Journal of Sustainable Marketing

Customer culture and green product purchase intention

A crucial aspect of this research is culture, which is the main explanation of consumer behavior differentiation across countries; therefore, research on the effect of culture on consumer behavior is critical. To start with, we must have a clear understanding of what culture is and how it has been explained in previous studies. There have been many definitions of culture; however, all the definitions are in the same direction. Culture, according to Durmaz (2014), is what ties and keeps groups together. People of his viewpoint would have difficulties living together if it were not for the shared culture. He also adds that a human community is defined through culture, from the individual to society as a whole. The most acceptable definition of culture proposed by Hofstede (2001) is that culture is a set of controlled mechanisms – plans, rules, recipes, instructions – that distinguish one group of people from another. It is the collective experiences of several people who have had similar upbringing and education share. Hence, the individual is the product of such a common environment, and their acts are conditioned by their social culture. We can safely say then that it is not possible to separate culture from people. Its role in society is just like the role of memory to every single one of us. Thus, it contains all the common beliefs, behaviors, values, and traditions from people who use a particular language and who also share a geographical location in a specific period.

Five different types of culture have been proposed by Hofstede (2001) including power distance, individualism/collectivism, Masculinity/Femininity, Uncertainty Avoidance, and long-term/short-term orientation. In this study, we only focused on the individualism-collectivism dimension of the culture as it has been well understood and has been widely argued in the sustainability literature (Aljarah, 2020; Eisingerich & Rubera, 2010; Smith, Bond, & Kâğitçibaşi, 2006). Individualist-collectivist reflects an individual’s relationship with his/her fellow individuals. It has been defined as “the subordination of personal interests to the interest of the group (collectivism) vs emotional independence and pursuit of personal goals, irrespective of group goals (individualism) ( (Fischer & Mansell, 2009), 2009 , p. 1340). According to the study of Swaidan (2012), the identity of a collectivist is built around the group, not on the individual. Thus, it can be said that the group acts as an intrusive force, canceling out the self, but in reality, it may provide its members with defense and security. Therefore, a collectivistic culture emphasizes shared responsibilities and needs within the community before that of the individuals. Individualism, on the other hand, stands for a society where the bonds between its members are loose (Hofstede, 1980). We could well say that each member looks for his/ her own needs or those of the family in the scenario. People who are individualists considered their independence, delight, time, and their expression of utmost importance; they tend to permit individual initiatives and excel in unilateral decision making (Crossland & Hambrick, 2011). The aim is to attain the personal goals and rights of the individual. From the point of view of the customer’s attitude, individualism has defined behavior that values personal objectives over those of the whole and is more autonomous (Choi & Nisbett, 1998; Lim, Sung, & Lee, 2018). Further, consumers from individualistic societies are more likely to assume that the individual is deemed to be the source of moral authority and is quite capable of evaluating the consequences of personal conduct while in collectivist societies, customers are more likely to describe themselves based on group membership with a dependent perception of more group benefits rather than personal ones (Schumann et al., 2010).

Green product purchase intention has been widely argued in the literature among scholars (Paul, Modi, & Patel, 2016; Suki, 2016). It has been defined as “the ones who take into consideration the environmental consequences of their consumption patterns and intend to modify their purchase and consumption behavior for reducing the environmental impact” (Kumar & Ghodeswar, 2015, p. 331). In other words, it is the process of buying a product that is qualified to be environmentally friendly instead of buying products that harm our environment (Chan, 2001). Previous studies have reported a gap between consumers expressing attitudes that favor green purchasing and actual purchasing practices (Joshi & Rahman, 2015). For instance, the study of (Foster et al., 2006) shows that thirty percent of the UK customers did report their environmental concerns; however, their concerns were rarely shown when it came to green purchase, thus, confirming the gap that exists between consumers who are actually worried about the environment and then making a stand by purchasing green products. Hence, we might say the gap exists between the consumer’s thinking and feeling and their actions. Such a gap could be due to economical, institutional, social, and cultural factors (Wiederhold & Martinez, 2018). Provided that the continued growth of consumption leads to climate change, draining of natural resources, pollution of the air, and the creation of a waste generation, the disposal of which could have a disastrous effect on our environment (Liobikiene, Mandravickaite, & Bernatoniene, 2016), consuming green products has several benefits to the society such as increasing the quality of life, the greater chance of leading a safe and stable life concerning lifetime, sickness, and illnesses (Smith, 2016).

This study argues that collectivism plays a critical role in enhancing green product purchase intention. In this regard, several studies have argued the positive impact of customer culture on consuming green products. For instance, the study of Kim et al. (2005) employs a framework of value-attitude-behavior and found that the collectivist value orientations of customers play a significant role in enhancing their beliefs about their effectiveness, which in turn boost their green product purchase intention. Similarly, the study of McCarty and Shrum (2001) argues and empirically found that customers who have collectivist orientations are more willing to consume eco-friendly products. Thus, we expect that collectivism will have a positive impact on green product purchase intention. The study of Samarasinghe (2012) found that collectivism is a strong indicator of the development of environmental attitudes. Further, the study of McCarty and Shrum (1994) argues that collectivism is for individuals who think in a collectivist manner and are likely to preserve the world so that prosperity can be enjoyed by society as a whole. Other studies (Chan, 2001; Ling-Yee, 1997) have also argued the positive effect of collectivism on consumer green behavior. People pursue their interests and aspirations in an individualistic society, give importance to individuality and self-reliance, and avoid external social or institutional intervention (Gagnier, 2010). Therefore, it seems that individuals from individualistic cultures appear to be autonomous and self-oriented, whereas collectivist cultures appear to be more interdependent and group-oriented. Thus, the following is hypothesized:

H1. Customer culture (Collectivism) has a positive impact on green product purchase intention

The mediation effects

The theory of reason-action was first developed by Fishbein and Ajzen (1980). It is based on the premise that individuals make reasoned decisions to engage in specific behavior based on a set of theoretical constructs, namely attitudes and subjective norms (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). Attitudes have been defined as a psychological path that determines favor or disfavor of an individual towards a specific object (Eagly & Chaiken, 2007), while subjective norms are defined as the social pressure that individuals perceive from people important to them to do or not to do a specific behavior (Zhang, Fan, Zhang, & Zhang, 2019). In this study, we argue that attitude and subjective norms toward green products mediate the positive relationship between collectivism and green product purchase intention. On one hand, collectivism has been considered one of the critical antecedents of attitude toward green products. For instance, the study of Cho, Thyroff, Rapert, Park, and Lee (2013) revealed that the collectivist orientation of individuals plays a significant role in determining their environmental attitude. While other studies have argued the significant role of collectivism on subjective norms. For instance, the study of Lee and Green (1991) empirically confirmed the effect of collectivism on subjective norms. On the other hand, both attitude and subjective norms have been considered as two key antecedents of purchase intention according to the theory of reasoned action (Fishbein et al., 1975). Such a relationship has been well documented in the study of Nam et al. (2017) and the study of Suki (2016). Thus, we might say that the positive effect of collectivism on green product purchase intention is due to attitude and subjective norms toward green products. Therefore, we propose the following two hypotheses:

H2. The positive relationship between collectivism and green product purchase intention is mediated by attitude toward green products.

H3. The positive relationship between collectivism and green product purchase intention is mediated by subjective norms toward green products.

Willingness to pay premium has been defined as being ready to pay more for a particular product brand than for comparable alternative brands (Casidy & Wymer, 2016; Netemeyer et al., 2004). On one hand, collectivist customers have been found as customers that are willing to pay more for a premium price for green products in the study of Tsen, Grace, Haslinda, and Rita (2006). On the other hand, the willingness to pay a premium for green products, as has been found in other studies, has a significant effect on green product purchase intention. For instance, the study ofXu, Zeng, Fong, Lone, and Liu (2012) has argued the positive effect of willingness to pay a premium for green products and green product purchase intention. Thus, in this study, we assume that the positive relationship between collectivism and green product purchase intention is also mediated by a willingness to pay a premium. Therefore, we propose the following hypothesis:

H4. The positive relationship between customer culture and green product purchase intention is mediated by a willingness to pay a premium.

The research conceptual model is illustrated in Figure 1.

Sampling

The sampling technique that was applied to the current study to collect the main data was purposive/non-random sampling because it involved participants who agreed and volunteered to participate. The population of the study is consumers in Jordan from all over the country and of different nationalities within the same country. 143 participants of various ages agreed to participate in the survey. The survey was conducted in both Arabic and English, and participants were given the choice to choose the version that suited them better.

Data collection

The participants took part in an online questionnaire with a focus on cultural collectivism and green products and their green product purchase intention. The online survey questionnaires were distributed via social media platforms and e-mails; the questionnaire was also sent to social and university groups in Jordan, and they were free to participate or not. The participants selected to participate were consumers living in Jordan of different ages and nationalities. The questionnaire was conducted during the period of Covid-19, and the questions were designed by applying models from previous researches.

Measurements

Earlier works developed scales that were used to develop the current study’s questionnaire. The items/measures of most constructs were measured by the usage of a 5-point Likert Scale. 1 stood for strongly disagree and 5 stood for strongly agree. Participants submitted their answers and completed the survey within 10-15 minutes so it was not time-consuming for them. The current study is based on a questionnaire adopted from previous studies. The (Armitage & Conner, 1999) scale was adapted for green purchase intention measures; three measures were used to determine the possibility and desire of consumers to purchase green products. Measures for attitudes towards green products were adopted by the usage of the scale evolved by McCarty et al. (1994). The attitude toward green products measures assisted in clarifying if the consumer’s care for the environment is present with him when purchasing and if he believes that green products help to save the environment. Measures for subjective norms were employed from a scale evolved by Armitage et al. (1999). There are also three types of measures used for subjective norms in this study that assisted in estimating the effect of the customer’s surrounding whether family members, friends, or work colleagues on his buying behavior. Willingness to pay premium measures were adapted through the usage of a scale evolved by Yadav and Pathak (2017). Only two measures were used which helped understand if the consumer has the intention of paying an extra amount of money to get a green good and, if yes, how much they would he be willing to pay. Yoo, Donthu, and Lenartowicz (2011) created measures for collectivism that were used in this study. The questionnaire applied six measures for collectivism that assisted in testing the characteristics of a consumer regarding group goals over individual goals, the well-being of group members, and the willingness of group members to stick together despite all the difficulties.

Demographic profile

This type of statistic provides a comprehension of the participant’s demographics (Table 1). The demographics that were applied in the current research are educational level, age, gender, nationality, employment status, and monthly income. The following tables provide the details of the demographics of the people who participated in this work. For gender, the participants showed that (44.8%) were males, and (55.2%) of the participants were females. This distribution in terms of gender demonstrates that gender was almost equally distributed, and the reason the word ‘almost’ was used is that females have a 12% advantage over male participants regarding the number of participants, so there is a small portion of the advantage of one gender over the other. In terms of age, participants as showed that out of 143 people who participated, the most dominant age group was the 25 -34 years group with (37.8 %), then the group of 18-24 years with a (34.3 %), and the group with the least percent was 35 and above, which had (28.0 %). So, in total, the age groups' results were quite close to each other with a difference of 3-4 percentile from each one. Moreover, the education levels of the participants showed that the bigger percentage of participants have a bachelor’s degree (69.9%) followed by (23.8%) for master/Ph.D. and a small percentage for a high school education or bellow, with only (6.3%). The participants as shown in Table 1. demonstrates that the majority of the participants were from Jordan (72.7%), which is the dominant group in this study, followed by (18.2%) for participants from Palestine, and participants who chose ‘other’ represented (6.3%) of the participants, and with participants from Syria with (5.3%), who represented the smallest group. The level of employment as provided in the above table demonstrates that (46.9%) of the participants are employed full time, (17.5%) are employed part-time, (30.1%) are students and (3.5%) are retired and a (2.1%) didn’t answer. And finally, within these respondents, (20.3%) make less than JD 250 as monthly income, (13.3%) make between JD 250-350, (19.6%) between JD 351-600, (18.2%) between JD 601-1000, (19.6%) JD 1001 and above, and (9.1%) didn’t answer.

Validity and reliability analysis

Before the hypotheses testing using linear regression testing, the initial factor structure of the variables was contacted using exploratory factor analysis to examine the construct validity. The resulting dimensions and factor loading values of each item are illustrated in Table 1. As the table shows, all items had a strong loading level on their respective constructs (loadings above 0.60) (Hair, Black, Babin, & Anderson, 2009). The internal consistency of the variables was examined using Cronbach’s alpha value. Cronbach’s alpha value of each construct ranged from acceptable to moderate (0.86 to 0.68) (Taber, 2018).

Hypotheses testing

Linear regression has been applied to examine the research hypotheses. As shown in Table 3, collectivism is a significant predictor of green purchase intention for Jordanian customers (β = 0.19; p <0.05). Thus, we accept the study’s first hypothesis which claims that collectivism positively affects green product purchase intention. Hypotheses 2, 3, and 4 have been examine by (β = 0.19; p <0.05). This means that collectivism is a significant predictor of green product purchase intention. Thus, we accept hypothesis 1.

Linear regression has been applied to examine the research hypotheses. Several steps have been applied to test the hypotheses. First, the direct relationship between collectivism and green product purchase intention has been examined. As shown in Table 3, the results reported a significant relationship between collectivism and green product purchase intention (β = 0.19; p <0.05). This means that collectivism is a significant predictor of green product purchase intention. Thus, we accept hypothesis 1. Second, the method of Baron and Kenny (1986) has been applied to examine the mediation effects. The direct relationship between collectivism and each of the mediators has been examined; as shown in Table 3, the standardized coefficient between collectivism and each of the mediators reported for a significant value (β = 0.32, p <0.05 for collectivism-attituded toward green product relationship; β = 0.29, p <0.05 for collectivism-subjective norms toward green product relationship; β = 0.21, p <0.05 for collectivism-attituded toward green product relationship).In addition, the direct relationship between each of the mediators and green product purchase intention has also been examined. The result reported a significant standardized coefficient between each of the study’s mediators and green product purchase intention (β = 0.49, p <0.05 for attituded toward green product and green product purchase intention relationship; β = 0.55, p <0.05 for subjective norms toward green product and green product purchase intention relationship; β = 0.34, p <0.05 for attituded toward green product and green product purchase intention relationship). Finally, the indirect relationship between collectivism and green product purchase intention through the mediators has been examined. The results revealed that the indirect relationship between collectivism and green product purchase intention through attitude toward green products, subjective norms toward green products, and willingness to pay premium has been reduced (β = 0.07, p<0.05; β = 0.29, p <0.05; β = 0.21, p <0.05 respectively). Sobel's (1986) method has been applied to examine the significance of the mediators. As shown in Table 4, Sobel’s test results indicated that all indirect paths are statistically significant at level 0.05. Thus, we accept Hypotheses 2, 3, and 4.