Review Paper

IJBER
2011 Vol 4: 7-13

International Journal of
Business & Engineering
Research

Behaviour Dissonance Vis--Vis Green Consumption

Prerogatives- A Theoretical Framework
Dr. Bibhas Chandra and Dr. Vineet Chouhan
vineet.chouhan@spsu.ac.in

School of Management, Sir Padampat Singhania University, Bhatewar, Udaipur-313601

Abstract: In the past decade, the issues related to climate change are gathering enormous public
attention. The governments nationally and internationally have lagged behind in developing an
effective policy framework to address these issues at the face values. In the pursuit of the so called
green goal, a host of mitigation and adaption strategies have been promoted and suitably executed
but the role of consumers has been largely neglected. The path of sustainability so far chosen is
more injunctive and demands strict compliance. Nevertheless, the voices for green consumerism
are receiving fresh potency due to its voluntary and unbinding commitment towards the
environment. It has been noticed that a large chunk of consumers has favorable attitude towards
eco-friendly (green) products but they are not translated into their real purchases. Despite
significant shifts in levels of awareness, general attitudes to environmental and social issues, the
proportionate congruence is missing in purchasing decisions. This study makes an attempt to
explore the factors that explain attitude-behaviour discord in response to green consumption
prerogatives. Further, the paper makes an endeavor to develop a theoretical understanding of the
motives behind behaviour dissonance based upon the objective assessment of the antecedents in
conjunction with analyzing the scholarly observations. The study possibly will provide necessary
inputs for developing a robust mechanism to abridge behaviour discordance vis--vis green
consumption preferences.
Key words: Sustainable consumption, Green consumerism, Consumer behaviour
1. Introduction
In the wake of economic liberalization, since 1991, three cardinal developments are worth noting
viz. businesses crossed national boundary; growth of competition and consumerism in multitude;
and convergence of cultural cognate forces. However, in the past decade, the issues related to
climate change are gathering enormous public attention, while the governments nationally and
internationally have lagged behind in developing a policy framework to address these issues at the
face values. The depilation of ozone layer, melting down of polar ice, greenhouse gas emission and
deforestation are the cardinal contributors to the ecological devastation. As the worlds largest
democracy and a rising power, the role of India pertaining to the related issues is increasingly
significant. The forthcoming challenges are global and thus, must be dealt with alacrity. The most
acclaimed and widely agreeable way to address climate change is to adopt a sustainable path of
development which can be gained by means of environmentally sustainable technologies;
promoting renewable energy and encouraging the business community to produce products of
immense green denomination. A host of green activities, so far, has been carried out at the different
levels viz. government, NGOs, and international forum (like UNCED, 1992 at Rio de Janeiro;

International Journal of Business and Engineering Research, Vol. 4

UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol in 1997 which came into force in 2005 etc) but results are not
fructifying to the desired extent.
Consequently, the voices for green consumerism are receiving fresh potency due to its
voluntary and unbinding commitment towards the environment. The notion is further endorsed by
the fact that each purchase has tacit implication on personal values, resources, waste and
community by large. It has been noticed that a large chunk of consumers has favorable attitude
towards eco-friendly products (also known as green products) but they are not translated into their
real purchases. Moreover, the pace of urbanization and consequently the emergence of I and II tier
cities are supplementing woes and aggravating threats to our limited resources. Academics also
express concerns about the consequences of the unmonitored consumption practices within a
throw-away society, which leads to environmental, social and economic degeneration (Hume,
2009). Despite significant shifts in levels of awareness, concern and general attitudes to
environmental and social issues, the proportionate congruence is missing in purchasing decisions of
the consumers. McKinsey (2008) based upon a survey of consumers in Brazil, Canada, China,
France, Germany, India, UK and the US found that 53% were concerned about environmental and
social issues, but not willing to take action at the shops; a further 13% were willing to pay more,
but currently did not do so. India is a large developing country with nearly 700 million rural
population directly depending on climate-sensitive sectors (agriculture, forests and fisheries) and
natural resources (such as water, biodiversity, mangroves, coastal zones, grasslands) for their
subsistence and livelihoods (Ravindranath et al., 2002). Climate change is likely to impact all the
natural ecosystems as well as socio-economic systems as shown by the National Communications
Report of India to the UNFCCC (Ministry of Environment and Forest, 2004). WBCSD (2008)
conducted a research to gather some insights with regard to sustainable consumption and its
prospect in India, observed that however, the household incomes are almost set to triple in the last
two decades, awareness and understanding of sustainable consumption is low. Majority of them
still buy unpackaged goods from low-cost, family-run shops. Even to wealthier Indian consumers,
sustainable consumption was felt to imply only consuming less. Against this backdrop this study
makes an attempt to explore the factors that explain attitude-behaviour discord in response to green
consumption prerogatives. Further, the paper makes an endeavor to develop a theoretical
understanding of the motives behind behaviour dissonance based upon the objective assessment of
the antecedents in conjunction with analyzing the scholarly observations. The study possibly will
provide necessary inputs for developing a robust mechanism to abridge behaviour discordance vis-vis green consumption preferences.
The first section being introductory deals with the overview of consumption practices in
response to global climate changes and scant observations to support the suitability of study. The
next section focuses on the review of literature in a bid to identify factors explaining behaviour
discordance. The third section accentuates the theoretical frameworks deemed fit to investigate
consumer attitudes, related behaviour and their congruence or discordance. The final section
concludes the discussion.
2. Related Literature Review
The current environmental deterioration is the consequence of fast growing economy together with
the paradigm shift in the consumption pattern of the consumers. As the situation is worsening, it
has become increasingly a matter of public concern in developed as well as developing nations.
Consequently, the concern governments are acting proactively and awakening consumers to
participate in the green movement. The activities so far initiated are lackluster and not fructifying
results to the desired extent. The studies in the past reveal the fact that most of the nations lack
readiness or have no significant mechanism to motivate the bottle lines i.e. consumers. However,
the profit driven firms are usually motivated to adopt the concept of green marketing in their
businesses but some of the greatest challenges faced by these firms are changes in consumer

Behaviour Dissonance..

preferences, suspicion of green advertising claim, unfavorable consumer perception of green

products and the high cost invested in developing green products (Chen et al., 2010). Mansaray et
al. (1998) also observed that the quality of the environment depends critically on the level of
knowledge, attitudes, values and practices of consumers. Abdul-Muhmim (2007) based upon a
study argued that consumers can contribute significantly to improve the quality of environment
through purchasing environmentally friendly products or green products, products with recyclable
packaging or properly disposing of non-biodegradable garbage. Chyong et al. (2006) further
delving out the facts observed that attitudes are the most consistent explanatory factor in predicting
consumers willingness to pay for green products. Moreover, a persons self concept along with the
degree of perception towards the natural environment largely influences the green attitude of
consumers (Schultz et al., 2000). A host of literature review in the past suggests a attitude/ behavior
gap while making purchasing of products of different nature (Arbuthnott, 2009; Carrigan et al.,
2001; De Pelsmacker et al., 2005; Hume, 2009; Lane and Potter, 2007; McDonald et al., 2009;
Nicholls et al., 2006; Vermeir et al., 2008; Wheale& Hilton, 2007; Yates, 2008 etc.). Furthermore,
the green consumers rely on the flexible prerogatives depending upon the nature of products i.e.
they may prioritize sustainable criteria for making food products but simultaneously ignore them to
the brown or white products, or the opposite (McDonald et al., 2009; Wheale& Hilton, 2007).
Thus, ethical behavior of consumers is flexible and unpredictable and heavily dependent on the
context in which necessary purchasing is made (Szmigin et al., 2009).
The study by Thogersen et al. (2003) suggested that sometimes it is possible that
environment-friendly conduct may appear strongly in the purchasing prerogatives of the consumers
but it happens rarely and of a modest size, employing that many ethical related behavior are not
closely related in consumers mind. Moreover, dissonance in the desired behavior may also be
attributed to some other factors beyond the control of the individual, such as money and time spent
(McDonald et al., 2009). Wheale et al. (2007) advocating in the same line attributed price as a key
deterrent factor that results in the attitude/behavior dissonance. Surprisingly, the negative attitude
towards green consumption has been found more in the young generation consumers (Hume,
2009). Similarly, a host of studies observed a low level of activities related to environmental
actions which include energy saving, water conservation, recycling and fair-trade purchasing (Gilg
et al., 2005). Inglezakis (2010) conducted a study to identify the attitudes of Romanian citizens
towards green products found that environmental impact still attributes less in comparison to
product quality and price in their purchasing criteria. Straughan and Roberts (1999) based upon a
study observed that young individuals and ecologically conscious and more sensitive to
environmental issues. The results of their study indicated that the demographic variables such as
age and sex were significantly correlated with ecologically conscious consumer behavior when
considered individually but income consideration lacks significance. However, Soonthonsmai
(2001) observed that Green purchase intention is positively correlated with age and income except
for education. Even a significant difference between men and women in environmental attitudes
have been observed in many studies (Brown and Harris, 1992; Tikka et al., 2000) with men having
more negative attitudes towards the environment compared to women (Eagly, 1987; Tikka et al.,
2000). Women were more likely to buy green product because they believe the product was better
for the environment (Mainieri et al., 1997). According to Hallin (1995) and McCarty and Shrum
(2001), people engage in environmental behavior as a result of their desire to solve environmental
problem, to become role models and a belief that they can help to preserve the environment.
However, the consumers indications of positive attitude towards environmental issues do not
necessarily lead to actual environmentally friendly purchasing behavior (Laroche et al., 2002).
Majority of consumers do not purchase products based on the environmental concern alone and
they will not trade-off other product attributes for a better environment (Yam-Tang and Chan,
1998). Recent surveys on green behavior in industrialized countries indicate consumers growing
environmental concern and willingness to change consumption patterns (Yam-Tang & Chan,

International Journal of Business and Engineering Research, Vol. 4

1998). Alwitt and Berger (1993) reported that about seventy per cent of consumers show high
levels of environmental concern. However, buying behavior is often inconsistent with these
attitudes when it comes to purchasing and consuming products and services. In fact, the market
share of the majority of environmentally friendly low-involvement products amounts to less than
1% (Roozen, 1999).
This means that most consumers do not give up their traditional brands and do not convert
to the environmentally friendly alternative (Grunert, 1993). There are two classes of possible
explanations for the discrepancy between environmental attitudes and actual consumer behavior. A
first class relates to features of environmentally friendly products, while the second class is
connected to measurement problems. The discordant character of environmentally unfriendly
products may be a first reason for the low attitude-behavior consistency in green consumer
behavior. On the one hand, an environmentally friendly product may offer important benefits to
consumers, such as convenience, performance or a good price, while on the other hand
environmentally friendly products respect the environment, but may show a lower quality or higher
prices (Alwitt & Berger, 1993). Further, even if people express positive attitudes toward
environment friendly products, this may not be translated in actual purchase behavior because there
is not in every product category a green alternative available (Yam-Tang & Chan, 1998).
Analyzing why green values have a weaker influence on the decision making process when
actually purchasing a product is vital in understanding and changing consumer behavior towards
sustainable consumption. According to Biel and Dahlstrand (2005), Sener and Hazer (2007) and
Wheale and Hinton (2007) this could be down to the factors which include brand strength; culture;
demographic characteristics; finance; habit; lack of information (Sen and Bhattacharya 2001;
Carrigan and Attalla 2001; Uusitalo and Oksanen 2004; lifestyles; personalities; or, trading off
between different ethical factors.
3. Theoretical Framework
In an endeavour to develop attitude-behaviour cognitive framework for green consumption
propensity, the present study relies on select theoretical frameworks suggested by the researchers in
their studies which could serve as a foundation for developing an analytical model. The conceptual
frameworks that are incorporated into study for the final development of model includes Ajzen and
Fishbeins Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPA); Value based theory particularly the Schwartz
value scale; and other conceptual models.
Ajzen and Fishbeins Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPA)
Over the years, a host of studies has been conducted, focused precisely on modeling ethical
consumer behaviour based on existing attitude-behavior model (Shaw and Shiu 2003; Catzidakis et
al. 2007). In this sense, the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) (Ajzen 1991) is one of the more
testable frameworks that have been applied in ethical consumer behavior (Chatzidakis et al. 2007).
This framework is based on the assumption that behavioural intentions are defined by an
individuals attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral barriers of the respective
behavior. Previous research has applied the TPB in the context of Fair Trade shopping, adding the
constructs of ethical obligation and self identity to the original conceptual model as explanatory
measures of ethical consumer behavior (Shaw and Shiu 2003; Chatzidakis et al. 2007).
Schwartz value scale
A growing body of literature suggests that the personal values play a pivotal role in the purchasing
behaviour of consumers towards sustainable products (Aertsens et al., 2009; Lane & potter, 2007;
Vermeir and Verbeke, 2008 etc.). The Schwartz value scale represents a universal set of
motivational values for human existence. Schwartz derived ten motivationally distinct types of
values from the universal requirements of human existence. This set of values was intended to be

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Behaviour Dissonance..

comprehensive of the different substantive motivations common to people across cultures. The ten
motivational values include power, achievement, hedonism, stimulation, self-direction, stimulation,
self-direction, universalism, benevolence, tradition, conformity and security (Schwartz, 2000).
Contemporary models
Young et al. (2010) based upon a study devised a model summarizing each micro purchase for a
green consumer. The elements configuring the model framework includes general green values
knowledge, green criteria for purchase, barriers/facilitators, product purchase and feedback. The
whole model basically represents the overall situation in which purchasing decision is made.
Vermeir and Verbeke (2006) proposed a conceptual framework of consumer behaviour towards
sustainable food products. The model presents three main determinants which include needs,
personal values and motivation; information and knowledge; and behavioral control.
4. Conclusion
The proposed study deems fit in the current environment as our nation has undergone a host of
natural devastations in the past and anticipates catastrophe of large magnitude in the future until
suitable measures are put into action. In the pursuit of the so called green goal, a host of mitigation
and adaption strategies have been promoted and suitably executed but the role of consumers has
been largely neglected. A review of the literature shows that little attention has been paid to the
issue of product attributes and green purchasing behaviour (Christopher et al., 2008). This study
makes an attempt to provide enough backgrounds to infer a weak relationship between the
favorable green attitudes and actual buying behaviour of the consumers. In addition, it entails to
decipher and unfold succinctly the cognitive components that have supremacy to deter the
replication of attitudinal green values to the actual consumption behavior. The study uncovers
objective as well as subjective factors that cause behaviour dissonance. The objective factors that
cardinally explain behaviour discordance include price, cost-efficiency, choice options and
availability. The subjective factors which are instrumental for behaviour dissonance include
personal values, information & knowledge and behaviour control. The study possibly will provide
necessary inputs for developing a robust mechanism to abridge behaviour discordance vis--vis
green consumption preferences. In addition, the study opens avenue for further research.
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