IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolec/v125y2016icp38-46.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Theory of planned behavior approach to understand the green purchasing behavior in the EU: A cross-cultural study

Author

Listed:
  • Liobikienė, Genovaitė
  • Mandravickaitė, Justina
  • Bernatonienė, Jurga

Abstract

Due to the fast growth of consumption, the promotion of purchasing green products could be a way to minimize the environmental impact and achieve the sustainable consumption. Considering that there is a lack of studies about green purchase behavior and its determinants in all European Union countries (EU), the aim of this paper is to evaluate the main determinants of green purchase behavior by applying the Theory of Planned Behavior. Referring to Hostefe's cultural dimensions we revealed how cultural aspects contribute to purchase behavior. The results showed that there were observed big differences in terms of green purchase behavior in the EU countries and it did not depend on economic development significantly. The subjective norms and interaction of knowledge and confidence in green products significantly determined the green purchase behavior in all countries. According to the cross-culture studies, all cultural dimensions did not have significant influence on green purchase behavior. However, cultural dimensions are related to factors which directly influence green purchase behavior. Therefore, due to the process of the EU cultural convergence and economic crisis, it could have indirect impact on green purchase behavior. These findings have important implication for marketers and policy makers.

Suggested Citation

  • Liobikienė, Genovaitė & Mandravickaitė, Justina & Bernatonienė, Jurga, 2016. "Theory of planned behavior approach to understand the green purchasing behavior in the EU: A cross-cultural study," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 38-46.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:125:y:2016:i:c:p:38-46
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2016.02.008
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800915300240
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2016.02.008?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wander Jager & Marco A. Janssen, 2002. "Stimulating diffusion of green products," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 12(3), pages 283-306.
    2. Bazoche, P. & Deola, C. & Soler, Louis-Georges, 2008. "An experimental study of wine consumers’ willingness to pay for environmental characteristics," 2008 International Congress, August 26-29, 2008, Ghent, Belgium 43651, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    3. D. Vantomme & M. Geuens & J. De Houwer & P. De Pelsmacker, 2004. "Implicit Attitudes Toward Green Consumer Behavior," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 04/224, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    4. Kumar, Bipul, 2012. "Theory of Planned Behaviour Approach to Understand the Purchasing Behaviour for Environmentally Sustainable Products," IIMA Working Papers WP2012-12-08, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Research and Publication Department.
    5. Matthes, Jörg & Wonneberger, Anke & Schmuck, Desirée, 2014. "Consumers' green involvement and the persuasive effects of emotional versus functional ads," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(9), pages 1885-1893.
    6. Millan, Elena & De Pelsmacker, Patrick & Wright, Len Tiu, 2013. "Clothing consumption in two recent EU Member States: A cross-cultural study," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(8), pages 975-982.
    7. Engelen, Andreas & Brettel, Malte, 2011. "Assessing cross-cultural marketing theory and research," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 64(5), pages 516-523, May.
    8. Ajzen, Icek, 1991. "The theory of planned behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 179-211, December.
    9. Cleveland, Mark & Laroche, Michel, 2007. "Acculturaton to the global consumer culture: Scale development and research paradigm," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 60(3), pages 249-259, March.
    10. Engelen, Andreas & Brettel, Malte, 2011. "Assessing cross-cultural marketing theory and research: Reply to Craig and Douglas' commentary," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 64(7), pages 782-784, July.
    11. Wilson Kong & Amran Harun & Rini Suryati Sulong & Jaratin Lily, 2014. "The Influence of Consumers Perception of Green Products on Green Purchase Intention," International Journal of Asian Social Science, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 4(8), pages 924-939.
    12. Wilson Kong & Amran Harun & Rini Suryati Sulong & Jaratin Lily, 2014. "The Influence of Consumers Perception of Green Products on Green Purchase Intention," International Journal of Asian Social Science, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 4(8), pages 924-939, August.
    13. Wheeler, Meagan & Sharp, Anne & Nenycz-Thiel, Magda, 2013. "The effect of ‘green’ messages on brand purchase and brand rejection," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 105-110.
    14. Godey, Bruno & Pederzoli, Daniele & Aiello, Gaetano & Donvito, Raffaele & Chan, Priscilla & Oh, Hyunjoo & Singh, Rahul & Skorobogatykh, Irina I. & Tsuchiya, Junji & Weitz, Bart, 2012. "Brand and country-of-origin effect on consumers' decision to purchase luxury products," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 65(10), pages 1461-1470.
    15. Cho, Yoon-Na & Thyroff, Anastasia & Rapert, Molly I. & Park, Seong-Yeon & Lee, Hyun Ju, 2013. "To be or not to be green: Exploring individualism and collectivism as antecedents of environmental behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(8), pages 1052-1059.
    16. Liu, Longzhu & Chen, Rong & He, Feng, 2015. "How to promote purchase of carbon offset products: Labeling vs. calculation?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(5), pages 942-948.
    17. Kaufman, Noah, 2014. "Overcoming the barriers to the market performance of green consumer goods," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 487-507.
    18. Vermeir, Iris & Verbeke, Wim, 2008. "Sustainable food consumption among young adults in Belgium: Theory of planned behaviour and the role of confidence and values," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(3), pages 542-553, January.
    19. De Cannière, Marie Hélène & De Pelsmacker, Patrick & Geuens, Maggie, 2009. "Relationship Quality and the Theory of Planned Behavior models of behavioral intentions and purchase behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 82-92, January.
    20. Ruiz de Maya, Salvador & López-López, Inés & Munuera, José Luis, 2011. "Organic food consumption in Europe: International segmentation based on value system differences," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(10), pages 1767-1775, August.
    21. Brécard, Dorothée & Hlaimi, Boubaker & Lucas, Sterenn & Perraudeau, Yves & Salladarré, Frédéric, 2009. "Determinants of demand for green products: An application to eco-label demand for fish in Europe," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 115-125, November.
    22. Gleim, Mark R. & Smith, Jeffery S. & Andrews, Demetra & Cronin, J. Joseph, 2013. "Against the Green: A Multi-method Examination of the Barriers to Green Consumption," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 44-61.
    23. Newton, Joshua D. & Tsarenko, Yelena & Ferraro, Carla & Sands, Sean, 2015. "Environmental concern and environmental purchase intentions: The mediating role of learning strategy," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(9), pages 1974-1981.
    24. William Young & Kumju Hwang & Seonaidh McDonald & Caroline J. Oates, 2010. "Sustainable consumption: green consumer behaviour when purchasing products," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(1), pages 20-31.
    25. Yu-Shan Chen, 2010. "The Drivers of Green Brand Equity: Green Brand Image, Green Satisfaction, and Green Trust," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 93(2), pages 307-319, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hong Wang & Baolong Ma & Rubing Bai, 2019. "How Does Green Product Knowledge Effectively Promote Green Purchase Intention?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-13, February.
    2. Israr Ahmad; Fauzia Syed; Saima Naseer; Ghulam Rasool, 2018. "Environmental Concern as an Underlying Mechanism between Environmental Beliefs and Green Purchase Intentions," South Asian Journal of Management Sciences (SAJMS), Iqra University, Iqra University, vol. 12(1), pages 93-115, Spring.
    3. Taneja, Shilpa & Ali, Liaqat, 2021. "Determinants of customers’ intentions towards environmentally sustainable banking: Testing the structural model," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    4. Dat Duy Nguyen, 2023. "Evaluating the Consumer Attitude and Behavioral Consumption of Green Products in Vietnam," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-16, May.
    5. Erifili Papista & Athanasios Krystallis, 2013. "Investigating the Types of Value and Cost of Green Brands: Proposition of a Conceptual Framework," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 115(1), pages 75-92, June.
    6. Lucas, Sterenn & Salladarré, Frédéric & Brécard, Dorothée, 2018. "Green consumption and peer effects: Does it work for seafood products?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 44-55.
    7. Barbarossa, Camilla & De Pelsmacker, Patrick & Moons, Ingrid, 2017. "Personal Values, Green Self-identity and Electric Car Adoption," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 190-200.
    8. Matthew B. Lunde, 2018. "Sustainability in marketing: a systematic review unifying 20 years of theoretical and substantive contributions (1997–2016)," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 8(3), pages 85-110, December.
    9. Zhengxia He & Yanqing Zhou & Jianming Wang & Cunfang Li & Meiling Wang & Wenbo Li, 2021. "The impact of motivation, intention, and contextual factors on green purchasing behavior: New energy vehicles as an example," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 1249-1269, February.
    10. Hsu, Chia-Lin & Chang, Chi-Ya & Yansritakul, Chutinart, 2017. "Exploring purchase intention of green skincare products using the theory of planned behavior: Testing the moderating effects of country of origin and price sensitivity," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 145-152.
    11. Gilboa, Shaked & Mitchell, Vince, 2020. "The role of culture and purchasing power parity in shaping mall-shoppers’ profiles," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    12. Ragna Nilssen & Geoff Bick & Russell Abratt, 2019. "Comparing the relative importance of sustainability as a consumer purchase criterion of food and clothing in the retail sector," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 26(1), pages 71-83, January.
    13. Dixon, Darcie & Mikolon, Sven, 2021. "Cents of self: How and when self-signals influence consumer value derived from choices of green products," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 365-386.
    14. Sreen, Naman & Purbey, Shankar & Sadarangani, Pradip, 2018. "Impact of culture, behavior and gender on green purchase intention," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 177-189.
    15. Amitabha Ghose & Bibhas Chandra, 2020. "Models for Predicting Sustainable Durable Products Consumption Behaviour: A Review Article," Vision, , vol. 24(1), pages 81-89, March.
    16. A Muposhi, 2018. "Green Marketing Trek: Drivers, Challenges and Future Directions in Emerging Markets- A Systematic Literature Review," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 10(1), pages 112-124.
    17. Guang-Wen Zheng & Abu Bakkar Siddik & Mohammad Masukujjaman & Syed Shah Alam & Alvina Akter, 2020. "Perceived Environmental Responsibilities and Green Buying Behavior: The Mediating Effect of Attitude," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-27, December.
    18. Francesco Testa & Gaia Pretner & Roberta Iovino & Guia Bianchi & Sara Tessitore & Fabio Iraldo, 2021. "Drivers to green consumption: a systematic review," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 4826-4880, April.
    19. Paul, Justin & Modi, Ashwin & Patel, Jayesh, 2016. "Predicting green product consumption using theory of planned behavior and reasoned action," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 123-134.
    20. Imran Hossain & Md. Nekmahmud & Maria Fekete-Farkas, 2022. "How Do Environmental Knowledge, Eco-Label Knowledge, and Green Trust Impact Consumers’ Pro-Environmental Behaviour for Energy-Efficient Household Appliances?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-16, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:125:y:2016:i:c:p:38-46. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolecon .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.