Green purchase intention of young consumers: an application of reasoned action theory

Abstract

Due to recent trend of growing concern among consumers towards the environment, marketing practitioners and academics have diverted their attentions on finding the determinants of green purchase intention and behaviour of consumers. Using Ajzen and Fishbein's (1980) Theory of Reasoned Action, this paper empirically explores the effect of environmental attitude, green purchase attitude, and subjective norms on green purchase intention of young consumers. The analysis involved the use of independent sample t-test, correlation, multiple and step-wise regressions. The results indicated that the three independent variables were positively correlated. Female consumers were found to be more compliant with social norm and exhibited higher green purchase intention compared to male consumers. Green purchase attitudes and subjective norms were found to be positively related to green purchase intention but not the environmental attitude. Results from the step-wise regression analysis indicated that green purchase attitude explained 28.3% of variation in the model; and both variables explained 34.7% of green purchase intention. The findings confirmed past research that a specific attitude is a closer predictor than general attitude in explaining specific behavior. Further discussions include implications, limitations and suggestions for future research.