Predicting intention and behavior to purchase environmentally sound or green products among Thai consumers: An application of the theory of reasoned action.

摘要

The exploding societal movement based upon environmental concerns and consumer awareness is spreading all over the globe. This globalization of environmental concern reflects the realization that consumers concern about their environmental problems is the growing significance of green marketing. As a result, numerous public opinion surveys indicate an increased public environmental awareness and concern. However, there is doubt whether this awareness and concern is translated into the right behavior. Although in the United States and the Western European countries, the term of "socially responsible consumption" occurs frequently in the environmentally friendly consumers literature, little empirical study has been conducted in Asian countries, especially in Thailand.;The dearth of previous research on the effects of consumers' attitudes, beliefs on intentions and behavior in purchasing the green product in Asian countries indicates a need for an exclusive study for providing essential empirical evidence on environmental concerns as well as green marketing areas. This study examines the relationships between consumers' environmentally sound purchasing attitudes, subjective norms and intentions using the Theory of Reasoned Action (TORA) developed by Fishbein & Ajzen (1980) and reformulates the basic TORA model by adding the actual purchasing behavior, demographic variables and knowledge to the theoretical model.;520 Thai consumers who live in Bangkok were asked their attitude, subjective norm, and intention. An actual purchase was assessed about a month later via phone call. Pearson-Product Moment Correlation Analysis and Multiple Regression Analysis were performed to test the hypotheses.;This study revealed that attitude correlates positively with intention, age, and environmental knowledge. Subjective norm correlates positively with intention and environmental knowledge. Intention correlates positively with every independent variable except for education. The findings from multiple regression analysis indicated that subjective norm plays the major role of intention to purchase a green product. And intention is a major predictor of actual purchase. Apparently, even if Thai consumers have relatively high environmental knowledge, they are somewhat skeptical of environmental claims and do not purchase green products.;A comparative study across cultures is recommended to extend the results. Future studies should ask questions such as, "How do the individual factors develop and change?", "How can marketers develop marketing strategies to achieve the green consumers' needs?", and so on. The utilization of consumers' green orientation to segment the market is also recommended for future research.