The Influence of Personality Traits on Intention to Purchase Green Products

Introduction

Advancing technologies and their use in various applications and products is a significant source of resource depletion and environmental degradation. Consumers have become increasingly aware of the direct and indirect impacts of their purchasing behaviors on the ecology (Sharma et al., 2020). For example, the Nielsen Company (2019) has investigated what their customers pay attention to and report most of consumers willing to change their consumption habit to reduce negative impact on the environment. Especially, about 40% of consumers agree to pay more for the product with green/ environmental-friendly statements. Moreover, they found the useful statements of product sustainability purchase drivers can be concluded as: (1) a company being environmentally friendly; (2) a company being known for its corporate social responsibility; and (3) a company with natural and organic products. It also found that most of sales products categories such as Baby food, Coffee, Tea and Snacks, many brands adopt the sustainability and friendly environment marketing approach. Moreover, this kind of marketing promotions is much higher in developed market than in developing countries. Ragazzi and Ghidini (2017) also have similar results show that consumers are much more aware of the importance of environmental sustainability for the earth, and they are willing to pay more for green products.

Green marketing embodies the efforts made by an organization to design, promote, price, and distribute products that do not harm the environment (Lim et al., 2020). According to Crane (2000) green marketing, encompasses “green consumerism”, “ecological marketing,” and “substantial marketing,” in order to incorporate environmental dimensions into marketing activities. Green marketing activities enable companies to create competitive advantages while benefitting shareholders, consumers, and the environment simultaneously. Consumers are exposed to the idea of “saving the earth” through the use of green products, and marketers hope that these consumers will translate concern for the environment into desired purchase behaviors (Pennybacker, 2014).

Based on a summary from previous studies, Kim (2017) argued that “a majority of research concluded that demographic and psychographic factors have only limited usefulness in predicting and explaining consumer’s pro-environmental behaviors and eco-friendly product purchases.” Tan et al. (2016) further contended that consumer characteristics alone do not determine green purchase behavior. Instead, more and more researchers set to explore the effects of consumer’s motivational drivers such as environmental concerns, perceived values, personal norms, ethical beliefs, and attitudes on green purchase (Bamberg, 2003, Sharma et al., 2020). However, an attempt is yet to be developed to incorporate the influence of personality traits through motivational drivers on green purchase intention.

Despite numerous studies and attempts have used personality traits and individual differences to explain consumer behavior, an integrated picture of “consumer personality” has appeared on Mowen’s 3M model (Mowen & Sujan, 2005; Kang & Johnson, 2015). This study extends the 3M model to develop a hierarchical model of purchase intention and to identify the influences of general antecedents of green purchase intention. The purpose of this study is to explore whether and how consumer’s personality traits influence their green purchase decision. This study focuses on green purchase intention for several important reasons. First, there has been a progressive increase in consumer environmental consciousness during the last three decades that can be explained in this study. Second, as noted by Dennis et al. (2005), the question of how to raise purchase intention toward green products has not yet been properly answered. Third, this study can examine how consumers perceive and react to ecological issues serves as a starting point for elucidating the consumer environmental movement in a nation (Mowen, 2000).