Abstract
Period of study – the study was conducted from September 2011 to January 2012 Purpose – the purpose of this paper are to identify the influence factors of green purchasing behavior of university students in Jakarta and to find out whether there is any gender differences Methodology – using convenience sampling, there was 200 university students in Jakarta participated on the survey. Questionnaires using 6 point likert scale were developed.
The data were analyzed using test of reliability, validity, multiple regression, and independent sample T-Test Findings – Environmental Concern, Perceived Seriousness of Environmental Problems, and Perceived Environmental Responsibility-were significantly affecting green purchasing behavior. There were no gender differences on those 3 significant variables. Research limitation/ implication – This research didn’t investigate green purchasing behavior on specific product. Value – this research was one of the few which investigated green purchase behavior on young people Keywords- green marketing, green purchasing behavior, young consumer, Jakarta 1. Introduction
Factors such as population growth, global warming, threatening the future of human beings, exhaustion of natural resources develops and revealed the concept of “Green Marketing” (Sevil, 2011). The last 1980s was said to be the mark of the first stage of green marketing. In this stage, the industry was first introduced to the concept of “Green Marketing” (Peattie and Crane, 2005). The 1990s decade, which was the second stage, began with very high and hopeful forecasts about the emergence of a “green tide” of consumers and new products (Vandermerwe and Oliff, 1990). The third stage of green marketing has started since 2000.
More advanced technology has been implemented, deceptive claims are taking at stricter enforcement, new regulations from the government and a thorough and detailed inspection from various environmental organizations and the media, consumer‟s confident has been greatly improved and many high quality green products has been made during this period. In addition to the global concern of environmental quality that is steadily rising, green marketing now has picked up its momentum again like back in the 1990s (Lee, 2008). _____________________
School of Marketing, Bina Nusantara University- International, Jl. Hang Lekir 1 no 6, Jakarta 10270, Indonesia, Tel: (62-21) 720-2222, E-mail: [email protected] 1
The force of “going green” is now extending to the Asian region, where environmental threats are alarming local governments and citizens ( Lee, 2008). The fast-growing economy in Asia has led to a vigorous rise of financially empowered consumers across Asia who is willing to spend more than previous generations (Li and Su, 2007) A progressive degradation of nature, air and water pollution, and ineffectiveness of technical solution to cope with environmental problems are often more severe in developing countries. It is found that 30-40% of natural degradation has been caused by the consumption activities of private households (Chan, 2001).Indonesia as one of the developing countries has been facing a severe environmental issue since the last two decades. The destruction of natural resources is not showing any single decline. Previously, the deforestation in Indonesia was 1 – 1.2 million acre /year, now it is up to 2 million acre /year. The damage has made an increase in floods, landslides and droughts as well strong air and water pollution. Jakarta as the capital city of Indonesia has experience air pollution and floods as an annual event. It is not only up to endangering human health but it is already up to the level of might not be able to be renewed anymore. (Kementrian Lingkungan Hidup Republik Indonesia, 2009). In Jakarta, the activity to increase awareness in green living is showing a progress. More and more young people participate on some of green activities such as bike to work, car free day event, and also the world earth hour, which inviting households and businesses to turn off their un-necessary lights and other electronic appliances for one hour. Seeing this phenomena that the youngsters has the willingness to take part into several green activities, it is important to investigate whether the young people in Jakarta support the green purchasing behavior and to know what factors that influence the youngster to make green purchasing behavior. In addition, this paper also investigates whether there is any gender difference among youngster on green purchasing behavior. Previous study in
Western cultures and Hong Kong had showed gender differences in environmental perceptions, values and actions. In Hong Kong, female adolescent consumers has higher score in environmental attitude, environmental concern, perceived seriousness of environmental problems, perceived environmental responsibility, peer influence and green purchasing behavior (Lee, 2009). 2. Literature Review
2.1 Societal Marketing
Societal marketing refers to the use of commercial marketing concepts and tools to promote social ideas and causes. The main reason or motives of societal marketing is not profit, it‟s primarily for social changes. Some examples of societal marketing programs are: anti smoking, breast cancer prevention, safety driving, etc (Idowu et al., 2009) Societal Marketing has been used as an umbrella term that encompasses many marketing types, which involve social issues such as cause related marketing, ethical marketing and most importantly Green Marketing (Idowu et al., 2009) 2.2 Green Marketing
Green marketing encompasses much more than just a marketing hype, although there are not any single „right‟ definitions about this term, any definitions must include the fact that there is a voluntary exchange between company and the customer that achieve each side‟s objectives while minimizing the negative impact to the environment as much 2
as possible when achieving this objectives, and also making sure that every activities are Sustainable. Green marketing isn‟t limited to particular types of organizations; it can be exhibited on consumer markets, B2B (Business to Business) markets, suppliers, retailers, and even governmental bodies (Charter et al., 2001) 2.3 Green Purchasing Behavior
Many other literatures about environmental behavior mostly speaking about environmental behavior in general, a few has been addressed specifically about green purchasing behavior (Lee, 2009).Green purchasing behavior can be translated to the act of consuming products that are conservable, beneficial for the environment, and responding to environmental concern (Lee, 2009) Responding to environmental concern, one of the way related to waste
management system is by doing the 3R (Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle). To date, social influence has been found as the most important factors that affect green purchasing behavior of adolescents, however there are several more factors which are: Environmental attitude, Environmental concern, Perceived seriousness of environmental problems, Perceived environmental responsibility, Perceived effectiveness of environmental behavior, and concern of self-image in environmental protection. (Lee, 2008). Thus: H1: Social influences, Environmental Attitude, Environmental Concern, Perceived Seriousness of Environmental Problems, Perceived Environmental Responsibility, Perceived Effectiveness of Environmental Behavior and Concern for Self-Image in Environmental Protection have a positive influence with Green Purchasing behavior. 2.3.1 Social Influence The social dynamic in which individual associate with other people by presenting similar qualities is identified as homophile (Ryan, 2001). It also can be known as situations that a person shares the same thoughts, beliefs and values as the person that he/she are communicating with. For purchasing certain clothing among adolescents, conformity by peers is a very important factor (Chen-Yu & Seock, 2002). Also Lee (2008) found out that peer influence was the most important factor for Hong Kong‟s adolescents‟ green purchasing behavior compare to other factors. Hence, the following hypothesis was developed: H1a: Social influences have a positive influence with green purchasing behavior 2.3.2 Environmental Attitude
A positive relationship between environmental attitude and environmental behavior has been discovered in some studies (Kotchen & Railing, 2008). Environmental attitude refers to the individuals‟ value judgment and it taps the individuals‟ cognitive Assessment of the value of environmental protection (Lee, 2008). Most recently, it is found that Egyptian consumer‟s attitude towards green purchase can influence their green purchase intention and affecting their green purchase behavior in a direct manner (Mostafa, 2007). Therefore: H1b: Environmental Attitude has a positive influence with green purchasing behavior 2.3.3 Environmental Concern
One of the most essential factors for marketers as they can easily target environmentally conscious consumers is environmental concern (Mostafa,
2007). 3
Environmental concern can be known as affective traits that can signify an individual worries, consideration, likings and dislikes about the environment (Yeung, 2004). Thus: H1c: Environmental concern has a positive influence with green purchasing behavior 2.3.4 Perceived Seriousness of Environmental Problems
According to Lee (2008) teenagers in Hong Kong perceived the seriousness of environmental problems as the least important factor in influencing the green purchasing behavior. The reason behind this was known due to repetitive exposures, which makes them react negatively. However, it is found that Asian people rate environmental problems as more severe than those who live in western countries (Lee, 2009). H1d: Perceived seriousness of environmental problems have a positive influence with green purchasing behavior 2.3.5 Perceived Environmental Responsibility
Citizens of Hong Kong have a high awareness of environmental problems, because they have attained more environmental knowledge, but their perceived environmental responsibility is weak (Lai, 2000). Among adolescents of Hong Kong, perceived environmental responsibility is one of the important factors that affect their green purchasing behavior (Lee, 2008). H1e: Perceived environmental responsibility have a positive influence with green purchasing behavior. 2.3.6 Perceived Effectiveness of Environmental behavior
This is related to one‟s perception to contribute good things to the environment by involving him/her-self in pro-environmental behavior or movement. Perceived effectiveness of environmental behavior is the fifth predictor of green purchasing behavior among adolescents in Hong Kong (Lee, 2008) H1f: Perceived effectiveness of environmental behavior have a positive influence with green purchasing behavior 2.3.7 Concern of Self-image in Environmental Protection
Identity formation, the most important factors when studying adolescents, they are most likely to do activities that portray their identity (Sinnappan and Rahman 2011). Further, Martinson et al.(1997) found out that supporters
of environmental protection tend to be younger. Concern of Self-image in Environmental protection was the third predictor of green purchasing behavior among adolescents in Hong Kong (Lee, 2008). H1g: Concern for self-image in environmental protection has a positive influence with green purchasing behavior 4
Conceptual Model
Zeleny et al (2000) have evidenced that women report stronger environmental attitudes than men across 14 countries (Argentina, Canada, Columbia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico, Panama Paraguay, Peru, Spain, the United States and Venezuela). Mostafa (2007) explained that women are more concerned about environmental issues than are men. Further, women are found to be more concerned about the negative outcomes of environmental damage than were men (Bord and Connor, 1997). According to Lee (2009) female adolescence are proven to score higher points than males on the following variables: environmental attitude, environmental concern, perceived seriousness of environmental problems, perceived environmental responsibility and social influences. According to above references, thus: 5
H2: There is a significant difference between male and female university students in all of the important factors that affect green purchasing behavior. 3. Methodology
Before the actual research, pre-test was performed to 30 students to test questions in order to get feedbacks from respondents and also to see the reliability and validity of the questions itself. The questionnaires were divided into two parts. First part was the general demographic questions such as gender, age, occupation and monthly expenses. There were also questions regarding the media, product and brand that respondents know about the green ad or activities as well the product and brand that they usually bought. The second part was questions to represent the dimension of green purchase behavior which consisted of 35 questions measured by 6 point likert scale. The questionnaire was in Bahasa Indonesia. The data were statically analyzed and interpreted using the SPSS 16.0. Multiple regressions were conducted to analyze the predictor variables that influence the purchase intention and the statistical data methods used on this study was
reliability analysis with Cronbach‟s Alpha, validity, Multiple Regression. In addition, Independent sample T-test was conducted to analyze the gender differences among the students as participants. 4. Result
In December 2011, the data were collected from a survey of four universities in Jakarta, namely Bina Nusantara International University, Pelita Harapan University, Trisakti University and University of Indonesia. A convenience sampling was conducted and there was 200 university students participated on this survey which consist of 104 females (52%) and 96 males (48%). The age of respondents was at range of 17 to 25 years old. Monthly expenses of the respondent were approximately about USD 200 – 350 (63%). The majority of the respondents encountered the green ads via radio (33%), via TV (22%), via Internet (20%), via Billboard (18%), and via Magazine / Newspaper (7%). All respondents had experienced to buy green product, around 64% for 1- 5 time in a year and 36% bought more than 5 times in a year. The products that commonly bought were food/beverages (69%), cosmetics (19%), toiletries (6%) and Eco Friendly Light Bulb (6%). The green product‟s brands that were bought by the respondent, most of them bought Starbucks (69%), second is Body Shop (18%), then followed by L‟Occitane (7%) and Philips (6%) Test of Reliability, Validity, Multiple Regression and Independent T-test Reliability of each of the 7 predictors (Social influences, Environmental Attitude, Environmental Concern, Perceived Seriousness of Environmental Problems, Perceived Environmental Responsibility, Perceived Effectiveness of Environmental Behavior and Concern for Self-Image in Environmental Protection) was measured using Cronbach‟s Alpha and the result was 0.81 which was above minimum value of 0.6. Multiple Regression
Multiple regressions were conducted to examine the predictor variables that influence green purchase behavior. The R square was 0.656 that indicated that predictors variables effected the criterion variable by 65.6%. 6
Table 1: R Square Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the Estimate 1 .810a .656 .643 .57617 a. Predictors: (Constant), CFSIEP, PSOEP, SI, PER, PEOEB, EA, EC The ANOVA table or F test resulted p-value was 0.00, therefore H1 was supported. In other words, Social influences, Environmental
Attitude, Environmental Concern, Perceived Seriousness of Environmental Problems, Perceived Environmental Responsibility, and Perceived Effectiveness of Environmental Behavior had the positive influence to green purchasing behavior. Table 2: F-test
Table 3 showed the significance of each independent variable to the dependent variable. As shown by the significance probability, it concluded that Environmental Concern, Perceived Seriousness of Environmental Problems, and Perceived Environmental Responsibility were significantly affecting the green purchasing behavior, their p-values 0.05. Therefore, H1a, H1b, H1f and H1g were not supported. ANOVAb Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig. 1 Regression 121.371 7 17.339 52.230 .000a Residual 63.738 192 .332 Total 185.109 199 a. Predictors: (Constant), CFSIEP, PSOEP, SI, PER, PEOEB, EA, EC b. Dependent Variable: GPB 7
Table 3: Partial Significance
Hypotheses
Variable
B
Partial Sig.
Result
H1a
SI
-.025
.762
Rejected
H1b
EA
-.135
.091
Rejected
H1c
EC
.492
.000
Accepted
H1d
PSOEP
.545
.000
Accepted
H1e
PER
.548
.000
Accepted
H1f
PEOEB
.000
.998
Rejected
H1g
CFSIEP
.171
.303
Rejected
Table 4 showed that the p-value of all important predictors >0.05, therefore the H2 was not supported. In other words, there is no significant difference between male and female university students in those particular variables. Table 4: Independent Sample Test
8
5. Conclusion
The study observed the factors that influenced green purchasing behavior among universities students in Jakarta. This study sets out to conceptualize how Social influences, Environmental Attitude, Environmental Concern, Perceived Seriousness of Environmental Problems, Perceived Environmental Responsibility, Perceived Effectiveness of Environmental Behavior and Concern for Self-Image in Environmental Protection affects the green purchasing behavior.
In general, all of the factors or variables have a positive influence to green purchasing behavior, but not all of them have a significant effect. The findings of the study showed the main factors that effected green purchasing behavior were Environmental Concern, Perceived Seriousness of Environmental Problems, and Perceived Environmental Responsibility. The other factors, which were Social Influences, Environmental Attitude, Perceived Effectiveness of Environmental Behavior and Concern for Self-Image in Environmental Protection, were less pronounced. Overall, it could be concluded that even though all predictors variable influenced the Green Purchasing Behavior but independently only 3 variables had the significant influence, they were: 1. Environmental Concern
2. Perceived Seriousness of Environmental Problems
3. Perceived Environmental Responsibility
It found out that most of the respondents were aware of the environmental problems itself as they scored very high on the above variables, but they did not respond to it, they stayed at the level of knowing and concerning, they didn‟t really actualize their concern into acts, because they thought that their acts would not affect much to the environment, as seen by variable Perceived Effectiveness of Environmental Protection which had the lowest significance of all. The second factor which has the lowest significance is Social Influences. It concluded that universities students in Indonesia didn‟t discuss so much about environmental issues nor environmentally friendly products with their friends. In addition, there were no significant gender differences between male and females with regards to Environmental Concern, Perceived Seriousness of Environmental Problems, and Perceived Environmental Responsibility Managerial Implications
The study has proposed findings that would be useful in the future and it was expected to be beneficial to those who were willing to participate in green marketing activities. The results indicated the high concern from the respondents with variables such as Environmental Concern, Perceived Seriousness of Environmental Problems, and Perceived Environmental Responsibility.
Since these 3 variables were already in the mind of young people, the marketers should improve their marketing campaign by making sure that they were conveying the message on how their product could help to reduce environmental problems, also the message on how the customers were being responsible to the environment by buying their green products. For government, by knowing this situation, they should also taking into account that young people were aware of the environmental problems, and they already concerned about the environment, therefore government should concentrate more on inviting people to do some real acts for the environment. 9
Looking into the demographic results, marketers; companies or government can improve their promotion activities. Most respondents were aware of green products or green movement‟s ads, most of them encountered it via Radio, followed by TV and Internet. These facts can be guidelines or considerations for them on their promotions in the future. Educators could also learn from this study. They should balance the theory and practice in educating their students. Because in fact, the students already were aware of green issues, but their initiatives to do pro-environmental actions are still minimal.
To sum up, whether they were green marketers, companies, government or educators, they had to be aware of these Environmental Concern, Perceived Seriousness of Environmental Problems, and Perceived Environmental Responsibility factors; to enhance the effect of those factors by doing promotion through the channels that they were most exposed to; and to turn those factors into action by conveying messages. The messages should contain that the products or the movements could reduce environmental problems, so that the perceived seriousness of environmental problems could be manifested into actions. Also for the other factors that were not significant, for Environmental Attitude; Perceived Effectiveness of Environmental Behavior and Concern for Self-Image in Environmental Protection, managers should know that university students in Jakarta had a moderately good attitude towards the environment, but they didn‟t believe that if they did some pro-environmental behavior, they would improve the environment.
The other findings that green marketers; companies; government; and educators had to understand that there were no gender differences between male and female on most of the variables. Therefore, they did not necessarily need to differentiate on gender when promoting their products, but they had to pay attention to promote to different segments, as this study only examines university students. Promoting green products to senior citizens, young adult people, or maybe school students might require them to use a different approach. However, despite of the social influences that had a small significance on this study, the author still suggested that green marketers consider this factor when promoting their products to young people, because young people were peer oriented in nature. Limitations
This study also had some inevitable limitations:
1. The number of respondents used in this study only 200 university students from Universities in Indonesia but limited in Jakarta
2. The time to conduct the study which approximately only 4 months 3. In terms of statistical method, this research used methods that different from the original journal. 4. Offline questionnaire can only reach to a smaller number of respondents, compared to online questionnaire. Future Research Recommendation
It was recommended to conduct future research on the following To examine respondents not only Jakarta but other cities in Indonesia in order to widened the view. To study different segments, for example children, adult and senior citizens people 10
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