Green consumer behaviour: an exploration of values held by "subjectivist" consumers

Despite the last decades have seen a progressive increase in environmental consciousness worldwide, market shares of green products are still rather low and a deep understanding of eco-friendly purchasing behaviour seems still a long way off. Adopting the Theory of Planned Behaviour and the Schwartz Value Survey as theoretical framework, the aim of this study is, first, to explore which "positive" values guide environmentally minded consumers towards the purchasing of eco-friendly products. Secondly, to explore which "negative" beliefs prevent these consumers from purchasing green goods and, finally, to deepen which is the role played by such antecedents within the purchase decision process. A better knowledge of green purchase decision process may help firms selling green products to tailor marketing strategies and, thus, reduce the intention-behaviour gap faced by green consumers. Due to a distinct lack of research on this topic, an exploratory, qualitative research was conducted using focus groups and data analysed with Cognitive Maps technique.