RESEARCH ARTICLES

 

Predictors of an emerging market sub-segment of consumers' green behaviour

 

 

Debbie Ellis^{I, *}; Njabulo Mkhize^II

^ISchool of Management, IT & Governance, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Email: vigard@ukzn.ac.za; ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8464-6022
^IISchool of Management, IT & Governance, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa & Department of Marketing & Retail Management, UNISA, South Africa. Email: Emkhizn@.unisa.ac.za; ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6484-119X

 

 

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ABSTRACT

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY: This study attempts to address this gap by understanding the predictors of green behaviour in an emerging market. Emerging markets are important to understand in this regard as they are said to be the most impacted by climate change. Investigating consumers in emerging markets also avoids a generalisation of developed country findings to the context of developing countries
DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: A descriptive research design with a quantitative approach and questionnaire was used to test the conceptual model developed from the literature
FINDINGS: Awareness of Environmental Issues was found to be a predictor of Green Consumer Behaviour (GCB), as was Perceived Consumer Effectiveness. Environmental concern however, was found not to be a significant predictor for GCB. Future research could unpack possible reasons for the lack of certain behaviours
RECOMMENDATIONS/VALUE: For theoretical advancement, this study contributes to the broader knowledge of the predictors of green consumer behaviour in an emerging country, from the Global South, a context where limited research has been conducted
MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS: Policy makers and social marketers campaigning for sustainable behaviours need to raise awareness of environmental issues as well as address the perceptions of respondents who think that their individual efforts do not contribute to a more sustainable world
JEL CLASSIFICATION: M31

Keywords: Emerging market; environmental awareness; environmental concern; green consumer behaviour; perceived consumer effectiveness

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1. INTRODUCTION

One of the greatest leadership challenges of this century is how to get consumers to adopt sustainable consumption. Depletion of, and impact on, the environment by humans has been felt across the global landscape. Humans are the primary cause of the detrimental effects on the environment (Bradshaw et al., 2021). At current consumption levels, if the global population grows to just 9.6 billion by 2050, it will need the natural resources of three planets to sustain it for a single year (UN, 2023b). As Rees (2020) aptly puts it: "We are currently 'financing' economic growth by liquidating the biophysical systems upon which humanity ultimately depends. There are too many people competing for the same diminishing quantity of essential resources". The decisions and behaviours of consumers thus have a significant impact on the environment (Ng & Basu, 2019). However, the 21^st century has been characterised by increased attention and recognition among consumers of the need for sustainable consumption (Brown & Vergragt, 2016; Witek, 2018). More specifically, research has established that there are various predictors of green consumer behaviour, which include, amongst others, environmental concern (Heo & Muralidharan, 2019), perceived consumer effectiveness (Yadav & Pathak, 2016) and awareness of environmental issues (Ansu-Mensah, 2021). However, there are few studies on the different predictors of green consumer behaviour conducted in developing and low-income countries (Ndofirepi, 2019) like South Africa. Yet, emerging market consumers represent 85% of the world's population (Lagarde, 2016). The African population is predicted to increase by one billion people over the next three decades, a larger increase than any other continent (Chamie, 2020). Understanding consumer behaviour in these markets will be vital in attempts to lead the people of this earth to a sustainable future.

The primary objective of this study is to investigate the predictors of green consumer behaviour in South Africa, one of the biggest and most economically active markets in Africa. By understanding these predictors, recommendations can be made to businesses implementing green marketing strategies, social marketers developing environmental marketing campaigns and governments for policy developments that might lead more consumers to change their consumption behaviours to become more sustainable. The study argues that investigating sustainable consumption in emerging markets will avoid a generalisation of developed country findings to the context of developing countries and also presents a perspective from the relatively underrepresented Global South. Consumers in developing countries often face challenges not experienced to the same extent in developed countries. Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, is likely to face the brunt of the 'perfect storm' of food and fuel insecurity, rising inflation and debt, the after-effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the effects of climate change (WorldBank, 2022). These different realities may alter the types and extent of predictors of green behaviour. While it is acknowledged that a wide variety of predictors have been investigated in relation to green behaviour, this study investigated perceived consumer effectiveness, environmental concern and awareness of environmental issues to determine their relative effect on green behaviour amongst these emerging market consumers.

 

2. THEORETICAL FOUNDATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE CONCEPTUAL MODEL

Numerous models have been developed to explain green behaviour and the factors that affect it. The most commonly used of these in its original form or extended to include additional variables is the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) by Ajzen (1991) (Zhuang et al., 2021; Sardesai & Govekar, 2022). The TPB is a social cognition theory in which intentions represent the motivation to behave, and this is influenced by attitudes, social norms and perceived behavioural control, which is a perception of the individual's ability to act (Hagger & Hamilton, 2024). While various criticisms of the theory exist (Hagger & Hamilton, 2024), it is still the most widely used model applied to many different behavioural contexts (Hagger & Hamilton, 2024; White et al., 2023). Environmental concern is considered a specific attitude often used in conceptual models examining green behaviours (Wijekoon & Sabri, 2021). Perceived behavioural effectiveness (PBE) is a construct which is related to the original perceived behavioural control (PBC) construct from TPB (Ellen et al., 1991). While PBC relates to the individual's assessment of their ability to perform the behaviour, PCE relates to the individual's perception of whether they can, through this behaviour, contribute to solving the environmental problem, i.e. their behaviours will have some effect (Tan, 2011).

Recent studies propose that the concept of sustainability and the awareness of how to act sustainably is complex to understand, even for developed country consumers (Power et al., 2017; Herrmann-Fankhänel, 2022). Various theories propose that knowledge is necessary for behaviour, including Stakeholder theory and Legitimacy theory (Rustam et al., 2020). Lack of knowledge or awareness has also been found to be a major cause for the intention-behaviour gap common in many green product contexts like organic food purchasing (Frank & Brock, 2018). Donmez-Turan and Kiliclar (2021) state that environmental knowledge or awareness is the most essential requirement for green behaviour. For these reasons, environmental awareness was investigated in this study. More detailed motivations for the factors chosen in this study and their hypothesised effects are detailed in the section below.

2.1 Green behaviour constructs in the study

While a wide variety of constructs have been investigated as influencers of green behaviours in the past, this study investigates the effects of environmental awareness, environmental concern, and perceived consumer effectiveness on green consumer behaviour. Discussion of the constructs and justification for their inclusion follows.

2.1.1 Environmental Awareness (EA)

Environmental awareness is defined as an understanding of environmental challenges (Rustam et al., 2020). In this study, it has been conceptualised as the cognitive factor that is aligned with knowledge. Knowledge or awareness of the environmental impact of one's actions can lead to a change in behaviour (Abdullah et al., 2019). Customers are becoming more aware of the environment's depletion and the effects on their health and well-being, resulting in their adoption of more environmentally friendly behaviours (Ogiemwonyi & Harun, 2020). Awareness levels are not, however, consistent across the globe. For example, the level of awareness of climate change globally is estimated at 60%, with a high percentage of awareness in developed countries but relatively low levels of 35% in countries like Bangladesh, India and Egypt (Leiserowitz & Howe, 2015). Similarly, a study done in the Philippines found very little knowledge of climate change (38%) despite many Filipinos having personally felt the effects of climate change (Reyes, 2013). Selormey et al. (2019) report that four in ten people in Africa have not heard of climate change, with South Africa experiencing one of the lowest climate change awareness levels (41%). While climate change is just one aspect of environmental awareness, these figures do indicate that awareness of environmental issues is not uniform and thus might be a predictor of green behaviour in developing markets.

Environment awareness and knowledge have been found to have a positive and significant relationship with green consumer behaviours (Ariswibowo & Ghazali, 2017; Takahashi & Todo, 2018; Li et al., 2020). For instance, Ariswibowo and Ghazali (2017) found a significant relationship exists between environmental knowledge and green consumer behaviour amongst Muslim consumers in Indonesia, while Li et al. (2020) had similar results in their study, which was conducted amongst households in China, environmental awareness predicted green consumer behaviour. Although often the effect is through other factors such as attitudes, as indicated by Donmez-Turan and Kiliclar (2021), whose research was conducted in the emerging market of Turkey and found that environmental awareness and knowledge may be necessary but not sufficient for green consumption (Li et al., 2020; Ogiemwonyi & Harun, 2020). In this study, we test the hypothesis:

H₁= Environmental Awareness has a significant, positive influence on green consumer behaviour.

2.1.2 Environmental Concern (EC)

Concern about green issues is increasing across most populations of the world (Sardesai & Govekar, 2022; Yu & Lee, 2019). Environmental concerns include concerns about environmental deterioration and climate change effects (Chu, 2020). In this study, environmental concern relates to individual consumers' concern for the environment. A Lampert et al. (2021) report indicates that global concern for the environment rose from 71% in 2014 to 77% in 2019. Rising levels of environmental concern have been reported in developed nations such as the USA (Lampert et al., 2021), Australia (O'Hare & Murray, 2022) and the UK (Smith, 2019), as well as developing nations like China (Yu et al., 2023) and Poland (Witek, 2019). Differences in the levels of environmental concern exist across countries, with lower levels of concern evident in developing countries (Paul et al., 2016).

Various authors have found a positive relationship between environmental concern (EC) and green purchasing behaviour (Risqiani, 2017; Kement & Gucer, 2018; Semeijn et al., 2019). Stojanova et al. (2023) and Zhao et al. (2014) found that environmental concern is a significant predictor of green consumer behaviours. However, other studies have indicated that a gap exists between environmental attitudes or concerns and behaviour (Asvatourian et al., 2018; Mkhize & Ellis, 2018; Witek, 2018), namely the 'green gap'(Chu, 2020; ElHaffar et al., 2020). This gap exists because there are many barriers which prevent consumers from taking appropriate action; these barriers include lack of confidence and trust in environmentally friendly products, limited availability (Witek, 2018) and limited promotion of green products (Mkhize & Ellis, 2018). In light of these contradictory findings, the following hypothesis is tested,

H₂= Environmental concern has a significant and positive influence on green consumer behaviour.

2.1.3 Perceived Consumer Effectiveness (PCE)

Perceived Consumer Effectiveness is defined as the extent to which consumers believe that their individual efforts can make a positive impact on the environment (Ellen et al., 1991). PCE has been found to be a strong predictor of eco-friendly behaviour (Yadav & Pathak, 2016; Al Mamun et al., 2018). However, in two studies specifically focused on Millennials, green product adoption was not affected by perceived behavioural control (e.g. Heo & Muralidharan, 2019; Dilotsotlhe, 2021). Other studies have found that PCE had positive relationships with other behaviours that relate to sustainable behaviour, for example, food waste reduction campaigns (de Hooge et al. 2022) and environmentally friendly recreational behaviour (Kement & Gucer, 2018) and carbon-labelled products (Zhao & Zhong, 2015). In this study, we hypothesise

H₃= Perceived Consumer Effectiveness (PCE) has a significant and positive influence on green consumer behaviour.

2.1.4 Green consumer behaviour (GCB)

Green consumer behaviour encompasses the act of buying environmentally friendly goods that do not cause damage to the environment, the preservation of natural resources, and a shift towards using recycled products (Gilal et al., 2020). Put differently, Green consumer behaviour is behaviour that minimises the negative effects on the environment and the utilisation of natural resources (White et al., 2019). Other authors add that it includes buying products that not only benefit the individual but benefit society (Gidlöf et al., 2021; Winson et al., 2022). Eco-friendly consumers are willing to sustain the environment in diverse ways such as participating in activities of recycling and reusing products, buying eco-friendly products, and avoiding products and companies which pollute the environment (Ogiemwonyi, 2022). However, Naderi and Strutton (2015) state that a substantial percentage of green products provide only social benefits such as recyclability or less pollution and are usually accompanied by higher costs, thereby leading to lower consumption among consumers as compared to nongreen alternatives. In previous decades, 'going green' was only practised by the educated and citizens of developed countries. However, developing countries are now participating in this revolution but need support (EWN, 2017). This research was conducted in a developing country and attempts to provide empirical evidence of what the predictors of green consumer behaviour are in a developing country.

While numerous studies have investigated the roles of behaviour, awareness and attitudes related to the environment's depletion (e.g. Peschel et al., 2016; Gokmenoglu et al., 2021; O'Hare & Murray, 2022) and a growing number of studies focus on the very big emerging markets of China and India (Mishal et al., 2017; Rustagi & Prakash, 2022; Wang et al., 2022), very few studies have been conducted in Africa and specifically South Africa. In a study conducted in Gauteng, South Africa, amongst predominantly white respondents, it was found that a wide variety of factors, including awareness and concern, affect green purchasing behaviour (Bisschoff, 2016). Several studies have investigated green purchase intentions in various contexts but have not focused on actual behaviours (e.g. Koloba, 2020; Hlophe & Ellis, 2023). An intention-behaviour gap is commonly found (Grimmer & Miles, 2017), and thus, this study's focus on actual behaviours makes a valuable contribution to the existing literature in this market. The current study also extends the work of these authors by including a wider spectrum of South African respondents and by determining the extent to which environmental awareness, concern and perceived consumer effectiveness predict green behaviour.

 

3. RESEARCH METHODS

3.1 The sample

The study was conducted using a self-administered questionnaire distributed to respondents at the motor vehicle drivers testing centre in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. This data collection point was chosen since all drivers in the city, across race, language, gender, and age groups, would have to come to this centre every 5 years to renew their driver's licence, thus ensuring a good spread of respondents across these demographics. Also, respondents would be over the age of 18, as this is the legal driving age in the country. Finally, the waiting cues at the centre are long. Thus, respondents were likely to have the time to complete the questionnaire, thus improving the response rate. A pilot study was conducted to check respondents' understanding of the research instrument. No problems were detected.

A total of 378 questionnaires were distributed to respondents using convenience sampling, of which 317 were deemed to be usable (84% effective response rate). Reflective of the South African population, most respondents were African (74%), with 12% being Indian, 5% Caucasian and the remaining respondents either not answering the ethnicity question (5%) or being from other ethnicities. Fifty-one percent of the respondents were male, 34% were aged 18 to 20, 51% were aged 21 to 30, and 4% were aged 31 to 40 and 41 to 50. Two percent of respondents were older than 50. The majority of the sample (94%) had a national senior school leaving certificate or higher, and 80% resided in an urban area.

3.2 The research instrument

To ensure a valid research instrument, this research used scales which were tested in previous studies and found to exhibit Cronbach alphas above the accepted .7 level (Pallant, 2020). The questionnaire included environmental behaviour questions from the ECCB scale developed by Roberts (1996) and used by several authors (e.g. Brochado et al., 2017). To measure environmental concern the Environmental Concern scale, also called the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) scale developed by Dunlap et al. (2000), was used. The 4 Perceived Consumer Effectiveness scale items were taken from Straughan and Roberts (1999) and used later by Gul (2013). Awareness of environmental issues was measured using 6 items developed by the authors. It included awareness of environmental issues or challenges such as climate change and pollution, as well as awareness of environmental campaigns such as Save the Rhino.

As indicated in Table 1, Cronbach alphas for the constructs were found to be acceptable internal consistency except for the EA where the score was marginally low at 0.59, thus making multivariate analysis possible. Cronbach alphas above 0.8 but below 0.96 are considered excellent reliability, while above 0.7 is considered good and above 0.6 is considered acceptable (Malhotra, 2010).

 

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Univariate analysis

The respondents in this study exhibited high levels of awareness of environmental issues, with a composite mean of 4.16 on a scale from 1 to 5, where 5 was very aware. This was especially so for climate change (M=4.45) and overpopulation (M=4.24). They were also aware of the Save the Rhino (M=4.25) environmental campaign. These findings are interesting as a study done by Selormey et al. (2019) found that only 41% of South Africans were aware of climate change as an environmental issue, whereas 76.9% of the Pietermaritzburg respondents claimed to be aware to some extent of the climate change issue. However, compared to UK respondents where awareness of climate change and net zero was high at 87% (BEIS-Research Report, 2021), the respondents in this study were slightly less aware. Some degree of socially desirability bias may also have slightly inflated the scores, as respondents may have felt they would appear ignorant if they did not admit some level of awareness. However, if this were the case it would have been expected to also influence their concern and behaviour scores too and yet they were substantially lower.

Respondents also exhibited fairly high levels of environmental concern as the mean for the environment concern composite score was 2.17, where 1 represents a high level of agreement that the issue is a concern, and 5 represents a high level of disagreement. Respondents were most concerned about humans not living in harmony with nature (M=1.76), mankind's abuse of the environment (M=1.88) and the disastrous consequences this has (M=1.97), and the need for controlled economic growth in order to ensure a healthy environment (M=1.99).

With regards to green behaviour, however, the mean score (M=2.81) on the ECCB scale was close to the neutral point of 3, indicating only average participation in pro-environmental behaviours. A score of 1 indicated high participation. The behaviours with the highest participation scores were I have replaced light bulbs in my home with those of smaller wattage so that I will conserve the electricity I use (M=2.05), I have tried very hard to reduce the amount of electricity I use (M=2.05) if I understand the potential damage to the environment that some products can cause, I do not purchase these products (M=2.45), I have switched products for ecological reasons (M=2.45), and I buy energy-efficient household appliances (2.49). Only 13.9% of respondents could be considered truly green consumers exhibiting high levels of pro-environmental behaviours.

Generally, respondents believed that their individual actions could make a difference in the fight against environmental depletion. The mean score was 2.17 where 1 represents high perceived consumer effectiveness. The statement with the lowest mean, i.e. reflecting a high level of perceived effectiveness, was: Each person can make a difference by purchasing products from eco-friendly companies (M=2.09).

4.2 Multivariate analysis

To investigate the effects of environmental concern, environmental awareness and perceived consumer effectiveness on green behaviour, a regression analysis was conducted. The results indicate a significant adjusted R2 of 37.7% (F = 8.8; p < .01). Thus, the independent variables explain 37.7% of the variance in green behaviour. When the independent variables are studied separately, findings support the significant effects of Environmental Awareness (std B = -.429; p<.05) and Perceived Consumer Effectiveness (std B = .383; p<.05) on green behaviour but do not find support for the effect of environmental concern on green behaviour (std B = -.096; p=.483). See Table 2.

Perceived Consumer Effectiveness reflects the extent to which consumers believe they can make a difference in sustaining the environment (Lee et al., 2019). The difference that each individual can make on environmental depletion is great. This is because individuals form part of families, and families form part of society. The results of this study established that Perceived Consumer Effectiveness is a strong predictor of green behaviour in this predominantly African South African sample. Thus, respondents who believed they could make a difference were more likely to participate in pro-environmental activities. These results are similar to those of Lee et al. (2019). While the mean PCE score indicated a relatively high level of perceived consumer effectiveness, just less than half of the respondents (42%) exhibited neutral or low levels of perceived effectiveness and were thus unconvinced that their individual efforts could make a difference in sustaining the environment. These consumers would be less likely to engage in pro-environmental activities. They should thus be a source of concern for businesses producing green products and social marketers and policy makers trying to encourage pro-environmental behaviours such as resource conservation.

Results also provide support for the significant impact of environmental awareness on green behaviour. The negative relationship is due to the scales used. A high level of awareness would score close to 5, while high levels of participation in an activity would score close to 1. Thus, the findings of this study support that high levels of awareness will lead to high levels of participation in green behaviours. This supports the findings of other studies that established a positive relationship between environmental knowledge/awareness and behaviour (Bisschoff, 2016; Takahashi & Todo, 2018; Heo & Muralidharan, 2019).

This research found no support, however, for the effect of environmental concern on green behaviour. This is in contrast with various studies which found that there is a significant and direct relationship between environmental concern and green behaviour (Bisschoff, 2016). This finding does, however, provide support for the existence of the environmental attitudes-behaviour gap or the 'green gap' found in other studies (ElHaffar et al., 2020).

 

5. MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS

For these emerging markets, Global South consumers, perceived consumer effectiveness was found to be the strongest predictor of green behaviour. Policy makers and social marketers campaigning for sustainable behaviours need to address the perceptions of respondents who think that their individual efforts do not contribute to a more sustainable world. Using campaigns which focus on attracting the individual's attention and encouraging individual action, will assist in driving consumers to behave in a more sustainable manner. The success of Eskom's (South Africa's power utility) energy-saving campaign, 49M back in 2013, supports this recommendation. Eskom stated that there was a 73% rise in energy saving, and 83% of the people who joined the 49M challenge stated that they changed their behaviour after joining (Makuse, 2013). [49M stands for the 49 million people in South Africa at the time and was designed to get each individual to do their bit to save electricity in a country where supply often cannot meet demand]. The results related to the ecologically conscious behaviours performed by the respondents also provide support for the success of this campaign as three of the five most practiced behaviours related to energy conservation. A decade of load shedding in South Africa is also most likely responsible for these behaviours in this sample.

As awareness predicts behaviour for this predominantly Black South African sample, a concerted effort needs to be made to build awareness not only of the environmental challenges the earth faces but also of the actions consumers can take to improve sustainability. Awareness of the need to reduce, reuse and recycle is needed but also how to perform these behaviours. For example, social marketing campaigns could educate people on the different ways in which products can be reused and the cost benefits which are related to reusing products. Awareness building could be part of businesses' corporate social responsibility initiatives, but it also needs to be the responsibility of the state. Education needs to start at a young age as the knowledge and awareness developed about both the problems and the solutions to these is likely, based on the results of this study, to lead to greater adoption of sustainable behaviours and lifestyles. Awareness of climate actions necessary for climate resilience is going to be critical as climate change is predicted to significantly negatively affect Africa from economic, social and environmental perspectives (UN, 2023a).

Marketers of environmentally friendly products can also play a role in building awareness by not only advertising the existence of the products but also the environmental challenges that buying these products helps to address. The promotion of green products and services not only assists with the purchasing of green products but also increases the awareness of the need to act against the degradation of the environment. Consumers who are more knowledgeable about the environment tend to respond more favourably to green messages (Kumar et al., 2021). Better information by organisations that are promoting the adoption of eco-friendly products and services is also vital to gaining the trust of consumers in the market (Ozaki, 2011). Trust has been found to enhance purchase intentions of some green products, such as energy-efficient products (Issock et al., 2020).

South Africa does not have a standardised logo or symbol reflecting certified environmentally friendly products (Scott & Vigar-Ellis, 2014). Policy makers should consider the development of such a certification system as this will also help to build awareness of the products that are certified as well as build trust and credibility in these products. Kumar et al. (2021) found that when green brands are perceived as credible, the products are perceived to be of higher quality and are more likely to be bought. They also found that the mere presence of an eco-label wasn't enough to give the Brand credibility. Thus, developing a credible national certification system and symbol, similar to that found in other countries could boost credibility, trust and purchase behaviours of green products.

 

6. ADDITIONAL RECOMMENDATIONS

This study contributes to a broader knowledge of the predictors of green consumer behaviour, especially in the South African context where little research has been conducted. The study thus makes a theoretical contribution.

More research will be needed to investigate the complex relationship that appears to exist between environmental concerns and the behaviour of these emerging market consumers. Research also needs to be conducted on the practice of the different types of ecologically conscious behaviour and why some are performed rather than others. Different environmental behaviours such as buying green products, avoiding environmentally unfriendly products, recycling, reusing and reducing behaviours, as well as supporting environmental campaigns such as the Save the Rhino conservation campaign may be affected by different factors. For example, in this study, three of the five most practised behaviours related to energy conservation. This might be due to the fact that South Africa faces rolling blackouts and increasing costs of electricity. Thus, conserving energy or using less electricity can have the added benefit of saving the individual money. Are these environmentally friendly behaviours a mere by-product of the consumer's attempts to save themselves money, or are they motivated by a feeling of responsibility for the environment? Future research could unpack possible reasons for the lack of certain behaviours.

To better understand the relationship between concern and behaviour, further research might also investigate the different kinds of concern. Stern (2000) for example, differentiates between egoistic, altruistic and biospheric values which underlie environmental concern. Egoistic values represent selfish values and concern for the individual, while values connected to concern for other people are altruistic, and values associated with concern for the earth itself are known as biospheric. Steg et al. (2014), for example, state that egoistic values encourage individuals to concentrate on protecting or enhancing their own resources. Schultz et al. (2005) explain that all three value orientations deal with concern for the environment, but the basis of each stems from different principle values. Thus, further investigation should be conducted to determine whether different types of concern exhibit a stronger relationship with green behaviour.

 

7. CONCLUSION

There is a need for environmentally friendly behaviour as the depletion of the environment is set to continue, as the predicted population is still going to increase drastically in the coming decades. A population increase will cause an increase in the consumption of goods and services. As consumption of goods and services increases, a need arises for consumers to purchase green products and support green causes for the sustainability of the environment. The awareness of environmental issues was found to be a predictor of ecologically conscious consumer behaviour, as was perceived consumer effectiveness. Environmental concern however, was found not to be a significant predictor for ECCB. In order to lead consumers to green behaviour, green businesses, social marketers and policy makers need to focus on increasing individual consumers' belief in their personal ability to effect change. In addition, increasing awareness not just of the environmental challenges and the campaigns but also of the behaviours that will support sustainability will also help to lead these emerging market consumers to more sustainable lifestyles.

Conflict of interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest with respect to the research, authorship and publication of the article.

Data availability: The data is not available

Ethical clearance and informed consent statement: The researchers obtained ethical clearance (Protocol reference number: HSS/0433/013M) prior to data collection and informed consent from all the participants in this study.

Funding: The authors did not receive any financial support for research, authorship and publication of the article.

 

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* corresponding author