ABSTRACT
The emergence of global environmental problems as the critical business issue is well evident in rising awareness of the relationship between industrialized societies and environment deterioration (Stern et al., 1992). Everyday life activities and business aspects such as technology, product purchases, consumption, and consumerism are getting affected by environmental movement (Zimmer et al., 1994). The human civilization has abused the natural resources beyond its recovering capacity (Ottman, 1993), adversely altered the ecosystem, and extinguished the flora and fauna on the planet to its level (Kleiner, 1991; Yam-Tang and Chan, 1999). With advent to proliferation of the environmental theme, during the last few years, it has also been observed that Indian consumers have also started paying attention to their existing patterns of consumption and subtly they have become more concerned about the impact of consumption on environment (Jain and Kaur, 2006; Nair and Menon, 2008). It has been widely investigated across markets that human activities have altered the natural ecosystem so in order to make natural resources available for future generations. There is a greater need to achieve
more sustainable forms of economic development (Antil, 1984; Bloom, 1995; Burgess, 2003; Griskevicius et al., 2010; Kautish, 2016). According to consumer studies across the globe, they clearly state that 30-40% of current environmental degradation is due to the consumption activities of private households which is a substantial market for green practices (Gronhoj, 2006; Kautish and Dash, 2016; Straughan and Roberts, 1999). The concern for environment protection dominant the marketing theme in many forms since its inception (Drumwright, 1994; Ottman et al., 2006) and then after public concern picked the steam up as a result of environment protection promotional campaigns of the corporations in big way, which geared up the market in this direction (Charter and Polonsky, 1999; Fineman, 1996; Stern et al., 1995). This is also an established fact that the modern fiercely urbanized and very fast life style of last few decades, which got fortified with postindustrial revolutionary phase has done irreparable damage to the environment on earth in a drastic way (Diamantopoulos et al., 2003). There is a need to investigate this topic in less affluent societies like India. India stands next only to China in terms of population, accounting for about 16% of the world population (Chan, 1996; Jain and Kaur, 2006). Even in the emerging economies like India, people have come to realize the importance of environment protection for next generation and which is well evidenced by emergence of environmental issues in last decade (Nair and Menon, 2008). Even if a fraction of the Indian consumers goes green, they can contribute significantly to the cause of environmental protection. Indian marketers and policy makers too can benefit by employing segmentation-based green marketing strategies (Jain and Kaur, 2003). But no significant study exists in the country to guide the decision-makers in this respect. This is a good evidence of a paradigmatic business opportunity shift in marketing orientation toward environment (Lee, 2008; Moisander and Pesonen, 2002; Spangenberg, 2004) and the driving force responsible for such a shift is owing to growing fundamental awareness in the society about green behavior (Rugman and Verbeke, 2000; Schultz, 2000; Segun et al., 1998). The last couple of decades have contributed unprecedented growth in the proliferation of consumer awareness about environmental deterioration (Anderson and Cunningham, 1972; Antil, 1984; Smart, 2010). The companies offering such products are interested in finding the consumer behavioral determinants in order to formulate marketing strategies for their successful businesses (Crane, 2000; Kinnear et al., 1974; Wheatly, 1993).Beginning in the 1990s, a very significant amount of research has been conducted on environmentally concerned consumer behavior for green products across developed countries (LingYee, 1997; Schlegelmilch et al., 1996) but very few are from developing
countries (Furman, 1998). In India too, some researches were conducted to establish the fact that Indian consumer’s awareness is reasonably good and companies can tap the markets; this segment has great potential (Bhate, 2002; Jain and Kaur, 2003; Jain and Kaur, 2004; Jain and Kaur, 2006; Kautish and Soni, 2012; Punyatoya, 2014). Many consumer behavioral dimensions and factors emerged in the context to drive choice set in purchasing environment-friendly products (Nair and Menon, 2008). Growing concerns about the environment has prompted marketers to consider the influencing factors and consumer perceptions of a firm’s offering purchase decision; the issue has been explored in new lights with early theories of behavioral understanding as well to give fresh perspective to the existing body of knowledge about consumer behavior (Balderjahn, 1988; Kalafatis et al., 1999). These factors can be grouped into values, beliefs/knowledge, needs and motivations, attitudes, and demographics (Wagner, 2003). Moreover, a number of intervening variables affect consumers’ intention to pay more for an environment-friendly product, grouped into eco-labels and consumer backlash. The major issue, that is, who is concerned and who is not helps companies target their consumer offerings with adequate information about tastes and preferences (Henriques and Sadorsky, 1996; Straughan and Roberts, 1999). Tanner and Kast (2003) have conducted a study on Swiss consumers on determinants of green purchases which promotes sustainable consumption; Burgess (2003) tried to figure out feasibility continuum of sustainable consumption. Similar study has been conducted by Vermeire and Verbeke (2006) which explored the sustainable food consumption pattern with consumer attitude and intention gap model which is one of the most appropriate citations on environmental concern (EC) from green consumer behavior.
