VALIDATION OF THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOUR (TPB) IN EXPLAINING MALAYSIAN PURCHASE INTENTION TOWARD GREEN INNOVATION PRODUCT

Transcription

1 VALIDATION OF THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOUR (TPB) IN EXPLAINING MALAYSIAN PURCHASE INTENTION TOWARD GREEN INNOVATION PRODUCT Norzalina Zainudin 1 Selangor International Islamic University College, Malaysia Chamhuri Siwar Institute for Environment and Development (LESTARI) UKM Malaysia Er Ah Choy National University of Malaysia Norshamliza Chamhuri National University of Malaysia ABSTRACT The purpose of this article is to assist Malaysian green innovation product firms to successfully market in Malaysia. It aims to accurately predict Malaysian consumers purchase intentions toward energy efficient appliances. For this purposes, study discussed two main hypothesis with relates the four constructs which are name as an attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavior control and purchase intention. A total of 392 consumer data were collected in six cities of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Shah Alam, Kota Bharu, Kuala Terengganu and Kuantan, utilizing a series of mall intercept method at shopping malls in each city. Among the proposed direct paths to purchase intention, consumers attitude was the most important in explaining Malaysian consumers purchase intention and followed by subjective norm. Perceived behavior control did not significantly affect purchase intention. The study also indicated that the attitude performed as a good mediator for the relationship between subjective norm and purchase intention. The finding of the study will contribute to the enhancing consumer s attitude and the role of social environment by making pragmatic policy recommendations that formulate strategies for addressing bottlenecks in accessing energy services by consumers. Understanding the consumer s attitude and subjective norm toward the environmental products will provide invaluable insights into consumer oriented market segment with new avenues for marketers thought into green marketing strategy. JEL Classifications: Keywords: Green innovation products, purchase intention, TPB. Corresponding Author s Address: norzalina@kuis.edu.my INTRODUCTION For last of the two decades, government across the world have widely accepted the notion that our production and consumption activities exceed ecological limits (United Nation, 2005). The available scientific evidence suggests that human impact on the environment has reached levels that force serious constraints on our future ability to meet our basic needs. Scientists and politicians, both agree that unsustainable pattern of production and consumption are major causes of global environmental deterioration (Zabel, 2005). Issues like loss of biodiversity, resource depletion and risk posed by accelerating climate change have become of paramount concern (Ansar and Sparks, 2009). Over dependence of human on carbon based energy sources is arguable the single biggest challenge. Human dependence on carbon based technologies and burning of fossil fuels have led to an accumulation of greenhouse gases in the earth s atmosphere at a rate that changing the climate. 1 This paper receives funding from National University of Malaysia (UKM) research projects AP and DPP on Transforming Rural Sector towards Sustainable Livelihood headed by Professor Chamhuri Siwar, for which the authors are very grateful. 583

2 Governments have come to realize that existing energy uses are unsustainable and that progress towards sustainability requires significant changes in the production and consumption of energy. Household energy consumption is of particular interest as it provides one of the greatest potentials to reduce overall energy demand and greenhouse gas emission. Bin and Dowlatabadi (2005) study in the United State shown that energy demand by the household account for 27% and significant contributes to 41% of energy-related carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emission. Recent technological innovations have made it possible for energy user to reduce the energy and material intensity of most products. Previous studies have shown that the use of energy efficient appliances can be economically viable way to reduce energy cost and CO 2 emission (Chatterjee and Suresh, 2012; Ha and Fanda 2012). Hence, the use of energy efficient product has the potential to play an important part in reducing overall energy demand and CO 2 emission and to contribute towards more sustainable system of energy production and consumption. However, despite consumer sensitisation about the environmental issues, energy efficient products faces slow rate of diffusion in mainstream markets as consumers green preferences regularly fail to translate into adaption behaviour. As a result, in many countries investment on energy efficient product innovation have been suffering for years and are often dependent on policy support in the form of subsidies and other incentive (Ha and Fanda 2012). In this context, consumer response has been identified as a key challenge that firms are facing when developing and marketing green innovation products like energy efficient appliances. Thus in this study, we will test the model on consumer behavioural changes called as Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) on the individual demand analysis of domestic appliances user. It will give an overview of the determinants of individual consumer decisions on buying energy efficient products. Specifically, study intended to investigate the direct influence of attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavior control on consumer intention. Other than that, this study interested to reveal to what extent the consumer subjective norm and perceived behavior control consumer intention behavior link is mediated by the consumer s attitude. LITERATURE REVIEW This section will first present the overview of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) as the basis in proposing research model. It then postulates study s hypothesis based on relationships identified. Theory of Planned Behavior The proposed research model is based on the theoretical foundation of the TPB. The TPB is one of the psychological models which evolved from the Theory of Reasoned Action (Fishbein 1967) and is design to assist the study on people behavioral changes. According to TPB (Ajzen 1991), behavior is based on the intention to perform the behavior in combination with perceived behavior control. In this theory it is assumed that behavioral intention is the best predictor of future behavior and this intention is determined by three components: (i) attitude toward behavior (a person s global evaluation of performing the behavior), (ii) subjective norm (the perceived social pressure to perform the behavior) and (iii) perceived behavior control (the person s conviction about whether the required skills and resources to perform the behavior are at one s disposal) (Ajzen 1985). For the detail on TPB, we refer to Ajzen (1991) as shown in Figure 1. The TPB has been applied successfully in a wide variety of behavioural domain. For example Soyez (2012) used the TPB to predict the intention of consumers to adopt environmentally friendly products. The study compared five different countries, US, Canada, Australia, Germany and Russian Federation. The model accounted for 53 percent to 80.2 percent of the variance in the intention to adopt environmentally friendly products. The model for US shown the highest value of variance compared the others countries in this study. However the result of regression analysis using structural equation model for each country shown attitude appeared to be a stronger predictor of intention than subjective norm and perceived behaviour control. The finding that shows superiority of attitudinal construct over the normative construct and perceived behaviour control in determining behavioural intention is not inimitable. In his overview of research on the TPB, Ajzen presents regression coefficients for attitudes and subjective norms and perceived behaviour control in predicting intentions in 16 studies and states that the personal considerations tended to overshadow the influence of perceived social pressure (Ajzen 1991, p.189). 584

3 FIGURE 1: THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOUR (AJZEN 1986; 1991) Attitude toward behaviour Subjective norm Intention Behavior Perceived behaviour control The robustness of the TPB has been confirmed and applied previously in many contexts of studies. Bamberg (2003), Chan and Lau 2001, Kalafatis et al were used the theory to explain the factors in influencing intention to buy organic skin or hair products. Other field of study also have applied different contact of analysis such as measure indirectly as mediating or moderating variable (Chiou 1998). Chiou in his study was used the subjective knowledge in mediating the relationship between attitude, subjective norm and perceived behaviour control in influencing consumer s purchase intention. Below are the detail about each of the constructs name as attitude, subjective norm and perceived behaviour control. Attitude According to Ajzen (1991), attitude toward behaviour means as a personal evaluation for being favourable or unfavourable to perform the behaviour. An individual is more likely to undertake a certain behaviour if she/he has a positive attitudes toward undertaking the behaviour. Many studies support the positive relationship between consumers attitudes and behavioural intentions for green purchasing in different product categories such as organic food (Chakrabarti 2010), organic personal care (Kim and Chung 2011) and green products in general (Ramayah et al. 2010; Ali and Ahmad, 2012) and different region and cultural such as Asian or European countries. In the context of this study, attitude refers to general consumer feelings of favourableness or unfavourableness towards the purchase intention of energy efficient products. Therefore, the study proposed the hypothesis as follow: H1: Attitude is positively correlated with purchase intention. Subjective norm Subjective norm refer to ones perceived social pressure to perform certain behaviour (Chiou, 1998). Thus those who believe that significant others (referent group such as friends or colleagues) think energy efficient products are good then consumer will have more intention to buy these products. Subjective norm predicted to have strong relationship with intention to purchase green innovation products. This relationship has been shown in many of the previous research on green consumer behaviour (Ramayah et al. 2010; Chung 2011; Chiou 1998). Therefore, the study proposed the hypothesis below: H2: Subjective norm is positively correlated with purchase intention. Perceived behaviour control (PBC) Perceived behaviour control reflects to the degree of control that an individual perceived over performing the behaviour (Ajzen 1991). If consumers perceived a higher degree of personal control tends to have stronger behavioural intention to engage in certain behaviour. In particular, when people believe they have more resources such as time, money and skills their perception is increase. However, in this study, we use the concept of perceived behaviour control negative to refer as a low degree of personal control such as I do not feel the need to buy these green products and there is a lot of things to do rather than thinking about environmental problem. Therefore, it is assumed that intention to purchase energy efficient product is higher when consumers perceived more control over buying these products. In other word when consumer perceived buying energy efficient needs much time, effort and skills then it would reduce the intention to purchase this product. Thus the hypothesis 3 is stated as follow: H3: Perceived behaviour control negative is inversely correlated with purchase intention. 585

4 In addition, this study also suggests that attitude could mediate the relationship between consumer s subjective norm and perceived behaviour control with purchase intention. In the context of mediation effect, we proposed the relationship on how subjective norm and perceived behaviour control could influence purchase intention directly or indirectly through consumer s attitude. Consequently, this investigation examines the mediation impact of consumer s attitude on purchasing behaviour of individual with the following hypothesis: H4 H5 : Attitude mediates the relationships between subjective norm and purchase intention. : Attitude mediates the relationships between perceived behaviour control and purchase intention. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Data were collected in six cities in Peninsular Malaysia via a survey in February Subjects selected from users and non-users of energy efficient products numbering 500 were personally contacted and asked to complete a self-administered questionnaire, which took approximately fifteen to twenty minutes for respondents to complete. By end of July 2014, 418 questionnaires had been returned (83.6 percent) of which 392 were fully completed and these have been used for further analysis. Measures and analytical procedure All constructs were measured via six-point Likert scales mainly because this type of scale has been shown to be robust in Malaysia cultural settings. Data analysis in this study was done in two parts. The first part involved a preliminary analysis on the demographic characteristics of the respondents, validity of measures, reliability of measures, data normality and the Pearson s correlation analysis. The second part of the data analysis involved the main study analysis which includes of the hierarchical multiple regression analysis testing the direct and mediating effect pertaining to the variables under this study. The data collected in this study was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS for Windows Version 22.0). Prior to the testing the relationship between the variables measured, a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted using analysis of moment structures (AMOS version 20). CFA allows the researcher specify both the number of factors that exist for a set of variables and which factor each variable will load on before results can be computed (Hair et al. 2010) EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS Respondent Demographic Characteristics The characteristics of the data gathered from the respondents of various geographical locations indicated that participants were 192 males and 200 females with average in age are from 26 to 54 years with a mean age of 41.3 years. In terms of gender distribution, the proportion of women in our sample (51 per cent) was found to be higher than the corresponding proportion in the nationwide population. This is reflective of the Malaysian context where shopping on behalf of the household is still done more by women than by men. In total 29 percent of participants indicated that their gross income was less than RM3,000, 25 percent between RM3,001 and RM4,500, 14 percent more than RM4,500 and RM6,000 and then 8 percent are more than RM9000 and above. The distribution of highest educational level attained showed 30.9 percent had completed high school, 53 percent had completed a college or university degree, and 8 percent had attained a master or doctoral degree. Measure Reliability and Validity The research instrument used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to examine the reliability and validity. Analysis shown the CFA measurement model provided a good fit to the data. While the chi-square statistic was significant (p = 0.001), it is known to be highly sensitive to sample sizes (Joreskog 1993), so various alternative fit statistics were computed [e.g. the comparative fit index (CFI); the normed fit index (NFI); and the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA)]. Values in the mid-to high range indicate good fit for the CFI and NNFI, and values of 0.80 and less indicate good fit for the RMSEA (Hu and Bentler 1999). The CFI estimate was The RMSEA estimate was 0.077, indicating that the fit is good because the RMSEA is the least affected by sample size (Sharma et al., 2005). Similarly, the NFI estimate was which further supports the adequacy of the measurement model. The factor loading for constructs are ranged from 0.53 to 586

5 0.92 except one item in perceived behaviour control shows a low factor loading. However the overall model was shown a good fit index. Reliability analysis of the study variable was established by testing whether the items grouped under a factor are internally consistent and stable. The internal reliabilities of the measures in this study were assessed using Cronbach s alpha coefficients. The result alpha values ranged from 0.60 to 0.84, which above the acceptable threshold suggested by Nunnally and Bernstein (1994). The result of the reliability test was presented in Table 1. TABLE 1. RELIABILITY COEFFICIENTS FOR STUDY VARIABLES AFTER CFA Variables Number of items Cronbach s Alpha Intention Attitude Subjective norm Perceived behaviour control Pearson Correlation The bivariate relationship between all variables was investigated using Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient. Table 2 shows the value of means, standard deviations and correlations among the variables. The mean value for most of the study variables were above 3.90 except for the perceived behaviour control which is The Pearson product-moment correlation analysis indicated that most of the variables are strongly positively correlated with one another. Consumer s intention is found to be correlated positively and significantly with all variables as hypothesized. Attitude is also found to be correlated positively and significantly with subjective norm but not significantly with perceived behaviour control. TABLE 2. PEARSON CORRELATION RESULTS Variables M SD Intention Attitude ** 3. Subjective norm **.333** 4. Perceived behaviour control ** ** Note: ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). Multiple Regression A hierarchical multiple regression was used to test hypothesis of this study. Table 3 shows the result of the hierarchical multiple regression that tested the direct effect of the independent variables which is subjective norm and perceived behaviour control on consumer s intention. Result shows that the total variance explained by the model as a whole was 32%. Attitude and subjective norm was found to be significantly predicted intention (b=0.42, p < 0.001; b=0.27, p < 0.001) but perceived behaviour control was not significantly predicted intention (b =-0.06). Based on the above finding only hypothesis 1 and hypothesis 2 is supported. Result of on the hypothesis testing summarized in Table 4. TABLE 3. MULTIPLE REGRESSION RESULT Variables Intention Step 1 B Attitude (ATT) 0.42*** Subjective norm 0.27*** Perceived behaviour control R Note: N = 392; *** p< 0.01 level (2-tailed). TABLE 4. REGRESSION WEIGHTS (DIRECT EFFECT) 587

6 Estimate Std. regression weight S.E. C.R. P Result on hypothesis H1:Intention ATT * Accepted H2: Intention SN * Accepted H3:Intention PBC Not Accepted Note: S.E= Standard error, C.R. = Critical ratio, p = Significant value Apart from the direct effects of attitude, subjective norm and perceived behaviour control on consumer intention, an additional analysis was carried out to predict the mediating effect of attitude in the relationship between subjective norm and perceived behaviour control and intention. Following the mediation procedures by Baron & Kenny (1986), hierarchical multiple regression was conducted to test the mediating effect of attitude in the relationship between subjective norm and perceived behaviour control with consumer intention. Then the results are presented in Table 5. In step 1a of the hierarchical multiple regression analysis, subjective norm was found significantly related to the mediating variable attitude, whereas perceived behaviour control shows not significant to consumer s attitude. In step 1b, it was found that subjective norm is also significant related to dependent variable, hence met the first and second mediation procedure. In step 1c, the independent variable (subjective norm) that significantly related with intention in step 1b and mediator (attitude) was tested on the dependent variable (intention). It can be seen that the mediating variable (attitude) was positively and significantly related with the dependent variable (intention), thus fulfilled the third step requirement of Baron & Kenny s mediation test procedure. The result of this analysis shows that attitude found to mediate the relationship between consumer subjective norm and consumer s intention. Thus the type of mediation here is partial mediation since the direct effect of independent variable on dependent variable is still significant after mediator entered the model even though the beta coefficient for subjective norm is reduced from 0.31 to TABLE 5. MULTIPLE REGRESSION RESULT FOR THE EFFECT ATTITUDE IN MEDIATING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SUBJECTIVE NORM AND PERCEIVED BEHAVIOUR CONTROL ON CONSUMER S INTENTION Variables Attitude Intention Step 1a Step 1b Step 1c B B B Subjective norm (SN) 0.35** 0.31** 0.25** Perceived behaviour control negative (PBC) Attitude (ATT) ** Note: N = 392; ** p< 0.01 level (2-tailed). TABLE 6. REGRESSION WEIGHTS (INDIRECT EFFECT) Estimate Std. regression weight S.E. C.R. p Result on hypothesis H2a: Intention ATT Accepted H2b: Intention SN Accepted Note: S.E.= Standard error, C.R. = Critical ratio, p = Significant value DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION Energy efficiency is an important means and initiative towards the development of sustainable energy and reducing the impact of energy sector on the environment. This current study tested the theory of planned 588

7 behaviour in two ways which is direct relationship between attitude, subjective norm and perceived behaviour control and intention. Then the theory was tested in indirect relationship with the mediating effect of consumer s attitude. From the structural modelling analysis, attitude and subjective norm were found significant related to enhancing consumers intention to buy energy efficient products. This research and its theoretical basis hold valuable implications for the growing literature on attitude formation and consumers buying intention behaviour tendencies, which form an important individual level construct for better understanding green marketing strategies. Previous studies have shown that the attitude is a superior and have better explanations of intention in various behaviour domains. The findings of this study were corresponding to a number of findings in previous studies (Aertsens et al., 2011; H. Ha, 2012; Aman et al., 2012; Mei, Ling, & Piew, 2012). In this study, to capture the influence of attitude as mediating factor in influencing consumer s purchase intention, indicated that this attitude was significantly mediates the subjective norm. This relationship means, if the consumer belief their referent group (such as friends, family or colleagues) think buying energy efficient is good then its will encourage a positive attitude of consumer. Finally the positive attitude will impact significantly influent higher purchase intention. We therefore additionally explored the importance of attitude to understand performed environmentally relevant behaviour by adding attitude as a mediating variable from the traditional model of TPB. Therefore, this information can be used by marketers to improvise their marketing strategies. Green marketing is a continuous process that requires constant inputs from the suppliers, government legislations and policies and consumers. This is required so that the businesses green marketing strategy can be aligned to the target markets and gain a sustainable competitive advantage. It is important that strategies and policies in relation to green products be developed and implemented so as a guide and help the producers and customers towards a green change. The finding of the study will contribute to the enhancing consumer s attitude and the role of social environment by making pragmatic policy recommendations that formulate strategies for addressing bottlenecks in accessing energy services by consumers. Understanding the consumer s attitude and subjective norm toward the environmental products will provide invaluable insights into consumer oriented market segment with new avenues for marketers thought into green marketing strategy. The findings of this study have implied that urban Malaysia may be more effectively targeted by the marketers using the strategies which encourage these groups to be more eco-friendly user. Cost of the product has been the first factor to be considered in purchasing decision. So it is the duty of the government to create a climate in which the consumer could get some purchasing power. 589

8 APPENDIX Proceedings of the Australia-Middle East Conference on Business and Social Sciences 2016, Dubai FIGURE 2. MEASUREMENT MODEL FIGURE 3. STRUCTURAL MODEL 590

9 REFERENCES Aertsens, J., Mondelaers, K., Verbeke, W., Buysse, J., & Huylenbroeck, G. Van., 2011, 'The influence of subjective and objective knowledge on attitude, motivations and consumption of organic food', British Food Journal, 113(11), doi: / Ali, A. and Ahmad, I., 2012, 'Environment Friendly Products: Factors that influence the green purchase intentions of Pakistani consumers', Pakistan Journal of Engineering, Technology and Sciences, Vol 2, no 1, pp Ajzen, 1991, 'The theory of planned behavior, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes' 50 (2) (1991) Ajzen, 1998, 'Attitudes, Personality and Behavior', Open University Press, Milton Keynes, Aman, A. H. L., Harun, A., & Hussein, Z., 2012, 'The Influence of Environmental Knowledge and Concern on Green Purchase Intention the Role of Attitude as a Mediating Variable', 7(I), Ansar, J & R. Sparks, 2009, 'The Experience Curve, Option Value, and the Energy Paradox' Energy Policy (37),

10 Baron, R.M. and Kenny, D.A. 1986, 'The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations', Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 51 No. 6, pp Bin, S. and Dowlatabadi, H. 2005, Consumer lifestyle approach to US energy and the related Co2 emission, Energy Policy, Chakrabarti, S., 2010, ' Factors influencing organic food purchase in India - expert survey insights', British Food Journal, Vol. 112, No 8, pp Chatterjee, B and Suresh, P.S, 2012, 'Energy Efficient Products and Indian Consumers', Shakti Sustainable Foundation, New Delhi and Climate Works Foundation, US. Chiou, J.-S., 1998, 'The Effects of Attitude, Subjective Norm, and Perceived Behavioral Control on Consumers Purchase Intentions : The Moderating Effects of Product Knowledge and Attention to Social Comparison Information', Proc. Natl.Sci.Counc. ROC, 9(2), Eban S. Goodstein, 2008, 'Economics and the environment', John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Fishbein, M., 1967, 'Attitude and the prediction of behavior', in Fishbein, M. (Ed.), Readings in Attitude Theory and Measurement, Wiley, New York, NY. Ha, H.Y and Fanda, S., 2012, 'Predicting consumer intentions to purchase energy-efficient products' Journal of Consumer Marketing, 29(7), pp doi: / Hansen, U. and T.Hennig, 1997, 'A modern model of consumption for a sustainable society', Journal of Consumer Policy 20, Hee Yeon Kim & Jae-Eun Chung. 2011, 'Consumer purchase intention for organic personal care products'. Journal of consumer marketing. 28/1 pp Kim, H.Y., and Chung, F-E. 2011, 'Consumer purchase intention for organic personal care products, Journal of Consumer Marketing, 28/1, pp Nunnally, J. C., Bernstein, I.H., 1994, 'Psychometric Theory', McGraw-Hill, New York. Mei, O. J., Ling, K. C., & Piew, T. H. (2012). The Antecedents of Green Purchase Intention among Malaysian Consumers. Asian Social Science, 8(13), doi: /ass.v8n13p248 Ramayah, T, Jason W.C.L, Mohamad, O. 2009, Green product purchase intention: Some insights from developing countries, Journal of Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 54 pp UNESCAP, 2011, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. Zabel. H.U. 2005, A model of human behaviour for sustainability, International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 32 pp , 592