Journal of into account the public consequences of his or her private consumption or who
Marketing attempts to use his or her purchasing power to bring about social change. That
is, consumers incorporate social issues into their purchase decisions by
34,5/6 evaluating the consequences of their consumption upon society. Consumers
who consider the environment to be important will therefore evaluate the
724 environmental consequences associated with the purchase of a product. For
example, an individual concerned about the amount of garbage generated (an
environmental issue) could consider the disposal of a product's packaging (an
environmental consequence) to be important when shopping for products. If the
environmental consequences are important enough to the consumer, the result
may be the purchase of an environmentally responsible product. These
products not only satisfy a consumer's immediate needs and wants, but also
serve to benefit the environment in the long term.
Most of the research on environmental responsibility was conducted in the
1970s and 1980s when very few consumers seriously evaluated a product's
impact upon the environment. During this time there were few environmentally
responsible products available and so many studies of environmental
responsibility focused on non-consumption behaviours, such as energy
conservation and political activism. Consumption based behaviours have
received significant interest recently but most of these studies have focused on
post-purchase behaviours, such as recycling and waste separation.
The difficulty with investigating environmentally responsible purchase
behaviour has been with its measurement. First, many of the measures are
normative in nature and can lead to socially desirable responses (Roozen and
De Pelsmacker, 1997). A scale composed of several statements all worded to
represent positive environmentally responsible actions can produce a halo-
effect that encourages respondents to over-report environmentally responsible
behaviours. The result is an inflated level of environmentally responsible
behaviour that does not correspond to actual market share data. Second, it is
important for researchers to clearly delineate between environmentally
responsible intention and behaviour. Environmentally responsible products in
general tend to be viewed as the socially acceptable choice which can inflate
intention relative to actual behaviour. Confusion between the measurement of
these two concepts can be illustrated by the following example. Dahab et al.
(1995) measured intent by asking respondents to indicate whether a recycling
activity was something they are currently doing, something they definitely
intend to do, something they may not do, or something they probably will not
do. One end of their intent scale (something they are currently doing) is a
measure of behaviour. Finally, researchers often combine a wide range of
environmental purchase behaviours into a single measure. Studies
investigating product purchase behaviour have either used product categories,
such as organic foods, or broad generic measures, such as groceries with
recyclable packaging. Antil and Bennett (1979) argued that environmental
responsibility is a behavioural pattern that is exhibited in degrees, and is not
something that a consumer either has or does not have. Consumers often A test of a
purchase both environmentally responsible and non-responsible products or consumer model
exhibit compensating post-purchase behaviours. An example of the latter is a
consumer who purchases a product in a non-returnable container but re-uses
the container. For this reason Diamantopoulos et al. (1994) and Pickett et al.
(1993) recommended that behaviour should be assessed for specific products
and activities rather than general environmentally responsible purchase 725
patterns. Given the rapid growth of environmentally responsible products over
the last ten years, the objective of this study was to develop a model that could
predict the purchase of a specific type of environmentally responsible product.
Model operationalization
The model was operationalized for the purchase of the baby diaper. Diapers
have two product alternatives, disposable diapers and re-usable cloth diapers
washed at home or at a laundromat. Disposable diapers made with unbleached
paper and re-usable cloth diapers washed by a diaper service company were
not widely available in the study area. The prevailing public perception has
been that disposable diapers are environmentally non-responsible and cloth
diapers are responsible (Becker et al., 1990; Isaacs, 1991). They, therefore,
appeared to be a suitable product purchase to assess environmentally
responsible purchase behaviour. A survey of outside experts, members of
Canada's oldest environmental organization ± The Ecology Action Centre ±
was used to determine the relative rankings of environmental responsibility for
the two product alternatives. A sample of 19 experts, ranked the two product
alternatives from 1 (not environmentally responsible) to 10 (environmentally
responsible). The cloth diapers were perceived to be significantly more
environmentally responsible than the disposable diapers (mDisposable = 1.38,
mCloth = 9.56, t-value = ± 32.02, p < 0.001).
Pilot study
A difficulty in developing attitudinal measures of environmental responsibility
is the selection of environmental issues to be included in the scale. The
substantive issues used are often determined by the researcher a priori and
cover a wide range of topics from general problems such as pollution and
overpopulation to more specific problems such as packaging legislation and
product boycotts. This is problematic as measures containing different
substantive issues are not comparable and the substantive issue used can affect
the relationships between the measure and other variables (Van Liere and
Dunlap, 1981). The question of which substantive issue to choose is further
complicated by the fact that issues gain and lose importance over time. For
example, some studies in the 1970s had scale items that referred to the use of
unleaded or leaded gasoline, yet leaded gasoline is no longer sold in North
America. Furthermore, as new issues such as global warming and ozone
depletion gain public attention, they must be included in the possible set of A test of a
issues. To minimize these problems, a pool of sample items was generated for consumer model
each attitudinal variable using focus groups of disposable diaper users, cloth
diaper users, and environmentalists. Items were structured for a five point
Likert scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree. A questionnaire
containing the two item pools was administered by mail to a sample of current
diaper users, women who had a child in the last 6 to 12 months. Usable 731
questionnaires were returned by 334 respondents, a response rate of 62 per
cent. Four studies operationalized Churchill's (1979) scale construction
paradigm to develop scales relating to environmental concern: Antil and
Bennett (1979) (also see Antil, 1984), Bejou and Thorne (1991), Bohlen et al.
(1993) and Leigh et al. (1988). A four-step procedure was used for item
purification, which closely followed the methodologies used in these studies.
For each pool, the item with the lowest item-to-total correlation below 0.4
(Antil and Bennett, 1979) was deleted and the correlations were then
recalculated for the remaining items. This step was repeated until all the
remaining items had item-to-total correlations above 0.4. The second step, used
as a follow-up to the correlation analysis by Antil and Bennett (1979) and Bejou
and Thorne (1991), was based on Antil and Bennett's (1979) argument that an
item's ability to discriminate between respondents can serve as a basis for item
selection. As the scales were being designed to discriminate between the
disposable and cloth user groups, item means should be significantly different
between these two groups. T-tests were used to eliminate items that did not
have significantly different mean scores at p < 0.05. The third step was a factor
analysis with both the environmental and individual consequences item pools
to confirm that each set of items was unidimensional. An item was eliminated if
it did not have a loading above 0.4 (Ford et al., 1986) on its primary factor. The
objective of the first three steps was to produce scales that were reliable. As a
final step, Churchill (1979) suggested that there should be evidence of construct
validity, that is, do the scales ``behave as expected'' (p. 72). Discriminant
analysis of the environmental and individual consequences item pools was
used to provide a test of known group validity. Classification matrices were
constructed using the split-sample technique (Frank et al., 1965; Perreault et al.,
1979). Evidence of validity was provided if the total percentage of correct
predictions exceeded the maximum chance criteria and if this percentage was
statistically better than chance (Press's Q).
The item pool for the attitudinal measure Environmental Consequences
contained 12 items that reflected the negative environmental consequences of
using disposable diapers and the positive environmental consequences of using
cloth diapers, for example ``It is important to me whether a diaper adds to a
landfill site''. The contribution to garbage by disposable diapers is a negative
environmental consequence. Strong agreement with the statement is indicative
of high salience of the environmental consequences of diapers. Cronbach alpha
for the 12 items was 0.76. Seven items were eliminated in the correlation
European analysis and the final Cronbach alpha was 0.78. For the remaining five items,
Journal of the mean scores were found to be significantly different (p<0.05) between the
Marketing disposable and cloth user groups.
For individual consequences, seven items reflected the positive individual
34,5/6 consequences of using disposable diapers and the negative individual
consequences of using cloth diapers, for example ``It is important to me that a
732 diaper comes in a wide range of sizes''. Cloth diapers come in a limited range of
sizes which is a negative individual consequence. Strong agreement with the
statement is indicative of high salience of the individual consequences of
diapers. Cronbach alpha for the seven items was 0.71. Three items were
eliminated in the correlation analysis and the Cronbach alpha for the four
remaining items was 0.75. The mean scores for the remaining four items were
significantly different between the cloth and disposable user groups.
In the factor analysis, the five items representing Environmental
Consequences loaded above 0.4 on the first factor and the four items for
Individual Consequences loaded above 0.4 on the second factor. The
discriminant function generated from the discriminant analysis was able to
correctly classify 85.5 per cent of respondents, which is above the maximum
chance criteria (77.2 per cent). Press's Q was above the critical value indicating
that the total percentage is significantly higher than chance.
Main study
Churchill (1979) recommended that hypotheses testing should be conducted on
a second sample, one not used to develop measures. A self-administered
questionnaire was given to 1,000 women following the birth of their baby in a
maternity hospital in Nova Scotia, Canada. In order to get an accurate measure
of diaper intention it was important to have the questionnaires administered at
a point as close to the birth of the baby as possible. We did not want the
respondents to go home after the birth and possibly complete the questionnaire
weeks after they had made the purchase decision. Therefore, the questionnaire
was given to new mothers immediately following the birth as part of the
hospital orientation material. In Canada, the usual time spent in a hospital
following a birth is 48 hours, and this time period is often busy with
information sessions, family visits, taking care of the baby, and recuperation.
As a result, the sample size of 160, was somewhat low but this was due to the
need to accurately measure intention. Diaper usage for the sample was
comparable to national market share data for disposable and cloth diapers. In
addition, no differences were found between the sample and the population of
the maternity hospital in terms of age, number of previous children, or
education.
The questionnaire contained the nine attitudinal items identified in the pilot
study and marker values from Schwartz's (1992) typology: Self-Transcendence
(universalism and benevolence), Conservation (conformity and security), and
Self-Enhancement (hedonism, achievement, and power). To allow for the
examination of an organized system of values each value item was measured
using a seven point rating scale from totally important to totally unimportant A test of a
in response to the question; ``How important are the following words to you, as consumer model
guiding principles in your life?'' A factor analysis was conducted to confirm the
unidimensionality of each variable (Baumgartner and Homburg, 1996). See
Table I for the factor analysis results and the Appendix for the scale items. All
items loaded on their factors above 0.4 and the reliabilities were within Peter's
(1979) acceptable range for basic marketing research.. The items for each 733
variable were summed to form composite scales.
Intention was measured as the individual's estimation of the likelihood of
actually performing the behaviour in the future (Warshaw and Davis, 1985).
Environmental consequences
Diaper adds to landfill 0.1041 0.7427 ± 0.0518 0.0135 0.1525
Diaper depletes forests 0.0738 0.8707 ± 0.0366 0.0170 0.0088
Diaper may affect environment 0.1327 0.8605 ± 0.0378 0.0991 0.0930
Worry how diaper affect environment 0.0946 0.7034 ± 0.0205 ± 0.0719 ± 0.1411
Energy used to make a diaper ± 0.0061 0.6077 0.0464 ± 0.1259 ± 0.2162
Individual consequences
Diaper fits properly ± 0.0780 ± 0.0874 0.0813 0.7085 0.3891
Diaper convenient to use ± 0.0359 ± 0.1157 ± 0.0720 0.6271 0.3800
Diaper absorbent ± 0.0794 ± 0.0371 0.1309 0.7890 ± 0.0401
Diaper in range of sizes ± 0.0062 0.0705 0.0086 0.8463 0.0914
Self-transcendence
Equality 0.8131 0.1963 0.1998 ± 0.0576 0.0795
Helpful 0.7870 0.2387 0.2028 ± 0.0656 ± 0.0022
Forgiving 0.7724 0.1241 0.2359 ± 0.0753 ± 0.1064
Loving 0.8777 ± 0.0060 0.1617 ± 0.0523 0.0180
Conservation
Self-controlled 0.3175 0.0509 0.6400 ± 0.0724 0.2226
Obedient 0.2993 ± 0.0173 0.7567 0.0557 ± 0.2574
Polite 0.3338 0.0056 0.7280 0.1078 ± 0.0180
Clean 0.3509 ± 0.1259 0.7060 0.0963 ± 0.1202
Self-enhancement
Ambitious 0.0998 ± 0.0490 0.3811 0.0614 0.7467
Pleasure 0.2001 0.0163 0.1167 ± 0.0233 0.6710
Social recognition 0.3062 0.0415 0.3168 ± 0.0518 0.6694
Notes:
Cronbach's alpha Table I.
Environmental Consequences items 0.82 Factor analysis of
Individual Consequences items 0.71 items for
Self-Transcendence items 0.89 environmental and
Conservation items 0.80 individual
Self-Enhancement items 0.64 consequences
European Each respondent was asked to estimate the percentage of cloth diapers she will
Journal of use in the first three months following the birth of her child. The higher the
Marketing percentage of cloth diapers the respondent intended to use the higher the
Environmentally Responsible Purchase Intention. Three months following the
34,5/6 birth, respondents were contacted by telephone to determine the actual
percentage of cloth diapers used. The higher the percentage of cloth diapers
734 purchased by the consumer over the past three months, the greater
Environmentally Responsible Purchase Behaviour was exhibited. Diaper usage
for the sample is summarized in Table II.
Model estimation
To test the hypotheses, a covariance matrix of the measures was generated
using PRELIS 2.14 (JoÈreskog and SoÈrbom, 1993a) and the model was estimated
using LISREL 8 (JoÈreskog and SoÈrbom, 1993b) with the maximum likelihood
procedure. The model is shown in Figure 1. Variable skewness, kurtosis, and
the test for multivariate normality are shown in Table III. The only two
variables with serious deviations from normality were Environmentally
Responsible Purchase Behaviour and Environmentally Responsible Purchase
Intention. However, by definition, these variables should have a bi-modal
distribution as most consumers use or intend to use either 100 per cent
disposable diapers or mostly cloth diapers. The assumption of multivariate
normality will be addressed in the discussion of limitations. The ratio of
observations per number of estimated parameters was at an acceptable level of
ten (Hulland et al., 1996).
The parameter estimates for the path coefficients are shown in Table IV. All
variables were measured by a single indicator, so the loading between each
construct and its underlying latent variable was fixed at 1.0 and the error
variance was fixed (Anderson and Gerbing, 1988). For the variables using a
composite of items (Environmental and Individual Consequences, Self-
Transcendence Values, Conservation Values, Self-Enhancement Values), the
error variance was fixed at (1-Cronbach alpha) times the variance of the
indicator (Baumgartner and Homburg, 1996). Error variance for the two one-
item indicators (Environmentally Responsible Purchase Behaviour and
Disposable Cloth % of
(%) (%) Number sample
Conservation ER Purchase
Intention
ER Purchase
Behaviour 735
Individual Figure 1.
Self-
Consequences Hypothesized model of
Enhancement an environmentally
responsible purchase
Skewness Kurtosis
Variable Value z-score p Value z-score p
Intention) was fixed at a high level of 20 per cent times the variance (Hayduk,
1987). A sensitivity analysis was conducted for each latent variable, varying
the estimated error from 10 per cent to 30 per cent. The chi square value did not
significantly change within these error limits, thus providing confidence in the
error estimates. The fit statistics indicated a satisfactory fit between the model
and the data: w2 (9) = 15.76 p = 0.072, RMSEA = 0.071 p-value for test of close fit
= 0.24, RMR = 0.060, GFI = 0.97, AGFI = 0.91, NFI = 0.95, NNFI = 0.95, CFI =
0.98, IFI = 0.98, RFI = 0.89.
The objective of the model was to predict Environmentally Responsible
Purchase Behaviour. The path from Environmentally Responsible Purchase
Intention to Environmentally Responsible Purchase Behaviour (b12) was
significant and 74 per cent of the variance in Environmentally Responsible
Purchase Behaviour was explained by the model. Removing Environmentally
Responsible Purchase Intention from the model reduced the amount of
European Relationship Parameter Estimate t-value Hypothesis
Journal of
Marketing Basic model
ER purchase intention -> ER purchase behaviour b12 0.86 11.06
34,5/6 Environmental consequences -> ER purchase intention b23 0.55 7.49 H1 supported
Individual consequences -> ER purchase intention b24 ± 0.63 ± 8.57 H2 supported
Self-transcendence values -> Environmental consequences g31 0.48 4.01 H3 supported
736 Self-transcendence values -> Individual vonsequences g41 ± 0.20 ± 1.68* H4 not supported
Conservation -> Environmental consequences g32 ± 0.30 ± 2.00 H5 supported
Conservation -> Individual consequences g42 ± 0.02 ± 0.14* H6 not supported
Self-enhancement values -> Environmental consequences g33 ± 0.02 ± 0.16* H7 not supported
Self-enhancement values -> Individual consequences g43 0.37 2.77 H8 supported
Alternative models
Environmental consequences -> ER purchase behaviour b13 ± 0.06 ± 0.57* Rejected
Individual consequences -> ER purchase behaviour b14 ± 0.08 ± 0.68* Rejected
Self-transcendence values -> ER purchase intention g21 ± 0.01 ± 0.14* Rejected
Conservation values -> ER purchase intention g22 0.05 0.75* Rejected
Table IV. Self-enhancement values -> ER purchase intention g23 0.08 1.09* Rejected
Structural model
results Note: * Path coefficient not significant at 0.05
Discussion
The growing number of consumers demanding environmentally responsible
products and the need to remain competitive has prompted many marketing
managers to seek information concerning environmentally responsible
purchase behaviour. Much of the past research in this area has focused on
non-consumption environmental behaviours, such as recycling and voting
behaviours. Consumption based studies have focused on organic foods or a
group of environmentally related products. Given the growth of the number
European of environmentally responsible products and the positive change in
Journal of consumers' concern for the environment, there is a need to examine the
Marketing purchase behaviour of specific environmentally responsible products.
The supported hypotheses of this study confirm the theoretical relationships
34,5/6 from abstract cognitions to specific behaviour, a values-attitudes-intentions-
behaviour hierarchy. Direct relationships were not found between values and
738 intention or attitudes and behaviour; therefore, omitting one variable in the
chain of interrelated variables greatly reduces the predictive power of the
model. The decision to purchase an environmentally responsible product or a
non-responsible product alternative requires a deliberate conscious evaluation
of the environmental and individual consequences associated with the product
purchase. Individuals who felt that the environmental consequences of
purchasing disposable diapers were important, were more likely to intend to
purchase cloth diapers. In addition, those who felt that the individual
consequences of using cloth diapers, such as limited sizes, convenience, fit, and
absorbency, were important, were more likely to intend to purchase disposable
diapers. It appears that intention is formed as the end result of an evaluation or
trade-off between the environmental and individual consequences. The strong
influence of the individual consequences on intention explains why some
consumers can express high levels of environmental concern but do not exhibit
pro-environmental behaviours. That is, the influence of positive environmental
attitudes on intention are negated by the negative attitudes towards the
individual consequences. The results are consistent with recent findings in
studies investigating the relationship between inconvenience and recycling
behaviour (Dahab et al., 1995; McCarty and Shrum, 1994; Thùgersen and
Grunert-Beckmann, 1997). This study underscores the importance of using a
fully operationalized model for research involving environmentally responsible
purchase behaviour. Perhaps because of the difficulty of collecting both pre-
purchase and post-purchase data, the variable intention has been frequently
omitted from models of environmental responsibility. Given the finding that
the relationship between attitude and intention is indirect, the low correlation
between environmental attitudes and behaviour reported in many of these
studies is not surprising. The results support Bentler and Speckart's (1981)
argument that the elimination of intention leads to a more parsimonious model,
but one that is simpler than reality.
Our study contributes to a growing body of literature that purports the use
of values in the study of attitude formation. Schwartz (1992) (and Schwartz and
Bilsky, 1987) proposed that domains of values would allow researchers to
specify a priori relationships involving certain values. Schwartz and Bilsky
(1987) argued that the prediction of attitudes by values would be more reliable
and clear when a number of value domains are used as opposed to the
traditional ranking of values where one value is ultimately chosen. This study
provides important evidence that the domains postulated by Schwartz (1992)
can be used to generate and test hypotheses.
As expected, self-transcendence was positively related to environmental A test of a
attitudes about disposable diapers. The more an individual holds benevolence consumer model
and universalism as important guiding principles, the more likely they are to
hold positive environmental attitudes. That is, a concern for the welfare of
others indirectly results in an intention to purchase an environmentally
responsible product. However, an absence of concern for the welfare of others
did not significantly reduce individual attitudes that may affect personal 739
satisfaction. In contrast, self-enhancement values were found to exert effects
that were in opposition to self-transcendence. Individuals who are self-
indulgent were found to be very concerned about how a diaper may impact
upon their personal satisfaction. These results provide empirical support for
Schwartz's (1992) argument that the self-transcendence values are in conflict
with the self-enhancement values; ``acceptance of others as equals and concern
for their welfare interferes with the pursuit of one's own impulses and
acceptance of externally imposed limits'' (Schwartz, 1992, p. 15). The third
values variable, conservation, was found to be negatively related to
environmental attitudes. That is, the more conservative an individual is, the
less likely that she will hold a positive environmental attitude and therefore, the
less likely she intends to make an environmentally responsible purchase. Our
results supports similar studies examining the role of values as determinants of
attitude formation for recycling behaviour and the purchase of organic foods in
general (see Grunert and Juhl, 1995; McCarty and Shrum, 1994; Stern et al.,
1995; Thùgersen and Grunert-Beckmann, 1997). We have extended these
relationships and found that they hold at the product level.
There are several important implications of our work for marketing
managers. First, in order to increase purchase intention of an environmentally
responsible product, consumer promotion should address both environmental
and individual product consequences. To change environmental attitudes,
communications must explain the positive environmental consequences of the
product and the negative consequences of the non-responsible product
alternative. It is important that any communications focus on the product
specific consequences, not generalized environmental consequences. For
example, a company marketing environmentally responsible paint should not
discuss the problems of global warming or waste management, but should
address the specific hazards and disposal problems associated with the toxic
compounds in competitive brands of non-responsible paint. As we noted above,
it is not enough to just promote the positive consequences of an
environmentally responsible product. Attempts must be made to reduce the
negative individual consequences of an environmentally responsible product
as well. Packaging and advertising could aim to communicate that the product
is not as inconvenient or as difficult to use as the consumer might think. For
example, packaging for cloth diapers could outline efficient procedures for
handling and washing soiled diapers or provide instructions for properly
fitting the diaper (these were both salient in this study). Individual
consequences could also be used to direct research and development for
European environmentally responsible products. Understanding the salient negative
Journal of individual consequences and then modifying the product to reduce these
Marketing consequences is an important strategy to bring about attitudinal change. It is,
therefore, important for managers to adopt a proactive stance that will allow
34,5/6 them to develop products that can satisfy a consumer's personal satisfaction as
well as the long-term welfare of society.
740 An implication for public policy makers concerns the importance society
places on individual consequences. In order to increase environmentally
responsible intention, the importance placed on the individual consequences
needs to be reduced. De-marketing individual consequences such as
convenience, ease of use, and disposability will serve to reduce their importance
as standards upon which products are evaluated. From a consumer's
perspective this could complicate the purchase situation as it is usually easier
to evaluate product attributes associated with individual consequences than
environmental consequences. Furthermore, despite high levels of general
environmental knowledge, there does not seem to be strong normative pressure
to use environmentally responsible products. Public policy makers and
environmentalists interested in promoting environmentally responsible
behaviour may wish to develop normative pressure. Advertisements could be
used that portray individuals exhibiting environmentally responsible
behaviour as valued members of society.
The final implication concerns the use of values to stimulate attitudinal
change. As values are desired end states, environmentally responsible attitudes
and intentions can be portrayed as a means to achieving the values. That is,
communications can promote an environmental consequence as being
consistent with a particular value orientation. For example, the reduction in
landfill sites resulting from using cloth diapers could be portrayed as beneficial
to the welfare of others, which is a desired end state for those holding strong
self-transcendence values. These consumers would then adopt positive
environmental attitudes to support their value orientation.
Conclusion
This study provides a methodology to investigate the purchase of an
environmentally responsible product and provides a theoretical contribution to
understanding the determinants of this type of purchase behaviour. A rigorous
procedure was followed to develop reliable and valid measures of product
specific environmental and individual consequences. The hierarchical structure
proposed in the model from abstract values, to product specific attitudes, to
intention, to purchase behaviour was confirmed. The interrelationships
between the variables are important in terms of designing persuasive
communications to influence purchase intention and behaviour.
A second key finding of this study is that both the environmental and
individual consequences of purchasing diapers were linked to behaviour
through intention. The behavioural outcome appears to be a trade-off between
environmental and individual consequences. Third, the study supports the use
of values in the study of attitude formation with the value domains proposed
by Schwartz (1992) to generate and test hypotheses. Finally, the findings
emphasize the importance of including the intention variable in models
predicting environmentally responsible purchase behaviour. The failure to do
so in some previous studies may have contributed to the low correlation
hitherto found between environmental attitudes and behaviour.
There now seems to be considerable demand for products that not only
satisfy a consumer's immediate needs but also benefit the environment in the
long term. Marketing managers must realize that the criteria used by
consumers to evaluate products have changed. Consumers now consider the
European environmental consequences of products before making their purchase
Journal of decisions. A product that has negative environmental consequences can be
Marketing severely disadvantaged as consumers consider the impact of that product upon
the environment. However, a product with positive environmental
34,5/6 consequences can be discarded if the consequences to the individual are
considered to be significant enough. Faced with a product decision individuals
742 evaluate both the environmental and individual consequences associated with
consuming a product and then form purchase intentions based on the outcome
of the evaluation.
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