The impact of personal values on attitude toward consequences of purchase and environmental commitment in green consumption

Tran Que KhanhTHE IMPACT OF PERSONAL VALUES ON ATTITUDE TOWARD CONSEQUENCES OF PURCHASE AND ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITMENT IN GREEN CONSUMPTION MASTER OF BUSINESS Honours Ho Chi Minh City – Ye

Tran Que Khanh

THE IMPACT OF PERSONAL VALUES ON ATTITUDE TOWARD CONSEQUENCES OF PURCHASE AND ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITMENT IN GREEN CONSUMPTION

MASTER OF BUSINESS (Honours)

Ho Chi Minh City – Year 2014

Tran Que Khanh

THE IMPACT OF PERSONAL VALUES ON ATTITUDE TOWARD CONSEQUENCES OF PURCHASE AND ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITMENT IN GREEN CONSUMPTION

would have never completed this research.

I would like to express my gratitude to Dr Le Nhat Hanh, my supervisor, forher valuable suggestions, ideas and comments She has always encouraged me to finish my master program from the beginning to the end of my work

I would like to extend my appreciation to the other members of committee for their contributions which helped me to improve this research

Thank you to all of people who spent their time and effort for my survey Last but certainly not least, I am deeply appreciative of the endless love and

good conditional support from my family to complete this work

turn their talk into walk In other words, consumers are not only concerned but alsogetting the idea of being greener According to this, by buying the ecologicallyfriendly products, they want to reduce their impact of purchase on environment.Hence, the aim of this research is to examie the impact of personal values on attitudetoward consequences of purchase and environmental commitment in greenconsumption.

A convenience sampling method was employed In total, 150 Vietnameseconsumer responses were collected and used for analysis to test the model The resultsshow that people who commit with environment are collectivistic oriented; so theseconsumers usually pay attention to environmental consequences of their purchasing

On the other hand, individualistic consumers are more likely not to be environmentalcommitment people because they are concern for themselves too much rather thanothers, included: welfares and society

This study provides useful information for businesses who are developing friendly products which are not only good for the environment but satisfy consumer’spersonal needs also The result of this study might attract attention of consumerbehavior researchers, as well as the firms that care about environmental commitmentand pursue the green strategy Consumers who used to buy green products can beconsidered as informants in future research in order to explore the underlying reasonwhy they buy the environmentally responsible products

eco-Key words personal values, consumer attitude, environmental commitment, green

consumption

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION - 1

1.1 Research background - 1

1.2 Research problems - 2

1.3 Research objective - 4

1.4 Research methodology and scope - 4

1.5 The significance of the study - 5

1.6 Research structure - 5

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESES - 7

2.1The concept of personal values - 7

2.2 Value – attitude towards consequences of the purchase - 8

2.3 Attitude toward consequences of purchase and environmental commitment - 12

2.4 The proposal model - 13

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY - 15

3.1 Research design - 15

3.2 Sample size - 15

3.3 Measurement - 15

3.4 Research process - 17

3.5 Data analysis method - 19

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DATA RESULTS - 22

4.1 Sample characteristics - 22

4.2 The reliability test: The Cronbach’s alpha test - 23

4.3 Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) - 25

4.4 Multiple regression analysis (MRA) - 27

4.4.1 MRA: to define the impact of collectivistic values and individualistic values on the attitude toward the individual consequences of the purchase - 28

4.4.2 MRA: to evaluate the impact of collectivistic values and individualistic values on the attitude toward the environmental consequences of the purchase - 32

4.4.3 Multiple regression analysis: to justify the influence of the attitude toward the individual consequences of the purchase and the environmental consequences of the purchase on environmental commitment - 36

CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION, CONCLUSION, MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS AND LIMITATIONS -44

5.1 Discussion - 44

5.2 Conclusion - 46

5.3 Managerial implications - 46

5.4 Limitations and future research - 48

References - 50 Appendix

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, the important of being green to adapt to changing naturalenvironment which are caused by human activities is demonstrated The situation ofVietnam is also mentioned in order to identify the same circumstances involvedenvironmental problems that any countries on over the world are currently facing.Moreover, factors influencing consumers’ motivation are briefly presented, as well asthe relationship between them Last one, the purpose, method, significance andstructure of this study are also introduced

1.1 RESEARCH BACKGROUND

Natural environment is extremely important to the survival and growth of allliving on the Earth Unluckily, environment has been deteriorated by human throughincreasing utilization natural resources and worldwide consumption, because of therapid economic growth (Chen & Chai, 2010) It leads to many negative results Forexample, global warming, depletion of stratospheric ozone layer, pollution of riversand sea, light and noise pollution, acid rain and desertification, are consequences ofenvironmental degradation, among other things (Ramlogan, 1997) All of them arecalled environmental problems which the world is currently facing

Environmental problems have been concerned by more and more people Butthe underlying reasons why human begin to be environmental conscious are not thesame due to different personal point of view about the human-nature relationship.According to the first perspective, human depend on nature environment And therelationship between human beings and natural environment is interactive Humanactivities impact on environment, and then, in turn the environment, it will reactivelyaffect to human being It represents the utilitarian view Beside, from ecological-balance perspectives, human, as well as water, land and etc are a part of a wholesystem in which each element must be balanced with each other It is a balanced

relationship Although personal point of views may be different from each other,helping the environmental problems society faces today is extremely necessary tohuman and nature also So therefore, some of consumers turn their talk into walk bybuying ecologically friendly products or products from companies which commit withenvironment; because being green consumers is one of the ways which can reduce theimpact on the environment.

In addition, people have not the same personal perspective as each otherbecause of the differences in cognitions, as well as personal values All of them lead totheir own behaviors Fraj and Martinez (2006) stated, “Values are considered as thecriterion that individuals use to select and justify their actions” (p 134) In this way,there are many factors involved personal values that best explain consumers’ecological behavior

From the marketing point of view, business ethics and corporate socialresponsibility (CSR) are become the awareness of society nowadays On the otherhand, understanding psychographic variables is very useful to companies foridentifying the market segment, such as: the segment of consumers who commit withenvironment in this case It is also extremely important to facilitate business throughdiverse strategies To pioneer research into new green products is one of sample.These new eco-friendly products are expected to be good for environment and servefor personal needs; because it is necessary to satisfy more and more consumers, notthe ecological consumer segment only

1.2 RESEARCH PROBLEMS

Comparing with developed countries, environmental topic in developingcountries is nearly new, and environmental problems are concerned in recent years.Vietnam is the developing country with an economic growth rate of about 5.5 percentand a population growth rate of about one percent annually In addition, Vietnam is an

under-investigated transition economy (Tsang, 2005), especially in the developingperiod and globalization, it is very necessity to aware of natural environment For thereason, environmental problems can be directly or indirectly linked not only to thepatterns of production by industries but also to the patterns of consumption and

behavior of consumers (Tsen et al., 2006) It is anticipated that if the consumers and

producers continue irresponsible consumption and production, the environment will

be worsen and worsen day by day

More and more consumers have realized that and they have turned theirenvironmental concern into action (Kangun et al., 1991) And purchasing greenproducts is a specific action among others Consumers express their value ofenvironmental protection through goods and services they purchase However,generally, there are two reasons which interrelated motivate green purchase, includedindividual benefits which accrue directly to consumer and environmental benefitswhich accrue to environment The second reason is take account into environmentalconsequences, which is at best long-term and future-oriented But, it may in fact berarely realized by almost consumers Organic foods are an example that consumersbuy because of good for their own health rather than for environment (Bonini andOppenheim, 2008) These consumers have a weaker green consumption value, and notactually commitment with environment For marketers, understanding factors drivenconsumer’s green purchase is one of the key in green strategies in order to satisfycustomers and lead them being loyalty It is also useful in predicting consumerpreference for environmentally friendly products

According to Webster (1975), socially conscious consumer is defined as aconsumer who takes public consequences into consideration of his or her privateconsumption Likewise, consumers who concern environment will evaluateenvironmental consequences associated with purchase decision In other words, theseconsumers commit to environment in consumption And the products they buy not

only meet their current needs, but also are good for environment Even they arewilling to be inconvenienced in order to take more environmentally friendly actions.

Several studies have indicated that the environment concern of individualshave influenced their purchase behavior (Chan, 1996; Donaton and Fitzgerald, 1992;Kerr, 1990; Ottman, 1993; Schlossberg, 1992; Wall, 1995) Furthermore, a number ofthe studies have considered personal values to understand what motivate people tobuy green products (Kim and Choi 2005; Kim, Choi and Rifon, 2009; Stern, Dietz,and Kalof, 1993) through environmental beliefs (McCarty and Shrum, 2001) orenvironmental attitude (Grunert and Juhl, 1995; Kim, 2011; Kim and Chung, 2011).However, little attention has been paid to customers who have actually commit toenvironment in consumption are primarily driven by separated attitude towardproducts, including individual’s personal consequences and environmentalconsequences These consequences can be seen as two group attitude which areaffected by personal values So, the research question is: Do consumers concern forenvironment when they purchase products? In other words, do they actually commit toenvironment in consumption?

1.3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of personal values on theattitude toward consequences of purchase and environmental commitment inconsumption

1.4 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND SCOPE

The research was conducted on consumers in Vietnam It centralizes all gathersand trading activities people come from different social level, as well as provinces andtown in our country

This study just focused its scope on consumers who have already known aboutthe ecologically friendly products, involved: green components, green process andless packing And it is well defined at the beginning of survey.

The researcher handled the collected data and performed them by applying dataanalysis tools (Microsoft Excel and SPSS) Next step, the author used Cronbach’salpha to test the reliability of the scale; doing exploratory factor analysis to identifywhich item is belong to others and to group them into a fairy large set After that, theauthor used multiple regression analysis to check the relationship betweenindependent variables and dependent variables

1.5 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

After this research, it is hopeful that its founding will play an important role inpredicting environmental commitment in consumption in order to develop the suitablestrategies to encourage, as well as educate consumers to choose and buy the eco-friendly products instead of the non-responsible alternative ones; and to research &develop more new green products which not only are friendly with environment butsatisfy consumers also

 Chapter 2: Literature review and hypotheses

This chapter presents the fundamental theories and concepts whichinvloved in The proposal model and hypotheses are also presented in thischapter

 Chapter 3: Research methodology

This chapter mentions about the sample and sample size; mesurement ofthe constructs and data analysis method

 Chapter 4: Data analysis and data results

The author summeries the collected sample characteristics and presentsthe research results after analyzing the collected data After that, the authorgives the conclustions for the hypotheses which proposed in chapter 2 fromthat result

 Chapter 5: Dicussion, conclusions, managerial implications and limitations This chapter dicusses about the main results, draws the conclusions and

indicates the contribution of the study in management theory, as well as in

pratice Besides, limitations are also mentioned for future research direction

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESES

In this chapter, the author presents definition of each mentioned concept,fundamental theories, and draws the theoretical modeling with the proposedhypotheses

2.1 THE CONCEPT OF PERSONAL VALUES

Personal values or individual values are considered as the frame of referencethat individuals use to select, evaluate and justify their behaviors which are ordered byrelative important/unimportant, good/bad In other words, personal values can beunderstood as “desirable goals, vary in importance, that serve as guiding principles inpeople’s lives” (Schwartz, 1994, p.88) And every individual has a specific valuestructure which forms the standards to lead personal behavior towards other people orobjectives (Anana and Nique, 2007)

Aspect of a value is the type of goal or motivation that it concerns, Schwartzand Bilsky (1987, 1990) proposed that human values represent three universalrequirements of human existence:

(a) Needs of individuals, (egoistic concerns)

(b) Requisites of coordinated social interactions, (altruistic concerns)

(c) Survival and welfare needs of groups (biospheric concerns)

Schwartz (1992) developed a universal value structure which is grouped intofour dimensions, based upon collective-individual dichotomy, included: self-transcendence, self-enhancement, conservation and openness

2.2 VALUE – ATTITUDE TOWARDS CONSEQUENCES OF THE

PURCHASE

The value-attitude-behavior hierarchy has served as conceptual framework formany studies According to this, it illustrates that values influenced attitudes and inturn, these attitudes influenced behaviors Several researches have applied this model

to predicting a wide range of behaviors such as in a study of environmentallyresponsible purchase (Follows & Jobber, 2000), in recycling behavior (McCarty &Shrum, 1994), or in a study of natural food shopping (Homer & Kahle, 1998) Likely,Koo et al., (2008) showed that personal values have an impact on the evaluation of

consumer towards the service before the buying decision is made And, Fulton et al.,

(1996) predicted attitude toward hunting and fishing which was based on two wildlifevalue orientations

Collectivistic values promote the interests of other persons and the nature

world The definition of collectivism is characterized by: “(1) emphasis on the views,needs, and goals of the in-group rather than on the self, (2) emphasis on behaviordetermined by social norms and duties rather than by pleasure or personal advantage,

(3) common beliefs that are shared with the in-group, and (4) willingness to cooperate within-group members” (Triandis, 1995, p 6) In this way, according to Triandis (as cited inMcCarty & Shrum, 2001), people are more collectivistic respect to interaction with others,give priority of group goals, emphasizes conformity and in-group harmony In other words,collectivistic values reflect an active concern for the welfare of others and desire to improve

society It covers biospheric and altruistic value orientation (Stern et al., 1995).

Individualistic values promote own interests regardless of others’ interests and

motivate people to enhance their own personal interests People are moreindividualistic tend to give priority of personal goals over group ones (Triandis, 1989),self-oriented (Hofstede, 1980) They emphasize individual rights over duties andanalysis cost-benefit in determining behavior (Triandis, 1995) A more specific

definition of individualism indicate individuals who: “(1) view themselves asindependent of collectives, (2) are primarily motivated by their own preferences,needs, rights, and the contracts they have established with others, (3) priority to theirperson goals over the goals of others, and (4) emphasize rational analysis of theadvantages and disadvantages of associating with others” (Triandis, 1995, p 2) It is

named as egoistic value orientation (Stern et al., 1995).

Hsu et al (2010) stated that attitude toward a specific object can be determined byone’s expectation of object

Environmental consequences of the purchase can be understood as

environmentally responsible attitude in consumers’ purchase It means they haveconcerned for environment whenever they buy something According to this,Schwepker and Cornwell (as cited in Follows and Jobber, 2000) stated that anenvironmental attitudinal measurement is combined by statements which reflectconcern for the variety of environmental issues Similarly, in the study ofunderstanding green purchase, Kim (2011) also mentioned that consumers’ consciousconcern for the environmental consequences related to their private consumptions leadthem to be more favorable toward the environmentally responsible products Theyhave a part in protecting and helping the environment become friendlier day by day Itseems to be long-term objective of society

Individual consequences of the purchase can be understood as consumers are

priority concern for themselves when they purchase something Kim (2011) discussedabout individual consequences of the purchase that likely the purchase driven byassessment of the product’s benefits would accrue directly and immediately to theprivate individual, even sacrificing additional others They do not care about the otherstoo much, included environment… And consequences of their purchase belong toindividual’s personal satisfaction and serves for individual’s personal benefits, such ashow convenient for them It is short-term benefits and often relative to the assessment

of costs For example, although encourage to use friendly bags when

shopping in supermarket in order to prevent the nylon bags which are harm toenvironment But, it may be inconvenient for them to bring friendly bags wheneverthey go to supermarket Moreover, the cost of friendly environmental bags alwayshigher than the nylon ones If consumers buy the other friendly environmental bags inthe case of forgetting bring them, they will spend amount of money instead of free fornylon ones Likewise, in the research of Follows and Jobber (2000), the resultsshowed that consumers who took a importance placed on individual consequences ofusing diapers were more likely not to intent to buy cloth ones.

According to McCarty and Shrum (2001), environmentally consciousbehaviors will be influenced by basic value orientations consumers hold with respect

to their interaction with others In other words, the different personal values result intheir own different behaviors Specifically, individualism focus on self whereascollectivism emphasis on group goals

People oriented collectivistic value are tend to more concerned with thepotential impact of their actions on the society, as well as the environment That is, astrong underlying awareness of welfare result in a higher attention to theenvironmental consequences of the products which they intent to purchase In sodoing, a product’s environmental consequences is one of important conditions whichcollectivistic consumers consider before making purchase decision Therefore, there is

a positive relationship between collectivistic values and attitude toward theenvironmental consequences of the purchase This relationship has supported in manystudies Thøgerson and Grunert-Beckmann’s (1997) in a study of recycling and wasteprevention found that altruistic value (collectivistic value) has a positive relationshipwith beliefs about the beneficial consequences (environmental consequences) Beside,

in study of the recycling of solid wastes, McCarty and Shrum (1994) indicated thatcollectivistic value has positive relationship with importance of recycling(environment consequences) It is hypothesized that:

Hypothesis 1: Collectivistic values will relate positively to attitude toward the

environmental consequences of the purchase

On the other hand, collectivistic people give priority of group over personalones They always take account environment into their actions Furthermore, they arealso willing to be inconvenienced in order to help environment be greener andfriendlier For example, collectivistic consumers prefer to buy green products ratherthan alternative ones, although the eco-friendly products’ prices are higher Or whenshopping in the supermarket, they are very please to take the reused environmentallyfriendly bags, instead of using the non-responsible ones which are provided for free It

is consistent with the recycling and waste prevention study (Thøgerson and Beckmann’s, 1997) The finding indicated that altruistic value (collectivistic value)has a negative relationship with beliefs about cost consequences (individualconsequences) So, the hypothesis is:

Grunert-Hypothesis 2: Collectivistic values will relate negatively to attitude toward the

individual consequences of the purchase

In contrast, the characteristics of individualism are tend to stress personal rights(for their own) over duties (for others) That is, a strong individual benefits’enhancement lead to a less concern for their behaviors’ impact to others Theseconsumers place an importance on their own needs; so they just only concern aboutwhat products directly bring to them, even expense of others For instance, the eco-friendly products are clearly good for environment than the non-responsible ones.However, the alternative products are usually chosen by individualistic consumers due

to lower price; so as that they can save amount of money at the present for their own.They do not care about the potential environmental impact when consuming the non-responsible alternative products Likewise, in the study of solid wastes’ recycling,McCarty and Shrum (1994) determinate that individualistic value was positivelyrelated to inconvenience of recycling (individual consequences) Given thesediversifying results, it is hypothesized that:

Hypothesis 3: Individualistic values will relate positively to attitude toward the

individual consequences of the purchase

Hypothesis 4: Individualistic values will relate negatively to attitude toward the environmental consequences of the purchase.

2.3 ATTITUDE TOWARD CONSEQUENCES OF PURCHASE AND ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITMENT

Environmental commitment (in green products version) or engaging in green

products can be understood as a promise to be loyal to green products Commitment issimilar to loyalty (Hennig et al., 2004) According to Gounaris and Stathakopoulos(2004), the attitudinal approve which is one of three primary different perspectives ofloyalty is based on psychological commitment, purchase intention, and word-of-mouthrecommendations In addition, a distinct difference between commitment and loyalty

is that loyalty emphasizes on past actions (Bowen and Chen, 2001; Zins, 2001)through satisfaction, whereas commitment indicates on future ones

On the other hand, according to Oliver (1980), customer satisfaction wasestablished when post purchase expectations match with actual performance In otherwords, to satisfy customers is the same as to meet their expectations And, Namkungand Jang (2007) showed the significant impact of customer satisfaction oncommitment, including revisit, recommendation, and positive word-of-mouth.Moreover, Pura (2005) found that customer-perceived value significantly influencescommitment through customer satisfaction But there has the conflict betweencustomer-perceived value from the environmental consequence of purchase andindividual personal’s benefits when consumer purchases environmentally responsibleproducts For example, when using friendly reusable bags and refillable containers,the environmental consequences are reductions in amount of raw materials used andgarbage generated However, there are individual consequences, such as the

inconvenience of bringing a bag or container to the store That may be significantenough to override the importance placed on the environmental consequences As aresult, consumers may be purchase non-responsible products if the responsible onesare affect an individual’s personal satisfaction It is negative consequences ofenvironmentally responsible behavior And they are not called be an environmentalcommitment person In addition, there are many studies in investigating recyclingbehavior indicated that an increase in perceived inconvenience or personal effort led tothe reduction of recycling intention (Dahab et al., 1995) and recycling behavior (Kokand Siero, 1985; McCarty and Shrum, 1994; Thøgerson and Grunert-Beckmann,1997) Thus, it is hypothesized that:

Hypothesis 5: Individual consequences of the purchase negatively affect to

environmental commitment

Hypothesis 6: Environmental consequences of the purchase positively affect to

environmental commitment

2.4 THE PROPOSAL MODEL

Personal values Attitude toward

H3 + Individual consequences Individualistic values

H4 - of purchase

H2 Collectivistic values

-Environmental consequences

of purchase H1 +

H5

-Figure 2.1: The proposal model

H1 Collectivistic values will relate positively to attitude toward the

environmental consequences of the purchase

H2 Collectivistic values will relate negatively to attitude toward the individual consequences of the purchase

H3 Individualistic values will relate positively to attitude toward the individualconsequences of the purchase

H4 Individualistic values will relate negatively to attitude toward the

environmental consequences of the purchase

H5: Individual consequences of the purchase negatively affect to

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The ways to find the answer for research question are mentioned in thischapter, included: research design, sample and sample size, measurement, dataanalysis method

3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN

To dress a research design, the kind of model and measures of the constructswere considered in order to make sure they were suitable The focus of this researchwas examining the impact of personal values on attitude toward consequences ofpurchase and environmental commitment in green consumption The operation modelwas presented in Chapter 2 This research used primary data which was collected byusing convenience sampling method with a survey questionnaire And informantswere customers in Vietnam

3.2 SAMPLE SIZE

In this study, the model includes 5 factors with 19 items, so that the minimumsample size should be 19*5 = 95 observations And the researcher collected 150observations

3.3 MEASUREMENT

Based on the literature, the researcher set up the survey, using scales that werealready validated in previous studies All these scales, which were translated intoVietnamese using a translated and back translated procedure, used a five-point Likertscale varying from 1 (completely disagree) to 5 (completely agree)

Personal values comprised two environmental value orientations: collectivistic

values (CV) and individualistic value (IV) The items measuring value orientationswere based on MCCarty and Shrum (2001)

I am a cooperative participant in group activities

I am readily helping others in need of help

I am doing what is good for most of the people in the group, even if itmeans that individual will receive less

I am sharing with others

I am unique, different from others in many respects

I am competitive with others

I am working independently from others

Consumers’ attitude toward individual consequences of the purchase (ICP)

was measured by 3 items which was adapted from scale of Follows and Jobber (2000)

ICP1 If green products do not fit my need properly, I will choose the

Consumers’ attitude toward the environmental consequences of the

purchase (ECP) was measured by 4 items according scale of Winterich and Naylor

(2013)

ECP1 It is important to me that products I use do not harm the environment

ECP2 I consider the potential environmental impact of my purchase when

making many of my decisions

ECP3 My purchase habits are affected by my concern for the environment

ECP4 I am willing to be inconvenienced in order to take actions that are more

environmentally friendly

Environmental commitment (EC) is, in this study, mentioned above that

commitment indicate on future actions through expectation, whereas loyaltyemphasize on past actions through satisfaction So, the measuring commitment scalewas adjusted from Zeithaml et al., (1996)

EC1 I would like to purchase green products in the future

EC2 I would like recommend green products to friends or others

EC3 I would say positive things about green products to others

EC4 I would encourage others to buy green products

3.4 RESEARCH PROCESS

Based on literature from many previous studies, the author proposed sixhypotheses which were presented in Chapter 2 After that, the researcher drew theproposal model indicating the relationship among personal values, consumers’ attitudetoward consequences of purchase, environmental commitment

Next step, the preliminary scale were selected for measuring constructs, as well

as conducting main survey of questionnaire The author adjusted the questionnaireagain in order to make it easier to understand and more suitable with Vietnam market.After finishing the properly final questionnaire, the survey was conducted by usingconvenience sample which collected from consumers in Vietnam

The process of the quantitative research was followed these below steps:

- Step 1: The researcher composed the questionnaire for the research:

After the author designed questionnaire in English, it was translated intoVietnamese so as to deliver to respondents.(see in Appendix A and AppendixB)

- Step 2: The researcher defined the sample size of the study:

In general rule, according to Hair et al (2010), the minimum sample is

at least 5 observations for each scale; and the sample size should be 100 orgreater In so doing, the model in this study consists of 5 factors with 19 items,

so that the minimum sample size should be 19*5 = 95 observations

For standard multiple regression analysis, Tabachnick and Fidell (1991)recommended the required sample should be n > 50 + 8m (m: number ofindependent variables In this research, there are 4 independent variables.Therefore, to run multiple regression requires the minimum sample n > 50 +8*4 = 82 observations

The researcher used the sample size at 150 observations which wasappropriate for both EFA and multiple regression analysis

After that, data was conducted based on convenience sampling method

- Step 3: The researcher delivered the questionnaire to the respondents at the time the research was deployed

The hard copies of questionnaires were directly delivering torespondents Besides, the online questionnaire was also broadcasted by Googledocs The link of the online survey was sent to informants via email andfacebook After clicking on the link, the respondents could answer the survey

by keying their answers and submitting them to the researcher

Data collection was conducted during 12 days

- Step 4: The research checked again the received questionnaire in order to make sure suitable results

Literature review

Preliminary Scale

Quantitative research

Writing the report

Figure 3.1: The research process

3.5 DATA ANALYSIS METHOD

For analyzing collected data in this study, researcher used the StatisticalPackage for Social Science (SPSS) software version 22.0 Moreover, for sampledescription, Microsoft Excel was used besides SPSS in order to statistic the sample,compare the results Next steps, the reliability and validity of scales were checked byusing Cronbach’s alpha and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) After that, MultipleRegression was used for testing the relationship between independent variables anddependent variables as proposed hypotheses

3.5.1 Cronbach’s alpha

The acceptable value of Cronbach’s alpha for internal consistency reliability isabove or at least equal 0.6 (Nunnally & Burnstein, as cited in Nguyen, 2011) Andwhen the value of Cronbach’s alpha is very high (greater than 0.9), it means that thereare more items than necessary or the items are repetitious in the scale (Leech et al.,2005)

The Corrected Item – Total Correlation also need to be considered, beside thevalue of the Cronbach’s alpha If the correlation of each specific item with the sum ofthe other items in the scale is moderately high or higher than 0.4 (Leech et al., 2005),the item is probably at least moderately correlated with the most of the other item andwill make a good component of this summated rating scale Items with lower item-total correlation (negative or less than 0.3) do not fit into the scale as well It needs to

be considered by modifying or deleting these items

3.5.2 Exploratory factor analysis (EFA)

The purpose of EFA is to define which set of items go together as a group orare answered similarly by respondents (Leech et al., 2005)

3.5.3 Multiple regression analysis

According to Hair et al (2010), the purpose of multiple regression analysis is

to help the researcher to predict the level of impact of independent variable ondependent variable

It is necessary to test these following main assumptions in order to make surethe multiple regression preforms exactly analysis result:

- Assumption 1: There was the linear relationship independent variables and

dependent variable

- Assumption 2: The residual or error was distributed normally

- Assumption 3: No multicollinearity This assumption is important becausemulticollinearity could lead to misleading and/ or inaccurate results

According to Leech et al., (2005), when there are high inter-correlationsamong some set of the predictor variables, multicollinearity occurs.Multicollinearity could be checked from a correlation matrix andcoefficients results.

Summary

This chapter presented the sample and sample size, measurement scale ofconstructs, research process and research method used to analyze the collected data.Both the online questionnaire and paper questionnaire were applied to distribute torespondents After collecting and cleaning the data, 150 questionnaires could be usedfor final analysis And these cleaning collected data were coded for input into SPSSsoftware Finally, the researcher introduced the method applied for analyzing,included: checked the reliability and validity of scales and used multiple regressions.The next chapter will report data analysis and data results of the research

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DATA RESULTS

In this chapter, the researcher presented the result of the research The

descriptive of the collected data was reported at first Next, the author tested the

reliability of the scales by Cronbach’s alpha reliability and the validity of the scales by

exploratory factor analysis (EFA) After that, the model was evaluated by multiple

regression analysis

4.1 SAMPLE CHARACTERISTICS

A sample of 150 respondents included 58 men (occupied 38.7 percent) and 92

women (occupied 61.3 percent) from under 18 years old to over 45 years old Most of

respondents were being in the age group of 18 to 25 years old (78 respondents,

occupied about 52 percent) And according to education, bachelor’s degree occupied

the most, at nearly 85 percent; the second group was master’s degree, with 8 percent

Regarding to present career, most of respondents are office staffs who accounted for

70.7 percent; 31 students were counted, with approximated 20.7 percent; the smallest

group was teacher/lecture/professor, with around 1.3 percent In term of income per

month, it was ranged from less than 5 million VND to over 10 million VND And the

majority of respondents had from 5 million VND to 10 million VND per month, with

approximated 62 percent of total sample

4.2 THE RELIABILITY TEST: THE CRONBACH’S ALPHA TEST

The Cronbach’s alpha of scales for each construct is obligated to test in order to

make sure that all items in one scale were reliable in the use of measuring the research

concept In other word, this measure indicates the consistency of a multiple item scale

According to theory, to qualify internal consistency reliability, the value of

Cronbach’s alpha should be above or at least equal 0.6 (Nunnally & Burnstein, as

cited in Nguyen, 2011) In addition, if the correlation of each specific item with the

sum of the other items in the scale (Corrected Item-Total correlation) is moderately

high or higher than 0.4 (Leech et al., 2005), the item is probably at least moderately

correlated with the most of the other item and will make a good component of this

summated rating scale Items with lower item-total correlation (negative or less than

0.3) do not fit into the scale as well It needs to examine the item for wording

problems and conceptual fit

The results of Cronbach’s alpha test for each construct were summarized in below

table:

Table 4.2:

The results of Cronbach’s alpha

Scale Mean if Scale Corrected Cronbach’sItem Deleted Variance if Item-Total alpha if Item

Item Deleted Correlation Delected

Environmental Commitment Cronbach’s alpha 0.877

The result performed that five scales had the result of Cronbach’s alpha above0.6 The highest was 0.882 (environmental consequences of the purchase), and thelowest was 0.803 (individualistic values) Moreover, the corrected item-totalcorrelation of each item is above 0.4 This indicates that all scales fit the requirement

of reliability Therefore, these measures were used in establishing the main survey totest to the study hypotheses.

4.3 EXPLORATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS (EFA)

After analyzing the Cronbach’s alpha, the author evaluated the measurementscales by conducting exploratory factor analysis The purpose of EFA is to definewhich set of items go together as a group or are answered similarly by respondents(Leech et al., 2005) In this study, EFA was run through the Principal Axis Factoringwith Varimax rotation method There are five factors in the conceptual model:collectivistic values, individualistic values, individual consequences of purchase,environmental consequences of purchase, environmental commitment The authorexamined if the items belonging to one concept actually are in the same group

Based on the test of assumption, the KMO was 0.921 presenting sufficientitems for each factor The Bartlett test was significant (0.000 less than 5%); thismeans that the variable are correlated highly enough to provide a reasonable basicfactor analysis

Table 4.3:

KMO and Bartlett's Test

Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling

.921Adequacy

By doing EFA (Principal Axis Factoring with Varimax rotation method), theresult showed that five factors were extracted from 19 items measuring: collectivisticvalues, individualistic value, individual consequences of purchase, environmentalconsequences of purchase, environmental commitment In addition, the cumulative of

the first five factors occupied for 64.166 percent of variance This indicated that

nearly 64 percent of variance could be explained by five initial items

or Initial Eigenvalues Extraction Sums of SquaredLoadings Rotation Sums of SquaredLoadings

% of Cumulative % of Cumulative % of CumulativeTotal Variance % Total Variance % Total Variance %

The Rotated Factor Matrix showed the items and factor loading for rotatedfactors with loading higher than 0.6 are significant as requirement The itemsclustered into five groups that they belong to.

4.4 MULTIPLE REGRESSION ANALYSIS

After testing the Cronbach’s alpha analysis and EFA, the author conducted themultiple regression analysis in order to define the relationship between five factorsmention above The purpose of multiple regression analysis is to help the researcher topredict the level of impact of independent variable on dependent variable (Hair et al.,

values and individualistic values on the attitude toward the individual consequences ofthe purchase The second time was to evaluate the impact of collectivistic values andindividualistic values on the attitude toward the environmental consequences of thepurchase The last time was to justify the influence of the attitude toward theindividual consequences of the purchase and the environmental consequences of thepurchase on environmental commitment.

It is necessary to test these following main assumptions in order to make surethe multiple regression preforms exactly analysis result:

- Assumption 1: There was the linear relationship independent variables and

dependent variable

- Assumption 2: The residual or error was distributed normally

- Assumption 3: No multicollinearity This assumption is important becausemulticollinearity could lead to misleading and/ or inaccurate results According to Leech etal., (2005), when there are high inter-correlations among some set of the predictor variables,multicollinearity occurs Multicollinearity could be checked from a correlation matrix andcoefficients results

4.4.1 Multiple regression analysis: to define the impact of collectivistic values and individualistic values on the attitude toward the individual consequences of the purchase.

Results of testing assumptions

Assumption 1:

This assumption could be checked by using Curve Estimation Graphs andScatter Graphs to define the relationship between the individual consequences of thepurchase and each predictor As the plot shown in Appendix H, the relationship

between the individual consequences of the purchase and each predictor was linearregression Therefore, this assumption was satisfied.

Assumption 2:

The normal distribution of dependent variable was test by histogram and scatterplot, which shown in Appendix H So, the collected data was met requirement of thisassumption

Assumption 3:

Multicollinearity happens when two or more predictors contain much of thesame information In other word, there are the high inter-correlations among somecomposite of the independent variables According to the correlation matrix below,correlations among predictors were low and Pearson test indicated the value lowerthan 0.7 This means that there is a low possibility with multicollinearity

ICP: Individual consequences of the purchase)

In other hand, assumption about multicollinearity is also tested by evaluatingtwo collinearity diagnostic factors: Tolerance and the Variance Inflation Factor –VIF) The Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) performs the influence of collinearityamong the variables in a regression model When Tolerance value is less than 0.1 orVIF higher than 10, there is high possibility of mutlicollinearity If VIF less than 4,there is no multicollinearity In this research, as table 4.7, the result showed that

tolerance value was 0.803 and VIF was 1.245 As a result, there was not

multicollinear Thus, this assumption is satisfied

Table 4.7:

Coefficients Matrix

(IV: Individualistic Values

CV: Collectivistic Values

ICP: Individual consequences of the purchase)

In brief, collected data was satisfied with 3 main assumptions to run multiple

regression test

After checking all assumptions, the result of running multiple regression was

reported to determine how well the model fit

Table 4.8:

Model Summary

Durbin-Square the Estimate Watson

a Predictors: (Constant), CV, IV

b Dependent Variable: ICP

(IV: Individualistic Values

CV: Collectivistic Values

ICP: Individual consequences of the purchase)

According to the Model Summary table, the multiple correlation coefficient (R)was 0.691, R Square was 0.477, and adjusted R Squared was 0.470 R Square was0.477; this is showing that 47.7% of the variance in individual consequences ofpurchase could be predicted from two independent variables: collectivistic values andindividualistic values

ICP: Individual consequences of the purchase)

The value of F was 67.030 and sig was 0.000 (less than 0.05) This indicatesthe combination of these variables significantly predicts the dependent variable

H3: Individualistic values will relate positively to attitude toward the individual

consequences of the purchase.

According to Coefficients matrix (Table 4.7), the factor of individualisticvalues had sig value around 0.000 which was less than 0.05 as requirement Thismeant individualistic values impact on attitude toward the individual consequences

And the results showed that individualistic values were positively related to attitudetoward the individual consequences of the purchase because its StandardizedCoefficient was positive (beta was 0.568) This implied that this factor whichinvestigated in this research was a meaningful factor to consumers’ attitude toward theindividualistic consequences of the purchase Therefore, the hypothesis 3 was wellconfirmed.

H2: Collectivistic values will relate negatively to attitude toward the individual

consequences of the purchase.

In order to evaluate the impact of collectivistic values, the result showed thatthe sig value of this factor was significant (0.002 which less than 0.05) This meantcollectivistic values impact on attitude toward the individual consequences Moreover,this relationship was negative because beta was -0.215 This finding was the same ashypothesis Thus, the hypothesis 2 was supported

4.4.2 Multiple regression analysis: to evaluate the impact of collectivistic values and individualistic values on the attitude toward the environmental consequences

Assumption 2:

The normal distribution of dependent variable was test by histogram and scatterplot, which shown in Appendix I The result of this test was support for the normaldistribution

Assumption 3:

It is obligated to test correlation between variables by using PearsonCorrelation The result showed that explanatory variables are not corrected with eachother

ECP: Environmental consequences of the purchase)

Moreover, assumption about multicollinearity is also tested by evaluatingTolerance and the Variance Inflation Factor – VIF) In this research, as table 4.11, theresult showed that tolerance value was 0.803 and VIF was 1.245 As a result,multicollinear really dit not happen in the collected data Thus, this assumption issatisfied