Theoretical Modeling of the Effect of Customers’ Green Skepticism on Green Purchase Behavior and Intension

Despite the increasing supply of green products and the repeated advertisements and claims made by the manufacturers towards producing environmental-friendly products, as well as positive individual and societal attitudes towards these products, there is considerable concern among consumers regarding the validity and truthfullness of the manufacturers’ claims. Consumers' uncertainty leads to negative judgment about the products, thereby reducing the intention to purchase green products. Green skepticism is therefore an important factor affecting green shopping, but only limited research (especially in Iran) has been conducted to investigate its effect on green shopping intention and shopping behavior. Hence, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of green skepticism on green purchase intention and green shopping behavior so as to examine the mediating role of influential variables in this process such as environmental considerations, objective knowledge, subjective knowledge, individual attitudes and social attitudes.

The present research is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-survey in nature and in ternms of method. A library-study approach was used to collect data within the related literature and to review the background of the subject and a questionnaire was used to collect the required field data. Statistical population includes customers who are familiar with green products and have used them. The study was conducted in August 2018 and in Shiraz, Iran. In order to collect field data, 90 questionnaires (360 questionnaires in total) were distributed in each cluster (different regions of Shiraz) and finally 304 completed questionnaires were collected. From among the collected questionnaires, only 240 questionnaires were valid for data analysis.

The results of this study indicate that the research model constructs have high integrated reliability index. Green skepticism is reported to have significantly negative (directly and indirectly) effects on green shopping behaviors. In this regard, the role of environmental considerations on individual and social attitudes was not approved.

The results showed that if consumers' beliefs about green advertising and environmental claims of the producers of green products decline and they perceive that such advertising are misleading or only profitable for the producers, their willingness to buy such products will decrease. In addition, green skepticism has a negative effect on mental knowledge and mental knowledge directly affects green purchase intention. Since consumers tend to be overly self-confident and value their information and knowledge more than they really are, the higher their level of information and actual knowledge, the higher their self-esteem and appreciation of their true intelligence will be. Consumers' increasing concern for environmental issues will also increase their efforts to become more aware of the subject (as far as possible). Another research finding is the impact of objective environmental knowledge on environmental considerations. Consumers who have higher environmental mental knowledge have emotionally desirable personality and consider it as an advantage for themselves. On the other hand, they also feel more valued socially and they place a higher value and position for themselves in the community, making them more likely to adapt their purchasing attitudes to obtain more social approval by purchasing environmental-friendly products. Consumers who have high environmental concerns are pushing their consumer behavior towards green products as much as possible, preferring the purchase and consumption of green and organic products over other products, and even strive to develop environmental-friendly behaviors including the production of recycled products and the reduction of environmental pollution.