Proceedings of 32nd International Business Research Conference
23 - 25 November, 2015, Rendezvous Hotel, Melbourne, Australia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-89-4
Determinants of Green Perceived Value and Their
Influence on Brand Loyalty: Perceptions of Chinese
Consumers
Jialing Lin, Antonio Lobo and Civilai Leckie
The objectives of this study are to investigate the determinants that influence
customer green perceived value (GPV) and also to test the relationship
between GPV and brand loyalty in China. Based on the deontological and
teleological framework, this study suggests that informational justice,
utilitarian environmental and warm glow of giving benefits enhance green
perceived value. In turn, the consumers’ perception of green value has a
positive impact on brand loyalty. This study employs structural equation
modelling (SEM) to empirically test the hypotheses. The results demonstrate
that customers’ green brand perceptions are positively related to green
perceived value. Additionally, the results reveal that green perceived value
directly leads to brand loyalty and it fully mediates the relationships between
informational justice, utilitarian environmental and warm glow of giving
benefits and brand loyalty. Hence, if companies intend to increase customer
green brand loyalty, they need to facilitate the creation of green perceived
value amongst the consumers. In particular, both deontological and
teleological approaches need to be considered when creating customer
green perceived value.
Keywords: green perceived value, deontological perspective, teleological
perspective, informational justice, environmental functionality, warm glow of
giving, brand loyalty
Track: Business Ethics / Marketing
1. Introduction
This study aims to investigate the antecedents to green perceived value and
the influence of green perceived on brand loyalty in the context of green
marketing in China. The Chinese government has recently initiated several
new strategies and policies. For example, it joined the non-legally binding
Copenhagen Accord aimed at protecting the environment and it aims to
decrease its carbon intensity by 40-50% by 2020 compared with 2005 levels
(Marinova et al. 2013). More importantly, the Chinese government has
identified green economy as a sustainable development plan to stimulate
economic growth and prevent its environment from further damage (Pan et al.,
2011). Chinese authorities officially announced the strategy for balancing
economic development and environment protection in its 12th Five-year
Development Plan (Chen et al. 2013). Furthermore, under the prevailing
political regime, numerous enterprises in China are taking advantages of this
opportunity to transform their business by implementing various green
marketing strategies. More recently, a top 100 green brand report has been
released (Chinese Brand Research Centre of Peking University 2012), which
reveals that China has a huge potential market for green products. Although
consumers‘ green purchase behaviour has been widely explored in recent
literature, there are still unresolved issues relating to companies‘ failure to
capture consumers‘ green needs in China, where customers‘ green
______________________________________________________
School of Business, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne
Correspondent author‘s email: alobo@swin.edu.au
Proceedings of 32nd International Business Research Conference
23 - 25 November, 2015, Rendezvous Hotel, Melbourne, Australia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-89-4
scepticism is dramatically growing. Against this back drop, there is a research
opportunity to explore Chinese consumers‘ green value perceptions and
loyalty toward green brands. The findings of this study can help reduce the
gap between consumers‘ environmental attitude and green purchase
behaviour and assist global enterprises in better understanding consumers
and the green marketing potential in China. The overarching research
questions of this study are:
(a) What are the factors which stimulate the delivery of GPV associated
with green brands in China? Namely, what are the antecedents to
green perceived value based consumers‘ deontological and
teleological perspectives?
(b) What is the impact of GPV on Chinese consumers‘ loyalty to green
brands?
2. Literature Review
Green marketing has received increased attention since 1960s and its
growing popularity has particularly been evident since 1990s when the public
started having higher environmental awareness regarding environmental
problems, such as global warming (Fisk1973; Kinnear et al. 1974; Mostafa
2007). From the marketing perspective, the issue on green consumption
behaviour is of great value in recent research as a growing number of
consumers are becoming more environmentally aware. For instance, recent
data shows that less than one-half of the consumers had never bought a
green product (Manget et al.2009) and the value of the market related to
healthy and sustainable lifestyle products (e.g. energy-efficient products, ecotourism and solar panels ) was equivalent to $209 billion (Kotler 2011, pp.134).
However, an investigation of factors influencing consumer purchase
behaviour towards green brands remains under-researched despite green
brands being widely regarded as one of the effective ways to achieve market
differentiation (Hartmann et al. 2005; Papista & Krystallis 2013; Raska &
Shaw 2012).
Moreover, most prior studies in relation to consumer green purchase
behaviour have widely employed the theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) and
theory of Planning Behaviour (TPB) as frameworks. In particular, the findings
of those prior studies have shown that consumers‘ environmental attitudes fail
to translate into environmental behaviour (e.g. Bamberg 2003; Carrington et al.
2010; Kilbourne& Beckmann 1998; Nordlund & Garvill 2002). In an attempt to
gain a better understanding of the attitudes-behaviour relationship, Paista and
Krystallis (2013) adopted the customer value (CV) concept to understand the
customer-green brand relationship development and associated consumer
behaviour. Such inclusion of customer value in the context of green brand
consumption is consistent with Pickett et al.‘s argument (1995) that in order to
make environmentally sustainable products commercially successful, green
brand attributes and value need to be well communicated to consumers and
the public at large. Chen (2013) suggests that it would be imperative to
separate GPV from CV. Therefore, this study extends the CV concept which
simply captures the customers‘ overall value perception toward green brand
to reduce the attitude-behaviour gap. In particular, this study focuses on green
perceived value (GPV). The concept of GPV was first proposed by Chen and
Chang (2012a) to express consumers‘ environmental desires, sustainable
expectations and green needs when evaluating a product or service.
Proceedings of 32nd International Business Research Conference
23 - 25 November, 2015, Rendezvous Hotel, Melbourne, Australia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-89-4
Past studies which propose antecedents to green perceived value (e.g. Hur et
al. 2013; Koller et al. 2011) mainly investigated consumers‘ consideration of
costs and benefits (i.e. teleological perspective) when evaluating and
purchasing green products and services. There is scant research relating to
the factor (s) influencing consumers‘ green value perceptions from their
willingness to do good for society (Deontological perspective). Brunk (2012)
has suggested that both teleological and deontological approaches need to be
considered when investigating consumers‘ perceptions toward an ethical
brand. Hence, this study also investigates factors influencing consumer green
value perception from these two perspectives, which is consistent with the
recent research trend on consumers‘ ethical behaviour (Fatma & Rahman
2015).
Although consumers‘ green purchase behaviour has been widely explored in
recent literature, there are still unresolved issues relating to companies‘ failure
to capture consumers‘ green needs in China, where customers‘ green
scepticism is dramatically growing. In order to reduce customers‘ sceptical
attitude towards green brands, the role of GPV in consumer-green brand
relationship development needs to be explored, especially its influence on
green brand loyalty. Such an exploration helps to fulfil companies‘ goals in
terms of reaching profitability and corporate social responsibility by
implementing green branding strategy (Mourad & Ahmed 2012). Recently,
numerous enterprises in China are taking advantage of opportunities which
the Chinese government has provided in supporting green economy
development.
They are transforming their business by implementing various green
marketing strategies (Chen et al. 2013, Pan et al., 2011). As a result, China
has a huge potential market for green products.
2.1 Conceptual model and Hypotheses
Based on the extended ethical theory by Hunt and Vitell (1986), this study
proposes a conceptual model that examines the factors which contribute to
GPV and the mediating role of GPV in the relationship between consumers‘
ethical consideration and brand loyalty in the context of green brands in China.
First, the study assesses the influence of factors derived from consumers‘
deontological perspective (informational justice) and teleological perspective
(utilitarian environmental benefit and warm glow of giving benefit) on green
perceived value. Second, green perceived value is proposed to increase
brand loyalty. Moreover, the indirect effects of informational justice, utilitarian
environmental benefit and warm glow of giving on brand loyalty via green
perceived value are investigated. The conceptual model is depicted in Figure1.
The following section presents the important constructs and associated
hypotheses.
Proceedings of 32nd International Business Research Conference
23 - 25 November, 2015, Rendezvous Hotel, Melbourne, Australia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-89-4
Figure1: Proposed Conceptual Framework
2.2 Green Perceived Value (GPV)
Although the TRA and TPB have been widely applied in green consumption
behaviour studies, a significant problem emerges. This problem is widely
regarded as the ‗attitude-behaviour gap‘ or ‗halo effect‘ (e.g., Boulstridge &
Carrigan, 2000; Gupta & Ogden 2006;Mainieriet al. 1997; Wheale & Hinton
2007; Young et al. 2010; Zinkhan1995). These studies provide evidence that
environmental concern or attitudinal variables fail to converge into actual
behaviour (Bamber 2003; Hines et al. 1987; Scott & Willis 1994; Schultz et al.
1995; Taner 1999). Thus, Papista and Krystallis (2013) developed a holistic
conceptual model adopting customer perceived value (CV) concept as an
alternative approach of the TPB model to investigate customer‘s green brand
adoption behaviour and consumer-green brand relationship development.
However, Papista and Krystallis (2013) did not empirically test their model and
the way they operationalise the CV concept in their study is too broad. In
addition, various values listed in their model were derived from cost-benefits
trade-off. Thus, this study proposes the use of GPV as an extension of the CV
concept as Chen (2013) suggests that separating GPV from CV is important
and it is necessary for companies to invest resources to raise their customers‘
GPV if they intend to increase their customers‘ green brand loyalty.
GPV is a novel construct developed as an extension to the CV concept and is
used in the specific context of green marketing (Chen 2013). Following an
initial concept developed by Patterson and Spreng (1997), GPV can be
defined as ―a consumer‘s overall appraisal of the net benefit of a product or
service between what is received and what is given based on the consumer‘s
environmental desires, sustainable expectations, and green needs‖ (Chen
and Chang 2012a, p. 505). Both consumers‘ moral obligation consideration
and cost-benefit consideration are required since rule-based norms and
altruism motivations are identified as stimulants of green brand purchase.
These two considerations are well explained by Hunt and Vitell‘s (1986)
ethical decision model, which postulates that ethical judgments are
determined by two types of moral philosophies, namely deontological and
teleological evaluations when one encounters issues with ethical content. In
turn, the ethical judgments affect an individual‘s behaviour through his/her
moral intention.
Proceedings of 32nd International Business Research Conference
23 - 25 November, 2015, Rendezvous Hotel, Melbourne, Australia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-89-4
2.3 Informational justice and green perceived value (Deontological
perspective)
Justice is one of the deontological perspectives which is based on fairness
and equality. This concept connects moral thought and moral development
(Kohlberg, 1969) and provides an ethical standard in distinguishing between
right and wrong. Informational justice has only recently been applied to the
services marketing context (Lee and Park, 2010), which refers to the
perceived adequacy and truthfulness of information explaining the causes for
unsatisfactory outcomes (Colquitt, 2001; Mattila & Cranage, 2005). Nowadays,
bad corporate behaviour, like greenwash in green market, has created
consumers‘ negative attitudes towards a company‘s environmental
engagements (Peattie et al. 2009). Consumers feel very confused about
green products (Pomering & Johnson 2009). In addition, previous studies
suggest that customers‘ perception of unfair treatment regarding green
communication is negatively associated with their green quality evaluation
(Chen et al. 2014, Nance & White 2009). In this respect, justice
communication regarding green products with consumers is required to
increase consumers‘ trust towards green brand. As a result of the foregoing
discussion, the following hypothesis has been developed:
Hypothesis1: informational justice is positively associated with green
perceived value
2.4 Utilitarian environmental benefit and green perceived value
(Teleological perspective)
Environmental benefits are essential attributes of green brand, which
outweigh the attributes of conventional alternatives. Consumers look for
additional functional benefits when they consume products with
environmentally sound attributes (Bech-Larsen 1996; Sriram & Forman 1993).
These functional benefits reflect customers‘ perceived utility acquired from a
brand‘s capacity to fulfil functional, utilitarian or physical environmental
performance (Sheth et al. 1991). In particular prior research suggests that
there is a positive relationship between product performance and customer
perceived value (Baker et al. 2002; Bolton &Drew 1991; Cronin et al. 2000;
Dodds et al. 1991; Grewal et al. 1998; Sirohi et al. 1998). Compared with
customer overall perceived value, GPV focuses more on customers‘
environmental expectations and green needs. Thus, it is expected that
utilitarian environmental benefits will relate positively to GPV. Hence the
following hypothesis has been developed:
Hypothesis 2: utilitarian environmental benefit is positively associated with
green perceived value
2.5 Warm glow of giving and green perceived value (Teleological
perspective)
Warm glow of giving reflects a feeling of moral satisfaction when involving the
common good, which is a form of altruism (Andreoni 1989, 1990).Warm glow
of giving as one kind of psychological benefit has received increasing
interests in the specific context of green brands (e.g. Hartmann &ApaolazaIbáñez 2012; Papista&Krystallis 2013; Pickett-Baker & Ozaki 2008). In
particular, Papista and Krystallis (2013) propose that altruistic value is
positively associated with CV. Consumers tend to feel good when they
Proceedings of 32nd International Business Research Conference
23 - 25 November, 2015, Rendezvous Hotel, Melbourne, Australia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-89-4
purchase green brands with environmentally friendly attributes (Pickett-Baker
& Ozaki 2008) and altruism motivates consumers to use green products or
services (Hartmann and Apaolaza-Ibáñez 2006). This moral satisfaction
results when they make a decision to purchase green brands. Hence, the
above findings drive us to propose that warm glow of giving benefit arising
from green brands will positively influence GPV. Accordingly, the following
hypothesis has been proposed:
Hypothesis 3: Warm glow of giving is positively associated with green
perceived value
2.6 Outcome of green perceived value
Recently, the role of GPV in relationship marketing has received growing
attention and its influence on green loyalty is of great interest (Chen & Chang
2012; Chen 2013; Hur et al. 2013; Koller et al. 2011; Ng et al. 2014). Based
on Oliver (1999), Chen (2013) first proposed the concept of customer green
loyalty. It is defined as ‗the level of repurchase intentions prompted by a
strong environmental attitude and sustainable commitment towards an object,
such as a product, a service, a company, a brand or a group. Previous studies
have shown that customer perceived value is positively associated with their
post-purchase behaviours and it is an important factor influencing customers‘
purchase intention and loyalty (Brady and Robertson, 1999; Cronin et al.,
1997; Tam, 2004). Hur et al. (2013) found that there is an indirect relationship
between green perceived value and customer loyalty via satisfaction while
Chen (2013) suggests that customers‘ green value perception is positively
related to customers‘ green loyalty. Hence the following is hypothesised:
Hypothesis 4: Green perceived value is positively associated with brand
loyalty
3. Methodology
3.1 Measures
In order to facilitate respondents‘ understanding, the survey instrument
originally in English was subsequently translated into Chinese and later
translated back into Chinese. In addition, to ensure instrument clarity,
question wording and validity, six academics who were experts in green
marketing and relationship management were invited to discuss and comment
on the survey instrument. Two rounds of pre-tests were conducted by using
two focus groups, each of which included eight university students who
resided in the Guangzhou (South) and Chongqing (West) cities of China, and
who were familiar with green brands. Subsequently, some minor changes
regarding the wording and formatting were made based on the feedback
received from these pre-tests.
This study has adopted previously validated scales to capture consumer
perceptions towards informational justice, warm glow of giving, environmental
functionality, green perceived value and brand loyalty of the green brand they
chose. Informational justice is taken from the study by Colquitt (2001). To
capture consumers‘ informational justice perception regarding the company‘s
process of green practices, all items were adapted to reflect green
communication. As to consumers‘ perceived benefits derived from green
brand consumption, three items measuring warm glow of giving benefit were
adapted from Aquino and Reed‘s (2002), Hartmann and Apaolaza-Ibáñez
Proceedings of 32nd International Business Research Conference
23 - 25 November, 2015, Rendezvous Hotel, Melbourne, Australia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-89-4
(2012) and Nunes and Schokkaert (2003). The three items measuring
utilitarian environmental benefit were adapted from Johnson and Frank (2006),
Salmela and Varho (2006) and Truffer et al.(2001). Four statements
measuring green perceived value were adapted from Chen and Chang
(2012a, b) and brand loyalty (four items) was measured by the scale adapted
from Chen (2013) and Huang et al. (2014). A Likert scale anchored at 1 =
strongly disagree and 7 = strongly agree was used to rate respondents‘
perceptions for each item.
3.2 Data collection
To empirically test the hypothesised model, this study employed an online
survey using consumer panels in China. Data were collected in four
geographically dispersed cities (i.e. Beijing, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Hangzhou)
of China. The four selected cities have both high economic development and
high ecological footprint hence it would be ideal to target consumers‘ green
brand adoption in these cities (Xia & Ye 2014; Eves & Cheng 2007). All
respondents were above 18 years of age and they were required to select a
specific green brand that they used before. Then respondents were asked to
complete the survey keeping in mind the selected green brand as the focal
object and remembering the image with green claims of the selected green
brand. Finally, 826 valid surveys were obtained from two stages over a one
month period. A total of 1013 participants had logged onto the web link.
3.3 Data Analysis
Prior to the analysis, all variable data were screened regarding normality,
outliers and missing values to avoid the violation of analysis methods. The
two-step approach developed by Anderson and Gerbing (1988) was
employed to analyse the data and the statistical software program Mplus 7.0
was used to conduct the analysis. First, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)
was conducted to assess the measurement properties of the scales. The
reliability and validity of the measurement models was assessed. Then,
structural equation modelling (SEM) with a maximum likelihood method was
employed to test the proposed hypotheses.
4. Findings and discussions
4.1 Measurement model
Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was utilised to test the reliability and
validity of the reflective measurements. Table 1 reveals that the goodness-offit indices of the measurement are satisfactory [Chi-square =216.95, df. =125,
CFI = .98, TLI =.98, RMSEA = .038]. The convergent validity was achieved
since all factor loadings are significant. Standard factor loadings of all
measurement items well exceeded the recommended .5 cut-off (Rencher,
2002). The composite reliability also exceeded the recommended cut-off
values of .70 (ranging from .76 to .86) (Nunnally & Bernstein, 1994). The AVE
values of all constructs exceeded the threshold of .50 (Fornell & Larcker,
1981). As to discriminant validity, all squared correlations coefficients were
below AVEs, showing sufficient discriminant validity (Fornell & Larcker, 1981).
In addition, the highest degree of correlation between two latent variables
presented in Table 2 was .693, which was below the cut-off value of .90
Proceedings of 32nd International Business Research Conference
23 - 25 November, 2015, Rendezvous Hotel, Melbourne, Australia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-89-4
(Tabachinick and Fidel, 2011). Hence, neither redundancy nor violation of
multi-collinearity was found.
Table 1 Instrument Items and Reliability Indices
Constructs Items
SFL
A
IF
This brand is open in its green
communication with me
0.742 0.811
This brand explains the green
0.730
procedures thoroughly and timely
through its packaging and promotion
materials
This brand‘s explanations regarding to
0.779
the green procedures are reasonable
This brand seems to tailor its green
0.699
communications to individuals‘ special
needs
WG
With this brand, I can feel good
0.787 0.837
because I help to protect the
environment
With this brand, I have the feeling of
0.723
contributing to the well-being of
humanity and nature
With this brand, I can feel better
0.659
because I don‘t harm the environment
UEB
This brand respects the environment
0.771 0.764
This brand helps to prevent global
0.644
warming
Products of this brand do not pollute the 0.740
environment
GPV
This brand‘s environmental functions
0.780 0.830
provide very good value for me
I purchase this brand because it is
0.799
environmental friendly
I purchase this brand because it has
0.759
more environmental benefits than other
brands
I purchase this brand because it has
0.763
more environmental concern than other
brands
BL
I prefer to purchasing this brand to
0.819 0.851
other brands
I intend to continue buying this brand
0.752
Overall, this brand will be my first
0.738
choice
I will recommend this brand to other
0.747
people
CR
AVE
0.827 0.545
0.768 0.525
0.763 0.519
0.858 0.601
0.849 0.585
Notes: SFL=Standard factor loading, a=Cronbach‘s alpha, CR=Construct reliability,
AVE=Average variance extracted, IF=Informational Justice, WG=Warm Glow of Giving,
UEB=Utilitarian Environmental Benefit, GPV=Green Perceived Value, BL=Brand Loyalty.
Proceedings of 32nd International Business Research Conference
23 - 25 November, 2015, Rendezvous Hotel, Melbourne, Australia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-89-4
Table 2 Correlations between the constructs
IF
WG
UEB
GPV
IF
1
WG
.541**
1
UEB
.634**
.664**
1
GPV
.693**
.613**
.654**
1
BL
.561**
.569**
.595**
.639**
BL
1
Notes: IF=Informational Justice; WG=Warm Glow of Giving; UEB=Utilitarian Environmental
Benefit, GPV=Green Perceived Value, BL=Brand Loyalty.
** All correlations are significant at the .01 level (2-tailed).
4.2 Structural Model
The structural model presented in Figure 1 was tested using maximum
likelihood algorithm. The results displayed in Table 3 indicate that the model
fits the empirical data well [Chi-square =224.30, df. = 128; CFI= 0.98,
TFI=0.98, RMSEA=0.029] and all of the hypothesised relationships were
statistically significant (full model is shown in figure 2). This study
demonstrates that customers‘ green brand perceptions based on their
deontological and teleological perspectives are positively related to green
perceived value. The three antecedents, namely informational justice,
utilitarian environmental and warm glow of giving benefits, positively promote
the consumers‘ green value perception. Thus, the results confirm that both
deontological and teleological approaches need to be considered when
investigating green consumption behaviour. By comparing the impacts of the
three antecedents on GPV, we found that informational justice performs better
than warm glow of giving and utilitarian environmental benefits in enhancing
green perceived value. In addition, the results also indicate that green
perceived value directly leads to brand loyalty. Additional tests were
conducted to evaluate the mediating role of CGV in the relationships between
the three antecedents and brand loyalty. The results suggest that GPV is a full
mediator.
Hypotheses
H1
H2
H3
H4
**p < .01
Table 3 The results of the structural model
Structural relationship
Std.
coefficient
GPV
IFJ
.426**
GPV
UEB
.318**
GPV
WG
.225**
BL
GPV
.782**
Results
Supported
Supported
Supported
Supported
5. Conclusion and Implications
With consumers‘ increasing awareness of environmental problems, green
marketing has become a popular strategy for companies to build up their
positive social image and gain competitive advantage. As proposed, factors
regarding to consumer brand perceptions based on deontological and
teleological perspectives are positively associated with green perceived value.
First, informational justice is positively related to green perceived value. Thus,
Proceedings of 32nd International Business Research Conference
23 - 25 November, 2015, Rendezvous Hotel, Melbourne, Australia, ISBN: 978-1-922069-89-4
it is important that companies who try to promote green benefits should
communicate information truthfully to reduce consumers‘ greenwash
perception. This finding is consistent with current research trend of green
marketing that green marketing has been integrated into a broader framework
of corporate social responsibility (Wymer & Polonsky 2015). Thus, if
companies want to increase consumer green perceived value, the
improvement of informational justice is essential. For example, companies
can promote communication activities regarding green procedures to improve
consumers‘ positive green brand perceptions. Second, both warm glow of
giving and utilitarian environmental benefits are also positively related to
green perceived value. These results are inconsistent with the studies
conducted by Hartmann et al. (2005) and Hartmann and Apaolaza-Ibáñez
(2012). They suggested that both emotional and functional benefits have
positive influence on green purchase attitudes and warm glow of giving
benefit performs well in green purchase intention compared to utilitarian
benefit. The results of this study show that utilitarian environmental benefit
performs well in increasing green perceived value compared to warm glow of
giving benefit in current Chinese consumers‘ choice. These findings suggest
that Chinese consumers still see functional benefits when selecting a green
brand. Therefore, both functional and psychological benefits need to be
considered when aiming at creating green value. In addition, the findings of
this study suggest that green perceived value directly leads to green brand
loyalty. Thus, companies should develop green value from consumers‘
perspective to promote loyalty among Chinese consumers. Finally, the
findings also suggest that green perceived value fully mediates the
relationships between the three antecedents and brand loyalty. Hence, green
perceived value is an important latent variable for companies to develop and
monitor so that consumers‘ attitude-behaviour gap in green consumption can
be reduced.
This study investigated the influential factors of green perceived value as
explained in the findings. Further research can investigate the moderating role
of greenwash since the relationships between the three antecedents on GPV
may vary depending on the greenwash experience. In addition, this study
revealed a direct relationship between green perceived value and brand
loyalty while several recent studies suggest that their relationship should be
mediated by other relational variables, such as green trust, green satisfaction
and relationship quality (Martínez 2015; Papista&Krystallis 2013). Hence,
future research can focus on customer-green brand relationship building.
Finally, this study concentrates on green brand adoption in China, hence a
comparative study in developed countries might prove useful in the interest of
generalisation of the findings.
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