Cultural Moderators of Green Product Purchase Intention: An Examination Through the Lens of the Theory of Planned Behavior

Abstract

Despite their potential for promoting environmental sustainability, understanding consumer adoption of green products is limited since such behavior is complex, as it may differ from typical purchasing motives and cultural values. Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was used in this study to address the main research problem of how PBC attitudes, subjective norms, environmental (un)concern, and environmental knowledge, influence consumers’ green product purchase intention. It also explores how cultural values moderate these relationships, specifically man-nature orientation and LTO. This study proposes a structural model with multigroup analysis to address the moderating impacts on a sample of 216 respondents participating in an online survey. Results show that attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and environmental knowledge positively influence consumers’ green product purchase intention. The group analysis results imply that the dominant group’s environmental concern negatively impacts purchase intention, while this relationship is not significant in the subordinate group. Also, the influence of subjective norms on purchase intention is significantly stronger in the dominant group. The long-term orientation also moderates the relationship between attitude toward green products and purchase intention. The insights from this research extend the literature in TPB and provide practical implications to marketing managers concerning developing marketing communication strategies, perceived value proposals, and the reputation of green products.