Ethnicity, Social Influence, Eco-Label and Purchase Intention of Consumers of Green Home Electronic Products

Abstract

Today green consumers are creating a new economy around the globe.Indeed, the ‘green consumer’ idea was the focus of academicians andmanufacturers at the end of 1980s and in the early 1990s. Likewise, risingknowledge on the various environmental problems has led a change in theway consumers go about their life. People are insistently trying to reducetheir impact on the environment and living a ‘green lifestyle’. As a result,business has seen this change in consumer attitudes and is trying to sellmany green products by exploiting the potential in the green market industry.Using green home electronic products are environmental initiatives forconsumers to become green consumers. Research, although limited in theareas of ethnicity and green electronic home products, does suggest that aconsumer’s ethnicity will influence their attitude toward home electronicchoices, which in turn will affect their purchase decision. Therefore, thegoal of the present study was to expand the body of research concerningethnicity and its influence on purchase of green home electronic products.Therefore, this study examines if there exist differences in ethnic groups forthe intention to purchase home electronic products, namely air conditioner,refrigerator and television. A total of 251 self-administered questionnaireswere collected from respondents living within the cities of Klang Valley, Malacca and Penang. Results of the study show eco-label information isimportant in all three ethnic groups while social influence was not importantto the Indians when purchasing green home electronic products. The resultsof the study indicate the importance of viewing ethnic consumer groupsas unique markets and suggest some possible areas for further research.