Behavioral Intention and The Influence of Demographic Factors in Purchasing Environmentally Sustainable Products among Residents in Petaling

Abstract

The National Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) Blueprint 2016-2030 by Malaysia government highlighted the cultivation of green growth through consumption and production activities. The policy indicated the cruciality to explore the determinants of purchasing behavioral intention of consumers on eco-friendly products. This study thus aims to determine the relationship between the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) components and the purchasing behavioral intention for environmentally sustainable products. Limited literature on the influence of demographic factors towards purchasing intention, motivates this study to also examine the influence of moderating variables: gender, and level of education on TPB components and the purchasing behavioral intention of environmentally sustainable products. This study employs Pearson Correlation, and Hayes PROCESS analysis for quantitative analysis involving 390 respondents living in the District of Petaling. The study showed that all the components of TPB; attitude (P=0.000), subjective norm (P=0.000) and perceived behavioral control (P=0.000), appeared to have a significant relationship with the purchasing behavioral intention for environmentally sustainable products. For moderating effect, the study found that Gender indicated mixed results in which it influences attitude (P=0.0033) and subjective norm (P=0.0425) but not for perceived behavioral control (0.3070) while education level exhibited influence towards all the components of TPB and purchasing behavioral intention (P<0.05).