Environmentally friendly products and Malaysian consumers

Abstract

Concerns related to the environment are evident in the increasingly ecologically conscious marketplace and have become a source of competitive advantage in marketing. The objective of this study is to identify a profile of Malaysian consumers who are likely to purchase environmentally friendly products through the 5 identified key antecedents namely ecoliteracy, demographics, attitudes, behaviors and value orientation which are proposed to have strong correlations towards environmentally friendly products. A quantitative research model is developed together with an agenda of five hypotheses and a questionnaire survey is conducted. The data suggests that there are positive correlations between the willingness to buy and the independent variables in the model, namely consumer’s perceived level of responsibility of corporations, perceived importance and inconvenience of being environmentally friendly, collectivism and security. The segment of consumers who are likely to buy environmentally friendly products reported that today’s ecological problems are severe, that corporations do not act responsibly toward the environment and that behaving in an ecologically favorable manner is important and convenient. Collectivism and security are important principles guiding their lives. They care about their relationships with others and concern for the welfare of others, and often consider ecological issues when buying something. Managerial implications for green marketers and suggestions for future research are discussed. Future research could, for example, be conducted across different cultural group, in a specific industry and for a particular type of clientele. Additional variables related to the firms and products, such as prices, brand image, advertisement or product quality, may be integrated into future research.