The components of pro-environmental purchasing behaviour

Abstract

There is no doubt that environmental expansive problems bring forward the urgent need for pro-environmental research in the agenda of almost all disciplines. It is to be acknowledged that the ecologically related research has never been in the mainstream of the marketing academic community. However, there has always been a small but dynamic team of scholars in the academic communities of EU and/or North America, who paid attention to the ecologically related marketing research, during the last three decades. So, ecological marketing research has been partially useful to understand better the broad area that has been named Ecologically Conscious Consumer Behaviour (ECCB) (Roberts 1996; Tilikidou, 2001). One of the ECCB types, namely the Pro-environmental Purchasing Behaviour (PPB) has been considered to be the most important type; its examination might hopefully become a predictor of the actual market evolutions. The literature review indicated that there is much left to be further understood with reference to the insights of pro-environmental purchasing behaviour as well as with reference to the factors that are able to affect PPB. In Greece PPB has been examined in a few studies since the middle of nineties. A number of market evolutions, such as offerings of new ecological products, make it necessary to examine a longer version of the PPB scale. Further, the severe economic crisis that has been torturing Greece since 2009, brings forward a number of unanswered issues with regard to -environmental behaviours. This presentation includes parts of the results of an ongoing research study that aims to examine Pro-environmental Purchasing Behaviour (PPB) during the period of economic crisis in Greece. A survey was conducted in the Thessaloniki urban area, 510 questionnaires were gathered via a combination of the two-stage area sampling and the systematic sampling methods. In an effort to examine PPB potential correlates, the following independent variables were added in the investigation: attitudes, namely Environmental Unconcern; psychographic variables, namely Materialism, Spheres of Control over politics and Universalism as well as demographics, namely Gender, Age, Education, Occupation and Income. Further, in an effort to understand PPB better, the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was employed. The results expanded our knowledge as they revealed two components inside the PPB scale; one that concerns actual Purchase Behaviour and one that concerns Conservation. Further analysis provided additional information with reference to the strength of negative attitudes to restrict both the above mentioned components of PPB. The results also indicated that Purchase is influenced positively and more strongly by Locus of Control than negatively by Materialism while on the contrary Conservation is more strongly inhibited by Materialism than positively affected by Locus of Control. Moreover, it was revealed that Universalism provided the stronger positive impact on Conservation while it was found unrelated to Purchase. It was also found that post-graduates are those who enhance Purchase, while women are those who enhance Conservation.