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Article

Presumption of Green Electronic Appliances Purchase Intention: The Mediating Role of Personal Moral Norms

by
Jianwen Zhang
1,*,
Jacob Cherian
2,
Yawar Abbas Sandhu
3,
Jawad Abbas
4,
Laura Mariana Cismas
5,
Constantin Viorel Negrut
5 and
Lucia Negrut
5
1
Department of Marketing, School of Economics and Management, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
2
College of Business, Abu Dhabi University, Abu Dhabi P.O. Box 59911, United Arab Emirates
3
Institute of Business Management Sciences, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Faisalabad 38000, Pakistan
4
Faculty of Management Sciences, University of Central Punjab, Lahore 54000, Pakistan
5
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, West University of Timisoara, 300006 Timisoara, Romania
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sustainability 2022, 14(8), 4572; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14084572
Submission received: 27 February 2022 / Revised: 4 April 2022 / Accepted: 10 April 2022 / Published: 12 April 2022
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Technologies towards Cleaner Production and Sustainable Development)
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Versions Notes

Abstract

:
This study focused on social and cognitive psychological factors that drive personal norms and consequent buying intentions towards green electric appliances. The study differentiates itself from other similar studies by examining the mediating role of consumer personal moral norms from the developing nation perspective. Following a cross-sectional study design, data were collected from 360 consumers in shopping malls using the purposive sampling technique and analyzed through partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) analysis. It was found that personal moral norms are a significant positive predictor of consumer buying intentions. Moreover, injunctive norms, consideration of future consequences, and self-efficacy influenced directly and predicted personal consumer norms. We identified that these factors triggered the moral sentiments and individuals. Furthermore, these results support the mediating role of personal moral norms between injunctive social norms, consideration of future consequences, self-efficacy, and buying intentions, validating the concept that instigation of moral feeling among consumers supports the actualization of intentions to buy green electric products. This study’s results offer insights for green electric appliance researchers, marketers, and policymakers. Marketers can guide effective marketing strategies by focusing on moral, social, future consequences-oriented, and self-efficacy-related marketing communications.

1. Introduction

Since the beginning of the 21st century, green consumer behavior and knowledge [1] have become vital for environmental and business reasons [2]. From an environmental viewpoint, it is critical to discover new ways to control and lessen the negative effects of household consumption [3] to achieve the sustainable developmental goals desired by the global community [4,5]. A more sustainable society can be achieved through changes in consumer consumption patterns [6] since private consumer households contribute almost up to 40% of environmental damage [7]. The consequences of environmental damage are global warming [8], land erosion, animal species extinction, and environmental degradation [9]. As a result, individuals seem worried about environmental issues. However, with all these consumer concerns, reports testify that only 4% of buyers buy green products [10]. This attitude and behavioral inconsistency create a green gap. Huge capital investments by firms in green products, depletion of natural resources, and poor environmental conditions require a deeper understanding of how consumers decide to consume green products [11,12]. Such a case has also been observed with green electronic appliances manufactured with the least environmental hazardous materials and built to consume less electricity [13]. Ali et al. [14] concluded that green electronic appliances receive less acceptability by consumers than their conventional counterparts.
Previously, researchers have identified multiple social and psychological determinants of green buying intentions and behavior and concluded that environmental concern, awareness, knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, social norms, product price, quality, intrinsic values, and habits influence the phenomenon considerably [6,15,16,17]. Wang and Zhang [18] suggested that the consumer claims–action inconsistency can be described as a social dilemma due to its unique nature of trading off instant personal benefits with delayed collective benefits [19]. Consumers may sincerely consider green consumption to be relevant without letting it determine their choice in an actual context [20]. The social dilemma approach tends to predict consumer decisions, particularly when encountering social and cognitive conflicts of benefits [18]. Johnson and Greenwell [20] asserted the importance of viewing the green claim–action inconsistency, which might be viewed from the social dilemma, normative, and moral perspectives. Social dilemma theory makes it possible to derive predictions about people’s pro-environmental behavior with assumptions counting on consideration of future consequences, personal norms, self-efficacy, and normative influence [15,21,22]. Johnson and Greenwell [20] identified and described environmental problems as a social dilemma, influencing consumer behavior in such scenarios. However, the exact mechanism of the social dilemma of how social and psychographic factors influence green consumer behavior needs to be thoroughly discussed. It deems it insightful to understand the impact of consideration of future consequences, self-efficacy, injunctive norms, and personal norms as antecedents leading to purchasing intention for green electronic appliances.
According to Landon et al. [23], green consumer behavior is a blend of rational and moral decision making. A framework containing both dimensions predicts adaptive consumer decisions towards green consumption. However, the moral and ethical presumption for pro-environmental behavior is less researched [2]. The current study derives motivation from this potential research gap positively. According to Nystrand et al. [24], one explanation of pro-environmental intentions and subsequent behavior is found in an individual’s characteristics; for example, people who generally consider the long-term consequences of their behavior are more likely to engage in pro-environmental behavior because their current behavior is more guided by temporally distant goals. In particular, an individual’s personality characteristics in consideration of future consequences are critical in environmental studies [25].
Moreover, Hussain et al. [26] found that environmental self-efficacy discriminates between buyers and non-buyers of green products based on these results; they argued that self-efficacy affects environmental behavior. However, Sandhu et al. [9] claimed that behavior is based on injunctive social norms. Moreover, moral decision making and considerations are important when explaining green consumer behavior.
This study highlights the criticality of evoking intrinsic moral motivation within individuals, forcing them to act pro-environmentally. Value, belief, and norm [23] theory for environmentalism reflect a theoretical relationship between variables (predictors) and green consumer behavior. Asian countries, specifically Pakistan, face poor environmental situations [27]. Consumers and governmental institutions are concerned about environmental degradation [26,28]; however, from the consumers’ side, such concerns seldom reflect their choice to buy green products. To address this critical issue, it is important to study the effects of psychographic factors (consideration of future consequences), self-efficacy, and normative factors (injunctive norms) on personal norms and consequent consumer purchase intentions. This study also examines whether personal moral norms mediate between injunctive social norms, consideration of future consequences, self-efficacy, and buying intentions of green electronic appliances. The findings of this study will provide valuable insights to related stakeholders, such as environmental researchers, organizational policymakers, and marketers, and will enhance their understanding of designing and promoting eco-friendly products in society. The theoretical framework of the study is given in Figure 1.

2. Literature Review

2.1. Value-Belief-Norm Theory of Environmentalism

The value-belief-norm (VBN) theory was proposed by Stern et al. [29] and is considered the best predictor of the environmental movement of public support [11]. It links personal values, ecological paradigms, and norm activation and suggests a chain of variables, from values and general environmental concern to specific beliefs about the negative consequences of certain actions and the individuals’ ability and responsibility to avert these negative consequences, which in turn activates sustainable personal norms for behavior [30]. Personal norms are at the core of VBN theory, which predicts several pro-environmental behaviors, including green buying, recycling, and resource conservation [2,31,32]. The VBN theory of normative decision making has been tested by several researchers since its inception and has been successfully applied to several pro-environmental contexts such as green buying, energy conservation, and transportation [16,23,33,34].

2.2. Personal Norms and Green Purchase Intention

Personal norms are an individual’s intrinsic motivation or a sense of obligation in which one feels the responsibility to act [34]. They are defined as the intensity of an individual’s feelings of moral obligation to perform a certain action [2]. According to the VBN theory of environmentalism, personal norms create feelings of moral obligation within an individual to act in an environmentally friendly manner [35,36]. Studies in pro-environmental transportation and energy-efficient products have asserted the positive impact of personal norms on green consumer behavior [32]. Similarly, Floress et al. [31], in their investigation into green consumer behavior towards food, water, and energy consumption, found that personal norms positively affect individuals’ choices for the use of environmentally friendly consumption. Furthermore, personal norms are positively related to organic food purchases, recycling, and energy-conservative behavior [9].
Injunctive norms represent social norms and refer to the degree to which a specific behavior is commonly accepted or not. While examining the contextual factors influencing consumer decision making, Doran and Larsen [37] found that social norms impacted environment-friendly behavior. Moreover, these social norms are internalized to become personal norms. A stronger sense of connectedness with others motivates striving to fit in social groups, fulfill one’s social roles, and engage in actions that promote social harmony and respect for social norms [38]. Vanegas-Rico et al. [39] argued that in social dilemma situations, the expectation by significant others for cooperation enhances an individual’s chances to act pro-socially. In green consumer behavior literature, it is observed that the norm of buying green products by peers and colleagues encourages individuals to purchase these environmentally friendly products [40]. A study in the Malaysian context showed that triggered personal norms instigated purchase intentions among consumers [41]. Furthermore, studies have demonstrated a link between the sense of connectedness and self-reported environmental conservation behavior, recycling, and donations to charity [38]. Thus, it leads us to hypothesize that:
H1. 
Personal norms influence positively purchasing intention for green electronicappliances.

2.3. Injunctive Social Norms and Green Purchase Intention

Injunctive norms represent social norms and refer to the degree to which a specific behavior is commonly accepted or not [42]. It refers to an individual’s belief regarding the significant social web around them, and whether they believe that one is complying and abiding by the social pressure [43]. While examining the contextual factors influencing consumer decision making, the authors in [37] found that social norms impacted environment-friendly behavior; moreover, these social norms are internalized to become personal norms [44]. A stronger sense of connectedness with others motivates striving to fit in social groups, fulfill one’s social roles, and engage in actions that promote social harmony and respect for social norms [38]. The authors in [45] argued that in social dilemma situations, the expectation by significant others for cooperation enhances an individual’s chances to act pro-socially. In green consumer behavior literature, it is observed that the norm of buying green products by peers and colleagues encourages individuals to purchase these environmentally friendly products [40].
Furthermore, past studies have demonstrated a link between the sense of connectedness and self-reported environmental conservation behavior, recycling, and donations to charity [38,46,47]. The authors in [43], in their recent study regarding the intention to purchase certified functional food among Taiwanese, found a significant positive effect of injunctive social norms on the attitude. Moreover, the authors in [48] supported that injunctive social norms help to instigate moral feelings and trigger energy conservation behavioral intentions. Thus, it leads us to hypothesize that:
H2. 
Injunctive social norms influence positively personal norms for green electronic appliances.

2.4. Consideration of Future Consequences and Green Purchase Intention

Consideration of future consequences is an individual’s characteristic that explains how they are future-oriented in their thinking [49]. Strathman introduced the term “Consideration of Future Consequences” (CFC) to prescribe individual differences in time perspective, which is defined as an individual’s propensity to consider future long-term outcomes of current behavior and how much they are influenced by these potential outcomes [50]. A higher belief in propensity of CFC brings greater chances to involve future consequences of behavioral outcomes in present circumstances. On the other hand, consideration of immediate consequences shows a lower degree of CFC of behavior [51]. Hence, CFC inherits the concepts of consideration of immediate consequences (CFC-I) and consideration of future consequences (CFC-F), suggesting its two temporal orientations of the belief that an individual keeps [52]. Most of the previous studies on CFC in a pro-environmental context incorporated CFC-F due to its positive belief in sacrificing present benefits for future environmental safety and social well-being [51,53]. Previously, CFC was applied and investigated in numerous studies that found that individuals with high scores in CFC were more inclined towards entrepreneurial intentions [54], purchase intention towards organic food [10], frequency of functional food consumption [24], and formation of related moral behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic [55].
Olsen and Tuu [56] argued that CFC high-scoring individuals are more eager to seek collective well-being in an environmental and social dilemma. A study predicting social cooperation among individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic found that CFC high-scoring individuals are more likely to cooperate in acute COVID-19 pandemic spread than those who scored low on CFC [57]. Moreover, Chng et al. [52] investigated the impact of human values and CFC on lifestyle simplicity intentions of Taiwanese and found a significant contribution of CFC towards the formation of social and moral responsibility. Taiwanese who considered future consequences for their present behavior showed a higher personal moral responsibility for social wellbeing. Thus, the discussion stated above support the hypothesis that:
H3. 
Consideration of future consequences positively stimulates personal norms towards green electronicappliances.

2.5. Environmental Self-Efficacy and Green Purchase Intention

Self-efficacy is an individual’s internal belief in their ability and strength to perform corrective action [21]. As per the social dilemma approach, individuals with high self-efficacy are more likely to perform corrective action for social and collective benefits [58]. Cojuharenco et al. [38] theorized that social interactions might increase the perceived effectiveness of one’s actions because when individuals feel that their actions are representative of some larger social entity, the perceived impact of those actions is magnified. Self-efficacy represents an individual’s evaluation of their control of thought processes, motivation, and actionable behavior to deal with a prevailing situation [59,60]. Although this concept has been theorized in multiple domains, its application in pro-environmental attitude and behavior formation is significant and proven in many previous studies [18,61,62]. The concept of controlling one’s cognition process produces a drive within promoting self-less and costly decisions, which produces altruistic feelings for the biosphere and society [63]. People buy costly environmentally-friendly products concerning relatively low-cost conventional goods [53]. However, self-efficacy in the absence of instigating moral behavior remains a weak predictor of the pro-environmental act because rational valuation is a strong intervention that enforces seeking immediate personal benefit [64]. The influence of self-efficacy on intentions and behavior is a multi-process mechanism. It can route to behavior through emotions, rational logic, and moral paradigm [65]. Among these routes, morality provides reasons to act in a good public way, producing internal satisfaction and compensating for higher personal and monitory costs [64]. A few studies have empirically tested self-efficacy’s effect on environmentally friendly intentions and behavior through personal moral norms [66]. Dhir et al. [67] described environmental self-efficacy as a discriminated factor among consumers and non-consumers of buying green apparel in Japan. Lundheim [68], in their study regarding environmental self-efficacy’s influence on the installation of solar panels on private homes, found that individuals with high self-efficacy are more conscious about future consequences of climate change, proving that self-efficacy is a salient determinant of green consumer behavior. Moreover, Pristl et al. [69] concluded that self-efficacy significantly influences an individual’s norms (moral obligation) towards sustainable consumption behavioral intentions. Thus, it leads us to hypothesize that:
H4. 
Self-efficacy influences positively towards personal norms for green electronic appliances.
Past research also has reported personal norms as moral attitudes. Hence, they may be mediators between purchase social norms, consideration of future consequences, self-efficacy, and purchase intentions [21,24,32,37,56]. Therefore, we hypothesized the following:
H5. 
Personal norms mediate between injunctive social norms and green electronic appliances purchase intentions.
H6. 
Personal norms mediate between consideration of future consequences and green electronic appliances purchase intentions.
H7. 
Personal norms mediate between self-efficacy and green electronic appliances purchase intentions.

3. Methodology

3.1. Sampling Design and Research Tool

Keeping the study objective and hypotheses in mind, this research incorporated a quantitative method. The data were collected from individuals aged 18 years or above from January 2021 to March 2021. The reason to choose this age bracket was that the individuals (male or female) possess buying power to buy these green electric products, which used to be merely costlier than their counterparts; moreover, those stand rational enough to understand the future benefits of green electronic appliances. Individuals were purposely contacted, and approval was sought to present the questionnaire. Afterward, the 360 filled questionnaires were collected from the respondents and used for further data analysis.

3.2. Measures

The variable measures having high internal consistency were adapted from previous studies. Green purchase intentions were adapted from Sandhu et al. [9]. Personal norms were adapted from Abrahamse et al. [70]. The measures for injunctive norms were adapted from Vermeir and Verbeke [71]. Consideration of future consequences measures was adapted from Bruderer and Engler [53]. The measures for self-efficacy were adapted from Nayum and Klockner [61]. This study used a five-point Likert scale for all item responses ranging from 1—strongly disagree to 5—strongly agree. The pilot test was performed among 51 respondents before data were collected to test the validity and reliability of the questionnaire. All of the measures showed high internal consistency; furthermore, no issue was found regarding the respondents’ understanding. The questionnaire was designed in English, in line with Sandhu et al. [9], who used the questionnaires in English in malls to intercept data collection for organic food from respondents aged 18 and above.

3.3. Data Analysis and Results

For analysis purposes, in SPSS, the constructs were coded as follows: postulated green electric appliances purchase intention as GEAPI, personal norms mentioned as PN, injunctive social norms as ISN, consideration of future consequences as CFC, and self-efficacy as SE. Other related items were numbered respectively. Moreover, for structural equation modeling (SEM), the data were analyzed using SmartPLS-3. All of the constructs’ composite reliability (CR) values ranged from 0.835 to 0.882, showing that reliability for all of the constructs exists. The average variance extracted (AVE) for all of the constructs remained above 0.50 (see Table 1 for items loading, composite reliability, and AVE values). For the validity test, the Heterotrait–Monotrait Ratio (HTMT) test was conducted, and the result showed that all of the values were below 0.85, which establishes the scale validity [72]. While Table 2 and Table 3 confirm the establishment of reliability and discriminant validity, Table 4, showing variance inflation factor (VIF) values, proves that the issue of multicollinearity does not exist. The R-square value (Table 5) of green electric appliances purchasing intention remained at 0.391, which shows the explained variance is substantial [73] and hence shows the model’s predictive capability.
Table 6 shows the testing of the direct relationship among variables (H1 to H4). Personal norms positively affected the green electric appliances purchase intentions with beta 0.291 and p = 0.000 values, which led to the acceptance of the first hypothesis. Furthermore, injunctive social norms’ relationship with personal norms indicated a 0.219 beta value with 0.0000 p-values that proved significantly positive; therefore, the second hypothesis is also accepted. Future consequences were positively related to personal norms with beta 0.338 and p = 0.000 values; thus, the third hypothesis is also accepted. Finally, self-efficacy was positively related to personal moral norms with beta 0.113 and p = 0.007 values, which led to the acceptance of the fourth hypothesis. Hence, it is likely to be observed that personal tendencies to consider the future consequence of current purchases and the right thing to do accepted in society, as well as self-belief to act, trigger intrinsic motivation to perform a right action to preserve the environment, and intrinsic motivation generates purchase intentions. Among the above-stated personal norm instigators, CFC was the major instigator, followed by ISN and SE. Moreover, personal norms mediated the relationships between all determinants and GEAPI; as Table 7 indicates, personal norms mediated ISN and GEAPI (b = 0.098, p = 0.000), CFC and GEAPI (b = 0.064, p = 0.000), and SE and GEAPI (b = 0.033, p = 0.014). Hence, H5, H6, and H7 are supported. The complete model with indirect effect is depicted in Figure 2.

3.4. Mediation Analysis

Literature supports the mediation of variables with some conditionality (Hair et al., 2016); given this, in the present model, the result shows significantly positive relationships between ISN, CFC, SE, and GEAPI. Furthermore, all mediation relationships are significantly positive, and finally, after the indulgence of the mediation variable (personal norms), the direct effect of the variable is reduced considerably. Hence, all of the conditions of mediation are fulfilled.

4. Discussion, Implications, and Limitations

Environmental awareness is increasing among societies. Therefore, globally businesses have started to focus on producing and marketing green electric appliances. The same goes with Pakistan, where consumer focus on environmentally friendly products is on surge due to these products’ beneficial character towards society and the environment. The study found that personal norms significantly contributed toward GEAPI with the path coefficient b = 0.291. The result is substantially high and indicates that personal norms are strongly related to green electronic appliances purchase intentions. This indicates that consumers with charged intrinsic motivation to save the environment and society would likely buy green electric appliances. Hence, analyzing the relationship between personal norms and intentions to purchase in a green context is befitting to guide green marketers and manufacturers about the critical elements that trigger personal norms. The consequent application of study guidelines would help to activate personal norms and generate resultant consumers’ purchase intentions towards green electronic appliances.
Injunctive social norms showed a significant positive effect on personal norms with b = 0.219, a substantial effect; hence, H2 was supported. Personal norms mediated the relationship between injunctive social norms and purchase intention towards green electric appliances, and thus H5 was supported. Injunctive social norms strongly triggered the personal norms, with b = 0.219. These results show that people were more likely to plan on choosing an eco-friendly electronic home appliance when they believed that important others expect them to (i.e., injunctive social norms) and that they have a moral obligation to do so (i.e., personal norms). In green buying, social norms mostly focused on cost-effectiveness, i.e., low personal cost to pro-environmental behavior. The present study plans to extend the investigation to costly environmentally friendly behavior, as such behavior involves higher personal costs, based on respondents’ responses to the query regarding how likely will they choose a pro-environmental electronic home appliance product, even if it may lead to personal inconveniences and be more expensive.
The present research intended to test if an interaction exists in case normative messages are used to covey determination and zeal to lessen environment-related problems attached to green buying. The empirical findings verify that injunctive social norms realize the right thing to do, internalization into the self and integration with the self-concept. While injunctive social norms motivate behavior primarily by anticipating affective states such as guilt or pride, integrated norms can motivate behavior without being enforced by negative affect or ego enhancement [74]. Hence, advertising cues spread the message in society that environmental protection is important, and just considering green electric appliances because it is righteous conduct may increase the consumers’ intentions to buy green electric appliances.
Furthermore, future consequences positively affected personal norms, with b = 0.338; H3 is thus supported. Similarly, personal norms mediated the relationship between future consequences and purchase intention towards green electric appliances; therefore, H6 is supported. While injunctive social norms strongly triggered the personal norms with b = 0.098, these results show that people were more likely to plan on choosing an eco-friendly electronic home appliance when they believed that their current purchase would bring future consequences. This perception further triggered the moral obligation to support the cause (i.e., personal norms).
Similarly, self-efficacy indicated a significant positive effect on personal norms, with b = 0.113, proving a moderation effect; hence, H4 is supported. Additionally, personal norms mediated the relationship between consideration of future consequences and purchase intention towards green electric appliances, and thus H7 is supported, while injunctive social norms strongly triggered the personal norms with b = 0.015. It is evident from the results that an individual with the self-perception of the capability to buy green electric appliances would have a higher chance of buying them. This sense of self-capability not only urges intrinsic motivation in a person but also stimulates higher satisfaction.
Furthermore, this study contributes to the literature by examining the mediating role of personal norms between self-efficacy and green electric appliances purchase intentions. It is postulated that when a person feels self-capable in finding and buying green products (merely high priced and difficult to find compared to their counterparts), it creates a sense of moral motivation, consequently leading toward green purchase intentions. Furthermore, it highlights the mechanism of personal norms and self-efficacy as the instigators of self-regulatory contribution toward purchase intentions. This finding is in line with Pang et al. [63], considering the occurrence of intrinsic gratification in the case of engaging in buying green products, where the researcher highlighted intrinsic satisfaction multidimensionally. At the same time, the present study incorporated a unidimensional measure explaining one’s self-efficacy towards buying green products and evaluation of competence-related perception and intrinsic motivation of intentions. This research proposes that the link between self-efficacy and personal norms explains the individuals’ intentions to purchase green electric appliances.

4.1. Theoretical Implications

This research contributes to the literature by proposing a cognitive mechanism depicting injunctive social norms, consideration of future consequences, and self-efficacy influence on green electric appliance purchasing intention with a mediating role of personal norms. Moreover, these findings contribute to the green purchase intention literature by incorporating the novel and mostly overlooked combination of constructs highly significant for triggering green intrinsic motivation and resultant intentions to buy green products. This research used norm activation theory rigorously to investigate the moral dimension related to behavioral intentions, as theories based on rational buying proved to be unable to cover pro-environmental behavior because those are more prone to focusing on attaining immediate self-gains [44]. Second, this study analyzed the effect of considering future consequences on green purchase intentions through personal norms. Few past studies in the green context incorporated this construct in investigation [53,54,57]; however, these studies used the construct in the general pro-environmental domain. Furthermore, those studies used CFC as a multi-dimensional construct, i.e., consideration of immediate and future consequences, whereas Pozolotina and Olsen [51] supported using the construct one-dimensionally to oversee and sense the future orientation of consumers regarding the consequences of their current purchases.
Third, the present study applied injunctive social norms in the theoretical framework to analyze their impact on personal norms and green purchase intentions. Past studies investigated the arousal of personal norms and consequent green purchase intentions through social norms mostly in the descriptive sense, whereas injunctive social norms were largely ignored except for studies from Doran and Larsen [37] and Sandhu et al. [9]. Injunctive social norms proved to be significant in triggering moral motivation (personal norms), as such norms are subject to understanding the individuals’ social conduct regarding the righteous way to follow. Fourth, this study contributes to the literature theoretically by introducing self-efficacy into the research framework with other salient factors to understand consumers’ purchase intentions in the context of green electronic appliances. Self-efficacy is an important factor to determine intentions and behavior used in many past studies; however, most past studies tested it in isolation and in direct relationships, whereas the present study investigated its impact on purchase intention with the mediation of personal norms. The study results validate that individuals’ self-efficacy towards green electronic appliances instigates intrinsic moral motivation in an individual and consequently produces purchase intentions within one; hence, the study contributes to the literature. Therefore, the research enhances the knowledge of green purchase intentions and understanding of various motivations to buy green electronic appliances.

4.2. Practical Implications

Consumers and the retailers have welcomed the introduction of green electronic alliances in Pakistan. Consumers are more concerned about the real impact of the product on the environment. At the same time, green electronic marketers are still interested in increasing the demand for green electronic appliances among Pakistani consumers. This study offers practical insights for marketers and policymakers to increase consumers’ demand for green electronic appliances. First of all, the study proposes that being green comes when intrinsic motivation is there, so promotion messages or ads must contain moral messages containing situations regarding environmental degradation and the moral responsibility of an individual to save the environment. These messages can be coupled with the product offers and the product’s contribution to the biosphere.
Furthermore, the study proposes that the messages include contents related to the foresightedness of the individuals regarding the devastating impact of non-green product usage on the environment in the future. The marketers can also use the message content promoting that saving the environment through buying green electronic appliances is the right thing to do and that this conduct is what society expects others to follow. Moreover, marketers must convince consumers that they can save the environment through their green electronic purchases. Consequently, the pro-environmental consumer segment may swell, and their buying of green electronic appliances would contribute to environmental safety. This will produce a trickling up effect and increase the investors’ and government’s confidence in green electric appliances, due to which more investment in eco-friendly firms may surface.

4.3. Limitations and Future Research

This research offered significant contributions; however, limitations cannot be ignored. Foremost, this study proposed the development of buying intentions through moral dimensions and impersonal cognitive instigators but did not discuss external factors. Moreover, the study limited itself to purchase intentions, and future research can investigate these factors’ influence on actual buying behavior. Furthermore, this study incorporated a cross-section design for data collection; future research can use a longitudinal design. Furthermore, for this study, the data were collected from different stores in Faisalabad, Pakistan; future researchers can collect the data from stores in multiple cities of Pakistan to enhance the generalizability of the findings.

5. Conclusions

Previous studies in environmental research empirically investigated the formation of intentions towards green purchases and behavior; however, the moral viewpoint and its instigators’ implication for purchase intentions are rarely researched. Specifically, past studies mostly investigated the determinants of purchase intentions with the perspective of rational motives such as attitude, perceived behavioral control, and social perspective, [75]. According to the literature, green buying may not be sighted as rational behavior, as the benefits of such buying tend to be realized in the distant future. Furthermore, those are usually for the public good instead of self-interest. Therefore, green buying behavior may likely be viewed from a moral perspective. Therefore, this study takes a rigorous in-sight attempting to define purchase intentions through the moral dimension, i.e., personal norms and their triggering elements, i.e., injunctive social norms, consideration of future consequences, and self-efficacy.
Moreover, consideration of future consequences is a person’s characteristics that measure the future impact of their current purchases. Hence, it is a critical element to anticipate green buying. Previous research has paid limited attention to these important consumer characteristics. The current research contributes to the literature by analyzing the mediation of personal norms between injunctive social norms, consideration of future consequences, self-efficacy, and green electronic appliances purchase intentions.

Author Contributions

J.Z., J.C., Y.A.S., J.A., L.M.C., C.V.N. and L.N. contributed to conceptualization, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, and writing and editing of the original draft. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding

This research received no external funding.

Institutional Review Board Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Not applicable.

Data Availability Statement

The data will be made available upon request from the corresponding author.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Sustainability 14 04572 g001 550
Figure 1. Theoretical framework.
Figure 1. Theoretical framework.
Sustainability 14 04572 g001
Sustainability 14 04572 g002 550
Figure 2. Structural Model.
Figure 2. Structural Model.
Sustainability 14 04572 g002
Table
Table 1. Measurement model assessment (loadings, composite reliability, and average variance extracted).
Table 1. Measurement model assessment (loadings, composite reliability, and average variance extracted).
ConstructsItemsLoadingsCRAVE
Injunctive Social NormsISN10.7030.8350.558
ISN20.778
ISN40.774
ISN50.731
Green Electric Appliances Purchase IntentionsGEAPI10.7980.8820.556
GEAPI20.740
GEAPI30.716
GEAPI40.732
GEAPI50.767
GEAPI60.718
Personal NormsPN10.7020.8440.520
PN20.701
PN30.739
PN50.728
PN60.736
PN40.712
PN60.729
Consideration of Future ConsequencesCFC10.7200.8500.532
CFC20.749
CFC30.745
CFC40.713
CFC50.718
Self-efficacySE10.7740.8610.554
SE20.729
SE30.709
SE40.722
SE50.785
Table
Table 2. Reliability Analysis.
Table 2. Reliability Analysis.
ConstructsCronbach’s AlphaComposite ReliabilityAverage Variance Extracted (AVE)
CFC0.7820.850.532
GEAPI0.840.8820.556
ISN0.7360.8350.558
PN0.7690.8440.52
SE0.8030.8610.554
Table
Table 3. HTMT Ratio. Latent variable correlations and square roots of average variance extracted.
Table 3. HTMT Ratio. Latent variable correlations and square roots of average variance extracted.
CFCGEAPIISNPNSE
CFC
GEAPI0.420
ISN0.3840.523
PN0.5340.5880.443
SE0.1940.4730.2240.243
Table
Table 4. Variance inflation factor (VIF).
Table 4. Variance inflation factor (VIF).
Construct ItemsVIF
CFC11.503
CFC21.438
CFC31.490
CFC41.357
CFC51.549
ISN11.319
ISN21.411
ISN41.455
ISN51.401
GEAPI11.963
GEAPI21.568
GEAPI31.497
GEAPI41.615
GEAPI51.788
GEAPI61.599
PN11.367
PN21.390
PN31.436
PN51.476
PN61.447
SE11.591
SE21.560
SE31.561
SE41.481
SE51.478
Table
Table 5. Explained variance.
Table 5. Explained variance.
Depended Variable and MediatorR Square
GEAPI0.391
PN0.240
Table
Table 6. Direct relationships.
Table 6. Direct relationships.
Constructs RelationshipsΒStandard DeviationT Statisticsp Values
CFC -> PN0.3380.0487.1150.000
ISN -> PN0.2190.0444.9520.000
PN -> GEAPI0.2910.0565.2030.000
SE -> PN0.1130.0462.4620.007
Table
Table 7. Mediated relationships.
Table 7. Mediated relationships.
MediationΒStandard Deviation T Statistics p Values
CFC -> PN -> GEAPI0.0980.0234.1990.00
ISN -> PN -> GEAPI0.0640.0183.5220.00
SE -> PN -> GEAPI0.0330.0152.2040.014
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Zhang, J.; Cherian, J.; Abbas Sandhu, Y.; Abbas, J.; Cismas, L.M.; Negrut, C.V.; Negrut, L. Presumption of Green Electronic Appliances Purchase Intention: The Mediating Role of Personal Moral Norms. Sustainability 2022, 14, 4572. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14084572

AMA Style

Zhang J, Cherian J, Abbas Sandhu Y, Abbas J, Cismas LM, Negrut CV, Negrut L. Presumption of Green Electronic Appliances Purchase Intention: The Mediating Role of Personal Moral Norms. Sustainability. 2022; 14(8):4572. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14084572

Chicago/Turabian Style

Zhang, Jianwen, Jacob Cherian, Yawar Abbas Sandhu, Jawad Abbas, Laura Mariana Cismas, Constantin Viorel Negrut, and Lucia Negrut. 2022. "Presumption of Green Electronic Appliances Purchase Intention: The Mediating Role of Personal Moral Norms" Sustainability 14, no. 8: 4572. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14084572

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