IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v17y2025i16p7287-d1722983.html

Sustainability Awareness, Price Sensitivity, and Willingness to Pay for Eco-Friendly Packaging: A Discrete Choice and Valuation Study in the Saudi Retail Sector

Author

Listed:
  • Sultan Alaswad Alenazi

    (Marketing Department, College of Business, King Saud University, Riyadh 11362, Saudi Arabia)

Abstract

The increasing environmental concerns of plastic waste have encouraged more interest in environmentally friendly packaging, but consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for green alternatives in emerging markets such as Saudi Arabia is not fully explored. This research explores the relationship between awareness of sustainability and price sensitivity in determining WTP for green packaging in the Saudi retail market. The study utilizing a mixed method included both a Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) and a Discrete Choice Modeling (DCM). In it, data was gathered and analyzed using a sample of 424 urban consumers in Saudi Arabia’s major cities. The findings of OLS regression indicated awareness of sustainability had a significant, positive effect on WTP, whereas price sensitivity had a negative effect. There was a marginal interaction effect indicating that awareness could overcome price aversion. Logistic regression supported awareness as a dominant factor in binary product choice, although price sensitivity was not significant in the said model. The multinomial logit model also showed that the type of package, environmental labels (more so the “100% recyclable” type), and price had significant effects on consumer preferences. These results indicate that there is acceptance of sustainable packaging by consumers in Saudi Arabia if the product is communicated effectively and priced competitively.

Suggested Citation

  • Sultan Alaswad Alenazi, 2025. "Sustainability Awareness, Price Sensitivity, and Willingness to Pay for Eco-Friendly Packaging: A Discrete Choice and Valuation Study in the Saudi Retail Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(16), pages 1-20, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:16:p:7287-:d:1722983
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/16/7287/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/16/7287/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Islam Elgammal & Marwa Ghanem & Obaid Al-Modaf, 2024. "Sustainable Purchasing Behaviors in Generation Z: The Role of Social Identity and Behavioral Intentions in the Saudi Context," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(11), pages 1-18, May.
    2. Weiwei Shang & Run Zhu & Weiwei Liu & Qian Liu, 2024. "Understanding the Influences on Green Purchase Intention with Moderation by Sustainability Awareness," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(11), pages 1-16, May.
    3. Aline Carla Petkowicz & Tatiane Pelegrini & Brian William Bodah & Carlos Daniel Rotini & Leila Dal Moro & Alcindo Neckel & Caroline Pauletto Spanhol & Elton Gean Araújo & Jandir Pauli & Giana de Varga, 2024. "Purchasing Intention of Products with Sustainable Packaging," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-18, March.
    4. Ajzen, Icek, 1991. "The theory of planned behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 179-211, December.
    5. Hong, Zhaofu & Wang, Hao & Yu, Yugang, 2018. "Green product pricing with non-green product reference," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 1-15.
    6. Abdulaziz I. Almulhim & Ismaila Rimi Abubakar, 2021. "Understanding Public Environmental Awareness and Attitudes toward Circular Economy Transition in Saudi Arabia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-15, September.
    7. Cristina Chueca Vergara & Luis Ferruz Agudo, 2021. "Fintech and Sustainability: Do They Affect Each Other?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-19, June.
    8. Kyriakos Riskos & Paraskevi (Evi) Dekoulou & Naoum Mylonas & George Tsourvakas, 2021. "Ecolabels and the Attitude–Behavior Relationship towards Green Product Purchase: A Multiple Mediation Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-22, June.
    9. Habib M. Alshuwaikhat & Ishak Mohammed, 2017. "Sustainability Matters in National Development Visions—Evidence from Saudi Arabia’s Vision for 2030," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-15, March.
    10. Ildiko Kovacs & Eva Reka Keresztes, 2022. "Perceived Consumer Effectiveness and Willingness to Pay for Credence Product Attributes of Sustainable Foods," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-17, April.
    11. Li, Shanshan & Kallas, Zein, 2021. "Meta-Analysis of Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for Sustainable Food Products," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 314970, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    12. Ryoo, Yuhosua & Kim, WooJin, 2023. "Price-ethicality association: When price discounts inhibit ethical purchasing," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    13. Amna Farrukh & Sanjay Mathrani & Aymen Sajjad, 2022. "A Systematic Literature Review on Environmental Sustainability Issues of Flexible Packaging: Potential Pathways for Academic Research and Managerial Practice," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-21, April.
    14. Jichao Geng & Na Yang & Wei Zhang & Li Yang, 2023. "Public Willingness to Pay for Green Lifestyle in China: A Contingent Valuation Method Based on Integrated Model," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-23, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Luis Eduardo García-Calderón & Augusto Aliaga-Miranda & Esther Rosa Saenz-Arenas & Wesly Rudy Balbin-Ramos & Héctor Raul Valdivia-Mera, 2025. "Impulsive Buying and Sustainable Purchasing Behavior in Low-Cost Retail: Evidence from Multinomial Discrete Choice Models in Metropolitan Lima," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(18), pages 1-23, September.

    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. Mayra Samaniego-Arias & Eva Chávez-Rojas & Andrés García-Umaña & Nelson Carrión-Bósquez & Oscar Ortiz-Regalado & Mary Llamo-Burga & Wilfredo Ruiz-García & Santiago Guerrero-Haro & Wladimir Cando-Aguin, 2025. "The Impact of Social Media on the Purchase Intention of Organic Products," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(6), pages 1-16, March.
    2. Chang Liu & Mat Redhuan Samsudin & Yuwen Zou, 2025. "The multidimensional impact of packaging design on purchase intention: a systematic hybrid review," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-18, December.
    3. Saad Almosa, 2026. "Effect of Social Media Determinants on Consumer Behaviour in the Circular Economy (CBCE): Empirical Study from Saudi Arabia," Circular Economy and Sustainability, Springer, vol. 6(2), pages 1-28, April.
    4. Jessica Müller & Ángel Acevedo-Duque & Sheyla Müller & Prateek Kalia & Khalid Mehmood, 2021. "Predictive Sustainability Model Based on the Theory of Planned Behavior Incorporating Ecological Conscience and Moral Obligation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-16, April.
    5. Duangrat Tandamrong & Jakkawat Laphet, 2025. "Exploring the Influence of Green Mindset on Passengers’ Intentions Toward Sustainable Air Travel: Evidence from Thailand," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(16), pages 1-17, August.
    6. Selene Ivette Ornelas Herrera & Yasmina Baba & Zein Kallas & Erik Meers & Evi Michels & Zoltán Hajdu & Ana Marija Spicnagel, 2025. "The role of environmental attitudes and consumption patterns in consumers’ preferences for sustainable food from circular farming system: a six EU case studies," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 13(1), pages 1-27, December.
    7. Yuan Wu & Jin Zhang & Shoulin Liu & Lianrui Ma, 2022. "Does Government-Led Publicity Enhance Corporate Green Behavior? Empirical Evidence from Green Xuanguan in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-32, March.
    8. Van Tonder, E. & Fullerton, S. & De Beer, L.T. & Saunders, S.G., 2023. "Social and personal factors influencing green customer citizenship behaviours: The role of subjective norm, internal values and attitudes," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    9. Jiajian Zhou & Zequn Jin & Ziyang Liu, 2025. "The Impact of Green Information Disclosure on Green Consumption Intention: Evidence from New Energy Vehicle Consumers in China Based on the Theory of Planned Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-24, September.
    10. Alzubaidi, Hawazin & Slade, Emma L. & Dwivedi, Yogesh K., 2021. "Examining antecedents of consumers’ pro-environmental behaviours: TPB extended with materialism and innovativeness," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 685-699.
    11. Luis Eduardo García-Calderón & Augusto Aliaga-Miranda & Esther Rosa Saenz-Arenas & Wesly Rudy Balbin-Ramos & Héctor Raul Valdivia-Mera, 2025. "Impulsive Buying and Sustainable Purchasing Behavior in Low-Cost Retail: Evidence from Multinomial Discrete Choice Models in Metropolitan Lima," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(18), pages 1-23, September.
    12. Elizabeth Emperatriz García-Salirrosas & Rafael Fernando Rondon-Eusebio, 2022. "Green Marketing Practices Related to Key Variables of Consumer Purchasing Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-19, July.
    13. Reason Masengu & Patson Chawuruka & Chenjerai Muchenje, 2025. "Environment attitudes and social influence of sustainable practices: a study on consumer behaviour in Zimbabwe," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 11(1), pages 1-18, December.
    14. Rita Henriques & Filipa Figueiredo & João Nunes, 2023. "Consumers’ Perspectives on Circular Economy: Main Tendencies for Market Valorization," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-26, September.
    15. Will, Christian & Lehmann, Nico & Baumgartner, Nora & Feurer, Sven & Jochem, Patrick & Fichtner, Wolf, 2022. "Consumer understanding and evaluation of carbon-neutral electric vehicle charging services," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 313(C).
    16. Maria Andersson & Ola Eriksson & Chris Von Borgstede, 2012. "The Effects of Environmental Management Systems on Source Separation in the Work and Home Settings," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 4(6), pages 1-17, June.
    17. Tran Huy Phuong & Thanh Trung Hieu, 2015. "Predictors of Entrepreneurial Intentions of Undergraduate Students in Vietnam: An Empirical Study," International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, vol. 5(8), pages 46-55, August.
    18. Clara Cardone-Riportella & María José Casasola-Martinez & Isabel Feito-Ruiz, 2014. "Do Entrepreneurs Come From Venus Or Mars? Impact Of Postgraduate Studies: Gender And Family Business Background," Working Papers 14.04, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Financial Economics and Accounting (former Department of Business Administration), revised Sep 2014.
    19. Peng Cheng & Zhe Ouyang & Yang Liu, 0. "The effect of information overload on the intention of consumers to adopt electric vehicles," Transportation, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-20.
    20. Ruijie Zhu & Guojing Zhao & Zehai Long & Yangjie Huang & Zhaoxin Huang, 2022. "Entrepreneurship or Employment? A Survey of College Students’ Sustainable Entrepreneurial Intentions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-15, May.

    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:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:16:p:7287-:d:1722983. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.