IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/epw/ejgeo0/v2y2021i6id16194.html

Perceptions of Students on Environmental Impacts of Online Shopping: A Preliminary Study at a Public Malaysian University

Author

Listed:
  • Kai Wen Yong
  • Leong Wan Vun

Abstract

The environmental impacts of online shopping are multifaceted as many factors are contributing to the impacts. This study was conducted to determine a public university undergraduate students' perceptions of the environmental impacts of online shopping and their intentions to reduce the impacts by using a questionnaire survey. One hundred twenty-six respondents were engaged through convenient sampling in this study. Results found that the majority of respondents perceived online shopping as environmentally friendly. They perceived that it does not contribute to climate change and will not be a major environmental risk in the future. Type of packaging (77.8%), transport mode of freight (71.5%) and amount of packaging (69.9%) were the top three factors perceived to contribute to environmental impacts. However, a small number of the respondents perceived ICT equipment (32.5%), express delivery (28.5%) and time spent in searching online products (24.6%) were the factors that contribute to environmental impacts. The majority of respondents (74.6%) perceived that packaging waste generation was the major environmental impact of online shopping. In contrast, carbon footprint, energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission made up of 56.4%, 53.3% and 44.4% of the total respondents. Most of the respondents intended to plan first before making any purchase to prevent wastage, reuse the packaging material and maximise the number of items of each purchase to reduce the environmental impacts. This preliminary study can provide the necessary background information on the level of awareness of university undergraduate students on this issue for future environmental education programs on online shopping.

Suggested Citation

  • Kai Wen Yong & Leong Wan Vun, 2021. "Perceptions of Students on Environmental Impacts of Online Shopping: A Preliminary Study at a Public Malaysian University," European Journal of Environment and Earth Sciences, European Open Science, vol. 2(6), pages 4-9, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:epw:ejgeo0:v:2:y:2021:i:6:id:16194
    DOI: 10.24018/ejgeo.2021.2.6.194
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://eu-opensci.org/index.php/ejgeo/article/view/16194
    File Function: Abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://eu-opensci.org/index.php/ejgeo/article/download/16194/3849
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.24018/ejgeo.2021.2.6.194?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. McCarty, John A. & Shrum, L. J., 1994. "The recycling of solid wastes: Personal values, value orientations, and attitudes about recycling as antecedents of recycling behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 53-62, May.
    2. Sharon Cullinane, 2009. "From Bricks to Clicks: The Impact of Online Retailing on Transport and the Environment," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(6), pages 759-776, February.
    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. Andreas Falke & Nadine Schröder & Claudia Hofmann, 2022. "The influence of values in sustainable consumption among millennials," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 92(6), pages 899-928, August.
    2. Cherrier, Helene & Türe, Meltem, 2020. "Value dynamics in ordinary object disposal," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 221-228.
    3. Yanping Gong & Xiuyuan Tang & Julan Xie & Long Zhang, 2022. "Exploring the Nexus Between Work-to-Family Conflict, Material Rewards Parenting and Adolescent Materialism: Evidence from Chinese Dual-Career Families," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 176(3), pages 593-607, March.
    4. Cheung, Millissa F.Y. & To, W.M., 2019. "An extended model of value-attitude-behavior to explain Chinese consumers’ green purchase behavior," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 145-153.
    5. Soyoung Seo & Hee-Kyung Ahn & Jaeseok Jeong & Junghoon Moon, 2016. "Consumers’ Attitude toward Sustainable Food Products: Ingredients vs. Packaging," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(10), pages 1-19, October.
    6. Feiyu Chen & Hong Chen & Jiahui Yang & Ruyin Long & Qianwen Li, 2018. "Impact of Information Intervention on the Recycling Behavior of Individuals with Different Value Orientations—An Experimental Study on Express Delivery Packaging Waste," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-20, October.
    7. Nguyen, The Ninh & Lobo, Antonio & Greenland, Steven, 2016. "Pro-environmental purchase behaviour: The role of consumers' biospheric values," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 98-108.
    8. Afzaal Ali & Guo Xiaoling & Adnan Ali & Mehkar Sherwani & Farhan Muhammad Muneeb, 2019. "Customer motivations for sustainable consumption: Investigating the drivers of purchase behavior for a green‐luxury car," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(5), pages 833-846, July.
    9. Chirag Malik & Neeraj Singhal, 2017. "Consumer Environmental Attitude and Willingness to Purchase Environmentally Friendly Products: An SEM Approach," Vision, , vol. 21(2), pages 152-161, June.
    10. So Yeon Cho & Joowon Jung, 2023. "Effects of Individualism, Collectivism, Materialism, and Willingness to Pay for Environmental Protection on Environmental Consciousness and Pro-Environmental Consumption Behavior in Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-14, May.
    11. repec:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2007-065 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Adekunle Oke, 2015. "Workplace Waste Recycling Behaviour: A Meta-Analytical Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(6), pages 1-20, June.
    13. Naman Sreen & Swetarupa Chatterjee & Seema Bhardwaj & Asmita Chitnis, 2023. "Reasons and intuitions: extending behavioural reasoning theory to determine green purchase behavior," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 20(2), pages 447-475, June.
    14. Magdalena Mucowska, 2021. "Trends of Environmentally Sustainable Solutions of Urban Last-Mile Deliveries on the E-Commerce Market—A Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-26, May.
    15. Xinxiang Li & Yarong Huang & Kwangsoo Cho, 2025. "A Study on the Role of Tourists’ Multidimensional Perceptions in Regenerative Composite Cultural Spaces and Their Influence on Travel Intentions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(18), pages 1-24, September.
    16. Pagnarith Srun & Kiyo Kurisu, 2019. "Internal and External Influential Factors on Waste Disposal Behavior in Public Open Spaces in Phnom Penh, Cambodia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-14, March.
    17. Roberta Alves & Renato da Silva Lima & David Custódio de Sena & Alexandre Ferreira de Pinho & José Holguín-Veras, 2019. "Agent-Based Simulation Model for Evaluating Urban Freight Policy to E-Commerce," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(15), pages 1-19, July.
    18. Noopur Saxena & Ruchika Sharma, 2024. "Impact of spirituality, culture, behaviour on sustainable consumption intentions," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(3), pages 2724-2740, June.
    19. Guarini, Giulio & Porcile, Gabriel, 2016. "Sustainability in a post-Keynesian growth model for an open economy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 14-22.
    20. Catarina Roseira & Sandrina Teixeira & Belem Barbosa & Rita Macedo, 2022. "How Collectivism Affects Organic Food Purchase Intention and Behavior: A Study with Norwegian and Portuguese Young Consumers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-19, June.
    21. Allen, Michael W. & Ng, Sik Hung, 1999. "The direct and indirect influences of human values on product ownership," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 5-39, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:epw:ejgeo0:v:2:y:2021:i:6:id:16194. 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: Support Team (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://eu-opensci.org/index.php/ejgeo .

    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.