Pro-environmental Concern Influencing Green Buying: A Study on Indian Consumers

Objectives – The main objectives of the study are to determine the consumers’ pro-environmental concerns, knowledge of environmental issues, awareness of eco-friendly products, and to make recommendations based on the findings about their “Green Buying” behaviour in Indian context. Research suggests that consumers who are highly involved and concerned with the environmental issues prefer to buy eco- friendly products and are willing to pay a higher price for such products. This study investigates if pro-environmental concerns among consumers in India are predictive of their any green buying behaviour. Methodology – Data for this study was collected from a highly educated sample of 200 respondents using a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire contains questions to measure general consumers’ environmental concern, awareness of eco-friendly products, trust in performance of eco-friendly products and green buying behaviour. Descriptive statistics, factor analysis and correlation techniques were used to analyze the findings of this study. Results – The results indicate that consumers’ pro-environmental concerns significantly affect their green buying behaviour. Also, consumers are willing to buy eco-friendly products but not many are willing to pay a higher price for such products. The survey findings disclose that consumers’ awareness towards eco-friendly products and their environmental concern impacts their green buying behaviour. Conclusions – While environmental concerns could emerge as one of the powerful drivers that influence purchase, it has actually not resulted in the ability to command a sustainable premium: consumers are willing to buy eco-friendly products, but not pay the higher price. Increased consumer demand will help reduce costs in production of eco-friendly products. Awareness among consumers that their buying choices can make a difference to the environment should be promoted to accelerate the consumption of eco-friendly products.

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