Young Consumers’ Purchase Intentions of

Buying Green Products

A study based on the Theory of Planned Behavior

Authors: Barua Promotosh

Islam Md. Sajedul

Supervisor: Vanyushyn Vladimir

Student
Umeå School of Business
Spring semester 2011
Master thesis, one-year, 15 hp
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to thank all of our well wishers who inspired and supported us in this thesis
writing venture. We are really indebted to our supervisor Vladimir Vanyushyn whose
proper guidance and close supervision helped us to carry out this research to the right
direction.

We would also like to show our gratitude to all of respondents who shared their experiences
with us. We want to thank them for their valuable time they have invested in this study.

Finally, we want to thank all of our friends and family members for providing their
supports all the time.

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 ABSTRACT

This investigation explored the contextual factors affecting young consumers’ attitudes and
their intentions of green purchase behavior in the area of consumer behavior. This study
seeks to understand young consumers’ green purchase intentions based on the Theory of
Planned Behavior (TPB). At the same time, this study also intends to detect variables that
influence young consumers’ intentions of buying green products.

In this thesis, a quantitative approach was adopted. Using a sample of 282 young people, a
survey was developed and conducted in Umeå University, Sweden.

Results indicate that parental influence is the top predictor among all the variables we
studied. From the correlation analyses; we can see that top three predictors are important
for understanding purchase intentions of young consumers. Influence of contextual and
background factors –parents, peer, and environmental knowledge – clearly played an
important role in influencing young consumers’ purchase intentions of buying green
products. To the end, a proposed model is developed to understand green purchase
intentions of young consumers.

Implications for marketers are also discussed in this study.

Keywords: attitude, intentions, purchase, green, contextual, young, environment

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CHAPTER ONE......................................................................................................................................... 1
1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................. 1
1.1 BACKGROUND .................................................................................................................................... 1
1.2 PROBLEM DISCUSSION ........................................................................................................................ 3
1.3 RESEARCH QUESTION.......................................................................................................................... 4
1.4 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY ...................................................................................................................... 4
1.5 LIMITATION ........................................................................................................................................ 5
1.6 TERM DEFINITIONS ............................................................................................................................. 5
1.7 DISPOSITION OF THE THESIS ................................................................................................................ 7

CHAPTER TWO........................................................................................................................................ 8
2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ......................................................................................................... 8
2.1 CHILDREN DEVELOPMENT AS CONSUMERS .......................................................................................... 8
2.2 PRODUCT INVOLVEMENT FACTORS AMONG YOUNG CONSUMERS ....................................................... 10
2.2.1 Age ........................................................................................................................................... 10
2.2.2 Subjective Product Knowledge .................................................................................................. 10
2.2.3 Social Influence ........................................................................................................................ 10
2.2.4 Product Category Involvement .................................................................................................. 11
2.3 INDIVIDUAL FACTORS ....................................................................................................................... 11
2.4 CONTEXTUAL FACTORS ..................................................................................................................... 12
2.4.1 Parents ..................................................................................................................................... 13
2.4.2 Peer.......................................................................................................................................... 13
2.4.3 Mass Media .............................................................................................................................. 14
2.5 THEORY OF REASONED ACTION ......................................................................................................... 15
CHAPTER THREE.................................................................................................................................. 20
3. METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................................... 20

3.1 CHOICE OF TOPIC .............................................................................................................................. 20

3.2 CHOICE OF THEORY .......................................................................................................................... 21
3.3 PRECONCEPTIONS ............................................................................................................................. 21
3.4 RESEARCH PHILOSOPHY .................................................................................................................... 22
3.4.1 Epistemology Orientation.......................................................................................................... 22
3.4.2 Ontological Orientation ............................................................................................................ 22
3.5 RESEARCH APPROACH....................................................................................................................... 23
3.6 RESEARCH METHOD.......................................................................................................................... 23
3.7 RESEARCH DESIGN............................................................................................................................ 24
3.8 CRITICISM FOR SECONDARY SOURCES OF DATA ................................................................................. 25
3.9 SELECTION OF DATA SOURCES .......................................................................................................... 26
3.10 DATA COLLECTION ......................................................................................................................... 26
3.11 CRITICISM AGAINST COLLECTED DATA ............................................................................................ 26
3.12 PILOT TEST ..................................................................................................................................... 26
3.13 SAMPLING PROCEDURES .................................................................................................................. 27
CHAPTER FOUR .................................................................................................................................... 28
4. RESULTS AND ANALYSIS ................................................................................................................ 28

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 4.1 QUESTIONNAIRE CONSTRUCTS .......................................................................................................... 28
4.2 DEMOGRAPHIC RESULTS ................................................................................................................... 30
4.3 ANALYZING YOUNG CONSUMERS ...................................................................................................... 32
4.4 ANALYSIS ......................................................................................................................................... 37
4.4.1 Contextual Factors Affecting Young Consumers’ Attitudes ........................................................ 37
4.4.2 Theory of Planned Behavior...................................................................................................... 39
CHAPTER FIVE ...................................................................................................................................... 42

5. DISCUSSION ....................................................................................................................................... 42
5.1 CONTEXTUAL FACTORS AND YOUNG CONSUMERS’ ATTITUDES .......................................................... 42
5.2 THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOR ....................................................................................................... 44
CHAPTER SIX......................................................................................................................................... 46
6. CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................................... 46
6.1 MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS ............................................................................................................. 47
6.2 THEORETICAL IMPLICATIONS ............................................................................................................. 47
6.3 FURTHER RESEARCH ......................................................................................................................... 48
CHAPTER SEVEN .................................................................................................................................. 49

7. THE CREDIBILITY OF RESEARCH FINDINGS............................................................................. 49

REFERENCE LIST ................................................................................................................................. 51
APPENDICES ...............................................................................................................................................-1-
APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE .......................................................................................................................-1-

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List of Figures
Figure 1: Attitude Components. .................................................................................................. 9
Figure 2: Conceptualization Framework. ................................................................................... 12
Figure 3: Factors Determining a Person’s Behavior. .................................................................. 16
Figure 4: Theory of Planned Behavior.. ..................................................................................... 17
Figure 5: The Role of Background Factors in the Theory of Planned Behavior. ......................... 19
Figure 6: Formulation of The Research Problem ....................................................................... 20
Figure 7: The Process of Quantitative Research......................................................................... 24
Figure 8: Steps in the Process of Survey Research..................................................................... 25
Figure 9: Respondents’ male and female proportion. ................................................................. 31
Figure 10: The Percentage of Different Age Groups .................................................................. 32
Figure 11: Young Consumer’s Purchase intentions ................................................................... 33
Figure 12: The Proposed Model ................................................................................................ 43
Figure 13: Theory of Planned Behavior.. ................................................................................... 44
Figure 14: Our interpretation of the TPB model. ....................................................................... 45

List of Tables
Table 1: Construct Development ............................................................................................... 29
Table 2: Demographical Information of Subjects ...................................................................... 31
Table 3: Descriptive Information............................................................................................... 32
Table 4: Young Consumers' Purchase Intention of Green Products............................................ 33
Table 5: Analysis of ANOVA ................................................................................................... 34
Table 6: T-test between Male and Female ................................................................................. 36
Table 7: Correlation Between Parents and Attitude ................................................................... 37
Table 8: Correlation Between Peer and Attitude ........................................................................ 37
Table 9: Correlation Between Media and Attitude ..................................................................... 38
Table 10: Correlation Between Knowledge and Attitude ........................................................... 38
Table 11: Correlation Between Subjective norm and Intention .................................................. 39
Table 12: Correlation Between PBC and Intention .................................................................... 40
Table 13: Correlation between Attitude and Intention................................................................ 40

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 CHAPTER ONE
1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

Today, society is cluttered with marketing activities, and these activities surround us
constantly. Among the issues of marketing, a vital part that influences human roles and
activities is “environment”, more specifically the “green environment”. The green
environment is now a leading concern for marketers. The concept of environmentalism and
becoming green was not so prominent before the late 1980s. The green movement started in
Great Britain; British consumers played an initial role of "Greening" movement.
Company’s contribution to environmental degradation and damage influenced consumers
to adopt the greening movement. Thus, eco-friendly marketing concepts spread beyond the
Great Britain boundary. Furthermore, some realists raised their voices about sustainable
green consumerism that does not harm environment (Polonsky, 1994; Prothero, 1990).

The evolution of green marketing issues becomes more apparent since the 1990s. Before
this, green consumerism was not so popular worldwide. In some western countries, they
first initiated the term “Green” in their marketing ideas and journals in the 1980s. Social
marketing concepts were prominent before these green marketing issues (Prothero, 1990).
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, becoming consumerist and adapting an environmentally
friendly behavior was considered as mutually exclusive issues (Bohlen et al., 1993). Thus,
an increased interest towards environmental issues and published materials also comes into
focus with this issue at the end of 1980s (Bragd, 1999, p. 7) but, the demand for green
products has been shown to be uneven across different market segments (Ottman, 1993;
Peattie, 1992).

The demand for green products can vary due to differences in ethnical beliefs and people’s
active participation on environmental issues. The ethnical beliefs and attitudes toward
environmental friendly affairs also differ through socio economic characteristics. Among
these socio-economic characteristics, age is a strong determinant that influences
consumer’s buying behavior and buying patterns greatly. For example, old people are
tended to spend more time on reading and recycling than young people. On contrary, young
people are more willing to participate outdoor activities, and like to join group events.
Johnson et al., (2004) also commented that a person’s environmental beliefs and behaviour
can be explained by his age (Johnson et al., 2004, pp. 179, 180).
There are several other factors that can strongly affect young consumers’ purchase behavior
of green consumption. Previous researchers have found consumers’ role is influenced by
two conceptual thoughts. One is direct consumer skills, and the other is indirect consumer
skills. Direct consumer skills are directly relevant to consumption behavior and purchase
transactions. The indirect skills are those of knowledge, attitude and other marketing
stimuli (Moschis & Churchill, 1979, p. 41). Therefore, marketers can assist organizations in
establishing and communicating a strong environmental image, and help to create a clear
competitive advantage to their consumers (Bohlen, et al., 1993, p. 428).
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Previous articles and papers have been written regarding environmental states and how
industries can incorporate themselves in the welfare of environment (Ottman, 1993).
According to Coddington (1993, p. 199) environmental marketing modifies the role of
environment in corporate management practices. In addition, it also brings changes about
the role of a marketer in environmental management. Coddington (1993, p. 199) also
commented that corporations and industries not only to sell their products with colorful and
attractive packaging as well as manufacture products that are green in order to appeal to
customers.

There were relatively few attempts taken to specify environmentally friendly purchasing
behavior over the last twenty years (Bohlen, et al., 1993, p. 36). Consumers’ buying
behavior shifts radically over this time period. In addition, they become familiar with two
terms that denote green movement. The first term is “sustainable development”, and the
second term is “green movement” (Iyer & Zinkhan, 1994, p. 129). Generally, people try to
behave positively when they feel threatened by the environment (Tanner, 1999, p. 153).
According to Tanner (1999, p.153) states environmental problems are now a growing issue
and human behaviour related to this phenomenon is considered as an important element for
creating environmental awareness.

It is evident that the growth of ecologically favorable consumer behavior is increasing due
to the present environmental degradation. Previous studies have reported that people use
products and services for their physical comfort, mobility, relief from labor, enjoyment,
power status, personal security, maintenance of tradition and family, etc. (Stern, 2000, p.
408). A different view is that people are now more concerned about their consumption
styles. In recent years, a study made by Dunlap stated (1986, cited in Mainieri et al., 1997,
p. 190). During the period 1977 to 1986, the percentage of Americans who preferred
sacrificing economic growth rather than environmental protection enlarged 35% to 58%.
Another study made by Coddington (1990, p. 7) examined that 79% of Americans want to
consider themselves as environmentalists, 82% state they have recycled, 83% state they
have changed their shopping habits to protect the environment, and 67% state that they
would be willing to pay 5% to 10% more for environmentally compatible products. The
focus of consumers has shifted toward environmental protection.

Consumers who are now more aware about environmental protection are more concerned
about ecological lifestyles. People want to improve their lifestyles by taking new
challenges. They consider that environmental protection is not only the responsibility of
firms and institutions, but it is also their responsibility as consumers. People’s personalities
manipulate what attitudes they have toward the environment (Fraj & Martinez, 2006,
2007).

According to (Katz, 1960, p. 168) attitude is the tendency of an individual to evaluate some
objects or symbols in a favorable or unfavorable manner. Alwitt & Berger (1993, p. 189)
commented that the ability of attitudes is to predict behavior for environmentally sensitive
products. The ability of attitudes can be enhanced by considering the attitude’s strength as
well as its valence. Alwitt & Berger’s study found that 70% of consumers show their
concern for the environment, but their actions are inconsistent with these attitudes when it
comes to consuming products and services. They commented that the likeness of a product
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depends on attitude with a varying degree of confidence, certainty, accessibility or
knowledge. Therefore, many researchers moved to social psychological research in the
attitude area to improve a comprehensive theory of consumer behavior (Ajzen & Fishbein,
1980, p. 153).

Ajzen & Fishbein (1980, p. 62) demonstrated that there is a strong empirical relation
between intention and behavior. They mentioned that an individual’s behavior is defined by
his intention to perform the behavior, and this intention is a function of his attitude toward
the behavior and his subjective norm. The study of attitudes and subjective norms is the
first step to understand why people behave the way they do.

1.2 Problem Discussion

Young people are described the ages of 15 and 24 (United Nations 2004, Commonwealth
Secretariat 2011). However, the concept of youth differs from culture to culture and from
one society to another. In a study made by Richard Curtain quoted in the U.N World Youth
Report (2003) the concept of youth is a bit more complex. His study found that four distinct
aspects of young people’s movement from dependence to independence are as follows: (1)
leaving the parental home and making new living arrangements, (2) having full-time
education, (3) maintaining close, stable personal relationship outside of family, (4) trying to
enter the labor market, finding work and possibly setting into a career, and achieving a
more or less stable livelihood (United Nations 2004, p. 6).

Numerous studies supported the importance of young consumers’ appeal toward

environmental friendly products (Ottman et al., 2006, p. 29; Tai & Tam, 1997, p. 304; Lee,
2011, p. 21). For example, Tai & Tam's study (1997) found that younger women in China
were adopting new values and western ideas quickly. Indeed, women in China and Taiwan
were also more environmentally conscious and have substantial earnings and decision-
making power. These women are becoming very fashion conscious and are able to spend
on costly foreign brands as well. Recent evidence also suggests that young people have
been acknowledged as a differentiated segment of the market for a variety of products and
services. In addition, the behavior of young people has received increasing attention among
marketers (Moschis & Moore, 1979, p. 101).

To understand this segment, it is important to know what factors are playing key roles in
buying decisions. For example, Lee (2011, p. 23) identified two types of factors to
conceptualize the green purchase behavior of Hong Kong adolescents: Individual factors
and Contextual factors. Individual factors are local environmental awareness, local
environmental involvement, and concrete environmental knowledge. On the other hand,
Contextual factors are media exposure to environmental messages, parental influence, and
peer influence. We have found the importance of these factors to understand green purchase
behavior of young consumers.

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Contextual Factors

An individual’s environmental friendly behavior also depends on his or her social context.
A study made by Tikka et al., (2000, p. 12) pointed out that the social context as well as
social groups influence our thoughts and acts. As we belong to different social groups and
our social context is also different from one another, so our attitude toward the ecological
behavior will be significantly different from one another.

Tanner et al., (2004, p. 96) commented that contextual barriers influence the likelihood of
people’s knowledge and motivation to act, so an individual’s behavior is influenced by
multiple contextual factors; it is hard to detect which factor influences the most. Different
contextual conditions usually obstruct each other. For example, when you clean clothes,
your primary goal is to get the clothes clean. You will consider the secondary goals later
that are related to environmental impact. You would like to do it in such a way that will
save energy, water and not pollute the environment. According to Hormuth (1999, p. 278),
secondary goals depend on many variables such as attitude (person variables), social norms
(situational variables), functions and the other characteristics that influence its meaning, but
the meaning of an object is acquired by its use and its social context. This view is supported
by Young et al., (2010, p. 25) who writes that contextual factors are also important in green
purchase decisions.

In this study, we have also found the importance of consumer socialization to investigate
the contextual factors affecting young consumers’ attitudes, but the current literature does
not provide enough information about contextual environments (Olli et al., 2001, p. 182).
In addition, the main weakness of the previous studies is the failure to address how these
factors are important for understanding the attitudes of young consumers. Therefore, in this
paper we want to investigate the contextual factors affecting young consumers’ attitudes
and their intentions of green purchase behavior.

In summary, we see the importance of fulfilling the knowledge gap of contexual factors
concerning young consumers’ intentions of green purchase behavior. Recent evidence
found that the reasoned action perspective is demonstrated to be consistent with the results
of recent research on the attitude-behavior relation (Ajzen & Fishbein, 2000, p. 27).
Therefore, we consider that the value of using Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) for our
study will be useful to answer the research question.

1.3 Research Question

What are the contextual factors affecting young consumers’ attitudes and their intentions of
buying green products?

1.4 Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the thesis is to increase the understanding of contextual factors affecting
young consumers’ attitudes and their intentions of green purchase in the area of consumer

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behavior using the Theory of Planned Behavior. To fulfill this purpose, the following
objectives will be implemented.

The first research objective is to identify the contextual factors affecting young consumers’
attitudes, and the second research objective is to understand young consumer’s purchase
intentions of green products with the theory of planned behavior. In addition, this study will
help marketers to plan more efficient and effective marketing plan targeting at young
consumers. As the literature has given little attention on the contextual environments, this
study aims to hold a better understanding of contextual factors that might affect young
consumers’ intentions of buying green products. We hope that the findings of this study
would provide a foundation for understanding green purchase intentions of young
consumers.

1.5 Limitation

In this study, we consider following limitations. First, our study intends to explore young
consumers’ purchase intention of buying green products in general. This study is not based
on young consumers’ intention of buying a particular green product. Secondly, the student
sample is taken from a particular location. The characteristics of the sample may show
different results to other locations because young peoples’ behavior is also influenced by
other background factors (e.g. culture, personality, emotion, values, general attitudes,
experience, income, etc.) In addition, the sample included both Swedish and other
international students, so the behavior of the respondents may be influenced by cultural
effects. Thirdly, scale items used to measure contextual factors are limited in this study.

1.6 Term Definitions

Eco-Literacy: Eco-literacy means consumer’s knowledge on environmental friendly

products. Eco-literacy can influence a consumer’s decision making process. Eco-literacy
can be defined in a way of symbols, concepts, and behavior of consumers that can help
them understand the symbolic meaning of nature (Laroche & Toffoli, 1996, p. 197).

Green Products: Green products are improved in performance to the environment and
society. Green products are significantly better version related to traditional product
offerings available in the market for its production, usage, and disposal (Peattie, 1995, p.
181). These green products are environmentally safe and preferable products and services.
For example, green cars, recycled products, energy efficient electronics, organic tea, etc.

Green Consumerism: Green consumerism means the buying habits of a consumer that are
environmental friendly products and services and not harmful for the environment. The
rising demand for purchasing green products inspired the marketers to adopt green
consumerism strategy (Prothero, 1990, p. 95).

Reference Group: Individual behavior sometime affected by other peoples’ opinion and
experience that is referred here as reference group. For example: friends, family members,

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fellow workers, and relatives, etc.). Reference group is a group or a person that influence
significantly in an individual’s behavior (Bearden & Etzel, 1982, p. 184).

Sustainable Development: Sustainable development means the fulfillment of human needs

without degrading the environment for present situation as well as for future generations.
Sustainable development can be described as the future generations’ needs, social justice
regardless of racial discrimination, and protection of environmental degradation for the
betterment of peoples’ lifestyle(Giddings et al., 2002, p. 194).

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1.7 Disposition of the Thesis

Chapter One Introduction of the research topic, background

Introduction information of the research, and the research
question.

Chapter Two Children development, young consumers’

Theoretical involvement contextual factors, and TPB.
Framework

Overview of methodological approach and

Chapter Three considerations related to the research.
Methodology

Empirical findings of the research and analysis of the

Chapter Four results.
Results and Analysis

Discussion about the findings and relates the results

Chapter Five in practical situation.
Discussion

General overview about research findings and further

Chapter Six research suggestion for further study.
Conclusion

Credibility of the research findings: reliability and

Chapter Seven validity and generalisability
Credibility of Research

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 CHAPTER TWO
2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

A literature review is essential in research areas, and it follows four important steps to
conduct a review. According to Knopf ( 2006, p. 129), a literature review must address four
set of steps. The first step is to examine the study of an individual. The second step is to
concentrate on how other researchers have accomplished conclusion from their
examination. The third step is to summarize the collective results. To accomplish the third
step, researchers need to sort out the results into three different categories: firstly,
researchers will find out what they have found common in the existing studies and reports.
Secondly, researchers need to identify any disagreement found in the literature. Thirdly,
anything is overlooked in the study. Finally, the fourth step is to judge the quality of the
literature overall.

2.1 Children Development as Consumers

In the past, market and consumer researchers overlooked the consumer behavior of young
people. Socialization researchers emphasis on the sex role learning and moral development
of young consumers instead of focusing on consumer learning and behavior. One criticism
of much of the literature on the consumer behavior of young people is that researchers
ignored the importance of childhood experiences. So far, however, there has been little
discussion about childhood experiences are somehow very important in later life as the
adult behavior may be predicted by knowing about the childhood experiences. In addition,
most studies in the field of consumer behavior did not focus on young people because of
their little disposable income (Ward, 1974, p. 1).

Ward (1974, p. 2) published a paper in which he proposed that the key issues are important
to understand consumer socialization processes. The issues are: (1) the way children
develop consumer skills, knowledge and attitudes, (2) the content of these socialization
processes, and (3) how early learning shape later cognitions and behavior related to
consumption. We are not going to examine the socialization process of young people in this
paper. We are studying the concept of socialization of young people as it will help to
indentify the key factors affecting for the development of young peoples’ consumer
behavior.

Children were first treated as consumers in the 1960s. The history of children’s consumer
development dates back to the 1950s with the publication of a few isolated studies. After
that, a considerable amount of literature has been published on children’s understanding of
marketing and retail functions (McNeal, 1964 cited in John, 1999, p. 183). Consumer
socialization is a developmental process that proceeds through a series of stages as children
mature into adult life. These changes take place through these series of stages helping the
process of consumer socialization of children. The stages are perceptual stage, the
analytical stage and the reflective stage. The perceptual stage (ages 3-7) can be defined as
a general orientation toward the instant and readily visible perceptual features of the market

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place. At this stage, children make decisions on the basis of very limited information,
usually a single perceptual dimension of objects and events. This stage is an important
stage in developing information processing abilities. They learn how to process information
at this stage. Though, Children may be aware about their parent’s views at this stage, but
they have difficulty of thinking about their own views. The evidence also suggest that
children have difficulty of thinking about their own views and that of another person
concurrently(John, 1999, p. 186-187). The analytical stage (ages 7-11) contains some of
the most important developments in terms of consumer knowledge and skills. During this
stage, enormous developmental changes take place both cognitively and socially. For
example, children increase their information processing abilities quickly during this stage
and demonstrate more thoughtfulness in their choices. They learn to negotiate for desired
items. In addition, they can think and make decision from the perspective of their parents
and friends (John, 1999, p. 187). The Reflective stage (ages 11-16) is the further
development of cognitive and social developmental stage building more sophisticated
information processing and social skills. During this time, Children become more focused
on the social meanings. Moreover, children understand their own identity as well as the
concepts of branding and pricing at this stage.

Previous studies have reported that the consumption-related activities of adolescents vary,
and their consumption related activities are categorized on the basis of cognitive
complexity (simple vs. complex), and consumption behavior (direct vs. complex). First,
direct-simple skills include attitudes toward advertisements, brands, etc. Second, indirect-
simple skills include knowledge about the marketplace. Third, direct-complex skills include
the ability to differentiate advertising stimuli, seek information, etc. Fourth, indirect-
complex skills include two kind of motives: materialism and consumption (Moschis &
Churchill 1979, p. 41)

Attitude Formation

Social scientists normally assume that there are three types of responses which are liable for
attitude formation. These are cognitive, affective and behavioral categories. Peoples’
thought about the attitude object is considered as cognitive category or cognitive response.
Affective category is related to peoples’ emotions and feelings to the attitude product.
Behavioral category deals with the peoples’ actions to a product (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993,
p. 10). The influence of attitude is presented in the figure below.

Cognitive Responses

Attitude Affective Responses

Behavioral Response
Figure 1: Attitude components (cognitive, affective, and behavioral). Adapted from
The Psychology of Attitudes, by Eagly & Chaiken (1993, p. 10).

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Cognitive responses are thoughts or ideas which are often termed as beliefs. Beliefs are
shaped by positive and negative attributes towards an attitude object. On the other hand,
affective responses are the emotions or feelings that might be in form of favorable and
unfavorable to the attitude object, and behavioral response is the strong evaluations either
in positive way or negative way. These types of responses are regarded as intentions to an
attitude object. Positive evaluation about an object creates positive intentions and negative
evaluation about an object creates negative intention (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993, p. 11-13).

2.2 Product Involvement Factors Among Young Consumers

Recent evidence suggests that product involvement variables are significantly important in
a way of processing marketing and advertising information (Muratore 2003; Te'eni-Harari
et al., 2009). A study made by Te'eni-Harari & Hornik (2010, p. 499) found that five
variables may influence young people product involvement: a young person’s age, an
individual’s subjective knowledge, parental influence, peers influence, and product
category.
Another study found that the advertising effectiveness of children is positively influenced
by product involvement. When children are in a high level of product involvement, their
attitudes are influenced. When children perceive that the product is not relevant or
meaningless for them, their attitudes measure treated as a lower degree influence. (Te'eni-
Harari et al., 2009).

2.2.1 Age

A considerable amount of literature has been published on age. These studies have found
variations in levels of product involvement between different age groupings of adults
(Feick et al., (2003); Quester & Smart 1993; Slama & Tashchian 1985). A study of Quester
& Smart ( 1993, p. 48) found significant differences between the involvement levels of the
18-29 and 30-41 years age groups ,and the 30-41 and 42-54 years age group.

2.2.2 Subjective Product Knowledge

Te'eni-Harari & Hornik (2010, p. 500) commented that level of product involvement
among young is influenced by subjective product knowledge. When a person see an
advertisement of a particular brand, his generalized knowledge can lead to greater levels of
response to a message (Batra & Ray, 1986, p. 433). Consumers who have a lot of
knowledge about a particular product can perceive the product as being important. On
contrary, consumers who are not knowledgeable about a particular product can not perceive
the product as being important (Lutz et al., 1983, p. 532).

2.2.3 Social Influence

Social influence on purchase decision plays significant role in consumer behavior.

Consumers’ buying decisions depend on the information they collect from various sources
in a society. There are different sources of information provider in a society, among them
reference groups play major role that affect consumers involvement in purchase situations

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(Bearden & Etzel, 1982). Another study conducted by Feick et al., (2003) suggests social
network and product involvement are co-related. Young consumers are greatly influenced
by their social network that they maintain (e.g. family, friends, coworker, etc.). Initially,
they collect information from their social network and finally they decide about their brand
choice.

2.2.4 Product Category Involvement

A study made by Dens & Pelsmacker (2010, p. 50) have found that purchase intention of a
consumer depends upon two levels of product category involvement. One is high levels of
product involvement and the other is low levels of involvement. High product involvement
needs higher levels of informational appeals and lower levels of product involvement
require emotional appeals. Informational appeal fulfills the knowledge of a consumer. An
examination conducted by Harari & Hornik (2010, p. 504) have found different age group
in between 4-15 years children were influenced differently in product involvement in
different product categories. Thus, product involvement emphasizes the importance of
growing up a child as a consumer.

2.3 Individual Factors

Several studies have revealed that an individual’s environment related perception, cognition
and emotion are positively associated with environmental behavior (Kollmuss & Agyeman,
2002; Barr, 2003; Schultz et al., 2004).

Environmental Awareness

When an individual is aware of environmental problems, this is the first step for them to
understand the various forms of environmentally sensitive behavior including green
purchase behavior. The correlations between the awareness and attitudes have a positive
impact on purchasing behavior. Peoples’ positive feelings toward the final decision making
go into parallel way (Roberts, 1996, p. 226). According to Lee & Shin (2011, p. 194), “a
higher awareness level of corporate social contribution and local community contribution,
as CSR activities, had more positive effects on consumers’ purchase intentions”. Thus,
creating awareness toward environmental friendly products has a great impact on creating
knowledge and making favorable attitudes.

Environmental Knowledge

Arcury (1990) claimed that environmental increased knowledge about the environment
supports positive attitudes. Numerous studies have attempted to explain students studying
environmental courses demonstrated an increase in liable environmental behavior and an
increased awareness of environmental issues (Jaus, 1984; Jordan et al.,1986; Ramsey &
Rickson 1976; Ramsey, 1993). A study made by Bradley et. al., (1999, p. 20) found that
students possessing favorable environmental attitudes in an enviornmental course tended to
have positive environmental attitudes after their participation of the course. Their study also
suggested that increased knowledge helped to improve environmental attitudes. According
to Amyx et al., individuals who having high knowledge on enviornmental issues want to
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pay a premium price for green products ( 1994, cited in Laroche et al., 2001, p. 505). In a
study, Loroche et al., (2001, p. 505) also commented that ecoliteracy or enviornmental
knowledge is correalted with attitudes and behavior towards environment. Another study
made by Schahn & Holzer, (1990, p. 772) suggested that appropriate knowledge about
environmental problems is a predictor of environment responsible behavior. Though other
studies reported the relationship between environmental knowledge and environment
responsible behavior, but the correlations between these two variables ( knowledge &
Behavior) were relatively too low (Maloney & Ward, 1973, p. 585).

Environmental Involvement/ Association

An Individual’s environmental involvement is a personal concern, and these environmental

issues develop gradually in one’s mind. It is also associated with an individual’s beliefs to
the extent of his/her participation toward nature (Schultz et. al., 2004). In the context of
environmental involvement, consumers’ behavior normally becomes affected through their
collective actions. For example, when an individual is involved with an environmental
organization, he or she performs many activities within the organization. As a result,
environmental involvement within an organization produces a positive attitude toward
nature (Nas & Dekker, 1996). The evidence suggest that individual involvement is very
important, and the strength of motivation on their information processing depends on one’s
degree of involvement (Petty & Cacioppo 1990)

2.4 Contextual Factors

Lee (2011, p. 24) has addressed that contextual environments can play a role in socializing
green purchase behavior. He mentioned three key contextual environments (1) media
exposure, (2) parental influence, and (3) peer influence that influence young consumers’
green purchase decisions.

Figure 2: Conceptualization Framework. Adapted from The Green Purchase Behavior of

Hong Kong Young Consumers: The role of Peer Influence, Local Environmental Involvement,
and Concrete Environmental Knowledge (p.23) by Lee (2011).

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2.4.1 Parents

Communication with Family members can play an important role in shaping consumer
learning. The communication effects from family members can be direct or indirect. Direct
influences of family communication can come from a person’s consumer behavior having
the acquisition of consumption-related information and consequent formation of patterns of
beliefs, norms, and behaviors from other members in a family. On the other hand, indirect
influences can come from the other sources of consumer information such as mass media
and peers (Moschis, 1985, p. 902).

Parental influence is seen as a socialization factor in adolescent stage. The consumption

habits of a parent, their attitudes and their intentions to buy product strongly influence the
consumption pattern of young adolescent people. In addition, parents who hold strong
desire to consume material goods, their children also value material goods in a similar way
like their parents do (Chaplin & John, 2010, p. 176).

In a study of Caruana & Vassallo (2003, pp. 55,61) have found parental influence on
purchasing behavior acts as a main role for children. They also found that family members
with one child or more have different levels of parental influence on their purchase
decisions. Cotte & Wood, (2004, p. 84) found parental influences not only exist in the
purchase decision making process, but it is also shaping the behavior of young children.
For example, parents’ creativity and their innovativeness also encourage their children to
think creatively. The study also found that a young adult adopts the same and similar
behavior that their parents maintain in their style and socialization process.
Previous studies have found parental influence as one of the most powerful elements
among all other socializing agents. Parental supports affect the children’s behavior and
their voluntary activities in a society. Children become more interested to involve
themselves in social activities when they become inspired with their parents. Indeed, there
are some families in which neither father nor mother are engaged in social voluntary work
but they want to become a member of social voluntary works. In such situation they try to
encourage their children to participate in various socially oriented organizations.
Researchers’ found a strong and positive co-relation between parental influence and
children’s involvement in different extracurricular activities beside school education
(Fletcher et al., 2000, p. 35). Furthermore, similar findings have found in a study about the
family influence on environmental awareness among the peoples’ in UK, Australia and
Canada. Thus, family influence can inspire young people in shaping their behavior toward
environmental awareness (Palmer,1999, p. 199).

2.4.2 Peer

Peer relationship is a dominant factor for adolescents’ decision making. Relationship

among adolescents that formed in early childhood considered as weak. The relationships in
adolescent stage become more influential, intimate, and strong (Berndt, 1982). A study
conducted by Gavin & Furman in 1989 found people assign more value in adolescent
period. In the early and middle adolescent period, people emphasize to become a member
of popular group that maintain similar opinion and thinking than different adolescent stage.

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Moschis & Churchill (1979, p. 45) have found different findings in their study. They found
that older adolescents’ are more knowledgeable about products and services, and they can
independently able to differentiate positive and negative information from advertisements.
Older adolescents buy products when they become certain that they have gathered enough
information about their desired products. Another study conducted by (Childers & Rao,
1992, p. 207) found interesting findings about peer influence on consumer decision making
is that peer influence become stronger when their purchase decision is related to fulfill their
private and luxury consumption purposes. Again, in Thai perspective their study found that
family plays significant roles in purchasing behavior. Extended family that maintain large
members have greater influence on individual purchase decision than peer influence.

In a study between younger teenage girls and peer influence on fashion products purchasing
decision have found a strong correlation between these two. Peer influence plays a key role
for choosing fashion products especially for teenage girls. These teenage girls also value
the opinions of their elder sisters who are very intimate with them. Teenage younger people
even don’t bother about to pay premium prices if their peer certify the fashion products as
cool (Grant & Stephen, 2006, p. 110). Another study of young consumers’ consumption
pattern towards snacks and soft drinks shows positive relationships between peer influence
and their purchasing behavior (Wouters et al., 2010). A study by about young adolescents’
motivation and achievement in the context of peer influence found similar to other studies.
He found a young adolescent become affected with their peers’ beliefs and behaviors in
their development stage (Ryan, 2001, p. 1145).

Some studies have found peer influence as a socialization process. This process plays
potential role for gathering information about goods from various socializing agents. In a
china based study among children information seeking sources shows they value friends as
third most important influential factor (McNeal & Ji, 1999, p. 356) among other socializing
factors. A survey by (Minton & Rose, 1997) found adult peoples’ buying behavior
significantly varies due to the social norms.

2.4.3 Mass Media

The issue of advertising to children was controversial and disputed subject in the area of
consumer socialization. Most studies by child psychologists and consumer researchers
claimed that young children have little understanding of the persuasive intent of
advertising. Butter et al., (1981, p. 82) commented that young children may understand they
are watching something different than a program but do not understand that meaning of
what they are watching is to tempt purchase of a product or service. Initially, Contextual
factors are also assisting in the development of skeptical attitudes toward advertising.

In a study made by Soley & Reid (1984, cited in John 1999, p. 190) pointed out that family
environment, peers, and television exposure also assisting in the development of skeptical
attitudes toward advertising. Indeed, critical attitudes of children can be different depending
upon parental control over television viewing. Some parents have control over television
viewing at home and some parents are more flexible in this matter.

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A number of studies have found that young peoples’ purchase decisions are also influenced
by mass media. Young adolescents possess positive attitudes than older adolescents, and
they are normally become more interested to gather information from a variety of
communication sources (Moschis & Churchill, 1979). Gullen & Johnson (1986) made a
study on short term advertising sales, and their study revealed that short term advertising
have strong impact on sales. The study found some important roles on media advertising.
For example, sellers can increase their sales in the short term by giving 40% percent share
of voice to new buyers. Their evidence suggests that continuous advertising is more
efficient than huge burst of advertisement at a time.

In a study conducted by (Fisk, 1959, p. 91) have found mass media play an effective role as
a good market communication tool for conveying a message. He also found that media
exposure has direct and strong correlations to consumer’s purchase decisions regardless of
their age, education, and social status, etc. Another study (Atwater et al., 1985, pp.
396,397) found that consumers can gather information about environmental issues through
mass media which include TV, magazine, radio, and newspapers. Overall, 83%
respondents indicated that they got environment related information from a variety of
media sources. Several studies have found that mass media have a significant influence on
what people think (Entman, 1989, p. 347; McNeal & Ji, 1999). In a study among Chinese
children indicates they become affected and as well as emotional when they see any new
product information. They gave highest rank of preferences to TV commercial as a medium
of information (McNeal & Ji, 1999, p. 358).

2.5 Theory of Reasoned Action

According to theory of reasoned action, human beings are rational and know the systematic
use of the information. This theory is based on some assumptions, and the authors do not
believe that human social behavior is controlled by unconscious motives or overriding
desires. They argued that people can think over the implications of their actions before
they make a decision to engage or not engage in a given behavior (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980,
p. 5).

The ultimate goal of TRA is to predict and understand an individual’s behavior, not merely
predict the behavior. To understand the behavior, two basic determinants of intentions are
important to consider; one is “personal in nature” and “social influence”. The personal
factor depends on an individual’s positive or negative assessment of performing the
behavior; hence, this factor is named attitude toward the behavior. The other reflecting
social influence may come up from the perception of social pressures. When an individual
is under strong social pressure, his or her behavior in question to perform or not perform
the particular behavior. This factor is named subjective norm (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980, p.
6).

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Figure 3: Factors determining a person’s behavior. Adapted from Understanding attitudes
and predicting social behaviour (p. 8), Ajzen, I., & Fishbein, M. (1980), Englewood Cliffs:
Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Behavioral Beliefs & Attitude toward Behaviors

Behavioral beliefs are the immediate determinants of a person’s attitude. An individual

may hold a large number of beliefs about a given object, but he or she can only attend a
relatively small number of beliefs. These small numbers of beliefs he or she can attend are
called behavioral beliefs. Indeed, these Behavioral beliefs are used to understand why a
person holds a certain attitude toward an object(Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980, p. 63).

A person’s behavioral beliefs usually form an attitude toward objects. The basic
understanding of an individual about a given behavior is that it will produce both positive
and negative consequences. On contrary, individuals who have different sets of behavioral
beliefs may hold different attitudes toward behavior (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980, p. 67). In
this thesis, we have used direct measurements instead of using the equation of behavioral
beliefs & attitude toward behaviors.

In the equation, Ao is the attitude toward the behavior, n is the total number of salient
beliefs, bi is the strength of each salient belief is mixed in a multiplicative fashion with the
subjective evaluation (ei) of the belief’s attribute (Ajzen, 1991, p. 191).

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Normative Beliefs and Subjective Norms

A subjective norm is an individual’s belief about others what an individual should (or
should not) perform the behavior in question. When an individual’s attitude toward a
behavior is driven by his or her own beliefs about performing the behavior, these beliefs are
behavioral beliefs. By comparison, an individual’s subjective norm is a function of
normative beliefs. They are not behavioral beliefs. In this case, individuals want to get
feedback from specific individuals and groups to perform (or not perform) a behavior.
When a behavior may involve a referent, an individual’s belief is guided by his or her
normative beliefs (similar to subjective norms). Every possible referent will not be relevant
or important for an individual’s decision making; only behavioral referents will influence
an individual’s decision making (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980, pp. 73-74). In this thesis, we
have used direct measurements instead of using the equation of normative beliefs and
subjective Norms.

In the equation, SN is the normative beliefs and subjective Norms. (ni) is the strength of
each normative beliefs, and (mi) is the person motivation to comply, n is used for the salient
referents (Ajzen, 1991, p. 195).

Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB)

TPB is an extension of the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA). TRA model has limitations
in dealing with behaviors when people have incomplete volitional control (Ajzen,1991, p.
181).

Figure 4: Theory of Planned Behavior. Adapted from the theory of planned behavior (p. 182),
by Ajzen, (1991).

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Control Beliefs and Perceived Behavioral Control (PBC)

According to Ajzen (1991, pp. 183,184) perceived behavioral control is playing an

important role for the theory of planned behavior. Ajzen commented that “perceived
behavioral control refers to people’s perception of the ease or difficulty of performing the
behavior of interest”. Perceived behavioral control can vary depending on situations and
actions. For instance, a person may believe that he can achieve this task easily, so his
perceived behavioral control will be determined by his set of control beliefs. Several studies
reported that “people’s behavior is strongly influenced by their confidence in their ability to
perform it (i.e., by perceived behavioral control)” perceived behavioral control may be
unrealistic when people have little information about their behavior.

The equation of PBC

In the equation, PBC is the control beliefs and perceived behavioral Control. (ci) is used for
control beliefs, and (pi) is used for perceived power of the control factor. n is used for the
salient control beliefs (Ajzen, 1991, p. 197).

Ryan & Bonfield (1975, p. 118) commented that the extended Fishbein model is popular
among consumer researchers because of its three important reasons. First, the model
provides a basis to understand attitude and normative influence relative to behavior.
Second, the model is important for an easy explanation and prediction of consumer
behavior for applying behavioral intentions as a mediator. Third, the model has reasoned
empirical supports. On the other hand, Warshaw (1980, p. 153) commented that the model
often make weak and inconsistent predictions in marketing applications. However, Ajzen
(1991, p.188) mentioned that “the relative importance of attitude, subjective norm, and
perceived behavioral control in the prediction of intention is expected to vary across
behaviors and situations”.

Background Factors

According to TPB, we can understand the major determinants of intentions and behavior by
studying behavioral, normative, and control beliefs. Similarly, other background factors
may be related to understand intentions. An individual grow up in different social
environments can acquire different information from a variety of sources. Subsequently, an
individual builds up his or her beliefs on the basis of gathered information. There are many
variables may influence the beliefs people hold. For example, age, gender, ethnicity, socio-
economic status, education, nationality, religious affiliation, personality, mood, etc. The
evidence suggest that there is no connection between peoples’ belief and background
factors. Still background factors may influence behavioral, normative or control beliefs.
Ajzen commented even though many background factors can guide the theory, still it is
difficult to know which are relevant for that particular study (Ajzen,2005, p. 134).

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For our study, we have considered two background factors: Environmental Knowledge
(discussed in the problem discussion part) and Education. We assume that these two
background factors may be related to young people’s beliefs.

Educational establishments are important for building attitudes, activity levels, and
knowledge of nature and the environment. A study by Tikka et al., (2000) on educational
establishments found that childhood experiences influence the choice of education. Their
study found that engineer students show negative attitudes toward environment, and
biology students represent positive attitudes toward environment. However, authors also
claimed that an educational establishment is not the absolute predictor of attitudes,
behaviors, and acquisition of knowledge.

Numerous studies have attempted to explain that consumers having higher levels of
education show positive attitude toward environment, so they can understand social
problems of the society. Thus, they can act in an ecological manner toward environment.
Studies also found that high income groups show positive attitude toward environment
because of having higher levels of education (Berkowitz & Lutterman 1968; Henion 1972).
However, the study of Samdahl & Robertson (1989) did not support the fact, they pointed
out ecological conscious consumers are less educated.

Figure 5: The role of background factors in the theory of planned behavior. Adapted from
Attitudes, personality and behavior(p. 135), Ajzen, I. (2005), Maidenhead: Open University Press.

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 CHAPTER THREE
3. METHODOLOGY
This Chapter will explore the research process regarding contextual factors affecting young
consumers’ attitudes, and their intentions of green purchase behavior. The methodological
assumptions will clarify the use of ontology and epistemology. In addition, this chapter will
explore assumptions related with the research question. The research philosophy will adopt
some important assumptions about the way we are viewing the world. Two major important
ways of thinking generally impact the research philosophy: epistemology and ontology.
These assumptions will underpin the research strategy, and the methods (Saunders et al.,
2009, p. 108).

3.1 Choice of Topic

The choice of topic was based on our previously acquired knowledge in the field of
marketing. Furthermore, we are inspired to work in the area of consumer behavior and
consumers’ attitudes from our prior completed courses. At the beginning of our research,
we are having a wide range of viewpoints. Finally, we followed this approach to find a
suitable research problem.

Figure 6: Formulation of the research problem. Adapted from Essentials of social science
research methodology ( p. 65). Rasmussen et al.,(2006).

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3.2 Choice of Theory

To answer the research question, we have studied two important theories. After the
literature search, we have decided to use these two theories for our study; the theory of
planned behavior (TPB), by Martin Fishbein, and Icek Ajzen, and the theory of reasoned
action by Ajzen. We have decided to use these theories as we have found strong
connections for answering our research question.

People act many different roles in their daily life, and they may change their consumption
decisions according to their own styles. In addition, people’s evaluation of products and
services are different from one another as they play many roles in the society (Solomon et
al., 2010, p. 6). Therefore, we have decided to narrow our focus; we are studying green
purchase behavior of young consumers. A study reported by Asia’s Media and Marketing
(1993, cited in Tai & Tam, 1997, p. 290) showed that “ the biggest change in consumer
attitudes among the Hong Kong Chinese could be seen in the younger generation”.

3.3 Preconceptions

We are both Bangladeshi and non native English speakers. We speak the same language,
and we have been completed higher secondary school certificate from the same educational
system. However, our preconceptions, backgrounds, childhood, experiences are different.
We have been brought up differently, and are from different districts in Bangladesh.
According to Malterud ( 2001, p. 484), “identifying preconceptions brought into the project
by the researcher, representing previous personal and professional experiences, prestudy
beliefs about how things are and what is to be investigated, motivation and qualifications
for exploration of the field, and perspectives and theoretical foundations related to
education and interests”. Therefore, we consider that it is important to discuss our
preconceptions in this chapter.

At the beginning of our research, it was really tough to decide on which topic we are going
to investigate and how to present that topic in attractive manner. By reading articles, we
have revealed that “green purchase behavior” is a broad area to discover. In addition, we
want to work on a topic where other researchers have given little attention. Indeed, the
research seems to be complicated because of our different thought processes and decisions.
Finally, we manage to negotiate our differences in preconceptions.

We both have a strong background in Marketing. We completed our Bachelor of Business

Administration in the field of Marketing. Previously, we also worked for research firms in
Bangladesh. Currently, we are studying our master program in marketing at Umeå school
of business. We strongly believe that these preconceptions will influence in our way of
thinking, understanding and analyzing concepts and theories in this thesis.

During the literature search, we found the importance of Theory of Planned Behavior and
Theory of Reasoned Action. In addition, we studied Theory of Planned Behavior from our
prior completed courses. By reading articles, we collected sufficient details about our
chosen theories.

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Finally, we consider that we have tried to negotiate about our differences in preconceptions.
We also acknowledge that our different views of writing process will reflect the whole
research process. Therefore, we tried to be more careful in the whole research process.

3.4 Research Philosophy

The choice of research philosophy will be influenced by our preconceptions. The choices
are to be based on the theory. In this thesis, we want to investigate two questions: (1) What
are the contextual factors affecting young consumers’ attitudes, and (2) their intentions of
green purchase behavior. We want to find the answers of these questions with the use of
Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA). According
to Johnson & Clark (2006, cited in Saunders et al., 2009, p. 108), a researcher should pay
attention on the philosophical choices as they can defend their philosophy in relation to the
alternatives they have adopted in the research process.

3.4.1 Epistemology Orientation

According to Saunders et al., (2009, pp. 112-116), epistemology is concerned about the
representation of acceptable knowledge in a field of study. There are two approaches of
epistemology: Interpretivism and Positivism. The objective of Interpretivism is to
understand differences between humans in their role as social actors. An interpretivist pays
attention to people rather than objects. Saunders et al., (2009) identified two researcher’s
views what researchers consider as acceptable knowledge in their study. The first type of
researcher is said resource research’ who considers data on resources needed is likely to be
more akin to the position of the natural scientist. On the other hand, feeling researchers are
more concerned with the feelings and attitudes of the social actors. Resource researchers
have less authority on data collection process and they are objective oriented, so they are
less biased on their data collection process. We are considering us as resource researchers.
In this thesis by strengthening a positivist position, this study will be objective oriented and
value free (Darlaston-Jones, 2007, p. 20). We expect the collected data will answer the
research question thoroughly.

3.4.2 Ontological Orientation

Ontology is concerned about the reality of the natural world. For our ontological
assumptions, we have decided to see the social world with the point of view of the
objectivism rather than with the view of constructionism. There are two main aspects of
Ontology: Constructionism and Objectivism. The objective of social constructionism is to
focus on the subjective meanings that motivate the actions of social actors in order for
researchers can understand these actions. Another aspect of ontology is Objectivism; it
stands for the position that social entities exist in reality external to social actors (Saunders
et al., 2009, p. 110-111). In this thesis, we are taking the position of objectivist as we want
to avoid response errors that may occur when respondents distort their answers and true
thoughts intentionally or unintentionally. For example, in a study Alwitt & Berger’s (1993)
found consumers show high levels of concern for the environment, but their attitudes are

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not consistent at the time of consuming products and services. Hence, we are not
conducting the study from the subjective point of view.

In short, we are taking the position of positivism and objectivism aspects.

3.5 Research Approach

There are two important research approaches: Deductive approach and Inductive approach.
Deduction is the dominant research approach that provides in the high degree of control in
the process of data. It is the high level of objectivity approach that appears less convincing
when one element of subjectivity in the choice of questions (Saunders et al., 2009, p. 125).
However, another important approach is inductive approach which is concerned with the
context in which such events are taking place. The study of a small sample of subjects is
more appropriate for the inductive study (Saunders et al., 2009, p. 126).

In this thesis, the deductive research strategy will be used to strengthen our ontological,
objectivism, and epistemological, Positivism. An additional important feature of deduction
approach is that the concepts are to be operationalised in a way that enables facts to be
measured quantitatively (Saunders et al., 2009, p. 125). However, we will not conduct the
study based on existing hypotheses or new hypotheses. We consider this study will be more
valuable if you can answer the research question from a marketer’s perspectives. In
addition, we can see that the study is more explanatory. If we investigate the research
question based on hypotheses, the interpretation from findings will not expose broadly. On
the other hand, we want to investigate the research question at a broader perspective that
will be useful for both marketers and other practitioners. In addition, we want to interpret
our findings and results in a way that will increase the reliability and validity of the study.
Furthermore, we will collect statistical data through questionnaires. According to Blaxter et
al., (2006, p. 60), the aims of positivist research is to capture the reality of social world
through questionnaire. Finally, the collected data will be interpreted through the use of the
SPSS program.

3.6 Research Method

Data collection is essential for conducting a research. There are number of ways to collect
data. Two broad categories are Qualitative and Quantitative data collection methods.
Qualitative data collection method is more concerned with words rather than numbers
(Bryman & Bell, 2007, p. 402). Robson commented that qualitative data are also
characterized by its richness and fullness to explore a subject in a real manner (2002, cited
in Saunders et al., 2009, p. 482). On the other hand, quantitative research method is more
concerned with numerical data. It’s main objective is to make a relationship between theory
and research as deductive, a predilection for natural science approach (Bryman & Bell,
2007, p. 154). Generally, these are the main steps to conduct our quantitative research.

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Figure 7: The process of quantitative research. Adapted from business research methods
(p. 155) by Bryman & Bell, (2007).

3.7 Research Design

The aim of this thesis is to identify contextual factors affecting young consumers’ attitudes
and their intentions of green purchase behavior, so the nature of this study is exploratory.
According to Robson, an exploratory study is useful for understanding a problem. Hence,
in this study we will indentify the variables to understand young consumer’ attitudes and
their intentions of buying green products (2002, cited in Saunders et al., 2009, p. 139).

In general, the survey strategy is used for exploratory research. As our study is associated
with the deductive approach, we will conduct the survey strategy. This strategy will allow
us to collect quantitative data, and we will use these data to analyze descriptive and
inferential statistics (Saunders et al., 2009, p. 144).

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 Figure 8: Steps in the process of Survey Research. Adapted from Social work research
methods qualitative and quantitative approaches (p. 263) by Neuman & Kreuger, (2006).

3.8 Criticism for Secondary Sources of Data

For conducting the thesis work, we collected most of our information from scientific
articles, journals, books, and magazines, etc. We used Umeå University database as a
primarily source of data provider. In addition, we used several sources of well known
scientific data provider such as Business Source Premier (EBSCO), British Library,
Thomson Reuters, Web of Science, Science Direct, Emerald Full text etc. For the ease of
finding relevant articles we used Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com). To maintain
the quality of our work, we tried our best to use original sources as far as possible. In our
information search process, previous books from consumer behavior and marketing
research were also useful for this study. We utilized Umeå University Library for collecting
books. In addition, we used the original books of Ajzen & Fishbein (1980) named
“Understanding Attitudes and Predicting Social Behavior” and “Attitudes, Personality and
Behavior” by Ajzen (2005) to get an idea of TPB theory. We also collected and
conceptualized the theory from the original articles written by Icek Ajzen. Furthermore, we
took a great help from the article of Kaman Lee (2011) which was relevant to our research
topic. For the collection of articles search process, we used some keywords. We used the
term: green environment, green purchase behavior, green product, purchase intentions, etc.

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Finally, we tried to provide all of our information from the authentic and reliable sources.
We used the sources of journals that are highly reputed and internationally recognized. We
tried our best to minimize errors that may arise from secondary data sources.

3.9 Selection of Data Sources

As this study is low budget study, the data will be collected from one source. We have
decided to collect data from Umeå University students where the student component will
provide a significant proportion of young people. Due to time constraint, we consider it is
convenient to collect primary data from our nearest source.

3.10 Data Collection

In this study, we collected secondary data on various important topics. For example, we
studied about consumer socialization to know how young people acquire skills, knowledge,
and attitudes in the market-place. To increase knowledge on TPB and TRA, we studied
theories from the original sources. In addition, Google scholar (www.googlescholar.com)
was useful for finding out relevant articles easily. We collected scientific articles from
Umeå University database named Samsök. In fact, we collected books from other libraries
in Sweden. For primary data, paper based questionnaires were used (see section 3.13 for
further details)

3.11 Criticism against Collected Data

According to Bryman & Bell ( 2007, p. 204) the sources of error in social survey research
are (1) Sampling error, (2) Non sampling error, (3) Data collection error, and (4) Data
processing error. In our study, we have tried to avoid these sources of error to make the
sample representative. Before conducting the survey, we ensured that our target sample is a
student portion, and they are either a bachelor or master student. After conducting survey,
we carefully input the data into SPSS program. In fact, every questionnaire was given
unique number to indentify each respondent. SPSS tools used for analyzing are rechecked
several occasions.

3.12 Pilot Test

We also completed the pilot test to improve the questionnaire. We completed the pilot test
for the questionnaire in a day where ten respondents are asked to give their opinions
regarding problems they have faced while reading or understanding the questionnaire. The
test sample age group was between 19-30 years old. The sample did not recommend any
suggestions regarding further improvements. After that, we conducted the final survey
during the first week of May.

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3.13 Sampling Procedures

We have used the student sample to collect quantitative data from questionnaires.
According to Shiu et al., (2009, p. 449) it is expected that selection of a small number of
elements from a larger defined group of elements will provide accurate judgments to be
made about the larger group. In this study, the sample for questionnaires was based on non-
probability sampling technique named convenience sampling. Convenience sampling is the
easiest way to collect data, and the selection process for required sample size can make
until the sample size is ready for the analysis (Saunders et al., 2009, p. 241). The criteria’s
were that we wanted to have samples of young people studying bachelor or master program
with ages 19 to 30 or 31 plus. We aimed for a sample of 300 young people.

There are a total of 30333 students, 18644 women and 11689 in the academic year 2010/11
at Umeå University (Stenwall, H. personal communication, May 13, 2011). We handed out
300 questionnaires to students at Umeå University. We let the respondents fill up the
questionnaires without any assistance from our side. We ensured that we had no influence
on their choices. We were unable to collect 18 unfulfilled questionnaires. In total we
handed out 300 questionnaires, we have got a sample of 282. We had a response rate of 94
percent. Out of 282 students, we had a sample of 141 men and 141 women. We divided the
population into two specific groups: male and female. We collected equal responses in each
quota for our statistical analyses. We have established certain categories (or strata) in order
to represent the population. Thus, this collected sample also represents the characteristics of
a type of quota sampling that is entirely non-random and represents on very similar
principles to stratified sampling. Moreover, we have chosen this sampling technique as it is
less costly and can be obtained quickly (Saunders et al., 2009, p. 235).

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 CHAPTER FOUR
4. RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

In this chapter, we will interpret the primary data that was collected from our survey. The
results from the survey will answer the research question. We will analyze the results by
using the functions in the SPSS program. In addition, we will prepare the SPSS results in
accordance with the research question. Firstly, we will prepare the demographic results.
Secondly, we will answer the research questions. The answer of the research question will
be divided into two parts: In the first part, we will identify the contextual factors affecting
young consumer attitudes. In the second part, we will study the intentions of young
consumers toward green products with the theory of planned behavior.

4.1 Questionnaire Constructs

The questionnaire method is useful for primary data collection. We have used Ajzen’s
(2006) ‘Constructing a theory of planned behavior questionnaire’ to address the research
problem within the framework of TPB. In this study, we have formulated direct measures to
address the research question. We have chosen Ajzen’s (2006, pp. 5-7) TPB questionnaire
construction because of its high degree of internal consistency. In addition, we have added
other items in the questionnaire that are relevant for this study. We have used Likert Scale
for preparing the questionnaire. This Likert scale helps to indicate to what extent
respondents either agree or disagree with a series of belief statements about a given object
(Shiu et al., 2009, p. 421). We have developed a questionnaire construct to answer the
research question. Table 1 shows a questionnaire construction for the SPSS analysis.

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 Table 1: Construct Development

Contextual Factors

Parental influence

Two items are developed to examine how respondents perceive parental influence on
environment related issues (e.g., I have learnt about environmental related topics and issues
form my parents). This scale yielded a reliability of α=.75

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Peer influence

Two items are developed to measure how respondents perceive peer influence on
environment related issues (e.g., I have learnt a lot about environmental topics/issues from
my parents). This scale yielded a reliability of α=.85

Media exposure to environmental messages

Two items are asked to mention how often they come across environment related messages
from each of the sources: TV programs, advertisement and radio (e.g., I watch TV
programs that are devoted to environmental topics/issues). This scale yielded a reliability of
α=.75

Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB)

Attitude toward the behavior

Two items are developed to examine how young people’s attitude influence purchase
intentions of green products (e.g., I think green products are useful for health). This scale
yielded a reliability of α=.66

Subjective norm

Four items are taken to consider how young people’s belief is influenced by others (e.g.,
My parents think that I should buy green products). This scale yielded a reliability of α=.70

Perceived behavioral control

Two items are developed to understand how respondents think that factors that are
important to perform a behavior. (e.g., Education is important for purchasing environmental
friendly products). This scale yielded a reliability of α=.66

4.2 Demographic Results

In this section we have presented the demographic variables respondents. We have

collected the data in way that we can maintain equal proportion of male and female
respondents. We analyzed these results with the help of SPSS software. The result shows
the equal sample size of male and female respondents from our data collection.

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 Table 2: Demographical Information of Subjects

Figure 9: Respondents’ male and female proportion.

Presenting at the figure 9, we tried to collect equal number of male and female respondents
i.e. 50% of male and 50% of female.

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 Figure 10: The percentage of different age groups

4.3 Analyzing Young Consumers

Table 3: Descriptive Information

This descriptive statistics table implies some important issues among young consumers’
overall evaluations of green products. We can see that average perception about the
usefulness of green products for health is considered highest level of priority (Mean Value=
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5.57) in 7 point Likert scale. The second highest priority goes to the intentions to purchase
(Mean Value=5.57) green product which is slightly differ from previous the factor. Thirdly,
education is considered to be a favorable factor toward buying green products. On contrary
to these factors, media exposures like radio and TV programs are not considered too much
influential to young consumers’ buying intentions. From the Table 3, we can see that radio
programs are considered to be less important (Mean Value=2.29). In addition, the Second
lowest priority has given toward the role of parents for green buying behavior (Mean
Value=3.39 & 3.44). TV programs are considered be little bit higher (Mean Value=3.64) in
position to create intentions for buying green products among young consumers.

Table 4: Young Consumers' Purchase Intention of Green Products

Figure 11: Young consumer’s purchase intentions

To assess the purchase intentions of young consumers, question 12 (see appendix 1) is

averaged in order to obtain intention score; it is done for every questionnaire. In order to
obtain intention score from the 7 point Likert scale, we have divided the scale into three

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different groups: scores ranging from 1 to 3.4 (negative intention); scores ranging from 3.5
to 4.5 (neutral intention); scores ranging from 4.6 to 7 (positive intention).

As shown in figure 11 young consumer’s purchase intentions of green products are

presented. From the graph above we can see that majority of respondents have positive
intentions toward purchasing green products. The response rate for positive intention was
81.56%. On the other hand, a minority of respondents (8.87%) have negative intention
toward purchasing green products. In addition, we can see that a small number of
respondents are also in neutral position amounting 9.57%.

Table 5: Analysis of ANOVA

Test of Homogeneity of Variances

I intend to purchase
Levene df1 df2 Sig.
Statistic
1.556 3 278 .200

Descriptives
intend to purchase
N Mean Std. Std. 95% Confidence Minimum Maximum
Deviation Error Interval for Mean
Lower Upper
Bound Bound
19-22 88 5.40 1.37 0.15 5.11 5.69 1 7

23-26 127 5.66 1.40 0.12 5.41 5.91 1 7

27-30 56 5.75 1.30 0.17 5.40 6.10 2 7
31+ 11 5.00 2.05 0.62 3.62 6.38 1 7

Total 282 5.57 1.41 0.08 5.41 5.74 1 7

ANOVA
intend to purchase
Sum of Df Mean F Sig.
Squares Square
Between 9.06 3 3.02 1.54 0.205
Groups
Within 546.02 278 1.96
Groups
Total 555.08 281

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A one-way between groups ANOVA was conducted to see the impact of age on intention to
purchase green products. Respondents are classified into three groups according to their age
(Group 1: 19 to 22; Group 2: 23-26; Group 3: 27-30, Group 4: 31 and above). There was no
statistically significant difference at the P>.05 on intention to purchase green products for
the three age groups [F (3,278)=1.5, p=.20]. It is apparent from Homogeneity of Variances
table that we have not violated the assumption of homogeneity of variance. The
significance value (sig) is greater than .05. However, from the mean plot, we can see that
31+ age group recorded the lowest intention for green products with the 27-30 year age
group recording the highest.

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 Table 6: t-test for group statistics

As shown in Table 6, there are two tables: Group statistics table and the independent
sample test table. From the group statistics table, we can see that 141 male and 141 female
consumers. The mean purchase of green products for female is a bit higher at 3.90,
compared to 3.67 for the male consumers. The standard deviation for females is somewhat
higher (1.60) than for the males (1.47). From the Levene’s test for equality of variances, we
also can see that sig. value (.67) larger than .05. In this case, we have found that two
variances are equal. From the column labeled sig. (2-tailed), it is not significant at .000. The
result of the study did not show there is a difference between two groups. A possible
explanation for this result might be the small sample size for the study. Our anticipated
finding was that there must be difference between two groups. But statistically, we have no
evidence showing that the frequency of purchase green products differs between male and
female consumers.

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4.4 Analysis

4.4.1 Contextual Factors Affecting Young Consumers’ Attitudes

The first part of the research question is explained in table 7, table 8, table 9, and table 10.
First, we have given a description of the results. Second, an interpretation of the result is
presented. Finally, we answer the research question.

To measure the strength of the relationships between two variables, we have used Pearson’s
R in SPSS. Pearson’s R can range from -1 to +1. A Positive Correlation indicates that one
variable increases so does the other. A negative correlation indicates that one increases, the
other decreases.
Table 7: Correlation between parents and attitude

Correlations
Parents Attitude
Parents Pearson Correlation 1 .412**
Sig. (2-tailed) .000
N 282 282
**
Attitude Pearson Correlation .412 1
Sig. (2-tailed) .000
N 282 282
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

Presenting at Table 7, the relationship between parental influence and attitudes of young
consumers was investigated using Pearson product moment correlation coefficient. There
was a strong positive correlation between the two variables [r = .41, n=282, p<.01], with
high level of parental influence with high level of attitudes toward green purchase. The
significance level is at .000.
Table 8: Correlation between peer and attitude

Correlations
Attitude Peer
Attitude Pearson Correlation 1 .379**
Sig. (2-tailed) .000
N 282 282
**
Peer Pearson Correlation .379 1
Sig. (2-tailed) .000
N 282 282
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

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From the table 8, we can see that peer and attitude have a correlation coefficient of .379.
There was a strong positive correlation between peer influence and attitude [r=.379, n=282,
p<.01], with high level of peer influence with high level of attitude toward green products.
This result is significant at .000.

Table 9: Correlation between media and attitude

Correlations
Attitude Media
**
Attitude Pearson Correlation 1 .261
Sig. (2-tailed) .000
N 282 282
**
Media Pearson Correlation .261 1
Sig. (2-tailed) .000
N 282 282
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

Presented in Table 9, are the correlations between young consumers’ attitude toward media.
Looking at the correlation coefficient for media and attitude, we can see that the correlation
coefficient of media and attitude is .261. There was a strong positive correlation between
the two variables [r = .261, n=282, p<.01], with the significance level at .000.

Table 10: Correlation between knowledge and attitude

Correlations
Attitude Knowledge

**
Attitude Pearson Correlation 1 .553
Sig. (2-tailed) .000
N 282 282
**
knowledge of environmental Pearson Correlation .553 1
issues influence my purchase Sig. (2-tailed) .000
decisions N 282 282
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

From the table 10, we can see that the correlation between young people environmental
knowledge and attitude. Pearson’s R in SPSS is used again to measure the strength of the
relationships between knowledge and attitude. From the table, we can see that these two

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variables are highly correlated with a correlation coefficient of .553. The result is
significant at .000, indicating a perfect relationship exists.

To see relationship between contextual factors (media exposure to environmental messages,

parental influence, and peer influence) and the attitudes of young consumers toward green
products, we have conducted correlation analysis. It denotes that the higher correlation
exists between contextual factors and attitudes. So to answer the question: what are the
contextual factors affecting young consumer attitudes toward green products; we just can
see from the tables 7, 8, 9, and 10. In our study we have found that parental influence and
young consumer attitudes have the highest positive correlation at .412 and therefore have
the strongest relationship.

4.4.2 Theory of Planned Behavior

Table 11: Correlation between subjective norm and intention

Subjective i intend to
norm purchase
Subjective norm Pearson Correlation 1 .457**
Sig. (2-tailed) .000
N 282 282
i intend to purchase Pearson Correlation .457** 1
Sig. (2-tailed) .000
N 282 282
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

As shown in table 11, there was a significant positive correlation between subjective norms
and purchase intentions of buying green products. There was a significant correlation
between the two variables [r =.457, n=282, p<.01], with high level of normative influences
increasing high level of intention toward buying green products. The result is significant at
.000.

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 Table 12: Correlation between PBC and intention

Correlations
PBC i intend to
purchase
**
PBC Pearson Correlation 1 .590
Sig. (2-tailed) .000
N 282 282
**
i intend to purchase Pearson Correlation .590 1
Sig. (2-tailed) .000
N 282 282
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

The results, as shown in table 12, indicate that a positive correlation is found between PBC
and intention. There was a strong positive correlation between the two variables [r = .59,
n=282, p<.01], with high level of PBC (Education and Knowledge) facilitating the intention
of young people. This result is significant at.000.

Table 13: Correlation between attitude and intention

Correlations
Attitude i intend to
purchase
**
Attitude Pearson Correlation 1 .639
Sig. (2-tailed) .000
N 282 282
i intend to purchase Pearson Correlation .639** 1
Sig. (2-tailed) .000
N 282 282
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

As can be seen from the table 13 above there is a significant positive correlation between
attitude and intention [r = .639, n=282, p<.01]. The correlation between these two variables
is statistically significant, and it is representing a perfect relationship. The value is positive,
and it is very close to +1. The significance level is at .000.

From the tables 11, 12 and 13 we can see that the elements of TPB have strong influence on
intention. The most striking result to emerge from the data is that all the correlation results
are positive. In our study we have found that young people have positive attitude toward

40 | P a g e
green purchase. The correlations between attitude and intention have the highest positive
correlation at .639 and therefore have the strongest relationship.

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 CHAPTER FIVE
5. DISCUSSION
In this chapter, we will analyze the results and findings in connection with the theoretical
framework. In the first part, we will discuss about the contextual factors affecting young
consumers’ attitudes. In the second part, we will explain young consumers’ intentions of
buying green products with the use of TPB.

5.1 Contextual Factors and Young Consumers’ Attitudes

Recent evidence suggests that contextual factors are important in green purchase decisions.
Tikka et al., (2000) first commented that contextual factors influence an individual’s
thinking, and what an individual do, feel or think. Initially, Tikka et al., (2000) considered
the importance of contextual factors when analyzing environment behavior. Subsequently,
other researchers have considered the relationship between contextual factors and behavior
(Lee 2011; Young et al., 2010; Tanner et al., 2004; Olli et al., 2001).

Lee (2011) conceptualized a framework of Hong Kong adolescents where three contextual
factors were investigated: (1) Parental influence, (2) Peer influence, and (3) Media
exposure to environmental message. In our study, we have also investigated these factors,
and an additional background factor (environmental knowledge) is taken into consideration
to understand attitudes of young consumers towards green products. According to Ajzen
(2005), background factors may be related to understand intentions, but these factors have
no connection with people’s belief. Still background factors may influence the behavior
(Ajzen, 2005, p. 134).

From our findings, the correlation analyses show that parental influence is the top predictor
among all of the variables we have studied. However, the findings of the current study do
not support the previous research. The study made by Lee (2011) found that Hong Kong
parents have less influence on their children green purchase. Comparing the two results, we
can see that Hong Kong parents may not influence much in facilitating contextual
environments that encourage green behavior of young adolescents. Probably, green
purchase is a new concept to older generation in Hong Kong (Lee, 2011, p. 32).

The present study finds that parental influence is the top predictor among all the variables.
We can see parental influence is a socialization factor in adolescent stage, and the
consumption habits of a parent, their attitudes and their intentions to buy product strongly
influence the consumption pattern of young adolescent people. In addition, a young adult
adopts the same and similar behavior that their parents’ maintain in their style and
socialization process (Chaplin & John, 2010, p. 176; Cotte & Wood, 2004, p. 84).

In this study, peer influence is the second most important factor in facilitating green
purchase behavior. We consider that relationship is a dominant factor for adolescents’
decision making, and the relationship among adolescents that formed in early childhood

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considered as weak. The relationships in adolescent stage become more influential,
intimate, and strong (Berndt 1982; John 1999). And we can also see that our findings are
strengthened by Lee’s findings on peer influence.

In our study, we have considered that environmental knowledge is an important

background factor that facilitates purchase intentions of young people. The findings suggest
that environment knowledge is a strong predictor in understanding purchase intentions of
green products. Previous studies have also reported that students studying to environmental
courses demonstrated an increase in responsible environmental behavior and an increased
awareness of environmental issues (Jaus, 1984; Jordan et al., 1986; Ramsey & Rickson
1976; Ramsey, 1993).

Media exposures to environmental messages exert less influence in young people’s

intentions of buying green products, and our findings also consistent with Lee’s findings.
However, other studies reported that media exposures are found to be influential in other
cultural groups (Holbert et al., 2003).

To further understand how to the top three predictors, namely, environmental knowledge,
parents, and peers facilitate green purchase intentions of young people, a model is
proposed.

Figure 12: The proposed model

From the figure above, we can see that young people can be influenced by three factors. In
this proposed flowchart path 1, path 2 and path 3 indicates the most influential factors for
green purchase intentions of young consumers. Our analysis of research shows knowledge
(path 1) plays the strongest role for developing positive intentions toward green products
among young consumers. The second most prominent factor in favor of creating young
consumers’ purchase intentions for green products is parental influence (path 2). And peer
influence (path 3) is the third most important factor for increasing green purchase intentions
among young consumers.
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5.2 Theory of Planned Behavior

Human behavior is complex, and it is also difficult to understand. The objective of theory
of planned behavior is to understand human behavior in specific contexts. A central factor
of theory of planned behavior is to understand an individual’s intention to perform a given
behavior. Ajzen commented that “intentions are assumed to capture the motivational factors
that influence the behavior” (Ajzen, 1991, pp. 180-181). In our study, we investigated the
context of young peoples’ intentions of buying green products.

Figure 13: Theory of Planned Behavior. Adapted from the theory of planned behavior
( p. 182), by Ajzen, (1991).

Attitude toward a behavior

An individual’s beliefs determine attitudes toward an object. An individual form an attitude

toward an object by knowing various characteristics, qualities, and attributes. Indeed, an
individual believes the objects that have positive characteristics. On contrary, an individual
can form negative attitudes if objects have negative characteristics (Ajzen & Fishbein,
1980, pp. 62-63). Therefore, we can say that chateristics of an object are important factors
for understanding an attitude. In our survey study respondents are asked about green
prouducts, Do they think green products are useful for health? Our study found that
respondents have positve attitude toward green products. After conducting correation
analysis between attiude and intention ( see table 13), we have found that young people
have positive attitude toward green products. Therefore, findings show that positive
attitudes can increase intentions of buying green products.

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Subjective norms

In general, young people are influeced by social network (e.g. family, friends, coworker,
etc.). Initially, they collect information from their social network to buy a particular brand
(Feick et al., 2003). Subjective norm is the function of normative beliefs where individuals
want feedback from others to perform (not perform) a behavior. In our study, we have
employed important contextual factors (parents & peer) to understand young people
purchase intentions of buying green products. We asked respondents, do you learn
environment related issues from your parents, friends? Our study found that there is a
strong relationship between these factors and their intentions of buying green products.
From the correlation analyses, we have found strong positive relationship between
subjective norm and intention (see table 11).

Perceived behavioral control (PBC)

Ajzen (1991) commented that “perceived behavioral control refers to people’s perception
of the ease or difficulty of performing the behavior of interest”. It can also be unrealistic
when a person has relatively little information (Ajzen, 1991, p. 185). Hence, we established
two important factors to understand young peoples’ perception of the ease of purchasing
green products: Education and Knowledge. We draw attention to these factors if young
people find these factors are important to perform the behavior. In our study we have found
strong correlations between these factors and intention (see table 12).

Therefore, we can conclude that our findings are strongly supported by the use of TPB. To
sum up, our interpretation of the TPB model

Figure 14: Our interpretation of the TPB model.

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 CHAPTER SIX
6. CONCLUSION
The idea of green marketing first initiated its journey near about two decades ago. The main
theme of green marketing is to provide environmentally friendly products to consumers.
Marketers are struggling to cope up with their consumers by means of producing quality
products. There can be no doubt that the consumers’ of 21st century are now much more
conscious and knowledgeable about health and environment related concerns. Indeed, the
consumers’ of this decade are more promising and highly potential, especially young
consumers.

The evidence suggest that young people can be a lucrative market to international green
marketers because of the following reasons. First, young consumers become more
interested to accept new and innovative ideas. Second, they are becoming more conscious
and knowledgeable about environmental impact on earth. Third, they have the power to
influence on their peer group (Caruana & Vassallo, 2003; Lee, 2011). Therefore, in this
thesis we have investigated three contextual variables to understand this segment.

Contextual factors affect young consumers’ intention development and attitude formation.
Our present study shows that three contextual factors are facilitating young peoples’
intention toward green purchase. We think marketers should devote their attention to the
segments of parents and new couple (i.e. married person, living together) and disseminate
the information about the importance of using green products in order to develop favorable
attitude toward environment. The findings also suggest that importance of peer group
influence acts as an agent that can form favorable attitude toward green products.

Thus, marketers should strive to encourage young consumers to buy product with their peer
groups. In addition, marketers can prepare efficient market campaigns in order to capture
the attention of young consumers and encourage them to convey important information
with their peer groups. In this study, we also can see that education and knowledge act as
potential background factors for young consumers’ attitude formation, so marketers should
deliver positive and emotional appeals to educate young consumers’ product preferences. In
addition, marketers can take initiatives to increase knowledge building activities like forest
camp, field trips, tree plantation, etc.

In conclusion, the most interesting findings in our study are related to education and
knowledge. In this study we have found that education and environmental knowledge are
strong predictors of buying green products. From the empirical findings, we can see that
there has been a rise intention to buy green products, especially in the 27–30 age group.
Thus, international green marketers should target this segment (27-30 age group) with
knowledge building activities.

Finally, we consider that our findings are strengthened by the use of Theory of Planned
Behavior and answered the research question thoroughly.

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6.1 Managerial Implications

Young consumers’ attitude toward a product is always very important issues for marketers.
Marketers are able to prepare different marketing strategy and stimuli for successful
product development and its implementation depending upon the consumers’ attitudes. Our
findings about the contextual factors that affect young consumers’ attitude of buying green
products will certainly give some new venues for rethinking of green marketing. This study
shows young consumers’ purchase intentions are quite good and 81.56 percent of them are
interested in buying green products.

Even though the response rate is quite high, we will point out that young people’s intention
do not predict that they will perform the behavior. Therefore, marketers need to develop
efficient campaigns to motivate young people. To sum up, marketers should keep in mind
that higher motivation is needed to come into effect toward attitude an object (Solomon et
al., 2010, p. 277). Thus, marketers should initially educate young consumers’ through their
advertisements and awareness program why green products are important to buy and to
change their attitude accordingly.

Furthermore, in our findings we observe the relationships among contextual factors affect
consumers’ attitude formation. Our finding also indicates a strong correlation exists
between young consumer’s purchase intentions and PBC/Subjective norms. From the
findings of PBC and subjective norms we can get a clear picture that knowledge and
education are considered major influential background factors for building positive attitude
among young consumers. Therefore, marketers should devote their attention to educate
young consumers through different knowledge building activities. For example, marketers
can provide products for free trial, and can arrange knowledge building competition for
innovative ideas.

6.2 Theoretical Implications

The present study is an exploratory research that examines the contextual factors affecting
young consumers’ attitudes and their intentions of buying green products. In this thesis, we
investigated three important contextual factors: (1) media exposure (2) parental influence,
and (3) peer influence to understand young consumers’ purchase intentions of buying green
products. The study explored that parental influence is the top predictor among all three
variables. The findings suggest that peer influence and parental influence are strongly
correlated with the purchase intention of buying green products. In addition, in this study
we included two background factors (education and knowledge) to understand young
consumers’ green purchase intentions.

This study implies a connection between contextual factors and two other background
factors to examine a better understanding of young consumers’ purchase intention of

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buying green products. We can see that education and knowledge are playing a significant
role in shaping green purchase intention of young people.

Lastly, by adding education and knowledge, this study provides new paradigms into the
existing conceptualization of understanding young consumers’ green purchase behavior.

6.3 Further Research

In this study we adopted a quantitative study to understand young consumers’ purchase

intention of buying green products. The quantitative research method is used to examine the
relationship between variables and purchase intention of buying green products, but this
method is lack of identifying the underlying reasons to justify the phenomenon. We
consider that the use of triangulation method can give a complete picture and a better
understanding of young consumers’ green purchase behavior.

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 CHAPTER SEVEN
7. THE CREDIBILITY OF RESEARCH FINDINGS
There are three important concepts that are used to evaluate the quality of a study. The
concepts are reliability, validity, and generalisability (Saunders et al., 2009, p. 156).

Reliability

According to Saunders et al. (2009, p. 156) reliability is concerned with data collection
techniques or procedures that are used to yield consistent findings. The objective of a
positivist orientation is to minimize errors.

First of all, we consider that we have conducted the study with an appropriate sample, and
we wanted to have a sample of young people. Finally, we decided to collect the sample
from Umeå University, Sweden where student portions are young. In this study, a
structured survey method was used to collect data from students, and it is ensured that
students are eager to participate in this study. In our study, we tried to reduce participants’
errors by ensuring that questionnaires completed at different times would not produce
different results. Only interested students were included in this study, and we also tried to
ensured that students were not busy while filling the questionnaires.

In this study, we also tried our best to use more reliable secondary resources. For example,
we used original articles and books. In addition, we followed a structured method to collect
and analyze data. For example, we used SPSS Program to process the data accurately. We
hope other researchers using the findings will produce consistent results.

It is still important to say that people’s attitudes are not stagnant, so today’s research
findings will not be same in the future. Even though the findings of this study are reliable
and usable, researchers still should be more careful in applying to other similar settings.

Validity

Validity deals with research methods, approaches and techniques that are exploring in the
study (Blaxter et al., 2006, p. 221). We directed this study to a better understanding of
important concepts and theories, so we invested enough time to construct the research. In
addition, in this paper arguments are presented clearly. We think that respondents
understood the concepts we tried to address them.

Generalisability

Generalisability is also called external validity. The main concern of generalisability is to

ensure that the findings of the study are generalisable to other research settings. We
consider that the research process is well structured. We consider this study is also
replicated to similar settings. If we consider the transferability of the research, researchers

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should be careful in applying because there is still a risk that the sample might not be
representative.

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Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational behavior and human
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PERSONAL COMMUNICATION

Stenwall, H. (2011). RE: Umeå university total students number request [e-mail] (personal
communication, May 13, 2011)

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Appendices

Appendix 1: Questionnaire

Survey on purchasing green products

Hello! We are Master students at Umeå School of Business. This questionnaire is designed
to understand young consumers’ purchase intentions of green products. Green products
are environmentally safe and preferable products and services (e.g. organic tea, energy
saving bulb, green car).
Your honest opinion is extremely valuable for completing this survey. Please complete the
questionnaire; it will take only a few minutes. The information you provide will be confidential
and will not be used for any other purposes. Please indicate your answer by circling or giving
tick mark. Please choose only one answer per question.

Select your Gender

Male Female

Educational Status

Student of Bachelor’s program

Student of Master’s Program

Age
19-22
23-26
27-30
+ 31 +
1. I think green products are useful for health.

Strongly Disagree Strongly Agree

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

2. I often buy green products.

Strongly Disagree Strongly Agree

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

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3. I have learnt about environmentally- related topics and issues from my parents.

Strongly Disagree Strongly Agree

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

4. My parents think that I should buy green products.

Strongly Disagree Strongly Agree

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

5. My friends often discuss environmental related topics/issues.

Strongly Disagree Strongly Agree

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

6. I have learnt a lot about environmental topics/issues from my friends.

Strongly Disagree Strongly Agree

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

7. I watch TV programs that are devoted to environmental topics/issues.

Strongly Disagree Strongly Agree

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

8. I pay attention to environmental messages in advertisements.

Strongly Disagree Strongly Agree

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

9. I listen to Radio programs that are related to environmental topics/issues.

Strongly Disagree Strongly Agree

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

10. Education is important for purchasing environmental friendly products.

Strongly Disagree Strongly Agree

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

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11. My knowledge of environmental issues influences my purchase decisions.

Strongly Disagree Strongly Agree

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

12. I intend to purchase green products in the future.

Extremely unlikely Extremely likely

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Thank you for your participation

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Umeå School of Business
Umeå University
SE-901 87 Umeå, Sweden
www.usbe.umu.se