In today's society, the trend of ethical consumerism is undeniable. Yet, even though consumers are ethically concerned, they rarely transform their intentions into a green purchasing behaviour—and ...this phenomenon is also evident in the sustainable fashion industry. This study aims to understand the prevailing attitude‐behaviour gap and explores the barriers that constrain consumers in purchasing green apparel. A total of 13 in‐depth interviews were conducted and analysed to the principles of grounded theory. The analysis reveals that the following barriers impede consumption of sustainable fashion: price, availability, knowledge, transparency, image, inertia and consumption habits. The impact of each dimension on consumers' purchase decisions might be of interest to apparel manufacturers and retailers who should implement strategies to encourage eco‐conscious apparel acquisition and focus on diminishing these barriers. Accordingly, three major recommendations are made: (a) to concentrate on specific product attributes; (b) to adopt an efficient digital communication strategy; and (c) to make a greater effort on making green apparel attainable. This study contributes to the overall understanding of consumer behaviour in the ethical fashion industry and examines in‐depth the purchasing criteria for sustainable fashion for consumers.
We analyze product design implications of extended producer responsibility (EPR)-based take-back legislation on durable goods. In particular, we observe that durable product design incentives under ...EPR may involve an inherent trade-off that has not been explored to date: Durable goods producers can respond to EPR by making their products more recyclable or more durable, where the former decreases the unit recycling cost and the latter reduces the volume the producer has to recycle. When these two design attributes do not go hand in hand, as is the case for many product categories, product design implications of EPR can be counterintuitive. We find that more stringent collection targets (defined as the portion of total product volume to be collected) or recycling targets (defined as the portion of each collected product unit to be recycled) may imply reduced recyclability or durability. Moreover, although collection and recycling targets appear to be similar EPR implementation levers for increasing the total amount of materials recycled, they, in fact, have opposing effects in driving producers’ design choices. As a result, EPR may have unintended consequences for the environment. A calibrated numerical study on the photovoltaic panel (PVP) industry allows us to show that more stringent EPR requirements (such as those proposed by the recent recast of the WEEE directive) can lead to a PVP technology choice with lower recyclability and higher durability and, consequently, result in higher greenhouse gas emissions. These results call for a careful analysis of the benefits of EPR legislation in the context of durable goods.
The online appendix is available at
https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2018.3072
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This paper was accepted by Vishal Gaur, operations management.
Purpose
Consumers are becoming increasingly concerned about ecological degradation and are getting conscious of the potential advantages that environmental sustainability can offer, which is also ...driving them towards the consumption of green products. In view of this, the purpose of this study is to operationalize and test the conceptual model of green purchasing behaviour by incorporating consumers’ perception towards green marketing stimuli including eco-label, eco-brand and environmental advertisements with perceived environmental knowledge in an emerging sustainable market.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed model is based on an integrative and cognitive approach to consumers’ environmental beliefs-behaviour relationship. The 549 valid responses were received from selected metropolitan regions of India and analysed by direct path coefficients along with a bootstrapping method for testing indirect effects.
Findings
The results revealed that perception of eco-label and environmental advertisements had a positive influence on green purchasing behaviour, however, the direct relationships of eco-brand and environmental knowledge were not supported in the model. While environmental advertisements and environmental knowledge posed an indirect influence on green purchasing to some extent.
Research limitations/implications
The generalizability of the findings needs to augment an extensive approach of a cross-sectional survey. Theoretical, managerial and policy implications were recommended to promote green products towards sustainable consumption.
Originality/value
The operationalization of green purchasing behaviour using marketing stimuli has remained scant in the Indian setting. The insights gained from this study contributes to the knowledge domain of green consumer psychology in the backdrop of an emerging market.
Green purchase behaviour is receiving a growing attention in the academic community, as understanding it is crucial for the growing number of companies developing and marketing green products. In ...order to provide a broader and novel picture of the phenomenon, this study extends the widely used Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) model in several ways, through a large survey of Italian consumers. First, three dimensions of green purchase behaviour are considered, namely, the willingness to pay a premium price, the green purchase frequency and the green purchase satisfaction. Second, several antecedents are considered simultaneously. Third, new (consumer creativity) or so far marginally studied (materialism and green practices) antecedents are included. Fourth, the mediating roles of green purchase satisfaction and willingness to pay a premium price in the link between the considered antecedents and the frequency of green purchase are investigated.
Results show that the three dimensions of green purchase behaviour have different antecedents, so highlighting that green purchase behaviour is a multi‐faceted phenomenon that should not be studied as a single general concept. Personal norms and value for money emerged to be very relevant predictors. The significant effects of creativity, materialism and green practices provide evidence that extending the TPB model with these three antecedents is useful to more deeply understand green purchase behaviour. Green purchase satisfaction is the strongest predictor of purchase frequency and mediates the effects of personal norms and value for money.
This paper analyzes the link between female representation on audit committees (ACs) and specific information attributes of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosures. We also examine ...whether the role of women is moderated by the busyness and intensity of the committee. Our results reveal a positive association between gender diversity in the AC and the quality of voluntary ESG reporting, which results in greater comprehensiveness and relevance. These findings extend the academic debate concerning the role of female directors on sustainability policies. Moreover, given the importance of ESG information in capital markets and its potential benefits for firms, this evidence may help regulators and owners to implement adequate corporate governance mechanisms. In addition, the busyness of the AC negatively moderates the influence of female AC members. Therefore, we highlight the need to consider the context in which women work in order to understand their influence on sustainability reporting.
The indiscriminate consumption patterns worldwide have brought in its wake severe problems like pollution and global warming, and this has ultimately called for green products awareness and ...consumption. The main purpose of this study was to assess the effect of university students’ awareness of green products on their green purchasing intentions. The specific objectives were to identify whether awareness, price, availability, value and quality influence university students’ intention to purchase green products, and to investigate how awareness, price, availability, value and quality predict university students’ intention to purchase green products. A structural equation modeling was used to analyze data collected from an online survey of 478 students. Results show that green perceived quality has the utmost significant positive impact on university students’ green purchase intentions; however, green perceived availability had the slightest impact on university students’ intention to purchase green products. The study is the foremost to conclude that green product awareness impact on university students green purchase intentions is greatly driven by price, high value and extraordinary quality. However, availability is not a critical influencing factor when it comes to green purchase intentions of university students. The implications of study, limitations and further research are discussed.
This study utilizes structural equation modeling (SEM) to explore the positive effect of corporate environmental ethics on competitive advantage in the Taiwanese manufacturing industry via the ...mediator: green innovation performance. This study divides green innovation into green product innovation and green process innovation. The empirical results show that corporate environmental ethics positively affects green product innovation and green process innovation. In addition, this study verifies that green product innovation mediates the positive relationship between corporate environmental ethics and competitive advantage, but green process innovation does not. Therefore, corporate environmental ethics can not only affect competitive advantage directly, but also influence it indirectly via green product innovation in the Taiwanese manufacturing industry. Taiwanese manufacturing companies can increase their corporate environmental ethics and green product innovation to enhance their competitive advantages.
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the mediating role of environmental concern in the relationship of green purchase awareness and purchasing behavior of fast food consumers keeping in view the ...theory of planned behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative, cross-sectional design is used by collecting primary responses through a validated questionnaire. In all, 1,008 male and female buyers of fast food were sampled. Structural equation modeling is applied.
Findings
The results revealed that green purchase awareness has a positive relationship with green purchase behavior, and environmental concern has no mediation in the relationship. Upon having awareness, the respondents adopted green or pro-environmental behavior, but at the same time, they were found having least concern for the protection of environment.
Research limitations/implications
This is a cross-sectional study with questionnaire. Multiple sources of data collection results in weakening self-reporting bias.
Practical implications
Implications count toward individuals, enterprises and society at general.
Originality/value
The study highlights the issue of not having concern for the protection of the environment even after having green purchase awareness. This is the first time the environmental concern is examined as a mediator in the selected relationship. The contradictory results of having no environmental concern differentiate this study from others.
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