The influence factors on green purchase behaviour based on consumption values theory and values attitude behaviour hierarchy

Particularly, emotional value, epistemic value and conditional value have positive effects on attitude towards green products, which in turn significantly affect green purchase behaviour

InternationalSchoolof Business

-

Ngo Ngoc Quyen Van

THE INFLUENCE FACTORS ON GREEN PURCHASE BEHAVIOUR BASED ON CONSUMPTION VALUES THEORY AND VALUE-ATTITUDE-BEHAVIOUR

The Influence Factors on Green Purchase Behaviour Based on Consumption Values

Theory and Value-Attitude-Behaviour Hierarchy

Ngo Ngoc Quyen Van

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Firstly, I would like to express my gratefulness to my supervisor Dr Le Nhat Hanh for her professional guidance, intensive support, valuable suggestions, instructions and

encouragement during the time of doing my research

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Professor Nguyen Dinh Tho, Professor Nguyen Dong Phong, Dr Tran Ha Minh Quan, Dr Nguyen Phong Nguyen and other teachers for their valuable time as the members of the proposal examination committee Their comments and meaningful suggestions contributed significantly for my completion

of this research

My sincere thanks are given all of my teachers at International School of Business – University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City for their teaching and guidance during my Master course

ABSTRACT Green initiatives are fast becoming a catchphrase among societies and business entities as these entities strive to ensure more sustainable business operations and

lifestyle Research in green behaviours of consumers in Asia, especially in Vietnam is only just emerging The objective of this study, therefore, is to examine the factors that influence consumers’ green purchase behaviour The conceptual framework and

hypotheses development are grounded on related literature We examined five

independent variables which represent five pertinent dimensions of consumer perceived value and their effects on green purchase behaviour through green purchase attitude The questionnaire was adapted from validated items from related prior works The analysis was based on 406 valid responses from consumers of Ho Chi Minh City The findings reveal that four of the six hypotheses are supported Particularly, emotional value,

epistemic value and conditional value have positive effects on attitude towards green products, which in turn significantly affect green purchase behaviour Managerial and research implications of the findings are also further discussed

Table of Contents

Chapter 1:

Introduction……….8

1.1 Research background……… ……… 8

1.2 Research gap……….……11

1.3 Research objectives……… ….………13

1.4 Research methodology and scope……… … 13

1.5 Research contribution……….……… 14

Chapter 2: Literature Review……… 16

2.1 Theoretical framework……… 16

2.2 Attitude and behavior towards green purchasing……… … 18

2.3 Consumer perceived value……….… 21

2.4 The conceptual model and hypotheses of the research………… … ….24

Chapter 3: Research methodology……… 27

3.1 Sample……… ……27

3.2 Data collection and procedure……… …………28

3.3 Questionnaire design……… ….………… 30

3.4 Data analysis method……… ……… 34

Chapter 4: Data analysis……… …… 36

4.1 Respondents’ demographics……….…… ….36

4.2 Reliability test……… 38

4.3 Exploratory factor analysis (EFA)……… ….……45

4.4 Discriminant validity test……….……53

4.5 Regression analysis……….……56

Chapter 5: Conclusion, implications and limitations……… …… 63

5.1 Conclusion……… …………63

5.2 Managerial implications……… ………64

5.3 Limitations and future research……… ……66

References……… …… 67

Appendices……….…….77

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1: The theory of consumption values model……….……… 17

Figure 2.2: A theoretical framework……….………….25

Figure 4.1: Final theoretical framework………62

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1 Source of data collection……… …… 29

Table 3.2 Source of measurement scale……… ………31

Table 4.1 Respondents’ characteristics……….36

Table 4.2 Reliability test – Scale: Functional value……… …….39

Table 4.3 Reliability test – Scale: Emotional value……… …….41

Table 4.4 Reliability test – Scale: Conditional value……… 42

Table 4.5 Results of reliability assessment for the modified framework………43

Table 4.6 First time running EFA result for independent variables………45

Table 4.7 Reliability test for functional value with six remaining items…… ………45

Table 4.8 Second time running EFA result for independent variables………… … 48

Table 4.9 EFA for dependent variables result……… …… 51

Table 4.10 Correlations matrix……… …….53

Table 4.11 Simple regression analysis result……….… ………57

Table 4.12 Multiple regression analysis result……… ……… 56

Table 4.13 Result of hypotheses testing……….……… ……….61

Chapter 1: Introduction

This introductory chapter provides the background to this study along with its rationale A general picture of the impacts caused need of new and green resources is drawn, and overview of green consumerism and green purchase behaviour is presented to highlight the importance and significance of the study This first chapter also sets out the research objectives, research questions and briefs some important contents such its

methodology, procedures and research contribution

1.1 Research Background

Nowadays, the environment is threatened in a wide variety of ways such as global warming, ozone depletion, shortage of drinking water, loss of biodiversity and land

degradation (Hoang & Nguyen, 2012) According to the Nielsen Sustainability report in

2012, in many of the countries with high percentages of coastal borders, the percentage of consumers concerned about climate change almost reaches 100, including Thailand

(93%), Indonesia (92%), Vietnam and Philippines (91%) As a result, people are now seeking for new resources, new products that could reduce the pollution (Sheng, 1995) Today, 64 percent of consumers, globally, indicated they believe organic products are good for the environment, including 72% of Asia Pacific respondents think green product are environmentally-friendly (Nielsen, 2013)

There are several definitions and classifications of green products (Dangelico and Pontrandolfo, 2010) In particular, The European Communities (2004) defines green

products as products that "use less resource, have lower impacts and risks to the

environment and prevent waste generation already at the conception stage" In this

research, green product is defined as ecological and environmental friendly produced that integrates greener strategies in terms of packaging and lesser use of toxic materials which help reduce natural environment impact (Chen & Chai, 2010) A global consumer report conducted by Nielsen in July 2013 has revealed that Asia-Pacific were the most receptive

to making an ecological difference by purchasing ecological-responsible products; Thais, Indonesians, Vietnamese, Filipinos and Chinese are eco-minded and willing to change their lifestyle to save energy and reduce carbon footprint

The Development Committee (2008) revealed that Vietnam is one of the countries hardest hit by climate change and rising sea levels Therefore, the Vietnamese

Government is adamant that socio-economic development must go together with

environmental protection (Asia Pulse News, 2009) It is reported by the Ministry of

Justice that there are 300 legal documents in the field of environmental protection to regulate the behaviours of individuals, organizations, economic activities, technical

procedures and raw material production processing Yet, there are incomplete,

inconsistent and unstable flaws that need amending; however, it states the Government’s effort in making the change (Hoang & Nguyen, 2012) In the Asia Pulse in 2009,

Vietnam encourages cooperation from foreign partners to conduct research into the

development of green technologies In addition, the United Nations (2011) denoted that Vietnam has seen rapid urbanization, rising new wealth and higher disposal income

population, those are significant advantages together with the perception of green

products because more and more consumers seek for higher life quality From 2010 to

2011, various campaigns had been held to motivate communities to buy and use green products (Saigon Giai Phong Newspaper, 2010) Through this event, consumers can exercise their rights to boycott products from so-called black enterprises, which are

enterprises polluting the environment and call on the community and enterprises to

perform their role in the development of the national economy while still ensuring

sustainable development

Nevertheless, Hoang and Nguyen (2012) also states that compared with other

countries in the region, the demand of green product in the Vietnamese market as well as consumer awareness is limited while Vietnamese businesses remain cautious in

investment practices and the application of green production Besides, many consumers admits a personal preference for eco-friendly goods, but large percentages of respondents report setting aside this preference and buying whichever product is cheapest (Nielsen Sustainability Report, 2011) This situation, consequently, requires green enterprises to

do deliberately and deeply studies to find out what factors stimulate purchasing and using environmentally friendly products In order to further understand the consumers’

intention towards purchasing green product, it is helpful to know how they perceive its value offered and their attitudes towards purchasing green products This way, businesses can enhance their understanding and knowledge of consumer behaviour towards green

products, which are critical for planning a long-term strategy to win the Vietnamese market That is also the motivation for developing this research

1.2 Research Gap

Perceived value is the essential result of marketing activities and is a central

element in marketing (Ravald & Gronroos, 1996) Perceived value has demonstrated to

be a difficult concept to define and measure (Holbrook, 1999, Woodruff, 1997) In

general terms, it can be defined as the customer’s overall assessment of the utility of a product In other words, it is conceptualized as a trade-off between one give component and one get component (Zeithaml, 1988) Previous research has widely explored

perceived value because it has a positive effect on marketing performance; and value creation is widely discussed in the practitioner literature and is often a part of

organizations’ mission statements and objectives (Sweeney, Soutar & Johnson, 1999) Many commentators see it as the key to long-term success, with Albrecht (1992) arguing,

“The only thing that matters in the new world of quality is delivering customer value” Levy (1999) also addresses that customers are currently “value-driven”, hence, the

managers need to understand what customer’s value and where they should focus their attention to achieve this needed market place advantage (Woodruff, 1997)

When studying perceived value, the most common definition of value is the ratio or trade-off between quality and price (e.g., Chain Store Age, 1985; Cravens, Holland, Lamb & Moncrieff, 1988; Monroe, 1990), which is a value-for-money conceptualization However, other authors have also suggested that viewing value, as trade-off between only

quality and price is too simplistic (Bolton & Drew, 1991) Porter (1990), for example, talks about providing superior value to the buyer in terms of product quality, special features, or after-sale service These views suggest that existing value constructs are too narrow and that dimensions other than price and quality would increase the construct’s usefulness Consequently, Sheth et al (1991) contributes a more sophisticated measure that enables marketers to get more insight of how consumers value products and services The value framework discussed by them incorporates five pertinent dimensions of

customer consumption value: functional, emotional, social, conditional, and epistemic

In the literature, a number of studies has discussed about the relationship between values and attitude, for example, in social commerce (Kim, Sun & Kim, 2013), in

consumption of green energy brands (Hartmann and Apaolaza-Ibáñez, 2012); or about the values-behaviour gap, in spa hotel services purchasing (Lu & Shiu, 2011), in online shopping (Lu & Tan, 2013) Moreover, Lin and Huang (2011) have conducted a study regarding the relationship between perceived value and consumer choice behaviour

towards green products However, the intensive literature review indicates that there is a lack of research on the relationship of value – attitude – behaviour towards green

purchasing Hence, this paper will fill this gap by adopting the Value – Attitude –

Behaviour Hierarchy (Homer and Kahler, 1988) and the theory of consumption values (Sheth et al., 1991)

Additionally, according to Hoang and Nguyen (2012), there is the lack of studies in terms of green products in Vietnam The reason for that scarcity is that green products

just have got the concerns of Vietnamese people in recent years There are very few studies, for example, the research of Hoang and Nguyen (2012) about environmental awareness and green purchase attitude; or about market demand, green production

innovation and firm performance in Vietnam motorcycle industry (Lin, Tan & Geng, 2013) These studies, however, focus on other aspects of green products, Thus, in order to fulfill such gap, this study aims to investigate whether consumer perceived values

influence on consumer’s attitude and behaviour towards purchasing green products in the context of Vietnam

1.3 Research Objectives

The overall objective of this study is to examine some factors influencing the

behaviour of purchasing green products Specifically, it investigates:

• The relationship between attitude towards purchasing green products and the behaviour of purchasing these products

• The relationship between functional/social/emotional/conditional/epistemic value and attitude towards purchasing green products

1.4 Research Methodology and Research Scope

This study uses questionnaire to collect data The survey questionnaire is originally developed in English and then translated into Vietnamese In-depth interviews are then conducted with five people in order to modify the Vietnamese version of the

questionnaire before the survey is implemented in mass The next step is analyzing the

collected data The data is processed using SPSS software with three main stages First, Cronbach’s Alpha was used to test the reliability of the measurement scale Then,

Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) will check the validity of the measurement scale Finally, simple regression and multiple regression are employed as the main method for investigating the relationships among factors in the research model

The questionnaire will be implemented in four supermarkets located in the North, South, East and West of Ho Chi Minh City This will ensure that the data will represent exactly the characteristics of Vietnamese citizens, as Ho Chi Minh City is the biggest city with all the classes in Vietnam

1.5 Research Contribution

First, to the best of my knowledge, there is a lack of research on comparative effect

of different perceived values (i.e., functional value, emotional value, social value,

conditional value, epistemic value) This paper will not only study all five pertinent

dimensions of customer consumption value, but also demonstrates their diverse causes towards green purchase behaviour through attitude

Second, this paper will adopt the two theories in order to examine the relationship between customer perceived values, green purchase attitude and green purchase

behaviour The theory of consumption values conducted by Sheth et al (1991) enables the research to fully understand five perspectives of the consumer perceived value and

the cognitive hierarchy model of Homer and Kahler (1988) will play as the conceptual framework for addressing the literature gap

Lastly, based on findings in the end of this research, we hope to provide practical contributions to green industry, particularly to green enterprises, which have the intention

to grow and expand the market in Vietnam and especially in Ho Chi Minh City

Obviously, expansion to a new market always accompanies with great opportunities as well as considerable challenges Hence, it is essential for managers of green companies to find out effective strategies that can maximize opportunities and minimize obstacles This study with deep understanding of consumers’ intent to buy eco-friendly products can help the managers have the high chance to be successful in Ho Chi Minh City market In summary, the findings of this study would be helpful for environmentally friendly brand marketers who want to penetrate the business in Ho Chi Minh City and maintain the loyalty of the customers

Chapter 2: Literature Review

This chapter mainly introduces the theories, which are proposed by many scholars

in academic field, relate to each of factors in the model and research model of the study First, some terminologies of green product, green consumer, and green marketing are defined in order to clarify the green definition Second, five components of perceived value concept are introduced to give specifically about their definitions and attributes Third, the related theories of each construct, including five dimension of consumption value, attitude towards purchasing green products are discussed respectively Finally, research model is proposed, simultaneously, its constructs and relationship hypothesized among these constructs are also discussed

2.1 Theoretical Framework

This section presents the two theoretical models that have widely been utilized in behavioural studies in the world as a scientific background for proposal of the research model in this study

2.1.1 Theory of Consumption Values This theory suggests that consumers

attach different values to product groups and that these in turn will affect motivations to purchase For example, an automobile might be purchased by one customer for its style (

a social value), while for another it might be purchased accordingly to a functional value (such as fuel economy) Sheth et al (1991) argue that by analysis of what values

predominate among a given population regarding a product category, one is then able to

discriminate between brands according to particualr value weightings Their model is presented at Figure 1

Figure 2.1 The theory of Consumption Values model

As shown in Figure 2.1, the five values identified by Sheth et al (1991) are

functional value, social value, emotional value, epistemic value and conditional value Functional value derives from the perceived utility of the object in the choice situation Social value attaches to a product from its association with social groups Emotional value relates to the affective or emotional response to the product Epistemic value is a value obtaining to a product through curiosity, novelty or knowledge seeking

Conditional value is a value ascribed to an object through circumtances of use Previous studies have used the Theory of Consumption Values to determine which values motivate

consumers to purchase target products and services, inluding airline frequent flyer

programs (Long & Shiffman, 2000), clothing (Park & Rabolt, 2009), tourism (Bodker, Gimpel & Hedman, 2009), sponsorship in sports marketing (Williams & Soutar, 2005), and organic foods (Pope, 1998)

2.1.2 Value-Attitude-Behaviour hierarchy Homer ans Kahle’s (1988) model

integrates the interrelationships between values, attitudes, and behaviours by positing a hierarchical influence of cognitions in which the influence theoretically flows from more abstract cognitions (i.e., values) to mid-range cognitions (i.e., attitudes) to specific

behaviours Hence, the model implies a major flow of causation from values to attitudes

to behaviour, so that the strongest causal effects are between values and attitudes, and between attitudes and behaviour As a result, the model can be visually depicted as a causal sequence: value -> attitude -> behaviour The main feature of the model is its emphasis on the mediating role of attitudes on the values and behaviours relationship

Homer and Kahle (1988) tested the model in a very specific situation; that is, natural-food shopping Based on the hierarchical model, they proposed that value

dimensions would influence attitudes toward natural food purchasing, which, in turn, would influence shopping behaviours among natural-food consumers Their empirical findings support this proposal Although the value-attitude-behaviour cognitive hierarchy model has been applied in some other areas, such as to explain career attitude (Shim, Warrington, & Goldsberry, 1999), the model has been used mainly in research on

environmental issues (Milfont, Duckitt, & Wagner, 2010)

2.2 Attitude and Behaviour Towards Green Purchasing

In marketing area, attitude of customers is one of the most important indicators for maketers to achieve consumer insight Attitude explains how people’s feeling and

evaluation lead to attitudes and how their attitudes form to actions and impact on

performing the behaviour (Vallerand et al., 1992) According to Fishbein and Ajzen ( as cited in Hanzae & Jalalian, 2012), attitude possesses several attributes:

• Attitudes are not in built, they are formed after real experiences

• Attitudes can be established through the observed stimulus factors and a

sequence of repetitive behaviours

• Attitudes hold objective reference which relates to some object person, or issue

In regards to this trait, they are different from motives and personality traits which reflect subjective reference

• Once established, attitudes are usually permanent and remain unchanged under regular conditions

• From operational point of view, attitudes reflect responses that relevant with a specific object situation

Green purchasing is considered as one of the most effective ways to solve

environmental pollution and natural resources degradation because it drives

manufacturers to focus on waste emission prevention, minimizing and control at source (Min & Gale, 1997) Many literature have mentioned about environmental behaviour, but most of them are about environmental behaviour in general, not about green

purchase behaviour in specific (Lee, 2010) while it is one type of pro-environmental behaviour

According to Halpenny (2006), pro-environmental behaviour is preferred to the actions of an individual or group that contribute to the sustainable use of natural

resources It includes green purchase behaviour (Mostafa, 2007), energy saving (Kim & Choi, 2003), waste and recyling behaviour (Kim & Choi, 2003), and participation in nature related activities (Haron, Paim, & Yahaya, 2005) Among them, green purchase can be understood as “the consumption of products that are benevolent/beneficial to the environment, recyclable/conservable, or sensitive/responsive to ecological concerns” (Mostafa, 2007) In other words, green purchase behaviour can be translated into the act

of buying and consuming products that have minimal impacts on the environment

(Mainieri et al., 1997)

Nowadays, other terms are interchangeably use with green purchase behaviour, such as green buying behaviour (Kim & Choi, 2003), pro-environmental purchase

behaviour (Tilikidou, 2007) and environmentally responsible purchase behaviour

(Follows & Jobber, 2000)

To date, the majority of the existing literature support a positive relationship between attitude and behaviour (Homer & Kahle, 1988, Shim & Easlick, 1998) The prominent theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen, 1991) is one of the models that have been successfully applied to understanding and predicting purchase behaviour In the theory of planned behaviour, behaviour depends on intention, which in turn is influenced by

attitude towards the behaviour Hence, the theory of planned behaviour assumes that

attitude fully mediates the relationship between values and behaviour – that Homer and Kahle (1988) showed, for example, in the case of buying natural foods Specifically, values did not predict behaviour directly, but values predicted attitudes, which in turn predicted purchase behaviour These findings support the idea of a hierarchical value-attitude-behaviour organization and thus, the mediating role of attitudes On the other hand, consumers’ favourable attitude has been found related positively with healthy food consumption (Grunert & Juhl, 1995), e shopping behaviour (Jayawardhena, 2004), in television viewing behaviour (McCarthy & Shrum, 1993), and also environmental-

friendly behaviour (Thogersen & Grunert, 1997, Schultz & Zelezny, 1998) Given the theoretical foundations and the empirical evidence, this study proposes the following hypothesis:

H1: Green purchase attitude positively affects green purchase behaviour

2.3 Consumer Perceived Value

Functional value Sheth et al (1991) defined functional value as the perceived

utility for consumers relies on an alternative capacity for functional, utilitarian, or

physical performance, such as reliability, durability, and price In accordance to Homer and Kahler’s (1988) cognitive model, functional value will faciliatate the attitude towards purchasing the products Bei and Simpson (1995) indicated that consumers examine both the price and quality of recycled products The price effect derives from perceived price different between a recycled and a non-recycled product This perceived but not actual difference affects consumer attitude to buy recycled products, because, in Bei and

Simpson’s (1995) study, actual price was not varyingt For consumer of recycled

products, quality is a another consideration Recycled baby wipes and toilet paper are examples of low-priced things, but because they are perceived poor quality, consumers seem to avoid using them Laroche, Bergeron and Barbaro-Forleo (2001) conducted a range of surveys in the field over a period In 1989, 67% of Americans stated that they were willing to pay 5-10% more for ecologically sound products By 1991,

environmentally concious individuals were willing to pay between 15 and 20% more for green products By 1993, in a mail survey in the United Kingdom, 79% of female

participants revealed willingness to pay up to 40% more for a product that is identical in every respect to their usual brand but with proven green credentials It is clearly that some customers care enough regarding ecological detriment to choose to pay more for green products Therefore, this study proposes the following hypothesis:

H2: Functional value positively affects green purchase attitude

Social value Social value is the perceived utility derived from an alternative

association with one or more specific social groups (Sheth et al., 1991) The subjective norm construct refers to perceived social pressure to approve and adopt a style of

behaviour (Ajzen, 1991) Although subjective norms reflect external social pressure, personal norms and moral attitudes constitute rules or values that inform motivation because of anticipated self-administered that environment-based marketing efforts should

be linked explicitly to beneficial outcomes (Arvola et al., 2008) Therefore, marketers must show how consumers who choose to go green are helping in the struggle to preserve the environment (Straughan & Roberts, 1999) Consumers wishing to avoid negative outcomes are keen to pursue more information sources when facing with social risk

Expert opinion is seemingly a powerful way of reducing consumer perceptions of risk (Aqueveque, 2006) Therefore, this study proposes the following hypothesis:

H3: Social value positively affects green purchase attitude

Emotional value Emotional value is the perceived utility derived from an

alternative capacity to arouse feelings or affective states (Sheth et al., 1991) Goods and services are connected frequently with emotional responses The importance of this

combined set can be seen in a comment by MacKay (1999), who stated that the attraction

of the product or services is a combination of emotional and rational factors and that emotions take part in every purchase decision Bei and Simpson (1995) found that most respondents (89.1%) often feel that they are saving the environment when they purchase recycled products Therefore, this study proposes the following hypothesis:

H4: Emotional value positively affects green purchase atitude

Conditional value Conditional value is the perceived utility derived from an

alternative as the result of a specific situation or set of circumtances facing the decision maker (Sheth et al., 1991) Belk (1974) defined such a situation as one in which all

factors relate to particular times and places and do not depend on personal knowledge and stimulus (choice of alternative) attributes, which have desmontrable and systematic

effects on current behaviour Situational variables refer to the circumstances surrounding individuals as they respond to stimuli relevant to their needs and wants (Nicholls et al., 1996) When personal situation, that is, consumer situational variables, change, consumer purchase attitude may be affected (Laaksonen, 1993) Studies of home furnishings

(Burnsed, 2009), food and grocery (Kumar, Reddy, & Mahathi, 2014) , and

hydrogen-electric motorcycle (Chen, Chen, Chen, & Hsieh, 2012) have desmonstrated that sales and purchases of products are frequently in response to particular situations Therefore, this study proposes the following hypothesis:

H5: Conditional value positively affects green purchase attitude

Epistemic value Epistemic value is the perceived utility derived from an

alternative capacity to arouse curiosity, provide novelty, or satisfy a desire for knowledge (Sheth et al., 1991) Consumer research recognizes knowledge as a element that

influences all phases in the decision process (Solomon, 2004) In addition to the needs associated with a purchase situation, consumer knowledge of a product also plays an essential role in settling new product adoption (Laroche et al 2001) Besides,

exploratory, novelty seeking, and variety seeking motives has been suggested to enable product search, trial and quicly changing their purchase attitude (Howard & Sheth, 1969) Recently, researcher has also reported the positive influence of novelty value on purchase attitude (Duman & Mattila, 2005,) Therfore, espitemic value is expected to have a

positive effect on purchase attitude:

H6: Epistemic value positively affects green purchase atitude

2.4 The Conceptual Model and Hypotheses of The Research

The conceptual framework is presented in Figure 2.1 and consisting six

hypotheses from H1 to H6, in there, the group factors correspond with H2 to H6 are independent and qualitative variables, they affect directly on attitude towards green

purchasing, a dependent variable Its turn, attitude towards green purchasing will be

considered as the influent factor of purchase behaviour This relationship is mentioned in the first hypothesis (H1)

Figure 2.2 A theoretical framework

There are total six hypotheses developed for this research:

• H1: Green purchase attitude positively affects green purchase behaviour

• H2: Functional value positively affects attitude regarding green purchasing

• H3: Social value positively affects attitude regarding green purchasing

• H4: Emotional value positively affects attitude regarding green purchasing

• H5: Conditional value positively affects attitude regarding green purchasing

• H6: Epistemic value positively affects attitude regarding green purchasing

In summary, this chapter presents theoretical background of each concept in the model Based on discussion of literature review, the next chapter will discuss about

methodology that is used to analyse the data and the test hypotheses of the research model

Chapter 3: Research Methodology

This chapter presents a detailed account of a research methodology of this study First, it starts with sample description, followed by data collection method and research process Then, measurement scales are presented to develop questionnaire

products to join the survey

The sample size was necessarily big enough to guarantee statistical significance Hair et al (2009) stated that the minimum sample for appropriate use for statistical

analysis is equal to or greater than five times of number of variables, but not less than

100 The model in this study consisted seven factors with thirty variables, so that the necessary sample size should be equal or greater than 34*5=170 observations

For Exploratory Factor Analysis, the minimum sample size s to have at least five times as many observations as the number of variables to be analysed and larger than

100 Thus, the minimum sample size required by EFA in this research was 34*5=170 For standard multiple regression analysis, Nunnally and Burnstein (as cited in

Nguyen, 2011) emphasized that the sample size must satisfy:

n>50+8m (m: number of independent variables)

There were five independent variables in the study Therefore, the minimum sample size required was 90 observations

Summarily, with 34 variables and 5 independent variables, this research needed at least 170 observations for running EFA and regression

3.2 Data collection and procedure

Collecting data process of this study was conducted in Ho Chi Minh City The current study involved mainly of two stages, a qualitative phase followed by a

quantitative phase The survey questionnaire was firstly designed in English and then translated into Vietnamese by the researcher with the support of some English experts Regarding to the qualitative phase, the Vietnamese version of the survey questionnaire was pre-tested using in-depth interviews during two weeks with eight people who were colleagues of the researcher to check whether they understood clearly about the scale or not The in-depth interview ensured that the final questions would be well understood by respondents and they were valuable in measuring observed variables before launching the main survey The procedure of conducting in-depth interviews started with identifying the purposes of the research in terms of what information needed gathering Then the detailed questionnaire was shown to the interviewees for checking their understanding During the interview, the author also would like to find out the suitability of choosing the measurement scales for conducting the research in Vietnam All the comments from the interviewees were checked in order to modify the measurement scale Based on the

feedback of respondents, all the items were easily understood However, the functional

value item 2 and 5 were likely duplicated; therefore, they needed revising after collecting data

After that, the survey was conducted in mass It aimed to collect data for testing the research’s hypotheses Participants self-completed a survey with most of items were measured by five-point Likert scale, anchor points including “strongly disagree” (=1),

“disagree” (=2), “neutral” (=3), “agree” (=4), “strongly agree” (=5) The questionnaire was mainly delivered to respondents in paper version However, in some convenient cases, online version was used via the Internet using Google Survey Data collection was conducted both on week and weekend days during one month

As mentioned above, the minimum sample size needed for data analysis was 170, hence, for the survey, 800 questionnaires were distributed directly by paper and indirectly via Google survey to respondents Specifically, 300 questionnaire were sent via email to researcher’s colleagues, students of International Business School and the rest of 500 paper questionnaires were spread out to the consumers who were shopping at 5 big super markets around Ho Chi Minh City which are: Coopmart Rach Mieu, Citimart Nguyen Trai, Big C Mien Dong, Big C An Phu, Big C An Lac After the data collection, there were 588 responses collected, approximately 73.5 per cent

Table 3.1 Source of data collection Source Distributed Collected Eliminated Valid

Total 800 588 182 406

However, only 406 responses are qualified for data analysis process Total 37 responses were deleted because respondents indicated that they had no idea about green products and the rest (145 questionnaires) was eliminated because they were invalid (respondents just selected one option for all the questions or their answers were

implausible) Finally, 406 questionnaires were used as valid data for this research In comparison with minimum sample size, this value was satisfactory

3.3 Questionnaire design

Questionnaire is a common tool in social science and business research to collect data from the subjects for measurement of the constructs under investigation However, designing a questionnaire is an important issue in a research that involves collection of attitude from the subjects It is because that the questionnaire serves as a communication between the researcher and the subjects, and it is only communication channel in the case

of self-completion questionnaire, as in the case of this study

The questionnaire was divided into four parts Part 1 is the survey information sheet, which provided the background and the purpose of the survey It also contained a clear statement that the participation in the survey is entire voluntary, and the contact with the researcher

Part two explored respondents’ knowledge regard to green products This section included a list of different types of green product and a screening question asking if the participant have heard about or used them If anyone answered “No”, it meant that he or she was not the target respondent of the survey and he or she would stop the job Beside,

because “green” was an abstract concept and may be different people had different

awareness about it Hence, to make sure all respondents had the same understanding of green products, some types of green products were used for illustration, such as organic food, energy saving device, renewable product, etc

Part 3 is the survey in which the construct of consumer perceived values, green purchase attitude and green purchase behaviour are measured Specifically, ten items of the functional value, four items of the social value and five items of the emotional value were developed by Sweeney and Soutar (2001); the conditional and epistemic value was measured by four items of Lin and Huang (2012); the green purchase attitude was

measured by three items of Taylor and Todd (1995); and finally, the green purchase behaviour was measured by four items that was developed by Lee (2010)

The fourth part included demographics information such as gender, age,

education level, occupation and income of the respondents Such information was utilized

to classify and compare groups of respondents Table 3.2 summarized the reference

sources of measurement scale used for each factors:

Table 3.2 Source of measurement scale Measurement scale Source

- The green product is well made

- The green product has an acceptable standard of quality

- The green product would perform consistently

- The green product has poor workmanship.(R)

- The green product would last a long time

2 Functional value-price:

- The green product is reasonably priced

- The green product offers value for money

- The green product is good product for the price

- The green product would be economical

(2001)

- The green product is one that I would enjoy

- The green product would make me want to use it

- The green product is one that I would feel relaxed about

using

- Buying the green product would make me feel good

- Buying the green product would give me pleasure

4 Conditional value

- I would buy the green product instead of conventional

products under worsening environmental conditions

- I would buy the green product instead of conventional

products when there is a subsidy for green products

- I would buy the green product instead of conventional

products when there are discount rates for green product or

promotional activity

- I would buy the green product instead of conventional

products when green products are available

- Before buying the product, I would obtain substancial

information about the different makes and models of

products

- I would acquire a great deal of information about the

different makes and models before buying the product

- I am willing to seek out novel information

- I like to search for the new and different

6 Green purchase attitude Taylor & Todd, (1995)

- I like the idea of purchasing green

- Purchasing green is a good idea

- I have a favorable attitude toward purchasing a green

version of a product

7 General green purchase behaviour

Lee, (2010)

- When shopping, I deliberately check products for

environmentally harmful ingredients

- When shopping, I deliberately choose products with

environmentally friendly packaging

- I shall choose to buy environmentally friendly products

even if they are more expensive than others

- When shopping, when I consider buying a product, I will

look for a certified environmentally safe or organic stamp

Finally, the completed questionnaire in English and Vietnamese version were

presented in Appendices A and B

3.4 Data analysis method

The collected data was processed by SPSS software version 20 using Enter

method Various statistic tests were extracted using SPSS First, the reliability and the validity of the scale instrument were checked in the current study using Cronbach’s

Alpha analysis and Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) The items that were not satisfied the conditions of reliability and validity would be deleted before running the regression After that, the influence of attitude towards purchasing green products on purchase

behaviour would be evaluated by simple regression Finally, multiple regression was used

to identify the correlation and measure the impact level of each independent variable to attitude towards purchasing green products

In summary, this chapter described the choice of the sample size, measurement scale construction, and research method employed to process the collected data The next chapter will present data analysis results of main survey

Chapter 4: Data Analysis

Chapter 3 presented research methodology to examine scale validation and

analyse the collected data In this chapter, results of the study would be shown and

analysed with sample n=406 First, respondents’ demographics were analysed by using

the SPSS – Statistical software package Secondly, results of scale validation were

presented In this section, there were two steps to evaluate the data of this research Step

1 used Cronbach’s Alpha and Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) to examine reliability and validity of the scale measurement In step 2, researcher employed simple regression

to test the first proposed hypothesis and multiple regression to test the remaining five

hypotheses Finally, results of hypotheses were discussed

4.1 Respondents’ demographics

The collected data were analysed using the SPSS – Statistical software package This part aimed to provide the general information of the respondents The results of the demographics analysis were summarized in table 4.1

Table 4.1 Respondents’ characteristics

24-30 31-40 41-50

Educational level Grammar school

High school/Vocational degree College/Bachelor degree Postgraduate

100.0

Employed Businessman/woman Homemaker Others

100.0 Income per month

(million VND)

Under 3 3-5 5-8 8-11 Over 11

Total 406 100.0

Initial analysis of data indicated that gender was not equally between male and female Female was dominant with 65% of respondents and male only seized 35% of respondents

The age group of “41-50 years old” had the largest number (28.6%), followed by

“31-40 years old” group with 23.9%, “24-30 years old” group with 23.4%, “51 years old

or older” group with 13.1% and the smallest was the age group of “19-23 years old” with 11.1%

Almost qualified respondents had good education level Nearly half of the

respondents had the College/Bachelor degree, 43.1% of total sample People had high school degree or vocational degree accounted for 34%, Grammar school 14.5% and

postgraduate 8.4%

About occupation profile, employed people had the largest percentage with

37.4%, the next were other occupations 36.2%, homemaker 10.6%, businessman/woman 8.9% and student 6.9%

Income per month was divided into five groups 26.1% respondents revealed that their income ranged from 5-8 million VND, 22.9% people earned 3-5 million VND every month There were about 20.7% respondents’ income under 3 million VND, 19.7%

income above 11 million VND, and the last portion with the lowest percentages was the respondents with the income ranged from 8-11 million VND (10.6%)

4.2 Reliability test

As mentioned in chapter 3, Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient was used to assess the reliability of measurement (or the internal consistence of the scale) There were two criteria for reliability measurement: First, the minimum value of Cronbach’s Alpha must

be 0.6, and second, the value of Corrected Item-Total Correlation must be higher than 0.3 (Nguyen, 2011) In other words, during reliability assessment, any measurement did not satisfy these criteria had to be deleted, and any item that have the value of Corrected Item-Total Correlation lower than 0.3 had to be removed from the measurement

Functional value As mentioned in chapter 3, through the qualitative test, 7 out

of 8 interviewees proposed that the item 2 was the reversed version of item 5 and after collecting data; it was shown that the responses of these two items were almost the same Therefore, item 5 were deleted from the scale The first time running reliability test, the Corrected Item-Total Correlation of FV1 and FV3 were lower than 0.3 (as shown in Table 4.2); hence, these items were eliminated from the scale

Table 4.2 Reliability test – Scale: Functional Value

Reliability Statistics Cronbach's

Alpha

N of Items

Item-Total Statistics