2.1. New Ecological Paradigm (NEP)
Based on the review of studies concerning environmental attitude, two types of environmental attitude are used to predict ecological behaviour: attitudes toward ecological behaviour and attitudes toward the environment in general [
5]. While the objects of attitudes toward the ecological behaviour are one’s ecological actions such as recycling or participating in eco-friendly activities, the objects of attitudes toward the environment are the natural environment itself or some particular aspects of it such as air/water quality. Environmental attitude towards ecological behaviour refers to the Ajzen and Fishbein’s theory of reasoned action model [
11]. Based on the theory of the reasoned action model, researchers have found that environmental attitude is a multiple component construct composed of affect, knowledge, and intention, and the sub-dimensions have been used in parallel to predict ecological behaviour [
12,
13]. However, the study tradition, using the sub-dimensions in parallel to predict ecological behaviour, was altered by the following studies using the sub-dimensions of environmental attitude in a more sequential way to predict either environmental attitude or behaviour [
14]. Consequently, environmental attitude was measured independently from its affective, cognitive and intentional components. Recent studies consider attitude toward the environment as a single component measure for predicting environmental behaviour [
15,
16].
The New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) is a representative single component measure of environmental attitude [
7,
17,
18]. NEP is a common method of measuring attitudes towards the environment, first presented by Dunlap and Van Liere [
17], and subsequently developed to the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) [
19]. The NEP scale has become one of the most widely used measures of environmental attitude globally and has been undertaken in numerous studies [
20]. The New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) measures the overall relationship between humans and the environment using 15 measurement items. Dunlap et al. defined the NEP as a unidimensional construct with summating up these 15 revised NEP items [
19]. The unidimensional NEP measurement is frequently used to predict environmental behaviour [
20,
21,
22]. Similar to the NEP, Bohlen et al. also used the attitude toward the environment employing a unidimensional scale [
23]. They perceived the attitude toward the environment is a consumer concern regarding the quality of the environment and key environmental issues. Above all, they thought that it was the best approach to recognize attitude as a conceptually meaningful single dimension in order to maintain internal consistency [
23]. Ellen (1994) also found that a general attitude toward the environment is a significant predictor of pro-environmental behaviours [
24]. Therefore, the NEP scale was used to measure the cognitive and emotional attitude of consumers concerning environmental issues in this study.
Although numerous studies have been conducted to explain the relationship between the NEP and pro-environmental behaviours, no definitive explanation has yet been found. Dunlap and Van Liere found that NEP has no significant impacts on pro-environmental behaviour [
17], while Hines et al. showed that a weak relationship exists between the NEP and green purchase behaviour [
5]. However, there are a few studies that found participants who achieve a higher score on the NEP scale were more likely to support pro-ecological actions. For example, Cordano et al. evaluated the validity of the original and revised versions of the NEP scales on the intention to engage in pro-environmental behaviour [
25]. These scales explained a significant amount of variance in the measure of intention to engage in pro-environmental behaviour. Lovelock found that a higher NEP Score was also associated with higher levels of environmentally friendly behaviour [
26]. Hoàng and, Nguyễn found that consumers’ NEP in Vietnam is related to green purchase intention [
27]. Chen showed that in China and Taiwan, the NEP affected the willingness to stay in environmentally friendly and environmentally responsive hotels [
28]. Stern et al. has also demonstrated the validity of the NEP scale in measuring environmental attitudes and predicting environmental behaviour [
29].
Purchase intention is generally defined as the antecedents that stimulate and drive consumers’ actual purchase of products and services [
30]. Numerous studies examined consumers’ actual behaviour through studying their intentions [
31]. Ajzen showed that intention is an influential predictor of purchase behaviour and strongly affects the likelihood of the decision to buy [
32]. Kim and Pysarchik also demonstrated the existence of a strong correlation between purchase intention and actual purchase behaviour [
33]. Chan found that Chinese consumer’s intention to purchase green products can be a predictor of green purchasing behaviour [
34]. Albakyrak et al. also demonstrated that green purchase intention is a significant factor in ascertaining the real or actual buying behaviour of an individual based on the theory of planned behaviour [
35]. Therefore, this study will consider purchase intention towards green products (hereafter green purchase intention) as an alternative for measuring consumers’ actual purchase behaviour. From the above discussion, Hypothesis 1 is developed:
Hypothesis 1 (H1): NEP has a positive impact on green purchase intention.
2.2. Environmental Collective Efficacy
Pro-environmental behaviour studies frequently apply the norm-activation model (NAM) [
36], and the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) [
11] for examining pro-environmental behaviour [
3]. The NAM model views environmental behaviour primarily as prosocially motivated, whereas the TPB model views self-interest relying on rational choice models as the primary motivator. According to the TPB model, consumers’ decision making is guided by the rational evaluation of behavioural consequences, the estimation of their ability to perform the behaviour (perceived behavioural control, PBC), and the perceived social pressure resulting from the expectations of significant reference persons (social norm). The TPB model assumes that consumers not only consider their environmental attitudes toward the green purchase behaviour but also take into account the effectiveness to perform the green purchase behaviour when forming pro-environmental purchase intention.
Kinnear et al. measured perceived consumer effectiveness (PCE) as a personal variable to predict environmental concern [
37]. Ellen, Weiner, and Cobb-Walgren defined PCE as the extent to which individuals believe that their actions make a difference in solving a problem [
38]. PCE was found to be a distinct predictor for an environmental concern or attitude for green purchase behaviours [
38]. Berger and Corbin defined PCE as the evaluation of the “self” regarding specific issues [
39]. Straughan and Roberts measured PCE as an attitudinal variable to predict environmental behaviour [
40]. Kim and Choi also empirically found that PCE is positively related to pro-environmental behaviour [
22]. Similar to the concept of PCE, Kerr defined self-efficacy as a person’s beliefs about how effective his or her behaviour is for achieving desired outcomes [
41]. Fishbein and Cappella demonstrated that self-efficacy is an important determinant of behavioural intention [
42]. Gupta and Ogden also empirically supported that self-efficacy is positively associated with behaviours fostering eco-friendly product consumption [
43].
Furthermore, by considering that the ultimate outcome from environmental consumption is an improvement in social well-being on a large-scale, collective efficacy beliefs may have stronger impacts on green purchase intention than self-efficacy. In addition, if the study model were developed for Asian countries in which collectivism is dominant, environmental collective efficacy would be more significant.
Seijts and Latham found that strong collective efficacy which is the belief that the members within a group have the ability to achieve desired outcomes together might be more crucial for individual contributions regarding social problems [
44]. Homburg and Stolberg found that people’s engagement in pro-environmental activities cannot be predicted by self-efficacy but rather by collective efficacy [
45]. Likewise, Bonniface and Henley found that people participating in a household waste management program are more likely to believe that the waste problem could be reduced by contribution from all members in a community than those who do not participate [
46]. Bandura assessed collective efficacy beliefs is by asking members of a group to judge the group’s ability to jointly achieve desired outcomes [
47]. This study thus defines environmental collective efficacy as one’s belief about his/her group’s ability to solve environmental problems effectively. From the above discussion, this study assumes that environmental collective efficacy is positively associated with people’s willingness to purchase pro-environmental products. Thus, Hypothesis 2 is as follows:
Hypothesis 2 (H2): Environmental collective efficacy has a positive impact on green purchase intention.
2.3. Environmental Knowledge
Environmental knowledge is one of the important variables to predict pro-environmental behaviour. Fryxell and Lo defined environmental knowledge as the degree to which individuals know about environmental issues and the general knowledge of facts, concepts, and relationships about the ecosystems [
48]. In the literature concerning environmental knowledge, researchers have generally used different concepts of environmental knowledge to predict an individual’s green behaviour: general or specific environmental knowledge, and subjective or objective environmental knowledge.
Polonsky et al. stated that environmental knowledge can be general or specific [
49]. While a few studies have considered environmental specific knowledge [
50], other studies have used general environmental knowledge [
7,
51], or both [
48,
52] to examine the relationship between environmental knowledge and pro-environmental behaviours. Previous studies regarding the impacts of specific environmental knowledge and general environmental knowledge on pro-environmental behaviours show mixed results. Barber et al. examined the relationship between general environmental knowledge and specific environmental knowledge, and found that product specific environmental knowledge had significant impacts on green purchase intention, whereas general environmental knowledge had little impact [
52]. However, in contrast, Polonsky et al. found that both general and specific knowledge were positively related to environmental behaviours [
49]. Barber et al. argued that environmental knowledge, general environmental knowledge and specific environmental knowledge might be related to different types of behaviour [
52].
Meanwhile, Brucks described consumer product knowledge as subjective or objective knowledge. Subjective knowledge refers to the individual’s perception of how much s/he knows and objective knowledge refers to a measure that an individual actually knows [
53]. Ellen examined the impacts of objective and subjective knowledge on recycling and recycling-based purchase decisions [
24]. He found that a significant relationship between subjective knowledge and three recycling behaviours of convenience recycling, committed recycling, and source reduction behaviours existed. However, objective behaviour only significantly affected committed recycling. Through the above discussion, this study defines environmental knowledge as one’s perception of how much s/he knows about general environmental issues and assumes that environmental knowledge is positively related to green purchase intention. Hypothesis 3 is presented as follows:
Hypothesis 3 (H3): Environmental knowledge has a positive impact on green purchase intention.
2.4. Collectivism
Hofstede modleled individualism and collectivism as opposite poles of a continuum to perform large-scale international comparisons [
54,
55]. Hofstede explained that people are likely to have a particularly strong desire for interaction and recognition in their group in countries with low individualism (collectivism), while people in the country with high individualism (individualistic) tend to feature the orientation toward oneself as an autonomous person [
54]. Hofstede’s model perceived individualism and collectivism as opposite poles of a continuum and compared the differences among the people from different countries. However, some researchers have recently treated individualism and collectivism as separate constructs and approached individualism and collectivism as personal values concurrently [
55]. When measuring individualism and collectivism as a personal value dimension, they are often referred to as ideocentrism and allocentrism, respectively [
56,
57]. However, Soares et al. and Taras et al. simply called these dimensions as individualism and collectivism [
55,
58]. For consistency and simplicity, this study will adopt the definition of collectivism as the opposite of individualism and refer to the collectivistic personal value as collectivism based on the definition of Soares et al., and Taras et al. [
55,
58].
Collectivism has been found to affect many kinds of social behaviours. McCarty and Shrum found a positive relationship between collectivism and pro-environmental behaviour [
59]. Specifically, collectivistic persons tend to be proactive in recycling because they are more likely to be more cooperative, caring for other people, and advocate group over personal values. Dunlap and Van Liere found that individualistic people tend to consider recycling less important [
60]. Chan demonstrated that collectivism of Chinese consumers is positively related with environmental awareness [
35]. Leung and Rice found that individualistic people are likely to do the more harmful behaviour on the environment for their own benefit than collectivistic people [
61]. Kim and Choi also found that collectivist values are connected to pro-environment purchase behaviour [
22]. They explained that collectivistic people are more likely to make pro-environmental decisions, because collectivistic people tend to perceive its importance regarding the prosperity of their group [
22]. Arısal and Atalar also found that two different samples (in Turkey and abroad) that individual-collectivist values are positively linked with pro-environmental purchase behaviour [
62]. Therefore, it can be concluded from the above literature that collectivistic people tend to show pro-environmental behaviour. From the above discussion, Hypothesis 4 was developed:
Hypothesis 4 (H4): Collectivism has a positive impact on green purchase intention.
This study hypothesized that collectivism positively moderates the relationships among NEP, environmental efficacy and green purchase intention. Most marketing theories approach the consumer’s decision making process from the perspective that most individuals are independent, autonomous identities, free to make decisions purely based on personal desires and affiliations [
63]. This approach is largely reflected by well-established Western theories related to marketing. From the perspectives of Western marketing theories, researchers should prioritize personal values and attitudes to predict consumer behaviour. However, consumption behaviours are definitely culturally bound. Schütte and Ciarlante present an Asian Hierarchy of Needs in contrast to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs [
64,
65]. They explain that in the Asian Hierarchy of Needs, the needs on the top of the pyramid relate to social needs such as status and admiration rather than self esteem and self actualization. This theory indicates the greater importance of collectivism in Asian countries. In these circumstances, collectivism should be critically treated as a predictor of consumer behaviour in Korea and China. In addition to the results of studies concerning the importance of collectivism as a significant variable in predicting consumer behaviour in Asian countries, numerous studies found that collectivism increases the psychological benefits derived from selecting products which meet social preferences [
66]. As ecological attitude generally includes social preferences, this study assumes that collectivism will positively moderate the relationship between NEP and green purchase behaviour. In other words, the positive impact of NEP on green purchase intention is likely to be stronger for collectivistic consumers [
67]. Numerous studies support the assumption that more collectivistic individuals tend to perceive the psychological benefits of products by selecting those products that meet their social preferences [
68,
69]. As pro-environmental attitude and behaviour reflects social preferences [
68], this study predicts that the impact of NEP on green purchase intention is higher for collectivist than individualistic consumers. Therefore, collectivism may positively moderate the positive impact of NEP on green purchase intention due to its emphasis on the well-being of group members.
Hypothesis 5 (H5): Collectivism positively moderates the positive effect of NEP on green purchase intention.
Collectivism may also have a positive moderating impact on the relationship between environmental collective efficacy and green purchase intention. When people decide whether they should pursue collective interests in large-scale social dilemmas, collective efficacy would be a very important consideration [
46]. Considering the results of pro-environmental behaviour is a happy and healthy life under a collective perspective, each consumer derive efficacy from judgments of how much his/her group members together can positively affect the environment [
47]. Therefore, this study assumes there are positive interaction effects between environmental collective efficacy and collectivism on green purchase intention. In other words, when individuals tend to be more collectivistic, the individuals are likely to have stronger purchase intention towards green products resulting from environmental collective efficacy. Based on the above discussion, Hypothesis 6 is presented as follows:
Hypothesis 6 (H6): Collectivism positively moderates the positive effect of environmental collective efficacy on green purchase intention.
Figure 1 presents the conceptual framework and hypotheses of this study. This study examines extant theories regarding the main effects of NEP, environmental collective efficacy, environmental knowledge and collectivism on green purchase intention. The hypotheses of this study assume that higher NEP, environmental collective efficacy, environmental knowledge and collectivism increases consumers’ green purchase intention in Korea and China (
H1,
H2,
H3, and
H4). Hereafter, this study posits that collectivism tends to exhibit positive moderating effect as a personal culture dimension on the positive impacts of NEP and environmental collective efficacy on green purchase intention (
H5/
H6). In other words, this study assumes that collectivism increases the effects of NEP (
H5) and environmental collective efficacy (
H6) on green purchase intention. These hypotheses are developed to draw out cultural marketing implications. Moreover, of significant practical important, these hypotheses imply that firms should invest more in increasing the level of NEP and environmental collective efficacy of consumers when dealing with collectivistic consumers. This study will test these hypotheses using consumer data from Korea and China.