The green gap of high-involvement purchasing decisions: an exploratory study
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The green gap of high-involvement purchasing decisions: an exploratory study Kevin W. K. Chu 1 Received: 6 December 2019 / Accepted: 16 November 2020 / Published online: 26 November 2020 # Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract The environmentally friendly or ‘sustainable’ products have been launched in various markets in response to the growing concerns for the environmental deterioration and the alarming effects of climate change in past years. However, the uptake of green products does not seem to fully reflect the self-claimed pro-environmental concerns and attitudes. Consumers who profess to be environmentally conscious and believe they could help slow down environmental deterioration do not necessarily purchase ecofriendly products. This discrepancy between behaviour and attitude has been termed as ‘intention-behaviour gap’ or ‘green gap’. This study aims at exploring the green gap in the purchases of high-involvement products such as skincare products. Focus groups and thematic analysis were conducted. It was found that environmental concern was virtually non-existent in making purchase decisions with regard to skincare products because the perceived product effectiveness is found to be the key determinant of the choice of skincare products. Other factors such as weak social norm, weak perceived consumer effectiveness, and a sense of powerlessness facing the environment degradation, to some degree, attribute to the consumers’ justification of their non-green consumption practices. Implications for closing the gap have been drawn for marketing practitioners and policy makers. Directions for future research are also provided. Keywords Sustainable consumption . Skincare products . Green gap . Intention-bahaviour
gap . High-involvement products
Introduction Environmental deterioration resulting from over-consumption of natural resources is anticipated as the economy has been growing at a tremendous rate. If irresponsible
* Kevin W. K. Chu [email protected]
1
Institute of International Business & Governance, Lee Shau Kee School of Business & Administration, The Open University of Hong Kong, Homantin, Kowloon, Hong Kong
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Chu K.W.K.
consumption patterns of mankind persists, depletion of ozone layer, water pollution, acid rain, and desertification will be the evitable consequences of environmental degradation (Ramlogan 1997). Every time every consumer makes a decision about whether to purchase products or services, there is the potential for that decision to contribute to a more or less sustainable pattern of consumption. Each purchase has potentially adverse impacts on resources, waste, and communities. When individuals consider the adoption of sustainable lifestyles, they engage with an increasingly complex decision-making process. These everyday decisions on practical environmental or ethical solutions often result in trade-offs between conflicting issues and thus lead to a ‘motivational and practical complexity of green consumption’ (Moisander 2007, p. 404). Whilst governments have been tackling global w
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