Exposure to internet content and the formation of green consumption behavioural intention among generation Yers in Vietnam

Exposure to internet content and the formation of green consumption behavioural intention among generation Yers in Vietnam.Exposure to internet content and the formation of green consumption behavioural intention among generation Yers in Vietnam.Exposure to internet content and the formation of green consumption behavioural intention among generation Yers in Vietnam.Exposure to internet content and the formation of green consumption behavioural intention among generation Yers in Vietnam.Exposure to internet content and the formation of green consumption behavioural intention among generation Yers in Vietnam.Exposure to internet content and the formation of green consumption behavioural intention among generation Yers in Vietnam.Exposure to internet content and the formation of green consumption behavioural intention among generation Yers in Vietnam.Exposure to internet content and the formation of green consumption behavioural intention among generation Yers in Vietnam.Exposure to internet content and the formation of green consumption behavioural intention among generation Yers in Vietnam.

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY

◆

DO THANH LONG

Exposure to Internet Content and the Formation of Green Consumption

Behavioural Intention among

Generation Yers in Vietnam

PHD DISSERTATION BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY

◆

DO THANH LONG

Exposure to Internet Content and the Formation of Green Consumption

Behavioural Intention among

Generation Yers in Vietnam

SPECIALIZATION: BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

SPECIALIZATION CODE: 9340101

PHD DISSERTATION

Supervisor: Associate Professor Doctor Nguyen Vu Hung

DECLARATION

I have read and understood the University’s policy on plagiarism I hereby

declare on my honor that this research proposal is my own work and does not violate the regulations on good academic practices

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES v

LIST OF TABLES vi

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii

INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Reasons for choosing topic 1

1.2 Purpose of the research 2

1.2.1 The human value – green consumption behaviour gap 2

1.2.2 The role of environmental content exposure on the internet in filling value – behaviour gap 3

1.2.3 The research questions 4

1.3 Subject and scope of the research 5

1.4 Original contributions of the research 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 7

1.1 Green consumption 7

1.1.1 Adverse impacts of environmental problems 7

1.1.2 The emergence of green consumption 9

1.2 Environmental problems and sustainable development of Vietnam 11

1.2.1 Air pollution 12

1.2.2 Water pollution 13

1.2.3 Land degradation and soil erosion 14

1.2.4 Deforestation and loss of biodiversity 14

1.2.5 Environmental protection and sustainable development of Vietnam 16

1.2.6 Green consumption in Vietnam as a solution to environmental problem 17

1.2.7 The importance of generation Y consumers in constructing green consumption culture in Vietnam 19

1.3 Antecedents of green consumption behaviours 21

1.3.1 Individual factors 22

1.3.1.1 Demographic factors 22

1.3.1.2 Sustainable-related attitude 24

1.3.1.3 Personal norms 25

1.3.1.4 Perceived Behavioural Control 26

1.3.1.5 Perceived consumer effectiveness 27

1.3.1.6 Trust 28

1.3.1.7 Emotion (Guilt and Pride) 29

1.3.1.8 Consumer innovativeness 30

1.3.1.9 Identity 30

1.3.1.10 Culture orientation 31

1.3.1.11 Knowledge (Environmental knowledge and Consumer knowledge) 33

1.3.1.12 Lifestyles 35

1.3.2 Environmental/ external factors 36

1.3.2.1 Social norms 36

1.3.2.2 Consumption values 38

1.3.2.3 Media information 40

1.3.2.4 Other environmental factors (Product price, Product availability, Product characteristics, lack of information) 43

1.4 The effects of human values on green consumption behaviours 44

1.5 Research gap 46

SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 1 50

CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND RESEARCH FRAMEWORK 51

2.1 Theory of basic human value 51

2.2 Value basis of green consumption behaviours 55

2.3 From human values to green consumption behaviours 55

2.4 Environmental internet content exposure as moderators 58

2.4.1 Environmental internet content exposure and biospheric-altruistic value - green consumption behaviour gap 60

2.4.2 Environmental internet content exposure and egoistic value - green consumption behaviour gap 61

SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 2 65

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 66

3.1 Research method 66

3.2 Research process 68

3.3 Moderation testing method - Moderated Multiple Regression 70

3.4 Measurements 70

3.5 Data collection 73

3.5.1 Research site and sampling 73

3.5.2 Sampling process 75

3.6 Common method bias (CMB) 76

SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 3 78

CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH FINDINGS 79

4.1 Reliability and validity of the measures 79

4.1.1 Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) results 79

4.1.2 Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) results 83

4.2 Descriptive analysis 87

4.3 Hypothesis testing 90

SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 4 96

CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATION 97

5.1 Summary and discussion of the research findings 97

5.1.1 Human values and green consumption behaviours 98

5.1.2 The moderating role of exposure to environmental contents on the internet and social network 99

5.2 Theoretical contributions of the research findings 101

5.3 Managerial implications of the research findings 102

5.3.1 Strengthening biospheric-altruistic value 102

5.3.2 Activating relevant values by proper media information campaigns 102

5.4 Limitation and further research 104

5.5 Conclusion 105

SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 5 107

REFERENCE 108

APPENDIX A: OFFICIAL SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE (ENGLISH) 130

APPENDIX B: EXPLORATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS RESULTS 133

APPENDIX C: MEASURE OF SAMPLING ADEQUACY (MSA) AND PARTIAL CORRELATIONS 140

APPENDIX D: CORRELATIONS MATRIX BETWEEN MEASUREMENT INDICATORS 142

APPENDIX E: HARMAN’S SINGLE FACTOR TESTING RESULTS 144

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1: Hypothesis testing model 64 Figure 3.1: Main steps of quantitative research 69 Figure 4.1: Measurement model 84 Figure 4.2: Simple slope analysis results for moderating effects of Action-related

content exposure on biospheric-altruistic value – green consumption behaviour

relationship 93

Figure 4.3: Simple slope analysis results for moderating effects of Action-related

content exposure on money-based egoistic value – green consumption behaviour

relationship 94

Figure 4.4: Simple slope analysis results for moderating effects of Action-related

content exposure on authority-based egoistic value – green consumption behaviour

relationship 95

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.1: The comparison between social norms and personal norms 38

Table 2.1: The comparison between values, norms, and attitudes 53

Table 2.2: Human values and their motivational goals 54

Table 3.1: Summary of contrasts between qualitative and quantitative research 66

Table 3.2: Measurement items 72

Table 3.3: Sample description 75

Table 4.1: KMO and Bartlett's test 79

Table 4.2: Measure reliability and validity 81

Table 4.3: Correlations between variables 83

Table 4.4: CFA testing results 85

Table 4.5: Construct correlation matrix 86

Table 4.6: Descriptive Statistics of scores for measurement items 87

Table 4.7: Descriptive Statistics of summated scores for variables 89

Table 4.8: Regression result with green consumption behavioural intention as dependent variable 91

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AVE Average Variance Extracted

CFA Confirmatory factor analysis

EFA Exploratory factor analysis

GDP Gross Domestic Product

MSA Measure of sampling adequacy

NEP New environmental paradigm

OLS Ordinary least squares

PBC Perceived behavioural control

PPP Purchasing power parity

RMSEA Root mean square error of approximation SRMR Standardized root mean residual

TPB The Theory of planned behaviour

UNDP United Nations Development Program VBN Value – belief – norm theory

VIF Variance inflation factor

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Reasons for choosing topic

Over the past decades, the development and welfare of human being have been threatened by number of serious environmental problems such as air and water pollution, resource scarcity, deforestation, climate change, loss of biodiversity and so on For example, at regional level, significant reduction in water resources, soil erosion and salinization caused by the global climate change have adversely affected human livelihood and economy in Central Asia countries It has brought on the ineffectiveness

of agricultural sector followed by food insecurity, inadequate freshwater supplies or growing religious extremism due to the deepened social and economic problems (Qi & Kulmatove, 2008) Similarly, air pollution, soil and water contamination caused by the industrialization have been also substantial environmental problems posing threats on the sustainable development of central and eastern European countries (Carter & Turnock, 1993; Jedrychowski et al., 1997) At individual level, these problems have undeniably had adverse impacts on human health and well-being (Brusseau et al., 2019; Jedrychowski et al., 1997; Qi & Kulmatove, 2008) Pollution is posited to be the main cause of multiple deadly diseases such as asthma, cancer, neurodevelopmental disorders, birth defects, heart disease, stroke, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease Air pollution, including both indoor and outdoor sources, causes more than seven million deaths annually as estimated Meanwhile, water pollution accounts for approximately 1.8 million deaths per year Such illnesses and deaths in turn results in economic loss for the population as well as negative social impacts such as considerable cost for medical treatments, loss of productivity, loss of time from work and school, potential unemployment and so forth (Brusseau et al., 2019)

It has been affirmed that the over-exploitation of natural resources for production

to meet the increasing demand of rapidly proliferating population is one of main causes

of these problems Obviously, the dependence of human being on natural resources is undeniable At individual level, people require land for agriculture, wood for construction and production or simply for fire to heat up their home, so that they cut down trees People need meat, animal fur, bone, and other animal products that motivate them to capture and kill wild animals At national level, most countries throughout the world base on their natural resources to foster their growth and to meet the demand of their population (Dunlap & Jorgensen, 2012) For them, natural resources such as oil, coal, gas and other mineral resources (such as iron, metals, sand, stone, etc.) are vital to economic development In fact, there might not be such environmental problems if waste products produced by the process of production and consumption did not exceed

the ability to absorb and recover of the nature However, the global overpopulation that reached near 7.7 billion in 2019 and is projected to reach around 8.5 billion in 2030 and 9.7 billion in 2050 (United Nations, 2019) has led to the deterioration of natural resources embodied by the uncontrolled poaching and fishing, the increasing request for living space and timbers, and an enormous quantity and various types of wastes disposed from factories and households Ultimately, many serious environmental problems are the result (Dunlap & Jorgensen, 2012)

Solving the problems requires co-operation among academics and practitioners from different field of science to find out practicable solutions From behaviour change perspective, since the late 1990s, there has been belief among scholars that the view and patterns of consumption need to be changed toward more environmentally friendly way

in order to ensure sustainable development for our planet To date, sustainable production and consumption have become a common concern throughout the world (Liu

et al., 2017) Empirically, in order to offer governments, marketers, and policy makers valuable insights to design effective behavioural intervention to foster the changes, scholars have put great effort into understanding which factors are promoters or inhibitors of environmentally significant behaviours from different perspectives

1.2 Purpose of the research

Among different research lines in the field, many scholars have focused on the roles of human value in driving pro-environmental consumption behaviours with theory

of basic human values as theoretical foundation (Steg & Vlek, 2009) Accordingly, forming and changing values are a common stream of research which is promising to change the behaviours

To date, increasing numbers of research have investigated the link between

Schwartz’s value types (Schwartz, 1992) and pro-environmental consumption

behaviours Among various values that guide human behaviours, Stern and associates (1995) clearly distinguished underlying values for the behaviours, basing on the work about human values of Schwartz (1992) The first one is biospheric-altruistic value that implies the importance an individual places on the benefits of other species, other people and the biosphere The second one is egoistic value that indicates the extent to which self-benefit is important to an individual (Karp, 1996; Stern & Dietz, 1994; Wesley Schultz, 2001) The driving force of these values behind pro-environmental consumption behaviours thus have usually been examined

Nevertheless, while providing significant contribution about value-behaviour relationship in the field, there is still value-behaviour gap that remains unexplained More specifically, this is reflected by empirical evidence that people may not always be ready to take pro-environmental actions even when they emphasize the importance of environmental protection as well as altruism (e.g.: Geiger & Keller, 2018; Groot & Steg, 2008; Lee et al., 2014) Conversely, people may not always deny responsibility to protect the environment even if they strongly display the importance of self-benefits to themselves (e.g.: Kim & Seock, 2019; Landon et al., 2018)

One of the most important reasons for the gap is that, this line of research focused mainly on identifying the direct impacts of internal values in driving green consumption behaviours while overlooking the roles of external factors (Peattie, 2010; Steg & Vlek, 2009) More specifically, as “human value” reflects desirable goals that people want to

achieve in life, human value may match or mismatch with various situations before being converted into behaviours The linkage between a value and a specific behaviour therefore may be moderated by other factors In fact, scholars suggested that peope’s

beliefs towards target behaviours can be one of such moderating factors (Ponizovskiy

et al., 2019) More specifically, from this view, people who hold strong value for the nature may engage in green consumption behaviours for environment protection if they are aware of the environmental degradation Likewise, people who strongly value personal benefits for themselve may take green consumption actions if they believe that green consumption can bring them such gains and deny the behaviour engagement if it

is believed to be threats to their benefits (Groot & Steg, 2008; Stern & Dietz, 1994) Relevant information about environment that consumers are exposed to then can moderate the relationship between the values and green consumption behaviours

value – behaviour gap

In this study, I expect that environmental content that a consumer is exposed to may play important role in narrowing value – green consumption behaviour gap It is

because frequency of environmental content exposure can change individuals’ beliefs

and knowledge concerning the green consumption behaviours (Green et al., 2019; Staats

et al., 1996; Steg & de Groot, 2010; Valkenburg et al., 2016) In line with my expectation, the important role of external cues like environmental content in activating

one’s values and motivating or demotivating him/her to act in a given situation that is

relevant to the values has been mentioned by scholars (e.g.: Lindenberg & Steg, 2013; Steg, Bolderdijk, et al., 2014; Verplanken & Holland, 2002) While being emphasized,

the role of environmental content exposure in filling value – behaviour gap to date has

been under-researched

Current study aims at addressing this gap in value - green consumption behaviour relationship by examining the moderating effect of environmental content exposure By exposing to the contents, consumers’ may shape or change their beliefs about costs and

benefits of a behaviour for themselves, for other species, other people and for the whole nature (Bandura, 2001; Stamm et al., 2000) Exposure to environmental content therefore may activate relevant values held by consumers to result in their green consumption behaviours

In this study, two types of environmental content that are considered important

in fostering pro-environmental motivation including environmental problem-related and action-related contents (Abrahamse & Steg, 2013; Bolderdijk et al., 2013) are investigated The former communicates and enhances consumers’ awareness of the state

of the environment or the existences of environmental problems The latter informs consumers of the course of actions that are effective in alleviating the situation

Furthermore, with the development of the internet and social network, traditional media platforms such as television, radio, or paper magazine have been no longer the influential platforms for information Instead, the digital environment of internet has become integral part of human society (Dawn & Thomas, 2013) and ideal platform for the diffusion of content regarding environmental protection to encourage green consumption practices among consumers Thus, current study focuses on investigating environmental content on the platform of internet and social network

This study is expected to contribute to the extant knowledge about behaviour relationship in the field of green consumption behaviours and hence offer marketers and policy makers valuable insights in designing more effective behavioural intervention to foster the construction of green consumption culture Accordingly, the study aims at finding answers for following research questions:

value-Question 1: How and why do some relevant human value affect green consumption behavioural intention?

Question 2: How and why does exposure to environmental problem-related content on the internet moderate the relationship between the human value and green consumption behavioural intention?

Question 3: How and why does exposure to pro-environmental action-related content on the internet moderate the relationship between the human value and green consumption behavioural intention?

1.3 Subject and scope of the research

Current research focuses on investigating the roles of environmental contents on the internet and social network (hereafter called internet content) in bridging the gap between human values and green consumption behaviours among generation Y consumers for some reasons:

First, the generation Y consumers who were born from 1980 to 2000 (Belleau et al., 2007) is the most powerful cohort of consumers because of their hefty size (Naderi

& Van Steenburg, 2018) Accordingly, their consumption behaviours are expected to have great impacts on the environment and the next generation consumers’ behaviours

Shifting their consumption patterns towards more sustainable ones is therefore significant to the environment protection

Second, the internet and social network have become the most popular channel for information seeking in modern societies instead of other traditional media platforms such as television, radio, or paper magazine The dependence of consumers of generation Y on this digital environment for information is indisputable (Dawn & Thomas, 2013) Understanding the effects of exposure to environmental content from the internet and social network on their green consumption behaviours therefore can offer insightful implications for governments to design more effective behavioural intervention and ultimately successfully build up green consumption culture

Besides, to ensure the relevance of our research to the context of study in Vietnam, this study focuses on a range of different environmentally significant consumption behaviours that are economical, less behavioural efforts and commonly appoved by society The behaviours including recycling, plastic product usage, public transport usage, product purchase, and energy saving are expected to stem from both egoistic and prosocial motivations

1.4 Original contributions of the research

Theoretically, the results of this study are to contribute to the extant knowledge

of value-green consumption behaviour relationships by specifying the moderating role

of environmental content exposure This study, thus, may help provide answers to the call by scholars for identifying the roles of external factors in determining green consumption behaviour (Peattie, 2010; Steg & Vlek, 2009) Practically, this study offers valuable insights for marketers and policy makers in designing more effective

environmental information campaigns to persuade consumers to act environmentally friendly and hence ensure the sustainable development for human society Specifically, the campaigns will be more effective in bring on behavioural change towards more sustainable pattern if they communicate righ messages/ contents to right consumers who express different values

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Green consumption

The world has been threatened by many environmental problems It is recognized

by academics that unsustainable consumption patterns of the population are responsible for that Obviously, people are undeniably dependent on nature to live and to satisfy their demands The environment provides humankind with the necessary resources for human life, from fresh air to breathe, clean water to drink, meat and cereal to food, living space and so on The environment also serves as a “waste repository” for wastes

produced by the process of production and consumption, absorbs or recycles them into substances that are useful or at least harmless to human (Dunlap & Jorgensen, 2012) Nevetheless, these functions of the environment have been jeopardized by increasing level of unsustainable consumption alongside the growth of the world population To meet increasing demand, people over-hunt and poach wild animals for meat and other products from them, deforest for land and timber, over-exploit other natural resources such as oil, gas, minerals for production, over-use fertilizers and pesticide for agriculture, etc Consequently, the adverse impacts humans have on the environment result in reverse one the natural environment has on humans The irresponsible consumption without considering the environment conservation has been followed by the increasing number of natural disasters such as severe changes in the weather patterns, melting glaciers, global warming, frequent floodings and hurricanes, rising sea level, wildfires, an enormous amount of greenhouse gase emission, contamination of air, soil and water and so forth

To date, the adverse impacts of many serious environmental issues are visible and they are expected to be more severe in the future More specifically, water shortage and soild degradation that are the results of over-pumping of groundwater, monocultures, excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides for agriculture, disposal of large amount of heavy metals produced by industrialization has been prevalent among many regions of the world although this is renewable resource (Gardner et al., 2004) These issues together is reducing agricultural productivity that has led to food insecurity for many countries

Meanwhile, nonrenewable natural resources such as coal, oil and gas that may take millions of years to regenerate is expected to be on the brink of exhaustion since their reform rate is much lower than the exploitation rate of human (Meadows et al., 2004) With current stocks and the exploitation rate of these resources, the availability

of them will critically decrease due to the proliferation of the world population that has been followed by increasing demand for production and consumption As a result, since human society has no doubt depended on this source of energy for most of transportation, for chemicals, food and many other things (Rifkin, 2003), the development of human being will be threatened if the anticipated energy shortage can not be resolved

Additionally, high rate of exploitation of the fossil fuels for production and consumption has released enermous amount of carbon dioxide into the air since these kinds of fuel contain a high proportion of carbon content Since 1750, the concentration

of carbon dioxide has increased rapidly as the results of the use of fossil fuels The increase of carbon dioxide and other harmful gases in the atmosphere is believed to be the main cause of global warming and climate change As estimated by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, since the late nineteenth century, the average temperature of the earth has increased around 0.75°C By 2100, the average temperatures is projected to rise aproximately between 1.1 and 6.4°C (The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2007b) Global warming and climate change has posed threats on the development in many regions of the world since it has resulted in glacier retreats and the rise of the sea level, increase in numbers of natural disasters including freqent floods, droughts and hurricanes and the extinction of many species (The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2007a) That is why climate change and global warming have been the most serious environmental issues to human society

Pollution has been also one of most serious environmental challenges that has posed threats on human health and well-beings It is the result of a large amount of contaminants released by the production and consumption processes of humans into the air, water and soil The concentration of toxic contaminants in the atmospheric air, water and soild is injurious to animals, plants, constructions, and especially, human health the Green house gases released from fossil fuels used by vehicles and factories contribute significantly to the air pollution that is related remarkably to many problems of human health Air pollution exposure causes irrtations of eyes, nose, breathing problems, heart and lung diseases ans so on About 7 million are reported number of deaths every year

as the result of outdoor air pollution exposure Furthermore, nearby 3.8 million people died annually becaused of indoor air pollution exposure, according to the report of the World Health Organization (2018a, 2018b) Similarly, water environment is damaged

by various contaminants resulting from household waste, factory waste, oil spills, chemicals and pesticide from agriculture and construction sites Contaminated water is

the cause of sickness and digestive problems Excessive amount of mercury in fish and other seafood can result in serious problems for people eating them, especially for children health and pregnant women As reported by the World Health Organization, water pollution is the cause of 829.000 deaths per year from diarrhoea associated with poor water quality (World Health Organization, 2019) Ill individuals who are victims

of environment pollution may experience productivity loss or possibly unemployment, that in turn result in their economic loss and adversely affect their daily lifes They also have to bear considerable medical costs associated to illness treatment At societal level, illnessess results in loss of overall productivity of labor force and increased human welfare costs such as costs invested in research and development of health care system that in turn has adverse impact on economic growth (Brusseau et al., 2019) Meanwhile, soil pollution is caused by pollutants from the exploitation of resources for industries, deforestation, fertilizer and pesticide from agriculture and waste disposal It puts many species in danger and hinder food production of human by reducing agricultural productivity, bring on malnourishment for humans

The loss of biodiversity is also problem of most concern The over-hunting, poaching and the deforestation of humans have pushed many species closer to extinction Large area of forests and natural grasslands that is habitat for many land species has been devastated while the ocean environment that has been contaminated by human activities has become unlivable for ocean ones Habitat loss in turn leads to the loss of biodiversity or the disappearance of some species In addition, the invasion of alien species including fungi, microorganisms, animals, trees, and vegetation after this loss makes this state more serious In the meantime, the dependence of humans on many species for livelihoods is out of question when humans need them for food and many other products, to purify water, to pollinate crops and so on (Wilson, 2001) Biological diversity therefore implies the diversity of human choice of commodities and the better living condition Accordingly, the loss of biodiversity undeniably has adverse impacts

on human life

To prevent human society from adverse impacts of environmental issues, changing the view and patterns of consumption is vital to sustainable development for human society To date, green consumption has become a common concern throughout the world and the main target to achieved sustainable development goal proposed by the United Nations (Liu et al., 2017; United Nations, 1992)

In 1994, the term “sustainable consumption” or “green consumption” was first

posed by the Oslo Symposium on Sustainable Consumption It refers to “the use of

goods and services that respond to basic needs and bring a better quality of life, while minimizing the use of natural resources, toxic materials and emissions of waste and pollutants over the life cycle, so as not to jeopardize the needs of future generations” In

fact, sustainable consumption, green consumption, environmental responsible consumption, environmentally friendly consumption are often used interchangeably by scholars in their studies and these terms much overlap with pro-environmental behaviours From this point forward, the term “green consumption” will be used

consistently throughout this study

In order to clarify the concept of pro-environmental behaviours, Stern (2000) categorized environmentally significant behaviours into four sub-groups basing on their direct and indirect impacts on the environment Environmental activism refers to active involvement in environmental organizations and demonstrations Nonactivist behaviours in the public sphere are the behaviours that have indirect impact on the environment such as supporting for public policies that contribute to environment protection or donating to environmental organizations Private-sphere environmentalism refers to behaviours in the private sphere that have impacts on the environment such as the purchase, usage and disposal of products Behaviours in organizations are behaviours that have environmental impacts of individuals within the organizations Based on such categorization, the term green consumption is the most congruent with private-phere environmental behaviours

However, the way the term green consumption is defined makes it become a problematic concept that indicates a broad field of various specific behaviours such as adopting green life style, buying green products, saving energy, using public transport, limiting personal car use and so forth that have the same purpose of environment conservation Consequently, the consensus among scholars about what green consumption actually is has not been reached (Jackson, 2005, 2014) In fact, some consumption behaviours that are seen as pro-environmental ones may also disadvantageous to the environment to a certain extent and vice versa For example, while using electric vehicles, in one way, may reduce significant amount of green house gas emision, the batteries, in other way, also could seriously damage the environment People diet not for the environment but for their health but going on diet could also be benificial to the environment Furthermore, “respond to basic needs and bring a better

quality of life, while minimizing the use of natural resources, toxic materials and

emissions of waste and pollutant” seems to express the dilemma in psychological studies

since the feelings of satisfaction can be achieved only when a wide range of needs of consumers can be fulfilled (Mont & Plepys, 2008) It therefore raises a hot question that

is difficult to answers: to what extent consumers’ needs are fulfilled and to what extent consumers’ consumption is sustainable one?

To date, despite of existing debates, green consumption has become the most concern and an attractive field for academic research (United Nations, 1992) Many scholars have focused on investigating antecedents of green consumption behaviours to offer insightful implications for governments and policy makers to bring about the changes in consumer behaviours towards more sustainability Empirically, various factors have been explored from different theoretical perspectives These perspectives are dicussed in the following section

1.2 Environmental problems and sustainable development of Vietnam

Vietnam is a country located on the east of the Indochinese peninsula The country is characterized by its length and narrowness from the north to the south and about 3.260 kilometer coastline The dense river network of Vietnam includes various rivers and two main river deltas namely Red river delta and Mekong river delta that are the bases for agriculture Most of area of Vietnam is mountainous with mountain plateaus in the north and the northwest of the country and about 51.800 square kilometers of highland area in the south Vietnam's climate is strongly influenced by the yearly monsoon in the north that make the region distinctive with four reasons in a year Meanwhile, the climate in the south is tropical monsoon with only two main seasons (rainy season and dry one) For such geographic characteristics, Vietnam is

granted diversity in natural resources for its’ development and therefore, the dependence

of the country on the environment is undeniable (World Bank & Ministry of Planning and Investment of Vietnam, 2016)

Since 1986, the world has witnessed the miracle economic achievement of Vietnam This makes vietnam become one of the successful phenomena in economic development It has been considered as the result of the shift from a planned- economy

of high centralization toward an economy of social-oriented market Since the launch of

the reform, Vietnam’s economy has grown fast and stably for more than three decades

From being one of the poorest economies in the world, Vietnam has been a dynamic middle-income country with key social indicators comparable to higher-income countries Per capita GDP increased rapidly from about 100 US dollars (current prices)

in 1990 (970 US dollars in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms) to about 2,200 US dollars in 2015 (or 6,000 US dollar in PPP terms) Real per capita GDP has had average growth rate of about 5.5 percent per year since 1990s, only lower than China in the same period Strong growth since 1990 places Vietnam well on the long-term income trajectory relative to global comparators The poverty rate was only about 3 precent in

2016, sharply fell from 50 percent in the early 1990s (World Bank & Ministry of Planning and Investment of Vietnam, 2016)

While Vietnam’s rapid growth record overall has been positive, its’ long-term

sustainability has not been ensured because of emerging problems following this economic achievement that need to be resolved Alongside rapid economic development, the quality of air, land, and water environment has deteriorated seriously Additionally, the diversity of the ecological system has been threatened while the shortage of many kinds of natural resources is predictable due to the over-exploitation for production and consumption of the country Due to its’ geographic characteristics

and the dependence of the country on natural resources, Vietnam is among the most vulnerable countries to various environmental issues, especially climate change and global warming The economic rapid growth that the country has achieved since 1986 reform would be destructed if Vietnamese authority did not take steps to prevent the environment from the destruction Environmental problems are therefore one of the most challenging issues to the country (World Bank & Ministry of Planning and Investment of Vietnam, 2016)

including Cambodia, Indonesia, China, Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand, Vietnam’s

growth pace of greenhouse gas emissions was much higher (World Bank & Ministry of Planning and Investment of Vietnam, 2016) The main reason of the increasing air pollution in the country is the utilization of fossil fuel and coal by industries and power plants along with the industrialization and urbanization The industrialization and urbanization in the country have been accompanied by an increasing number of factories, plants, cars, motorcycles, constructions and so on In the meantime, such processes heavily rely on non-renewable energy such as fossil fuels and coal and outdated technologies As a result of this transformation, a great deal of green house gases has been released into the atmosphere and posed adverse impacts on health and well-beings of Vietnamese population

More specifically, fossil fuel consumption for transportation has increased considerably due to the increase in the number of cars and motorbikes in Vietnam Increase of traffic in urban areas was estimated nearby 37 million motorcycles and 1.6 million cars in 2013 (Ortmann, 2017) with about 15 percent in Ho Chi Minh City and

8.5 percent in Hanoi (World Bank & Ministry of Planning and Investment of Vietnam, 2016) Additionally, the concentration of population in urban areas and the ownership

of personal vehicles have been much outpacing the growth in urban space for roads Consequently, traffic congestion and yet, more serious air pollution have adversely affected urban life and presented threats on future development

Energy use for production and consumption in Vietnam is also increasing faster than in other nations in the region The most important sources of energy are oil and electricity However, the country has been dependent mostly on coal for power generation According to the report by World Bank and Ministry of Planning and Investment of Vietnam (2016), in 2013, 23 percent of national electricity production comes from coal and this share is projected to continuously rise to about 60 percent in 2030 In fact, the demand for coal that much outstripped domestic coal production has made Vietnam turned from coal exporter to coal importer since 20151 Electricity demand is expected to grow at about 10 percent per year and the dependence

of the country on coal will continue to contribute to the growth of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions (World Bank & Ministry of Planning and Investment of Vietnam, 2016)

Water pollution have been also one of the most serious environmental problems

in almost large cities in Vietnam It results from the utilization of simpler technologies for production in industrial zones that produced more untreated industrial waste Another reason is the over-use of chemicals and pesticide for agriculture (Ortmann, 2017)

For example, shrimp farms in the country produce a great deal of wastewater, chemicals and antibiotics annually It contributes significantly to the degradation of water quality surrounding that, in turn, has reverse impacts on shrimp aquaculture productivity (World Bank & Ministry of Planning and Investment of Vietnam, 2016) Industrial zones also produce about one million cubic meters of wastewater per day that

is directly pumped into receiving water areas without any treatment The amount of wastewater from industrial zones accounts for about 70 percent of the total industrial wastewater discharges in the country and brings on high level of water pollution that is severely injurious to human health and the ecosystems (World Bank & Ministry of

1Vietnam’s coal imports reported by Reuters can be found on the website below:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-vietnam-coal-imports-idUSKCN24E173

Planning and Investment of Vietnam, 2016) Alongside with this, large portion of waste and wastewater that come from households has been another cause of this challenge for the country, especially in urban areas (Ortmann, 2017) Factually, both urban and rural wastewater severely contributes to water pollution in many parts of Vietnam It refects the poor management of water quality in the country, especially the management system

of fertilizer and agrochemical in some rural areas Furthermore, the disposal of plastic waste from Vietnamese households has severely worsened the sea water quality and put ocean species in danger (Jambeck et al., 2015)

Due to geographic characteristics of Vietnam, land becomes relatively scarce in the country Vietnam ranks only 159th in the world in term of per capita land resources with just 0.11 hectares per capita (World Bank & Ministry of Planning and Investment

of Vietnam, 2016) In addition, 28 percent of total land area of the country (estimated area of 9.3 million hectares) is uncultivable The main reason for this problem is the negative influence of desertification Consequently, about 5.1 million hectares of land area are considered unused land while 2 million hectares are seriously eroded although still be usable Another 2 million hectares are at risk of erosion and degradation (World Bank & Ministry of Planning and Investment of Vietnam, 2016) Soil degradation is the serious constraint for agriculture productivity and forestry Soil erosion is also another concern in some parts of the country, given its topographic characteristic

The grassroot of the desertification that is followed by the cutback of land quality can be attributed to the unsustainable agricultural practices throughout Vietnam as well

as the effects of other environmental problems including climate change and deforestation Agricultural practices in Vietnam have over-exploited land by cultivating intensively, using more fertilizers, chemicals and pesticides with excessive amount without consideration about recovery ability of arable land In addition, the decline in

area of Vietnam’s natural forests destroyed for the demand of the population has led to

the more frequent and severe flooding of lower-altitude farms and human settlements This is also another reason of land degradation as well as the loss of biodiversity and climate change (Ortmann, 2017)

Owing to geographical and climate features, Vietnam’s forests are granted a great

stock of various natural resources and the diversity in the biology that includes many endemic animals and plants Forests are important valuable ecological resource for the socio-economic development and well-being of the population throughout Vietnam

Forests significantly contribute to the adaptation to climate change as well as soil erosion prevention and water circulation maintenance Forest products are important sources of nutrition of human Forests also contribute to job creation and incomes for large portion of Vietnamese population As estimated, 40 percent of annual income of about 25 million Vietnamese people comes from forests (Forest Science Institute of Vietnam, 2009)

According to the anouncemnet of the Administration of Forestry about the status

of Vietnam’s forests in the Decision No.1423/QD-BNN-TCLN2released on the 15th of April, 2020, Vietnam has been covered by around 14.6 million hectares of forest, which accounts for about 42 percent of the total land area of the country Around 10.29 million hectares are primary forests and around 4.3 million hectares of forest are planted by people The forest of Vietnam can be categorized into four main sub-groups based on tree species including timber forest with main portion of timber trees, bamboo forest with majority of the bamboo family trees, palm forest with the major component of palm trees of all kinds and mixed forest of timber and bamboo family trees (According to Circular No 34/2009/TT-BNNPTNT of June 10th, 2009, on criteria for forest identification and classification issued by Vietnam Administration of Forestry)3

However, Vietnam has witnessed a substantial shrinkage in forest land area According to data from Global Forest Watch4, from 2001 to 2020, 3.07 mega-hectares of tree cover was lost in the contry, accounting for 19 percent of decrease in tree cover since 2000 In the same period, 689 kilo-hectares of humid primary forest area in Vietnam disappeared, equivalent to about 23 percent of total tree cover loss and about 10 percent of total area of humid primary forest of the country Another example

of deforestation is in the Central Highlands of Vietnam where level of poverty is high and large portion of timber production is concentrated Between 2010 and 2015, Vietnam lost about 312.416 hectares of the forest area in this region (about 5.8 percent

of the forest coverage) and 25.5 million m3 of forest volume (account for 7.8 percent of the total forest volume in this country) (UNDP Global Environment Facility, 2017)

2 Decision No.1423/QD-BNN-TCLN can be accessed through following address:

According to UNDP Global Environment Facility (2017), there are four main reasons contributing to the forest loss Among them, over-exploitation accounts for about half of the loss (50 percent) The conversion of forest land for agricultural production forms 20 percent and nomadic migration of some ethnic minority groups explains another 20 percent of the reduce There is only 10 percent of the decline in forest land coming from natural disasters such as wildfires Obviously, most of the reasons are connected to production and consumption activities of the population

For many kinds of creatures in the country, forest loss means the loss of habitats and living environments for them The changes in living environments undeniably have adverse impacts on these animals and put many of them on the edge of extinction because their ability to adapt to such change is limited In addition, the overfishing has severely depleted the nearshore fisheries (World Bank & Ministry of Planning and Investment of Vietnam, 2016) Since the majority of the Vietnamese population lives in coastal or low-lying deltas, such problems have been remarkably posing threats to their livelihoods and the sustainable development of the country (World Bank & Ministry of Planning and Investment of Vietnam, 2016)

While Vietnam has been a miracle story in economic development, environmental stresses behind such growth and the processes of urbanization and industrialization are expected to increase significantly (World Bank & Ministry of Planning and Investment of Vietnam, 2016) Without changes in consumption patterns, policies, and practices, the sustainable growth of the country will be threatened since it

is mostly dependent on land, water, and other natural resources for the development Additionally, the risk on health and well-beings of its population is anticipated to be remarkably enhanced by serious environmental issues

For such reasons, it is therefore very important for Vietnamese government and

policy makers to pay their attention to address the question of “how to solve these

challenges to optimally use natural resources and improve productivity while protecting

environment (e.g.: improving land degradation, water and air pollution, etc)?” A

practicable answer to this question will ensure a sustainable development of the country

In fact, despite the endeavour of the government to find out solutions to this question such as constructing a legal framework and institution for environmental protection, the results to date seem to be limited for many reasons Meanwhile, policy that aims at changing unsustainable consumption patterns of the population appears to be overlooked (Ortmann, 2017)

Being one of the largest populations in Asia with almost 95 million people, the growing consumption demand has exerted adverse impacts on the environment without

a doubt Changing consumption pattern of Vietnamese consumers toward greener one

is therefore vital to the country Accordingly, understanding which factors drive green consumption behaviours plays an important role in designing effective behavioural intervention to achieve the goal

The sustainability of Vietnam’s development is threatened by the environmental

issues without a doubt If present unsustainable production and consumption model remains for achieving the short-term rapid economic growth, the future of the country may be seriously jeopardized Dealing with environmental problems and pursuing sustainable patterns of production and consumption are therefore crucial to the country’s

growth in long term

Factually, environment protection requires great effort and cooperation from interdisciplinaries and stakeholders including the government, producers and consumers In such movement, Vietnamese government plays an important and neutral role in bridge producers and consumers for sustainable production and consumption goal As neutral and the most powerful actor in the progress, the government needs to establish, oversee and implement an effective and forceful environmental institution and legislation that reduce the adverse impacts from production and consumption on the environment

For example, environmental policies and instruments need to be enacted to promote efficiency in the use of natural resources and energy in production processes to alleviate stress on the environment while balancing the economic development Environmentally friendly technologies and renewable resources also need to be encouraged and disseminated by the support and encouragement from governmental policies Furthermore, waste disposal from production activities and households need to

be governed by environmental legislation while demand and use of green product need

to be encouraged by purchase policies Population policies need to balance the demand

of development and population growth to elliviate stress on natural resource exploitation and the environment First and foremost, changes in consumption patterns towards more sustainability is the most requisite one since consumption is considered the heart of production and economic development Consumption is therefore the grassroot of environmental problems

While fostering green consumption of Vietnamese consumers is one of the most important targets to achieve sustainable future for the country, understandings of their pro-environmental motivation and consumption appears to be limited due to the lack of insights from academic research Noticeably, unsustainable patterns of consumption seem to be prominent throughout this country For example, study of Jambeck and associates (2015) revealed that plastic bags and product consumption are still remarkable in Vietnam According to this report, Vietnam rank fourth in the total quantity of plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean even though plastic is the most injurious to the environment Averagely, amount of waste disposed by an individual per day is estimated by 1.2 kilogram of which about 16 percent is plastic one5 Furthermore, the demand for wild animal products is also pervasive in the country, posing threats to the biodiversity The demand for tiger products, especially tiger bone glue for medicine, still appears to be relatively high among consumers in the two largest city, Hanoi and

Ho Chi Minh city even though tigers are in the edge of extinction (Davis et al., 2020) The use of products from bears is also widely acceptable among consumers despite being prohibited in the country since 2006 (Davis et al., 2019) Meanwhile, wild meat demand and consumption seem to be common among high-income and high education level consumers in Hue city (Sandalj et al., 2016)

The green consumption of Vietnamese consumer to date has not sytematically investigated Although numbers of academic research explored green consumption of Vietnamese consumers, their findings revealed some understandings of their pro-environmental motivation and bariers to their behaviours The exploratory research of Koning and associates (2015) found that the gap between pro-environmental consumption intention and actual behaviours still exist Additionally, the motivation behind green consumption adoption among Vietnamese urban consumers of middle class appears to be driven by personal benefits (for money saving or health concern) rather than being driven by benefits for the others Meanwhile, lack of awareness and knowledge, opportunity, ability and information about green consumption are major

barriers to the behaviour engagement The term “green consumption” is relatively new

and strange to many people

In the meantime, green product purchase motivation and decisions appear to be major focus of academic research While fostering green product purchase is significant

5 Status of plastic waste disposal can be found in the following web page:

https://baotainguyenmoitruong.vn/nghich-ly-tui-ni-long-than-thien-249166.html)

to environment protection, the behaviour is motivated by self-benefits Accordingly, the prosocial and pro-environmental motivation behind the green consumption behaviour remains unrevealed For exampe, study of Nguyen and Dekhili (2019) found that health concern and product quality concern are the most important contributors to the green product purchase while the role of environmental concern is relatively lower Again, lack of information and trust, opportunities, and price are reported to be major inhibitors

of green product purchase behaviours among Vietnamese consumers (Nguyen et al., 2018; Nguyen & Dekhili, 2019)

In sum, unsustainable consumption is still acceptable among Vietnamese consumers Meanwhile, the motivation behind the green consumption behaviours of Vietnamese consumers has not been well understood Some studies investigating green consumption of Vietnamese consumers were only for exploratory purpose while the others mainly focused on green product purchase It signifies the further need of research

in the field that focus on various pro-environmental consumption behaviours to help better understand the behavioural motivation of Vietnamese consumers

consumption culture in Vietnam

Consumer segmentation is one of the most concerns of marketing managers The ways consumers are segmented help marketers to achieve accurate information to effectively position a product and design effective marketing strategies Cohort generation is one of important segmentation criteria in the field A cohort generation can

be understood as a group of individuals who were born in the same period of time (Bourcier-Béquaert & de Barnier, 2010) and therefore experience the same historical, social, cultural, political, and economic events (Chaney et al., 2017) Accordingly, each generation has unique characteristics in comparison with each other, and thus need to

be differently approached by marketers

Over the past decades, modern society has been particularly shaped by the the advance of information technology Consequently, digital communication environment such as the internet and social network have rapidly replaced other traditional media platforms such as television, radio, or paper magazine As results, the usage of the internet, social network and other digital technologies has become integral part of billions of people throughout the world Consumers spend increasing number of hours online for many purposes, including searching for information, communicating with others and sharing their experiences (Stephen, 2016)

Along with this advancement, human society has witnessed the emergence of a young generation of consumers, the generation Y (or millennials) Among different generations of consumers, the generation Y has received much concern from marketers

and scholars for its’ unique characteristics in comparison with other consumer cohorts

One the most important and prominent characteristics of generation Y consumers

is their consumption power granted by this group’s hefty size (Naderi & Van Steenburg,

2018; Noble et al., 2009), that accounts for about 27 percent of the global population (Bonera et al., 2020) Generation Y is the largest consumer cohort in America with approximately 83 million consumers (Solka et al., 2011), three times larger than the size

of generation X (Jin Ma & Niehm, 2006) The profitable opportunity that this generation

of consumers creates is estimated to be about 54.3 billion US dollars for marketers (L

Lu et al., 2013) Thus, their consumption behaviours undoubtedly have great impact on

the environment and the next generation consumers’ behaviours Accordingly, in the

field of green consumption, among generations of consumers, generation Y consumers are regularly considered the important driving force fostering the sustainable movement with their lifestyle and behavioural changes (Bonera et al., 2020; Hanson-Rasmussen & Lauver, 2018; Taken Smith, 2012)

Another striking feature of the generation Y is that this is the first generation growing up alongside the birth and advance of digital environment Thus, the internet and social network have become the integral part of their lives (Dawn & Thomas, 2013) The early exposure to the internet and social network shaped their behaviours and had significant impacts on psychological, social, and cognitive features (Bolton et al., 2013) Their communication mode, opinion and decision are also heavily influenced by technology and the internet while less affected by traditional media (B Valentine & L Powers, 2013) For this generation consumers, the internet is important source of information (Smith, 2011) and the internet is therefore the most promising effective marketing manner to reach consumers of this generation (Taken Smith, 2012)

Like other contexts in the world, the generation Y consumers in Vietnam are also characterized by their large proportion According to the GSO of Vietnam (2020), about

34 percent of Vietnam’s total population are consumers of generation Y who were born

from 1980 to 2000 (based on segmentation criterion of Belleau et al., 2007), estimated about 32.474.148 people Additionally, in comparison with citizens from other countries

in Asia, Vietnamese consumers are more characterized by frequency of the internet and social network usage 70 percent of the Vietnamese total population is internet users, as estimated about 68.17 million in 2020 The average time they spent on social media and

the internet as reported by We are social group (2020) was about 2.2 hours and 6.5 hours per day respectively

For such importance and features of generation Y consumers, encouraging their green consumption is playing important role in building up green consumption culture The internet offers promising chances to foster their behavioural changes However, the mechanism that internet content exerts influences on green consumption behaviours of this generation consumers to date has not been well understood

1.3 Antecedents of green consumption behaviours

Behavioural interventions generally become more effective when they are targeted at important determinants of the target behaviour Thus, motivating consumers

to engage in green consumption behaviours requires an understanding of what are inhibitors or motivators of the behaviours

In order to offer marketers and policy markers better understandings of the diversity in consumers’ decisions and their green consumption behaviours, academic

research has put great effort on investigating underlying factors of the behaviours from different theoretical perspectives The first research line starts from the assumption that

individual’s behaviours are results of reasoned choices, based on consideration of costs

and benefits The most influential perspective of this line is the Theory of planned behaviour (TPB) of Ajzen (1991) that was extended from the preceding theory of reasoned actions The theory assumes that three factors namely attitude toward a behaviour, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control together form

consumers’ intention to perform the behaviour, that is in turn translated into actual

behaviour (Ajzen, 1987, 1991) Another one is the Theory of consumption values developed by Sheth et al (1991) that is a powerful perspective in explaining consumers’ choice towards green products According to this theory, consumers’ choice towards a

product is a function of five main basic, independent perceived consumption values from purchase and use of the product namely functional value, social value, emotional value, epistemic value, conditional value The second main stream of research focuses on the role of moral and normative concerns in driving the behaviours or examining the value-basis of consumers’ environmental beliefs and behaviours with the the theory of basic

human values (Schwartz, 1992, 2012), norm-activation theory (Schwartz, 1977) or the Value – belief – norm theory (Stern, 2000) as theoretical foundations The third line

pays attention to social normative influences on the behaviours with the Theory of normative conduct (Cialdini & Trost, 1998) as theoretical basis

Empirically, many factors have been investigated and posited to be determinants

of pro-environmental consumption motivation These factors can be categorized into two groups - individual factors or individual differences and environmental/ external factors Individual factors include demographic characteristics, internal psychological variables such as attitude, moral norm, personal values, consumer identity or perceptual factors such as perceived behavioural control, perceived consumer effectivess, price sensitivity or emotional factors such as guilt and pride and so on that affect individuals’

decission making process Meanwhile, environmental factors indicate external forces that motivate or inhibit consumers from acting pro-environmentally such as social norms, media information, availability of green products and infrastructure, etc More detail about determinants of green consumption is discussed following

1.3.1.1 Demographic factors

Demographic characteristics are important criteria that have been commonly used for consumers segmentation in order to enhance the effectiveness of marketing strategies Similarly, in the field of green consumption, many researchers have put great effort to define and profile green consumers in terms of socio-demographic features to gain better understanding of their green consumption motivation However, this approach appears to have limited predictive power when reported findings about the linkages between demographic characteristics such as gender, income, age, and education and green consumption behaviours were inconsistent and thus inconclusive The effects of demographics are elaborated as follows:

a.Gender

The direct link between gender and green consumption motivation and behaviours has been examined by many scholars Although the reported impacts of gender have remained problematic, females were generally found to express higher environmental concern and more inclined to participate in green activities For example, study of Mohr and Schlich (2016) found that female consumers express a greater inclination to buy green products than their male counterparts This is an empirical support for the findings of Olli and associates (2001) that women expressed more concern for social and environmental issues and reported more pro-environmental behaviours than men Similarly, women were reported to show a higher tendency of sustainable consumption behaviour in term of overall behaviour as well as more specific activity of product reuse by Bulut and associates (2017)

On the contrary, there was also evidence that gender has no impact on green consumption behaviours No difference in the inclination to practice energy saving and unsustainable unneeded consumption between male and female was presented in the research conducted by Bulut and associates (2017) Also, no effect of gender on the favour of green brand was found by the research of Singh and associates (2011) Furthermore, gender was not predictor for ecologically conscious consumption behaviour in study of Khare (2014)

b.Income

Similar to gender, income is another important demographic factor that has received attention from academic research in the field Income was found to be positive predictor of ecologically conscious purchase behaviour by Khare (2014) Conversely, empirical evidence of Mohr and Schlich (2016) showed that the income was not a determinant of sustainable consumption Likewise, no proof for the effect of income on

consumers’ attitude towards the biosphere was found in study of Larson and associates

(2011) Family income was even reported to negatively relate to different green behaviours by Olli and associates (2001) Negative relationship between income and green consumption was further supported by the findings of Zhao and associates (2013)

The inconsistent effect of income in previous research may be due to the nonlinear relationship between this variable and green consumption that was proved by Park and associates (2012) However, empirical evidence supporting this perspective appears to be limited

c.Age

The linkage between age and green consumption has been also examined by academic research However, like other demographic variables, the linkage has not been well understood On one hand, study of Olli and associates (2001) reported significant positive relationship between age and different green consumption practices although the correlation was weak Similary, age was proved to be a positive predictor of

consumers’ consciousness for sustainable purchase behaviour in the study of Mohr and

Schlich (2016) and these findings are further empirical support for the findings of Zhao and associates (2013)

On the other hand, in study of Bulut and associates (2017), baby boomber consumers were less inclined to consume greenly while young consumers of generation

Z expressed the strongest tendency of green consumption in comparation with other generations Meanwhile, the correlations between age and green product attitude and

consumption were found insignificant by some scholars such as Khare (2014) or Bhuian and associates (2014)

d.Education

The influence of education on green consumption behaviours has remained unclear as reported by empirical evidence For example, in study of Olli and associates (2001), among four green consumption behaviours that were investigated, only significant relationship between education level and resource conservation was found but the size of the correlation appeared to be very weak Meanwhile, no connection

between education level and consumers’ tendency towards sustainable food

consumption was found in study of Mohr and Schlich (2016) Likewise, the effects of education level on green product attitude as well as ecologically conscious purchase behaviour of consumers were reported insignificant by study of Khare (2014)

In summary, demographic variables are less reliable predictors of green consumption behaviours This may be because of the lack of theoretical supports for the demographic influences on the behaviours The inconsistence in the findings about the effects of demographic characteristics thus need to be clarified by future research Furthermore, reviewing literature shows that academic research has focused mostly on age, gender, income and education level, research on the effects of other demographic variables such as marital status, family struture, ethnicity and so forth is also necessary

In the theory of planned behaviour, attitude towards behaviour is one of three

independent predictors of behavioural intention and it refers to “the degree to which a

person has a favorable or unfavorable evaluation or appraisal of the behaviour in

question” (Ajzen, 1987, 1991) In other words, people form their positive or negative

attitude towards a specific behaviour based on their belief that performing such behaviour will produce particular outcome and their positive or negative evaluation of the outcome (Ajzen, 2012) Among applied theories in green consumption research, the Theory of planned behaviour is one of the most popular The predictive power of attitude therefore has also been examined in various studies The findings of existing literature are fairly consistent about the positive relationship between attitude towards green consumption behaviours and behavioural intention or actual behaviours (Hanss et al.,

2016; Kang et al., 2013; Lee & Jan, 2017; Nguyen et al., 2018; Varshneya et al., 2017; Vermeir & Verbeke, 2006, 2008; Wei et al., 2017; Zhao et al., 2013) Attitude is also proved to be the most powerful predictive factor of the theory of planned behaviour Nevertheless, behavioural attitude does not always influence behavioural intention and actual behaviour (Lao, 2014; Moser, 2015) There are many variables reported to moderate this relationship by scholars such as Perceived consumer effectiveness (Berger

& Corbin, 1992; Nguyen et al., 2018), Faith in others (Berger & Corbin, 1992), Product availability (Nguyen et al., 2018; Vermeir & Verbeke, 2006)

Another dimension of attitudinal factor, attitude towards the environment, has also received attention of many scholars Environmental attitude indicates

“psychological tendency expressed by evaluating the natural environment with some degree of favour or disfavour” (Milfont & Duckitt, 2010) Environmental attitude is also

mentioned as environmental concern or environmental value in some studies Similar to behavioural attitude, most of existing literature found that enhancing environmental attitude can bring about behavioural change toward more sustainability (Berger & Corbin, 1992; Cho et al., 2013; Ellen et al., 1991; Heo & Muralidharan, 2019; Lee & Holden, 1999; Nguyen et al., 2018; Straughan & Roberts, 1999; Wang et al., 2013; Zhao

et al., 2013) Contrary to these findings, the relationship between environmental attitude and green consumption behaviours was found insignificant in some studies (Nguyen et al., 2018; Nittala, 2014; Wang et al., 2013) Otherwise, different measurements were used to capture the effect of this factor in these studies Among different measurements are the new environmental paradigm scale (NEP) and its’ revised version, the new

ecological paradigm, that was developed by Dunlap and Liere (1978) to assess the general attitude towards the environment or also called environmental world view Although NEP has been used by many researchers, NEP scale is still in question

regarding its’ predictive power and what it actually measures Future studies

investigating the effects of environmental attitude need to clarify measurements of this factor to find out the most reliable one

1.3.1.3 Personal norms

Schwartz (1977) defines personal norms or internalized values as the basis of

“feelings of moral obligation generated when perception of another’s need” In other words, personal norms are assumed to be activated by information about another’s need

that leads to the feelings of moral obligation to behave in order to help the other

Behaviour that is consistent with one’s norms is performed so as to “enhance or preserve one’s sense of self-worth and avoid self-concept distress” (Schwartz, 1977, p 226)

Based on the idea of personal norms of Schwartz (1977), Stern (2000) assumes that

“Personal norms to take pro-environmental action are activated by beliefs that

environmental conditions threaten things the individual values and that the individual can act to reduce the threat Such norms create a general predisposition that influences all kinds of behaviour taken with pro-environmental intent” (Stern, 2000, p 413)

Personal norms are deeply rooted in altruistic values (Schwartz, 1977; Stern, 2000), biospheric values and egoistic values (Stern, 2000) Personal norms is also mentioned

as moral norms in some studies

In green consumption research, the exlanatory power of personal norms has been proved in various studies The findings of previous studies are fairly consistent that personal norms positively influence green consumption behaviours (Doran & Larsen, 2016; Harland et al., 1999; Landon et al., 2018; López-Mosquera & Sánchez, 2012; Moser, 2015; Onel, 2016; Park & Ha, 2014; Tan et al., 2017) In addition, personal norms play mediating role in the relationship between Subjective norm and Behavioural intention (Doran & Larsen, 2016; Park & Ha, 2014) Some studies also showed that adding personal norms into the Theory of planned behaviour can also increase exlanatory power of the model (Ajzen, 1991; Doran & Larsen, 2016; Harland et al., 1999; Onel, 2016) Nevertheless, the addtion of personal norms can cause decrease in the effects of other factors (Ajzen, 1991; Doran & Larsen, 2016; Harland et al., 1999)

1.3.1.4 Perceived Behavioural Control

Perceived behavioural control is the third predictor of the Theory of planned behaviours (TPB) that Ajzen added into his preceding Theory of reasoned action in order

to increase the power in explaining human behaviours Perceived behavioural control that stems from the work on self-effcacy of Bandura is defined as “the extent to which people believe that they can perform a given behaviour” (Ajzen, 2012, p 446) The

stronger the belief of a person about his/ her ability to perform a behaviour is, the more likely he/ she engages in such behaviour This construct is therefore assumed to directly

or indirectly affect actual behaviour through behavioural intention in the TPB model (Ajzen, 2012)

Along with the application of the TPB in green consumption research, various scholars have examined the role of perceived behavioural control in predicting green consumption behaviours Empirically, many studies found that perceived behavioural control exerts positive influences on behavioural intention or actual green consumption behaviours (Afroz et al., 2015; Albayrak et al., 2013; E Ghazali et al., 2017; Ham et al., 2015; Harland et al., 1999; Lao, 2014; Lee & Jan, 2017; López-Mosquera & Sánchez, 2012; Park & Ha, 2014; Wang et al., 2013) In other words, the more comsumers perceive that they possesses ability in term of skill, knowledge, information, social

support, and so forth, that are prequisite to perform green consumption behaviours, the more likely they engage in the behaviours Nevertheless, there were also studies that reported insignificant affects of perceived behavioural control on the behaviours (Harland et al., 1999; Kang et al., 2013; Onel, 2016; Wang et al., 2013)

1.3.1.5 Perceived consumer effectiveness

As another dimension of the concept of self-efficacy (Bandura, 1991) beside perceived behavioural control, the conceptualization of perceived consumer effectiveness has received considerable attention from scholars throughout the world

To date, existing literature have proposed various definitions of this concept in different research fields that are based on the same idea For example, Antil (1984) refers to this

concept as consumers’ belief that their individual efforts will help contribute to the

solution of the problem based on their awareness of the existence of the problem Similarly, Ellen et al (1991) defined perceived consumer effectiveness as “a domain-

specific belief that the efforts of an individual can make a difference in the solution to a

problem” The idea of this concept is also much similar to the ideas of locus of control

(Hines et al., 1987; Rotter, 1966) or response efficacy (Wang et al., 2013) In the field

of green consumption, Hanss and Doran (2019) conceptualized perceived consumer

effectiveness as “a consumer’s estimate of his or her ability to contribute to specific sustainable development related outcomes through specific behaviours” Perceived

consumer effectiveness can be simply understood as the belief of individuals about the extent that their behaviours can contribute to alleviate environmental problems

Empirically, many studies proved that enhancing the beliefs of consumers about the effectiveness of their personal behaviours in dealing with environmental issues will directly or indirectly motivate consumers to engage in green consumption behaviour (Antonetti & Maklan, 2014; Ellen et al., 1991; Hanss et al., 2016; Kabaday et al., 2015; Kang et al., 2013; Lee & Holden, 1999; Nguyen et al., 2018; Straughan & Roberts, 1999; Vermeir & Verbeke, 2006, 2008; Wang et al., 2013; Zhao et al., 2013) Additionally, existing studies found that perceived consumer effectiveness exerts positive influences

on attitude toward environment or attitude towards green consumption behaviour (Cho

et al., 2013; Heo & Muralidharan, 2019; Kang et al., 2013; Vermeir & Verbeke, 2006) Strengthening the effectiveness beliefs was also proved to narrow the gap between attitude and green consumption behaviours (Berger & Corbin, 1992) or between behavioural intention and green consumption behaviours (Nguyen et al., 2018)

In contrast, some studies also reported insignificant relationships between perceived consumer effectiveness and green consumption behaviours (Cho et al., 2013; Hanss et al., 2016; Heo & Muralidharan, 2019; Lee & Holden, 1999; Wang et al., 2013)

The moderating role of Perceived consumer effectiveness are also inconsistent in the study of Berger and Corbin (1992) The heterogeneity of the findings implicates the need of further studies to clarify the role of perceived consumer effectiveness in fostering green consumption behaviours

1.3.1.6 Trust

Various definitions of “trust” have been proposed by many scholars Trust was defined as “the willingness of a party to be vulnerable to the actions of another party

based on the expectation that the other will perform a particular action important to the

trustor, irrespective of the ability to monitor or control that other party” (Mayer et al.,

1995) or ‘‘a psychological state comprising the intention to accept vulnerability based

on positive expectations that the exchange partner will act in a manner that is

responsible, evidences integrity, and is not potentially injurious’’ (Nuttavuthisit &

Thøgersen, 2017; Rousseau et al., 1998) or “the perceived credibility and benevolence

of a target of trust” (Doney & Cannon, 1997) Similarly, Mooran et Al (2012) defined

trust as a willingness to rely on an exchange partner in whom one has confidence (Moorman et al., 1992)

In the field of green marketing, Chen (2010) proposed the conceptualization of

“green trust” that is defined as “a willingness to depend on a product, service, or brand

based on the belief or expectation resulting from its credibility, benevolence, and ability

about its environmental performance” It simply refect the perception of consumers

about trust-worthiness, reliability, dependability of the green claims about a product or service Some scholars investigating the influences of this construct on green purchase behaviour reported that green trust positively affect attitude towards green product (Wei

et al., 2017) and green purchase intention (Chen & Chang, 2012) Trust in information sources was also found to be positive antecedents of intention to choose green energy devices (Fornara et al., 2016) Additionally, trust in government control, institution and producers was proved to play important role in narrowing the gap between green purchase intention and actual purchase behaviours (Nuttavuthisit & Thøgersen, 2017)

Skepticism is another construct concerning trust that has received attetion of

scholars in the field of green marketing “Skeptics are described as those who doubt what others are saying or doing but may be convinced by evidence or proof” (Mohr et

al., 1998) In the field of advertising, Obermiler and Spangenberg defined skepticism toward advertising in general as the tendency toward disbelief of advertising claims (Obermiller & Spangenberg, 1998) Skepticism of consumers derives from the confusion about the green claims of products or services that are sometime unclear, exaggerated, unsubstantiated and misleading (Maria et al., 2014; Rios et al., 2006)

Consumer skepticism toward green advertising is proved to negatively affects the extent consumer trust in green claims about products and services (Wei et al., 2017) and green consumption behaviours (Cheng et al., 2017)

1.3.1.7 Emotion (Guilt and Pride)

Some scholars have recently paid their attention to the effects of emotion on green consumption behaviours However, their studies focused mainly on two dimensions of emotion including Guilt and Pride

In the field of marketing, Antonetti and Baine (2014) defined guilt as “a negative

emotional state experienced by an individual remembering or imagining privately that

he or she is associated with an outcome deemed socially or personally negative and threatening to his or her self-identity goals” Guilt experiences are divided into two types

namely anticipatory and reactive guilt Anticipatory guilt refers to the experiences of a potential negative outcome in the future that was considered by an individual while Reactive guilt refers to the negative experiences of outcome of an action in the past (Antonetti & Baine, 2014)

When acceptance of green products increases, post-purchase guilt feelings have the consumers consider purchasing products that are detrimental to the environment (Burnett & Lunsford, 1994) In line with this perspective, some studies showed that the experiences of guilt positively and directly influence green consumption intention or indirectly affect through perceived consumer effectiveness (Antonetti & Maklan, 2014; Kabaday et al., 2015)

Pride is another important dimension of emotion The feeling of pride can acts as self-produced incentive that reinforce or motivate prosocial behaviours (Tracy & Robins, 2007b) Pride is distinguished into two types comprising hubristic pride and authentic pride (Bodolica & Spraggon, 2011; Tracy & Robins, 2007a, 2007b) While the former is considered as negative facet of pride that is associated with narcissistic self-aggrandizement and antisocial behaviour, the latter is positive dimension of pride

that relates to “confidence, self-esteem, and genuine feeling of satisfaction stemming from a favorable appraisal of behavioural outcomes attained via the deployment of one’s own knowledge, competence, and expertise…” (Bodolica & Spraggon, 2011) This

positive dimension of pride (authentic pride) was proved to have significant positive influence on perceived consumer effectiveness and therefore indirectly affect green consumption intention (Antonetti & Maklan, 2014)

Although few studies proved that two types of emotion affect green consumption behaviours directly or indirectly, work on the role of guilt and pride is still scarce

Scholars need to conduct more research to offer valueable insights into the role of these two emotional variables

1.3.1.8 Consumer innovativeness

According to Rogers, “innovativeness is the degree to which an individual or

other unit of adoption is relatively earlier in adopting new ideas than other members of

a system” (Rogers, 1983) In the field of consumer behaviour research, Steenkamp and

associates defined Consumer innovativeness as “the predisposition to buy new and

different products and brands rather than remain with previous choices and consumption

patterns” (Steenkamp et al., 1999) This construct indicates the extent that consumers

are receptive to new products (Tellis & Yin, 2010) Consumer innovativeness is therefore an antecedent of new product adoption

In investigating green purchase behaviours of consumers, Lao (2014) argued that green products are not only resource-conservative and environment-protective but also innovative and technologically advanced In his study, consumer innovativeness was found directly influences attitude towards green consumption, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control and therefore indirectly affect green consumption behaviour However, the lack of study on the relationship between this construct and green consumption behaviours implicates that future research needs to further investigate the mechanism that consumer innovativeness affects green consumption behaviours

1.3.1.9 Identity

Identity refers to the concepts about the way a person see himself/ herself in term who he/she is and what he/she is like (F.Baumeister, 1997) Cook et al (2002) refer self-identity as a label that people use to describe themselves In other words, it reflects the extent to which an actor sees him- or herself as fulfilling the criteria for any societal role (Conner & Armitage, 1998) According to Oyserman (2009), people are motivated to engage in behaviours that are congruent with their identity

In the field of green consumption, some studies examined the effects that identity exerts on green consumption behaviours Werff and associates (2013) proposed the conceptualization of environmental self-identity that refers to the extent to which consumers see themselves as a type of people who act in an environmentally friendly way Their study shows that the more people see themselves as environmentally friendly ones, the more they engage in green consumption behaviours The finding is strengthened by the studies of Dermody and associates (2015) and Gatersleben and associates (2015) Moreover, environmental self-identity not only directly affects green

self-consumption behaviours but also mediates the relationship between biospheric value and green consumption behaviours (Werff et al., 2013) The study of Gatersleben and associates (2015) also reinforces the mediating role of identity in the relationship between environmental values and green consumption behaviours Another study conducted by Lee and Jan (2017) reported the indirect positive influence of self-identity

on eco-tourism behaviour through subjective norms Similarly, research conducted by Jos Bartels and Machiel J Reinders (2016) with a sample of respondents from four different countries also confirmed the affects of multiple identity and green consumption behaviours The findings of them reported different contributions of different types of social identity to three green consumption behaviours namely organic food consumption, environmentally conscious behaviour and fair trade consumption Specifically, social identification with fair trade consumers exerts strongest influences

on both three green consumption behaviours Social identification with the organic comsumers correlates significantly with organic food consumption and environmentally conscious behaviour while only relationship between social identification with the environmentally conscious consumer and environmentally conscious behaviour is reported (Bartels & Reinders, 2016)

The affects of another dimension of self-identity labelled as place identity were

also studied by some scholars Place identity refers to “an individual’s sense of self in a

physical environment” (Lee et al., 2015) Lee and associates found that place identity

directly and positively affects environmental attitude and green consumption behaviours (Lee et al., 2015) Additionally, the results of study conducted by Lee and associates (2016) also proved that strengthening individuals’ sense of connectedness to

communities can enhance their positive attitude to green consumption However, the direct link between place identity and green consumption behaviours was found insignificant in this study

Although some studies examined the impact of identity on green consumption behaviours, the role of identity is still unclarified Further research need to be conducted

to shed light on the relation of identity and green consumption behaviours

1.3.1.10.Culture orientation

Originating from the work of Hofstede on cultural dimensions at national level,

the term “Culture” is defined as “the collective programming of the mind that

distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from others" (Hofstede,

2011, p 3) According to him, power distance refers to “the extent to which the less

powerful members of organizations and institutions (like the family) accept and expect

that power is distributed unequally” (Hofstede, 2011, p 9) Power distance reflects the