Exploring consumers’ purchase intention towards green products in an emerging market: The role of consumers’ perceived readiness

Consumers’ awareness of green products has increased in the last few years, but studies show that the demand for green products has been stagnant. The purpose of this study is to explore the roles of consumers’ perceived readiness to be green and subsequently, how readiness to be green affects consumers’ purchase intention towards green products in an emerging market, Indonesia. A total of 916 survey responses were collected in three universities, two major shopping malls and several housing areas in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The findings reveal that consumers’ attitude (ATT), subjective norm, perceived behavioural control (PBC), pro‐environmental self‐identity (PEI), ethical obligation and consumers’ readiness to be green are the determinants of intention to purchase green products. Consumers’ readiness to be green mediates the effects of ATT, PBC, PEI and perceived sense of responsibility on purchase intention. The study provides further insights into the discrepancy between professed positive attitudes towards the environment and the slow uptake of green behaviour in an emerging market.     

Halal Purchase Intention Among the Singaporean Muslim Minority

Muslim consumers’ awareness toward halal foods and products has been increasing. The halal concept becomes consumers’ vital concern as it covers wide areas of consumption, though one might perceive it as only a food-related issue. Given this background, this article aims to investigate the factors that influence consumers’ intention to purchase halal-certified foods and products. By using Ajzen’s theory of planned behavior (TPB) as a theoretical framework, this research employed a quantitative survey with a sample of 332 Muslim consumers living in Singapore to examine Singaporean Muslim preferences in purchasing halal foods and products. Data gathered from the survey were then explored and analyzed. Multiple regression analysis results indicate that all TPB variables have a positive and significant influence on the intention to purchase halal-certified products among the Muslim minority in Singapore.     

Following brands on Twitter: an extension of theory of planned behavior

Due to its immediacy and efficiency, Twitter has recently emerged as a form of marketing communication tool that offers unique advantages for two-way communication between marketers and consumers. This study examines brand-following behavior on Twitter using the Ajzen's model of theory of planned behavior (TPB). Results show that attitude toward brand following, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and brand attachment are positively associated with intention to follow brands on Twitter. Consumers’ intention to create (i.e., intention to tweet at brands) and disseminate (i.e., intention to retweet the links of brands) brand-related information, as well as purchase intention, are the outcomes of intention to follow brands on Twitter. Overall findings suggest that TPB model can be used to predict Twitter users’ brand-following behavior. More importantly, our finding that brand attachment drives consumer intention to follow brands on Twitter extends the TPB framework. This study provides both theoretical and managerial implications.     

The low effect of perceived risk in the relation between hedonic values and purchase intention

ABSTRACT

This research seeks to identify the influence of perceived risk in the purchase intention environment regarding innovative technological products, and also to understand how brand trust reduces the expected impact of this risk due to the hedonic and utilitarian characteristics influencing purchase intention. Quantitative research was carried out and analysed through structural equation modelling, where the influence of perceived risk on utilitarian value and purchase intention was identified, as well as the influence of brand trust in reducing this risk. The conceptual implications of the study describe as the perceived risk moderates hedonic features less compared to utilitarian features regarding purchase intention, thus demonstrating that emotional relationships are less affected by this risk. The managerial implications suggest that devices with utilitarian characteristics should be more carefully planned according to their brand and complexity, while hedonic products do not require brand trust to guarantee consumers’ purchase intention in the current innovative scenario.     

The effectiveness of nutritional information on foodservice companies’ corporate social responsibility

The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of nutritional information disclosure and healthful menu context in the relationship of nutritional knowledge and consumers’ perceived CSR toward a foodservice company. Furthermore, the relationship among CSR, brand image, attitude and purchase intention was investigated. The study was designed with scenario experimental questionnaires: 3 (different nutritional information levels: no information, calorie only and content with six segments of nutritional information) X 2 (menu context: healthy or unhealthy menu context). Confirmatory factor analyses, structural equation modelling and analysis of variance analysis were used in order to examine the study hypotheses. The results of this study indicate that consumers’ nutritional knowledge helps increase consumers’ perceived CSR which has an impact on brand image, attitude and behavioural intention, however, no moderating effects of nutritional knowledge and healthful menu context were found. Furthermore, purchase intention was significantly affected by CSR, attitude and brand image. Therefore, disclosure of nutritional information and offering healthful menu would help restaurants gain a positive CSR which also would help them to expect consumers’ favourable purchase intention.     

Why Consumers Hesitate to Shop Online: Perceived Risk and Product Involvement on Taobao.com

Heralded as one of the fastest-growing regions in e-commerce sales, Asia has received increasing attention from online retailers as a promising e-commerce market. Therefore, to provide better insight into Asian online marketplaces, this study focuses on Taobao.com (hereafter referred to as “Taobao”), a major Chinese online marketplace, and attempts to shed light on consumers’ perceptions of Taobao. More specifically, this study examines (a) what consumers in China think about Taobao as an online marketplace when purchasing high- or low-involvement products; (b) what types of risk are associated with each product; and (c) how online consumers’ risk perceptions consequently influence both their trust toward Taobao and their purchase intention. Multidimensional perceived risks (financial, privacy, product, security, social/psychological, time) were considered in the research. Participants were 217 Chinese university students. The results indicate that product risk and social/psychological risk were negatively associated with consumers’ trust and purchase intention, regardless of their degree of product involvement. Interestingly, financial risk was positively related to trust and purchase intention. Findings are discussed with managerial implications, followed by limitations and future studies.     

Corporate social responsibility: a boon or bane for innovative firms?

In today’s dynamic business landscape, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is considered as an important strategic initiative for attaining sustainable competitive advantage. The present study aims to examine (i) the influence of consumer’s perceived firm innovativeness (CPFI) and consumer trust on perceived CSR activities of the firm and (ii) the mediating role of perceived CSR in the relationship between (iia) consumer’s perceived firm innovativeness and purchase intention (iib) consumer trust and purchase intention. Four hypotheses were tested with the primary data (n = 287) collected through a structured questionnaire. The regression analysis revealed that CPFI and consumer trust have direct positive impacts on the perceived CSR. Further, perceived CSR mediates the relationship between CPFI and purchase intention. However, perceived CSR does not play a mediating role between Consumer Trust and Purchase Intention. Overall, the findings of this study indicate that engagement in the CSR activities tend to reduce the perceived risk associated with innovation and consequently, influence the purchase intention among consumers. Theoretical and managerial implications are further discussed.     

Determinants for Effects of Celebrity Negative Information: When to Terminate a Relationship with a Celebrity Endorser in Trouble?

This study examines three factors that influence consumers’ brand evaluation and purchase intention under negative celebrity information. The study is designed to investigate the effects of consumers’ perceived associative strength between celebrity endorser and brand, the role of congruence between a celebrity endorser's negative information and his/her endorsed brand, and the effects of consumers’ level of brand commitment. The study's findings suggest that congruence or “fit” between a celebrity endorser's negative information and an endorsed brand moderates a consumers’ evaluation of brand and purchase intentions. The study finds that a strong associative link between the brand and the celebrity endorser leads to lower brand evaluation as well as lower purchase intention. It also finds that consumers with a higher level of brand commitment are less likely to react negatively to a celebrity's bad publicity than are consumers with a lower level of brand commitment. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Does Social Media Matter? Investigating the Effect of Social Media Features on Consumer Attitudes

The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of social media's features (i.e., entertainment, usefulness, informativeness and irritation) toward consumers’ attitude toward the brand. Subsequently, this study explores the impact of this attitude toward consumers’ brand loyalty, brand awareness and purchase intention. Data for this study was collected through a large public university in Australia. Paper surveys were distributed to students, their friends and members of their immediate families (N = 724). The findings show that entertainment feature has the strongest impact on consumers’ attitude toward the brand's social media use, followed by informativeness, usefulness and finally, irritation. Consumers’ attitude toward a brand's social media strongly influences consumer loyalty, awareness and purchase intention. The findings of this research provide some insights into the impact of different features of social media which will be useful for practitioners and academics interested in social media.     

Icing on the cake or gilding the lily? The impact of high-modified model images on purchase intention

Marketers had high expectations for modified model images in E-commerce, however, the social movements against photoshopped models suggested the high-modified model images may be harmful to consumers which leads to a contradictory phenomenon. So far, the link between high-modified model image and consumers' behavior is not clearly understood. Drawing on a selective accessibility model (SAM), this study investigates the influence of high-modified model images on consumers' purchase intention by introducing the concept of misrepresentation and identifying consumer trust as a mediator. Based on five experiments, we demonstrate that over-modified model images decrease consumers’ perceived authenticity referring to “misrepresentation”, and further lower their purchase intention. By comparing the level of misrepresentation, the results suggest that high-modified model images decrease purchase intention. Moreover, this negative relationship between misrepresentation of modified model images and purchase intention is mediated by consumer trust. Hence, this study makes a step toward explaining how high-modified model images impacts the behaviors of consumers, shedding new light on the application of image modification in online advertising.     

Consumers’ Intent: In the Organic Food Market

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the determinants that influence consumers' intention to purchase organic products. Ajzen's theory of planned behaviour (TPB) provides the conceptual framework of the research and the appropriateness of the theory is tested. A survey of 144 consumers was used to determine the beliefs which determine consumers’ intent to purchase organic food. Furthermore, attitudes, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control were examined to determine whether they affect consumers’ intention to make organic products purchases. The findings offer considerable support for the robustness of the TPB in explaining intention in the sample. In addition, empirical evidence suggest that price, availability of organic products, product information and the subjective opinions of others are important determinants of consumers intent to buy organic products. The results are consistent with previous research.     

Modeling the Effects of Green Advertising on Brand Image: Investigating the Moderating Effects of Product Involvement Using Structural Equation

ABSTRACT

?This experimental study examined consumers’ response to green advertising for high- and low-involvement products by measuring its effect on consumers’ intention to purchase such brands. The present study enhances our understanding of the moderating role of product involvement and extends the structural equation tests of the four causal models. A dataset of 169 respondents is used to examine the role of brand image and brand attitude in the context of green advertisements. Consistent with earlier findings, the suggested model provides a good fit of the data and results indicate that positive attitude toward green advertisements, brand image, and attitude toward the brand enhances the chances of consumers’ purchase intention of such brands. The study also verifies that product involvement moderates the positive relationship between attitude toward green advertisements and brand image such that at higher levels of product involvement, attitude toward green advertisements has a stronger effect on brand image.     

Antecedents of participation in online brand communities and their purchasing behavior consequences

This study intends to fill some gaps in knowledge about online communities and their influence on consumers’ purchase decisions. A review of the extant literature on online brand communities reveals that most prior studies have focused on identifying the factors associated with joining and participating in online communities. However, limited studies examine the implications of participation in online brand communities in terms of consumer behaviors, such as brand liking and intention to purchase the brand. In addition, these few studies have either focused on the influence of operational elements of the online community on purchase intention or on the influence of community members’ characteristics regarding purchase intention. Therefore, this study aims to provide an integrated framework for operational and user characteristics’ antecedents associated with consumers’ participation in online brand communities and their effect on purchase decisions. Structural equation modeling was used to test the conceptual model. Data were collected via a survey of the Facebook pages of 282 members of Egyptian telecommunication companies. The findings provide insights into how these antecedents should be managed to enhance participation in virtual telecommunication communities.     

Predicting green product consumption using theory of planned behavior and reasoned action

The extended Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) incorporates environmental concern, a critical variable in green marketing literature, intending to achieve triple bottom line (TBL). In this context, this study aims to validate TPB and its extended form (mediating role of TPB variables), as well as the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), to predict Indian consumers’ green product purchase intention. We collected primary data from 521 respondents as input, establishing validity through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Our empirical results of structural equation modeling (SEM) show that extended TPB has higher predictability than TPB and TRA in green marketing settings. Consumer attitude and perceived behavioral control significantly predicts purchase intention whereas subjective norm does not. Our findings also suggest that TPB mediates the relationship between environmental concern and green products purchase intention. An additional construct in the new model considerably contributes to improving the understanding of green products purchase intention formation and could become a sustainable mainstream variable.     

Building Trust Between Consumers and Corporations: The Role of Consumer Perceptions of Transparency and Social Responsibility

Developing trust in a company is a significant part of building the company-consumer relationship. Previous studies have sought to identify the positive consequences of trust such as loyalty and repurchase, but the question of what builds trust remains largely unanswered. To answer the question, we developed a model that depicts the relationships among transparency, social responsibility, trust, attitude, word-of-mouth (WOM) intention, and purchase intention. An online survey was conducted with a US nationwide sample of 303 consumers, and the data were analyzed using the structural equation modeling method. The results indicated that consumers’ perceptions of a corporation’s efforts to be transparent in the production and labor conditions and to be socially responsible by giving back to the local community directly affected these consumers’ trust and attitudes toward the corporation, and indirectly affected their intentions to purchase from and spread positive WOM about the corporation. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Inclusive advertising featuring disability on instagram: Effect on consumer well-being,brand engagement,and purchase intention

Should advertisers continue to promote their brands through brand endorsers without considering their diverse characteristics, or should they embrace diversity in advertising? Gender, age, ethnicity, and sexual orientation are some of the aspects of diversity that have been investigated in advertising research, primarily in the context of Western and developed countries. However, it remains underexplored how physical disabilities in influencer advertising on Instagram affect consumer well-being and consumers’ responses toward brands in a non-Western market. Through an experimental design (including both inclusive and non-inclusive samples), this study examined the effects of inclusive advertising (including disabled persons) on consumer well-being (both hedonic and eudaimonic), brand engagement, and purchase intention. Two studies were conducted to test the hypotheses. In Study 1 (shampoo brand case), a data analysis of 260 young Pakistani consumers revealed that inclusive (vs non-inclusive) advertisements enhance both hedonic well-being (HWB) and eudaimonic well-being (EWB), with a stronger effect for EWB. The spillover effects of EWB and HWB indicated a significant influence on brand engagement and purchase intention, whereas the effect of HWB is significant only on brand engagement. The effects of HWB on brand engagement and of EWB on purchase intention showed a greater influence in the case of inclusive advertisements than in traditional non-inclusive advertisements. In Study 2 (clothing brand case), an analysis of 235 respondents revealed that inclusive advertising drives both HWB and EWB, which have a greater influence on brand engagement and purchase intention when individuals are exposed to an inclusive advertisement featuring disabled persons than a non-inclusive one. These studies confirm that inclusive advertisements attract a more diverse customer base in addition to existing customers. These findings offer theoretical and practical insights for advertising and consumer research.     

Antecedents and consequents of consumers not adopting e-commerce

This study investigated the antecedent and consequent factors of the non-adoption behavior of e-commerce, based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). For the antecedents, this research used the constructs of ‘attitude’, ‘subjective norms’, ‘perceived behavioral control (PBC)’, and ‘intention’. For the consequents, the constructs were ‘negative word-of-mouth’ and ‘disinterest in e-commerce’. The noteworthiness of this study is the investigation of non-adoption of e-commerce and its effects, as adoption behavior of e-commerce is more often studied. In addition, the study explains the resistance behavior of the consumer toward e-commerce through the TPB, which is rarely used for understanding resistance behaviors. Moreover, it explains the antecedents of non-adoption of e-commerce with constructs that reflect the perceptions and beliefs of the individual, which differs from previous studies. A survey was conducted with 260 people who stated they did not buy through e-commerce. To analyze the data, we used structural equation modeling with PLS. The results showed that the construct intention is positively influenced by the constructs attitude and PBC. Behavior was positively influenced by both intention and PBC and was the influencer of two consequent behaviors: negative word-of-mouth and disinterest in e-commerce. We observed no statistical significance between subjective norms and intention when considering the control variables. This research brings relevant information that can help e-commerce companies develop strategies specially aimed at reaching consumers resistant to online shopping.     

Measuring the impact of brand-celebrity personality congruence on purchase intention

The present study aims to understand the impact of congruence between brand and celebrity personality on consumers attitude and purchase intentions. The data were collected from 382 business school students in India. Drawing from the theoretical frameworks of Attribution theory, Attitude theory, User imagery, Elaboration Likelihood Model, and match-up hypothesis, results reveals that congruence between celebrity and brand personality positively impacts the brand recall, brand associations, and reinforces the brand personality. Which favorably and significantly impacted attitude toward the advertisement and brand. Attitude toward brand has positively impacted purchase intention. ‘Brand personality self-image congruence’ and ‘involvement level with the brand’ were found to moderate the impact of brand association and brand personality reinforcement on attitude toward advertisements and brand. The paper provides practical implications for the advertisement agencies and media managers.