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Enhance green purchase
intentions
The roles of green perceived value, green
perceived risk, and green trust
Yu-Shan Chen
Department of Business Administration, National Taipei University,
New Taipei City, Taiwan, and
Ching-Hsun Chang
Department of Business Administration, Tamkang University,
New Taipei City, Taiwan
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this study is to develop an original framework to explore the influences of
green perceived value and green perceived risk on green purchase intentions and to discuss the
mediation role of green trust.
Design/methodology/approach – This study applies four original concepts – green perceived
value, green perceived risk, green trust, and green purchase intentions – to develop an integral model
to enhance green purchase intentions. In addition, this research employs an empirical study by means
of the questionnaire survey method to verify the hypotheses and to explore its managerial
implications. Structural equation modeling (SEM) is applied to verify the research framework.
Findings – The empirical results show that green perceived value would positively affect green trust
and green purchase intentions, while green perceived risk would negatively influence both of them.
Furthermore, this study demonstrates that the relationships between green purchase intentions and
their two antecedents – green perceived value and green perceived risk – are partially mediated by
green trust. Hence, investing resources to increase green perceived value and to decrease green
perceived risk is helpful to enhance green trust and green purchase intentions.
Originality/value – This study summarizes the literature on green marketing and relationship
marketing into a new managerial framework of green purchase intentions. It utilizes four novel
constructs – green perceived value, green perceived risk, green trust, and green purchase intentions –
to develop an original research framework to enhance green purchase intentions. Although past
research has highlighted the relevant issues about purchase intentions, none explores it about green
management. Therefore, this paper develops the research framework of green purchase intentions to
fill the research gap.
Keywords Green purchase intention, Green trust, Green perceived value, Green perceived risk,
Green marketing, Perception
Paper type Research paper
Management Decision
Vol. 50 No. 3, 2012
pp. 502-520
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0025-1747
DOI 10.1108/00251741211216250
Introduction
The public has increasingly noticed environmental issues by reason of the disastrous
environmental pollution arisen from industrial manufacturing activities in the world
(Chen, 2011). Consequently, more firms are prone to accept environment protection as
The authors are grateful for the funding of National Science Council in Taiwan for this study,
and the project number of this study is NSC 98-2410-H-224 -012 -MY3.
their social responsibility (Peattie, 1995; Dwyer, 2009; Lee, 2009). Because
environmental concern has quickly become a mainstream issue as a result of global
warming nowadays, more forethoughtful companies would like to utilize green
opportunities (Molina-Azorı́n et al., 2009; Haden et al., 2009). In the environmental era,
firms pay more attention to green marketing in some industries, such as the
information and electronics industry (Chen, 2010). However, not all firms have enough
capabilities to undertake green marketing strategies. If firms would like to adopt green
marketing successfully, they should integrate the concept of green marketing into all
aspects of routine marketing activities (Ottman, 1992).
Firms should apply green marketing strategies to enhance perceived value of their
products and reduce perceived risk of their products with respect to environmental
consideration to raise their competitive advantage. As green products are more popular
in the market, green marketing has become more prevalent nowadays. Green
marketing activities involve developing, differentiating, pricing, and promoting
products and services that satisfy customers’ environmental needs without a hurtful
influence on the environment. If companies would like to launch their green products,
green marketing plays an important role in determining the number of sales made.
Green marketing can not only provide a differentiation strategy by creating
environmental needs, but also reshape marketing rules in the market. Since the public
is more willing to purchase green products with sufficient trustworthy information,
companies should provide reliable information for their consumers in order to reduce
their customers’ perceived risk (Peattie, 1992). It is hard for marketers to convince their
customers to purchase their products without providing enough information to their
customers. Companies need to reveal more information about the environmental
performance of their products to obtain the trust of their consumers.
There are five reasons for companies to adopt green marketing:
(1) utilizing green opportunities;
(2) increasing corporate images;
(3) raising product value;
(4) enhancing competitive advantages; and
(5) complying with environmental trends (Chen, 2008a).
In addition, undertaking green marketing can raise customer purchase intentions.
Expectation of green products is often hurt by the perception that such products are
low value or do not really deliver on their environmental promises. Although
marketers need to care about whether consumers perceive greenness of their products,
they must remember that consumers are unlikely to compromise on traditional product
attributes, such as value, quality, price, and performance. Green products must match
up on those attributes against nongreen products to attract consumers. Greenness of
products cannot guarantee their sales are outstanding even in the green era. This study
argues that companies need to develop products which possess both of greenness and
high-value attributes to enhance consumer purchase intentions. Besides, one of key
elements for green marketing strategy is credibility. Decreasing customer perceived
risk about greenness of products can help to ease customer skepticism and to raise
customer trust. The main research question of this study is “how to enhance purchase
intentions of environmental needs via a green marketing model which considers
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product greenness and both of product perceived value and risk under the context of
customer skepticism?” This study would like to help marketers to develop a green
marketing framework to increase green purchase intentions via the three drivers: green
perceived value, green perceived risk, and green trust. Although prior research has
widely discussed the relevant issues about perceived value and perceived risk, none
explores them about green or environmental issues. Thus, this paper would like to fill
the research gap. This study proposes three novel constructs, green perceived value,
green perceived risk, and green purchase intentions, and incorporates the concept of
green trust proposed by Chen (2010) into an integral framework to further discuss their
implications in the field of green marketing. Green purchase intentions are more
important for companies under the context of strict international environmental
regulations and prevalent customer environmentalism. This study develops the
research framework which can help companies improve green purchase intentions via
their three determinants: green perceived value, green perceived risk, and green trust.
This study summarizes the literature on green marketing and relationship
marketing into a new managerial framework of green purchase intentions. This paper
would like to extend the research of green purchase intentions into a new framework.
Besides, this study would further undertake an empirical test to verify the
relationships among green perceived value, green perceived risk, green trust, and green
purchase intentions. This paper proposes a new framework of green purchase
intentions in compliance with environmental trends to help companies increase their
green purchase intentions for their products. The structure of this study is as follows.
A literature review is discussed in section 2, and five hypotheses are also proposed in
this section. In section 3, this study describes the methodology, the sample, and data
collection, and the measurement of the constructs. Then, the descriptive statistics,
reliability of the measurement, factor analysis, correlation coefficients between the
constructs, discriminant validity, convergent validity, and the results of structural
equation modeling (SEM) are shown in section 4. In the end, this study mentions the
conclusions and discussions about the findings, implications, research limitations, and
possible directions for future research in section 5.
Literature review and hypothesis development
Green marketing
Since consumers pay more attention to the rise of environmental protection activities
and the impact of pollutions, consumer environmentalism becomes more popular in the
world (McIntosh, 1991). As a result, consumers are more willing to purchase green
products that are not harmful to the environment (Chen, 2010). Due to the prevalence of
the environmentalism and the emergence of the strict environmental regulations,
companies need to change their business models that can seize the green opportunities
(Peattie, 1992). Green marketing that has been widely developed to satisfy green needs
of consumers is a new area in the marketing field. Green marketing is a process which
includes all marketing activities that are developed to trigger and to sustain
consumers’ environmental attitudes and behaviors (Jain and Kaur, 2004). Besides,
companies can adopt the concept of green marketing to implement green
differentiation strategies to satisfy customers’ environmental needs or desires
(Polonsky, 1994; Chen, 2008b). Prior literature posits that companies should undertake
green marketing strategies to find out customers’ green needs, to launch green
products, to divide the green market into different segments, to target one or several
segments, to formulate green positioning strategies, and to implement a green
marketing mix program ( Jain and Kaur, 2004). Since the society has become more
worried about the environment, there are more customers with environmental beliefs
who are more willing to purchase green products which have a less detrimental impact
on the environment (Peattie, 1995). For example, many market segments are willing to
pay for decreased air emissions in the USA and they are willing to pay more when the
reductions of air emissions stem from renewable fuels (Roe et al., 2001). Thus, Roe et al.
(2001) suggest that consumer driven purchases can support the future of renewable
generation capacity in the USA. Consequently, companies need to revise their business
models to comply with the consumer environmentalism (Ottman, 1992). Prior literature
suggests that companies should develop green marketing strategies to obtain
competitive advantages in the environmental era nowadays (Porter and van der Linde,
1995; Chen et al., 2006). As consumers are forced to make trade-offs between product
attributes and product greenness, most of the consumers would not sacrifice their
needs just to be green (Ginsberg and Bloom, 2004). In addition, green marketing
strategies work effectively under different market and competitive conditions range
from the more passive and silent “lean green” approach to the relatively reactive and
visible “extreme green” approach – with “defensive green” and “shaded green”
approaches in between (Ginsberg and Bloom, 2004).
The positive effect of green perceived value on green trust
Perceived value is defined as a consumer’s overall evaluation of the net benefit of a
product or service based on a consumer’s appraisal (Bolton and Drew, 1991; Patterson
and Spreng, 1997). Previous research has widely explored perceived value because it
has a positive effect on marketing performance (Sweeney et al., 1999). Because
perceived value is more important nowadays, companies can enhance consumer
purchase intentions through product value (Steenkamp and Geyskens, 2006). A
product can deliver value to customers by offering them benefit and by differentiating
the product from competitors’ (Zeithaml, 1988; Aaker, 1996). Outstanding product
value for companies can differentiate their products from their competitors’ (Kim et al.,
2008). Perceived value could not only be a crucial determinant in maintaining
long-term customer relationships, but also play a key role in affecting purchase
intentions (Zeithaml, 1988; Zhuang et al., 2010). Besides, perceived value is also
important in influencing customer trust (Kim et al., 2008).
Because environmental consciousness is more prevalent nowadays, this study
proposes a novel construct, “green perceived value”, and refers to Patterson and
Spreng (1997) to define it 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”. Trust is a level of
the willingness to depend on one object based on the expectation of its ability,
reliability, and benevolence (Ganesan, 1994; Hart and Saunders, 1997). Besides, trust is
the intention to accept vulnerability based on positive expectations of the integrity and
capability of another one (Rousseau et al., 1998; Lin et al., 2003). Chen (2010) defines
“green trust” as “a willingness to depend on one object based on the belief or
expectation resulting from its credibility, benevolence, and ability about environmental
performance”. Past research posits that there is a positive relationship between
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perceived value and customer trust, since high level of perceived value can increase
post-purchase confidence of the product (Sweeney et al., 1999; Eid, 2011; Sirdeshmukh
et al., 2002). Some firms overstate the environmental value of their products such that
their customers distrust their products any more (Kalafatis and Pollard, 1999). Hence,
this study hypothesizes that green perceived value of customers positively affects their
green trust in the environmental era and proposes the following hypothesis:
H1. Green perceived value is positively associated with green trust.
The negative effect of green perceived risk on green trust
Perceived risk is a subjective evaluation by consumers associated with possible
consequences of wrong decisions (Peter and Ryan, 1976). Because perceived risk is a
combination of negative consequence and uncertainty, the assessment of perceived
risk would affect customer purchase decision (Peter and Ryan, 1976; Stone and
Gronhaug, 1993; Aaker, 1996). Prior research asserts that perceived risk would impact
consumer purchase decisions and behaviors (Chaudhuri, 1997; Mitchell, 1992).
Perceived risk theory argues that consumers are keen to minimize their perceived risk
rather than to maximize their utility (Mitchell, 1999). The information asymmetry
makes it more difficult for buyers to identify actual product value before purchase
(Mishra et al., 1998). This condition provides an incentive for the seller to act
dishonestly (Mishra et al., 1998). Eventually, the buyers are unwilling to purchase a
product because of their distrust of the seller due to the information asymmetry
between the buyers and the seller (Gregg and Walczak, 2008). If consumers perceive
high risk towards a product, they would be reluctant to trust the product (Mitchell,
1999). Thus, prior research argues that perceived risk negatively affects perceived trust
(Corritore et al., 2003; Harridge-March, 2006; Chang and Chen, 2008; Eid, 2011;
Warrington et al., 2000).
There is a strong relationship between risk perceptions and negative consumption
emotions which have a direct effect on trust (Chaudhuri, 1997). As a result, risk-related
emotions such as anxiety or worry would negatively affect trust (Chang and Chen,
2008). Hence, previous research argues that perceived risk negatively influences
customer trust (Koehn, 2003; Eid, 2011). In the rise of the environmental trends,
customers have more environmental consideration which would increase their
perceived risk. Hence, this paper proposes a novel construct, “green perceived risk”,
and refers to Peter and Ryan (1976) to define it as “the expectation of negative
environmental consequences associated with purchase behavior”. In the context of
environmental management, this study argues green perceived risk would negatively
affect green trust and implies the following hypothesis:
H2. Green perceived risk is negatively associated with green trust.
The positive effect of green trust on green purchase intentions
Trust caused from three beliefs – integrity, benevolence, and ability – is an
expectation held by one party that the word, promise, or statement of another party can
be relied on (Rotter, 1971; Schurr and Ozanne, 1985). Besides, trust is an extent of the
confidence that another party would behave as expected (Hart and Saunders, 1997).
Customer trust is a fundamental determinant of long-term consumer behavior (Lee
et al., 2011). Hence, consumer purchase intentions are affected by consumer trust
(Harris and Goode, 2010). Past literature posits that customer trust is a determinant of
consumer purchase intentions (Schlosser et al., 2006). If buyers have had a trust
experience with the seller, they would possess a higher level of purchase intentions.
Thus, consumer trust is an antecedent of customer purchase intentions (van der
Heijden et al., 2003). Previous research shows that customer trust would positively
influence customer purchase intentions (Schlosser et al., 2006). Recently some
companies exaggerate the environmental performance of their products, and thereby
customers are reluctant to trust them any more (Kalafatis and Pollard, 1999). Thus,
Chen (2010) argues that green trust would influence consumers’ purchase behaviors in
the environmental era. This study proposes a novel notion, “green purchase
intentions”, and refers to Netemeyer et al. (2005) and Morrison (1979) to define it as “the
likelihood that a consumer would buy a particular product resulting from his or her
environmental needs”. Lu et al. (2010) indicate that customer trust positively affects
customer purchase intentions. In the context of environmental management, this study
hypothesizes that green trust of customers positively affects their green purchase
intentions and proposes the following hypothesis:
H3. Green trust is positively associated with green purchase intentions.
The positive effect of green perceived value on green purchase intentions
Because consumer judgment is often based on incomplete information, perceived value
of products which are acted as a signal to them would positively influence their
purchase intentions (Kardes et al., 2004). Perceived value is a set of attributes which are
related to the perception of a product’s value, so it can build up a positive
word-of-mouth effect and raise purchase intentions (Sweeney et al., 1999; Ashton et al.,
2010). Since some companies promote their products by means of deceptive claims
about the environmental value of their products, customers are averse to purchase their
products (Kalafatis and Pollard, 1999). Hence, green perceived value currently plays a
more important role in the environmental era. Perceived value is one of the most
significant factors affecting purchase intentions (Zeithaml, 1988). Therefore, previous
literature indicates that perceived value is positively related to consumer purchase
intentions (Gounaris et al., 2007). Poor perceived value can result in loss of consumer
purchase intentions (Sweeney and Soutar, 2001). If consumers perceive that the value
of a product is higher, they are more likely to purchase the product (Chang and Chen,
2008). Thus, prior literature demonstrates that perceived value of customers positively
impact their purchase intentions (Cronin et al., 1997; Patterson and Spreng, 1997; Brady
and Robertson, 1999; Eggert and Ulaga, 2002; Tam, 2004). In the rise of the
environmentalism nowadays, green perceived value is very crucial to green purchase
intentions, so this study implies the following hypothesis:
H4. Green perceived value is positively associated with green purchase intentions.
The negative effect of green perceived risk on green purchase intentions
Perceived risk has a negative influence on the purchase decision of customers (Murphy
and Enis, 1986; Harridge-March, 2006). Besides, perceived risk is a subjective
expectation of a loss, so it would significantly affect customer behaviors (Engel et al.,
1986; Mitchell, 1992; Chaudhuri, 1997; Mitchell, 1999). Perceived risk theory posits that
buyers are apt to minimize their perceived risk rather than to maximize their expected
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payoff (Mitchell, 1999). The reduction of perceived risk leads to the increase of
purchase probability and to the rise of customer purchase intentions, so perceived risk
is negatively associated with purchase intentions (Wood and Scheer, 1996; Mitchell,
1999; Chang and Chen, 2008). The information asymmetry makes it quite difficult for
consumers to judge actual product value before purchase (Mishra et al., 1998). This
situation allows the seller to act opportunistically (Mishra et al., 1998). Eventually, the
customers are loath to buy the seller’s product owing to the information asymmetry
inherent in the transaction (Gregg and Walczak, 2008). If consumers perceive high risk
towards a product, they would be improbable to buy the product (Mitchell, 1999). Thus,
previous literature indicates that the reduction of perceived risk can increase customer
purchase intentions (Wood and Scheer, 1996). In other words, perceived risk negatively
affects customer purchase intentions (Wood and Scheer, 1996; Chang and Chen, 2008).
Thus, this paper argues that green perceived risk negatively influences green purchase
intentions and implies the following hypothesis:
H5. Green perceived risk is negatively associated with green purchase intentions.
This study integrates the concepts of green marketing and relationship marketing into
a research framework of green purchase intentions. Companies need to keep in mind
that consumers are unlikely to compromise on product functionality, though they must
care about whether consumers perceive the greenness of their products. Green
products must possess the traditional product functionality against nongreen products
to enhance purchase intentions. The research framework of this study simultaneously
considers product greenness and both of product value and risk to enhance purchase
intentions of environmental needs. In addition, reducing customer perceived risk about
product greenness can help to ease customer skepticism and to raise customer trust for
green products. This paper extends the research of consumer purchase intentions,
perceived value, perceived risk, and consumer trust into the field of green marketing.
This study asserts that green perceived value positively affect green purchase
intentions, while green perceived risk negatively influence green purchase intentions.
In addition, this study argues that the relationships between green purchase intentions
and their two determinants – green perceived value and green perceived risk – are
partially mediated by green trust. It means that enhancing green trust can increase the
extent of the positive relationship between green perceived value and green purchase
intentions and decrease the extent of the negative relationship between green perceived
risk and green purchase intentions. The antecedents of the research framework are
green perceived value and green perceived risk and the consequent is green purchase
intentions, while green trust is a partial mediator. The research framework is shown in
Figure 1.
Methodology and measurement
Data collection and the sample
The unit of analysis in this study is the consumer level. This study applies the
questionnaire survey to verify the hypotheses and research framework from August 1,
2010 to December 15, 2010. The research object of this study focuses on Taiwanese
consumers who have the purchase experience of information and electronics products
in Taiwan. The questionnaires were randomly mailed to consumers who had the
purchase experience of information and electronics products. The sample was
Green purchase
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509
Figure 1.
Research framework
randomly selected from “2009 Yellow Book of Taiwan”. The research assistants called
to each randomly selected consumer to confirm he or she must have the purchase
experience of information and electronics products. If he or she has the purchase
experience of information and electronics products, the research assistants would
undertake the subsequent procedures. However, if he or she has no the purchase
experience of information and electronics products, the research assistants would not
undertake the subsequent procedures. The study refers to previous research to design
questionnaire items. Prior to mailing to the respondents, six experts and scholars were
asked to modify the questionnaire in the first pretest. Subsequently, the questionnaires
were randomly mailed to ten consumers who had the purchase experience of
information and electronics products and they were asked to fill in the questionnaire
and to identify the ambiguities in terms, meanings, and issues in the second pretest.
Therefore, the questionnaire of this study has a high level of content validity. High
content validity is a necessary requisition for the questionnaire survey in this study.
After the second pretest, the sample was randomly selected from “2009 Yellow Book of
Taiwan”. To heighten the valid survey response rate, the research assistants called to
each randomly selected consumer who had the purchase experience of information and
electronics products, explained the objectives of the study and the questionnaire
contents, and confirmed the names and addresses of the respondents prior to
questionnaire mailing. The respondents were asked to return the completed
questionnaires within two weeks through mailing. Information and electronics
products are regulated by the highly strict international environmental laws or
regulations, such as Montreal Convention, Kyoto Protocol, Restriction of the Use of
Certain Hazardous Substances in EEE (RoHS), and Waste Electronics and Electrical
Equipment (WEEE), so that consumers need to purchase information and electronics
products which are environmental friendly to satisfy their environmental needs (Chen
et al., 2006). There are three reasons to focus on Taiwanese consumers who have the
purchase experience of information and electronics products in this study. First,
Taiwan is a highly export-oriented country which has intense interaction with both of
the West and the East. Hence, this research conducted in Taiwanese consumers can
provide a valuable reference for practitioners and researchers. Second, Taiwan is one of
key manufacturing bases for information and electronics products in the world. It is
quite common that Taiwanese consumers are familiar with the environmental trends
with respect to information and electronics products. Hence, it is interesting to conduct
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this study in Taiwanese consumers with regard to the experience of information and
electronics products. Third, Taiwan is one of famous emerging markets in the world.
This research resulting from Taiwanese consumers can contribute to other emerging
markets as valuable reference. This study sent 800 questionnaires to the consumers
who were sampled. There are 258 valid questionnaires, and the effective response rate
is 32.25 per cent.
510
The measurement of the constructs
The measurement of the questionnaire items in this study is by means of “five-point
Likert scale from 1 to 5” rating from strongly disagreement to strongly agreement.
This study asked every respondent to point out a specific information and electronics
product of a specific Taiwanese company which is the most impressive for her or him.
Then, every respondent was requested to regard this product as the focal one to fill in
the questionnaire. The definitions and measurements of the constructs in this study are
in the following:
(1) Green perceived value. This study proposes the notion of “green perceived
value” and refers to Patterson and Spreng (1997) to define it 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”. Besides, this paper refers to
Patterson and Spreng (1997) to measure green perceived value, and its
measurement includes five items:
.
This product’s environmental functions provide very good value for you.
.
This product’s environmental performance meets your expectations.
.
You purchase this product because it has more environmental concern than
other products.
.
You purchase this product because it is environmental friendly.
.
You purchase this product because it has more environmental benefit than
other products.
(2) Green perceived risk. This study proposes the notion of “green perceived risk”
and refers to Peter and Ryan (1976) to define it as “the expectation of negative
environmental consequences associated with purchase behavior”. Furthermore,
this paper refers to Jacoby and Kaplan (1972), Murphy and Enis (1986), and
Sweeney et al. (1999) to measure green perceived risk, and its measurement
includes five items:
.
There is a chance that there will be something wrong with environmental
performance of this product.
.
There is a chance that this product will not work properly with respect to its
environmental design.
.
There is a chance that you would get environmental penalty or loss if you
use this product.
.
There is a chance that using this product will negatively affect the environment.
.
Using this product would damage your green reputation or image.
(3) Green trust. Referring to Chen (2010), this study defines “green trust” as “a
willingness to depend on a product, service, or brand based on the belief or
expectation resulting from its credibility, benevolence, and ability about its
environmental performance”. In addition, this research refers to Chen (2010) to
measure green trust and its measurement includes five items:
.
You feel that this product’s environmental reputation is generally reliable.
.
You feel that this product’s environmental performance is generally
dependable.
.
You feel that this product’s environmental claims are generally trustworthy.
.
This product’s environmental concern meets your expectations.
.
This product keeps promises and commitments for environmental
protection.
(4) Green purchase intentions. This study proposes a novel notion, “green purchase
intentions”, and refers to Netemeyer et al. (2005) and Morrison (1979) to define it
as “the likelihood that a consumer would buy a particular product resulting
from his or her environmental needs”. Besides, this paper refers to Pavlou (2003)
and Chang and Chen (2008) to measure green purchase intentions and their
measurement includes three items:
.
You intend to purchase this product because of its environmental concern.
.
You expect to purchase this product in the future because of its
environmental performance.
.
Overall, you are glad to purchase this product because it is environmental
friendly.
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This study utilizes structural equation modeling (SEM) to verify the research
framework and hypotheses, and applies AMOS 7.0 to obtain the empirical results. SEM
of this study examines the two levels of analysis, the measurement model and the
structure model, and their results are shown in the following.
Empirical results
The results of the measurement model
The means, standard deviations, and correlation matrix are shown in Table I. In
Table I, there are positive correlations among green perceived value, green trust, and
green purchase intentions, while there are negative correlations between green
perceived risk and the other constructs. The factor analysis of the four constructs is
Constructs
Mean
Standard deviation
A
B
A. Green perceived value
B. Green perceived risk
C. Green trust
D. Green purchase intentions
3.702
2.584
3.791
3.779
0.580
0.569
0.585
0.573
20.358 *
0.367 *
0.378 * *
20.361 *
20.364 *
Notes: * p , 0:05, * * p , 0:01
C
0.376 *
Table I.
Means, standard
deviations and
correlations of the
constructs
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shown in Table II. Every construct in this study can be classified into only one factor.
The study refers to the prior research to design questionnaire items. Before mailing to
the respondents, this study employs two pretests for the questionnaire revision.
Therefore, the measurement of this study is acceptable in content validity. Besides,
there are several measures to confirm the reliability and validity of the constructs. On
one hand, one measure of the reliability is to examine the loadings of each constructs’
individual items. With respect to the quality of the measurement model, the loadings
(l) of all items of the four constructs listed in Table III are significant. On the other
hand, Cronbach’s a is the other measure of the reliability. Table III lists Cronbach’s a
for the constructs. In general, the minimum requirement of Cronbach’s a coefficient is
0.7 (Hair et al., 1998). In Table III, the Cronbach’s a coefficient of “green perceived
value” is 0.882; that of “green perceived risk” is 0.858; that of “green trust” is 0.902; that
of “green purchase intentions” is 0.908. Because the Cronbach’s a coefficients of all
constructs are more than 0.7, the measurement of this study is acceptable in reliability.
In addition, it is also important to verify whether the validity of the measurement in
this study is acceptable. This study applies Fornell and Larcker’s measure of average
Constructs
Table II.
Factor analysis of this
study
Green
Green
Green
Green
Number of factors
5
5
5
3
1
1
1
1
58.5
57.4
58.2
56.1
perceived value
perceived risk
trust
purchase intentions
Constructs
Items
l
Cronbach’s a
AVE
The square root
of AVE
A. Green perceived value
GPV1
GPV2
GPV3
GPV4
GPV5
GPR1
GPR2
GPR3
GPR4
GPR5
GT1
GT2
GT3
GT4
GT5
GPI1
GPI2
GPI3
0.834
0.856 *
0.864 *
0.878 *
0.860 *
0.840
0.852 *
0.861 *
0.857 *
0.896 *
0.838
0.869 *
0.853 *
0.861 *
0.877 *
0.845
0.868 *
0.875 *
0.882
0.746
0.864
0.858
0.764
0.874
0.902
0.758
0.871
0.908
0.738
0.859
B. Green perceived risk
C. Green trust
Table III.
The items’ loadings (l)
and the constructs’
Cronbach’s a coefficients
and AVEs
Number of items
Accumulation
percentage of
explained variance
D. Green purchase intentions
Note: * p , 0:01
variance extracted (AVE) to evaluate the discriminant validity of the measurement
(Fornell and Larcker, 1981). The AVE measures the amount of variance captured by
the construct through its items relative to the amount of variance due to the
measurement error. To satisfy the requirement of the discriminant validity, the square
root of a construct’s AVE must be greater than the correlations between the construct
and the other ones in the model. For example, the square roots of the AVEs for the two
constructs, green perceived value and green purchase intentions, are 0.864 and 0.859 in
Table III which are more than the correlation, 0.378, between them in Table I. It
demonstrates that there is adequate discriminant validity between the two constructs.
The square roots of all constructs’ AVEs in Table III of this study are all more than the
correlations among all constructs in Table I. Therefore, the discriminant validity of the
measurement is acceptable. Besides, if the AVE of a construct is higher than 0.5, it
means that there is convergent validity for the construct. As shown in Table III, the
AVEs of the four constructs are 0.746, 0.764, 0.758, and 0.738, which are all higher than
0.5. It indicates that the convergent validity of the measurement is acceptable.
According to the above results, the reliability and validity in this study are adequate.
Green purchase
intentions
513
The results of the structural model
Table IV shows the results of the structural model in this study. The overall fit
measures of the full model in the SEM indicates that the fit of the model is acceptable
(GFI ¼ 0:901, RMSEA ¼ 0:047, NFI ¼ 0:905, CFI ¼ 0:909). All of the paths estimated
are significant, and all hypotheses are supported in this study. Adding more paths in
this research framework would not significantly improve the fit. The residuals of the
covariance are small and center near 0. The results of the full model in this study are
shown in Figure 2. All five paths estimated are significant. Therefore, H1, H2, H3, H4,
and H5 are all supported in this study. This study finds out that the increase of green
perceived value can not only meet both of the strict international environmental
regulations and the popular consumer environmentalism, but also enhance both of
green trust and green purchase intentions. This study demonstrates that green
perceived value is a crucial determinant in both of maintaining long-term customer
relationships and affecting green customer trust. Moreover, green perceived value
plays an important role in influencing green purchase intentions. In addition, this
study figures out that green perceived risk is negatively associated with both of green
trust and green purchase intentions. Since many companies do not carry out their
environmental promises, customers have more environmental consideration that raises
their green perceived risk for green products. As a result, consumers are eager to
Hypothesis
H1
H2
H3
H4
H5
Note: * p , 0:05
Proposed effect
Path coefficient
þ
2
þ
þ
2
0.294 *
20.288 *
0.272 *
0.298 *
20.286 *
Results
H1 is
H2 is
H3 is
H4 is
H5 is
supported
supported
supported
supported
supported
Table IV.
The results of the
structural model
MD
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514
Figure 2.
The results of the full
model
minimize their green perceived risk rather than to maximize their green needs. In
addition, it is more difficult for consumers to identify actual product value before
purchase due to the information asymmetry (Mitchell, 1999). Eventually, the
consumers are unwilling to purchase green products because of distrust (Gregg and
Walczak, 2008). Thus, the assessment of green perceived risk would affect green
purchase decisions and behaviors. The empirical results support the above argument
and demonstrate that green trust would positively affect green purchase intentions.
Recently some companies exaggerate the environmental performance of their green
products, and consumers distrust them and the consumers would not purchase their
products any more (Kalafatis and Pollard, 1999). Thus, green trust would influence
consumers’ green purchase behaviors in the environmental era. The empirical results
support the above statement and indicate that green trust would affect green purchase
intentions. In addition, this study verifies that green trust partially mediates the
relationships between green purchase intentions and their two antecedents – green
perceived value and green perceived risk. As a result, companies should raise their
green perceived value and reduce green perceived risk to enhance their green trust and
green purchase intentions to satisfy their customers’ environmental needs.
When consumers need to make a choice between product attributes and product
greenness, they would perhaps select product attributes rather than product greenness
(Ginsberg and Bloom, 2004). Consumers are improbable to compromise on traditional
product value and quality. Even though green products must focus on their green
attribute, they also have traditional excellent functionality to compete with non-green
products. This study finds out that companies need to develop products that possess
both of greenness and high perceived value attributes can enhance consumers’ green
trust and green purchase intentions. The empirical result supports the suggestion of
Ginsberg and Bloom (2004). Some firms overstate the green functionality of their
products, and thereby customers feel high risky for their green products and distrust
them any more (Kalafatis and Pollard, 1999). This study points out that companies
need to reduce green perceived risk of their products to increase both of green trust and
green purchase intentions of their products. The empirical result supports the claim of
Kalafatis and Pollard (1999). Chen (2010) argues that green trust would positively
affect consumers’ purchase behaviors. This study indicates that green trust can
positively affect green purchase intentions. Therefore, the result of this study supports
the argument of Chen (2010).
Conclusions and implications
The literature is not conclusive on how purchase intentions can be developed and
sustained in an integrated framework under the context of environmental thinking.
Thus, this study provides an approach about perceived value and perceived risk to
activate the building process of purchase intentions in the context of environmental
management. This study develops a research framework of green purchase intentions
to further discuss its relationships with green perceived value, green perceived risk,
and green trust. The empirical results show that green perceived value positively
relates to both of green trust and green purchase intentions. In addition, this study
indicates that green perceived risk negatively relates to both of green trust and green
purchase intentions. Furthermore, this study finds out that the relationships between
green purchase intentions and their two determinants – green perceived value and
green perceived risk – are partially mediated by green trust. All hypotheses proposed
in this study are supported. Therefore, investing resources in the increase of green
perceived value and the reduction of green perceived risk is useful to raise green trust
and green purchase intentions.
There are five academic contributions in this study. First, this study combines the
concepts of green marketing and relationship marketing to develop a research
framework of green purchase intentions. Second, when consumers are forced to make
trade-offs between product attributes and product greenness, they will not sacrifice
their desires just to be green. This study develops a framework to handle this dilemma
via considering product greenness and both of product perceived value and risk to
enhance purchase intentions of environmental needs under the context of customer
skepticism. Third, this study demonstrates that the relationships between green
purchase intentions and their two determinants – green perceived value and green
perceived risk – are partially mediated by green trust. Fourth, this paper extends the
research of consumer purchase intentions and perceived value into the field of green
marketing. Fifth, decreasing customer perceived risk about product greenness can help
to ease customer skepticism and to raise customer trust for green products. This paper
extends the research of consumer trust and perceived risk into the field of green
marketing. The main purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the relationships between
green purchase intentions and their two antecedents – green perceived value and
green perceived risk – and to identify the partial mediation effect of green trust.
Green purchase
intentions
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Companies must increase their green perceived value, reduce their green perceived
risk, and enhance their green trust in order to raise their green purchase intentions in
the environmental era. A useful starting point for marketers is to develop strategies for
raising perceptions of green value and for helping potential customers to develop
sufficient green trust to build up a longer-term relationship in the environmental era.
Besides, perceived risk is powerful at explaining consumer behavior because
consumers are often motivated to reduce risk than to maximize utility in their purchase
processes. Since green perceived risk would lower both of green trust and green
purchase intentions, marketers need to eliminate and reduce the perception of green
risk at every opportunity.
There are three practical contributions in this study. First, this study verifies that
enhancing green perceived value and reducing green perceived risk can not only increase
green trust, but also raise green purchase intentions. If companies would like to enhance
their green purchase intentions for their products, they should combine the concepts of
green perceived value, green perceived risk, and green trust into their long-term
environmental strategies in the stage of strategy-planning. Second, in a more
sophisticated marketing context, it is worth educating experienced retailers as an
effectiveness and prestige information channel between consumers and manufacturers to
increase green perceived value and to decrease green perceived risk in order to raise green
purchase intentions. Third, companies need to enhance green trust of their customers.
Because there exists a significant mediation effect of green trust in this study, companies
can build up green trust from their customers to increase the extent of the positive
relationship between green perceived value and green purchase intentions and to
decrease the extent of the negative relationship between green perceived risk and green
purchase intentions. Since green marketing can become a way of differentiating and
positioning nowadays, firms should exploit the environmental concerns of consumers to
differentiate and to position their products in order to seize new green markets. Although
some firms would like to develop long-term strategies to carry out their green marketing,
the major challenge for them is how to incorporate their environmental mission into their
business strategies rather than to only promote their green products.
In a B2C context, retailers are regarded as crucial mediation agents to delivery
information between consumers and manufacturers. This shows that retailers’
technical knowledge and services play an important role in both of enhancing value
perception and reducing risk perception. Thus, it is crucial to offer retailers enough
product knowledge and services that can not only increase value perception of
consumers but also decrease their risk perception. Customers may be keen to take the
green perceived risk if they are confident that the product provider stands behind their
products. Assuring consumers of the reliability of products can reduce perceived risk
of consumers. Besides, additional effective approaches to reduce perceived risk may
include money back guarantees and guarantees about green perceived value. If
companies can adopt the above green marketing strategies, they can raise their green
trust and further enhance their green purchase intentions.
There are three research limitations in the study. First, this study concentrates on
the purchase experience of information and electronics products. Future research can
focus on the purchase experience of other products and compare with this study.
Second, this study concentrates on Taiwanese consumers. Future research can focus on
other consumers in other countries and compare with this study. Third, this study
verifies the hypotheses by means of questionnaire survey which only provides
cross-sectional data so that this study cannot observe the dynamic change of green
perceived value, green perceived risk, green trust, and green purchase intentions in the
different stages through longitudinal data. Therefore, future research can set forth
toward the longitudinal study to find out the differences of green perceived value,
green perceived risk, green trust, and green purchase intentions in the different stages.
This study hopes that the research results are useful to managers, researchers,
practitioners, and policy makers, and contribute to future research as reference.
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About the authors
Dr Yu-Shan Chen is a Professor in the Department of Business Administration of National Taipei
University in Taiwan. His research interests focus on corporate environmental management,
green marketing, management of technology, and innovation management. Yu-Shan Chen is the
corresponding author and can be contacted at: dr.chen.ys@gmail.com
Dr Ching-Hsun Chang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Business
Administration of Tamkang University in Taiwan. Her research interests focus on corporate
environmental management, green marketing, management of technology, and innovation
management.
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