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The green gap of high-involvement purchasing decisions: an exploratory study

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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 eco-friendly 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.

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Funding

The work described in this paper was supported by a grant from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project Reference No. UGC/FDS16/B13/18)

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  1. Institute of International Business & Governance, Lee Shau Kee School of Business & Administration, The Open University of Hong Kong, Homantin, Kowloon, Hong Kong

    Kevin W. K. Chu

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Appendix. Moderator’s guide

Appendix. Moderator’s guide

1. Introduction

2. Warm-up/Ice-breaker Exercises: Defining Skincare Products

  Exercise 1

    Which of these products do you usually purchase?

    Provide samples of environmentally friendly (EF) and conventional (non-EF) skincare products and stacks of cards with brand names.

3. Discussion Part One: Purchasing Behaviour of EF Skincare Products

• Why do you purchase these brands (shown in Exercise 1)?

(Probes: experiences, perceptions)

• Why do you think other people use/do not use these products?

• What would encourage you/other people to buy environmentally friendly skincare products?

• What encourages or discourages consumers from purchasing environmentally friendly skincare products?

4. Discussion Part Two: Perceptions of EF Skincare Products

  Exercise 2

    Hand out some samples of body lotions (EF and non-EF) and answer sheets.

    If this brand was a person, what type of person would he/she be?

    What type of characteristics would they have?

    (Probe: What makes you think this?)

EF Skincare Products—Explore Current Perceptions, and Why.

• What are the types of EF skincare products have you ever used?

• Share with us your experiences with EF skincare products, if any.

• What do you think about the ways EF skincare products are being packaged?

• What do you think about the ways EF skincare products are being promoted?

• What factors helped you to decide if a skincare product is environmentally friendly?

(Probe: level of greenness)

5. Discussion Part Three: Perceptions of Green Consumption Behaviour and Green Consumers General Green Consumption Behaviour—Explore Current Perceptions, and Why.

• What does being ‘environmentally friendly’ mean?

• Does it mean the same thing as ‘green’?

• Being environmentally friendly/green, how easy/difficult?

• What makes it easy/difficult?

(Probes: perceptions—how are these being shaped? Past experience?)

Green consumers: [draw a person on whiteboard]…

• Describe characteristics, traits, consumption behaviour.

• What would encourage people to become more environmentally friendly?

6. Debriefing and closing

  1. Questions and activities were partially adapted from Johnstone and Tan (2014)

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Chu, K.W.K. The green gap of high-involvement purchasing decisions: an exploratory study. Asian J Bus Ethics 9, 371–394 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13520-020-00115-6

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