The Relationship between Internal Locus of Control and Purchase Intention of Green Products: The Moderation Effect of Product Anthropomorphism: An Abstract

Abstract

Although Consumers’ awareness about the environmental impact of consumptions and their appreciations of green products are on the rise. However, past research has shown that the adoption of green products is still relatively low. In this research, we propose that consumers’ internal locus of control (i.e., the degree to which consumers believe that they have control over the outcome of events in their lives) and the attribution of human emotions to a product, termed as product anthropomorphism might jointly affect consumer purchase decisions. Specifically, in this research, we examine the moderating effect of product anthropomorphism on the relationship between consumers’ internal locus of control and purchase intention of an anthropomorphised green product. In this research, we use the adoption of an energy-saving electric kettle as our research context. We conducted two studies. In the first study, using an online survey data (N = 120), we tested the direct effect of consumers’ internal locus of control on consumers’ purchase intention of green products. Our results revealed that consumers’ internal locus of control has a positive effect on consumers’ purchase intentions. In the second study (N = 400), for the same anthropomorphised electric kettle, we examined the moderating effect of green product anthropomorphism on the relationship between consumers’ internal locus of control and the consumers’ purchase intention of green products. The results of second study revealed that consumers’ internal locus of control positively affects purchase intention, replicating results of the first study. However, more importantly, the results of the second study revealed that the effect of consumers’ internal locus of control on purchase intention is moderated by green product anthropomorphism. That is, product anthropomorphism enhanced the positive effect of locus of control of purchase intention, such that consumers are more likely to purchase green products when the product is anthropomorphised. The implication of this research are that adding the anthropomorphic features of green products and communicating that consumers could contribute to environmental sustainability could increase green product adoptions.