Positive and Negative Antecedents of Purchasing Eco-friendly Products - A Comparison Between Green and Non-green Consumers

Aug 31, 2026

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This study analyzes what drives and prevents consumers from purchasing eco-friendly products across different consumer groups. It proposes a conceptual model integrating positive altruistic motives, positive ego-centric motives, and negative ego-centric motives as antecedents of eco-friendly product purchase intention and behavior. The model is empirically validated using structural equation modeling and multi-group analysis for green consumers (n=453) and non-green consumers (n=473). Results confirm the model’s determining factors, reveal significant differences in purchasing patterns, show stronger altruistic motives among green consumers, and stronger behavioral effects of negative motives among green consumers.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages19

Reading Time48 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Environmental impact of household consumption

Policies and campaigns promoting eco-friendly products

Motivation and antecedents research needs

Consumer-segment comparison rationale

Positive and Negative Antecedents of Purchasing Eco-friendly Products: A Comparison Between Green and Non-green Consumers Camilla Barbarossa • Patrick De Pelsmacker Received: 24 March 2014 / Accepted: 9 October 2014 􀀂 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014 Abstract This study aims to analyze what drives and prevents the purchasing of eco-friendly products across different consumer groups and develops a conceptual model embracing the positive altruistic (care for the environmental consequences of purchasing), positive ego-centric (green self-identity and moral obligation), and negative ego-centric (perceived personal inconvenience of purchasing eco-friendly products) antecedents of eco-friendly product purchase intention and behavior. We empirically validate the conceptual model for green (n = 453) and non-green (n = 473) consumers (i.e., consumers who engage in a set of pro-environmental behaviors for environmental reasons versus consumers who do not engage in these behaviors) . Data are analyzed using structural equation modeling and multi-group analysis of the two groups. The results conﬁrm the relevance of the determining factors in the model and show signiﬁcant differences in ecofriendly product purchasing patterns between green and non-green consumers. Altruistic motives are more important for green than for non-green consumers. Negative egocentric motives affect the purchase intentions of non-green consumers more than the intentions of green consumers, whereas the impact of negative motives on behavior is stronger for green than for non-green consumers. The ﬁrst contribution of this paper is the development and testing of a parsimonious model of eco-friendly products purchasing C. Barbarossa (&) Department of Human Studies, LUMSA University, Piazza delle Vaschette, 101, 00193 Rome, Italy e-mail: [c.barbarossa@lumsa.it](c.barbarossa@lumsa.it) P. De Pelsmacker Department of Marketing, University of Antwerp, Prinsstraat 13, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium e-mail: [patrick.depelsmacker@uantwerpen.be](patrick.depelsmacker@uantwerpen.be) that embraces both positive (altruistic and ego-centric) and negative (ego-centric) antecedents, which have been theoretically suggested in the past but have rarely been empirically tested together. The second contribution of this study is that it develops insight into the speciﬁc antecedents of eco-friendly products purchasing for green and nongreen consumers to assess potential similarities and differences in eco-friendly products purchasing process, the hypothesized antecedents, their impact on eco-friendly products purchase intention and behavior, and the intention–behavior relation. Keywords Eco-friendly products consumption 􀀂 Environment 􀀂 Self-identity 􀀂 Moral obligation 􀀂 Intention– behavior gap 􀀂 Spillover effect 􀀂 Structural equation modeling 􀀂 Multi-group analysis Introduction In recent years, international environmental policy debates have increasingly identiﬁed household consumption in industrial countries as one of the main causes of environmental problems (UNEP 2010) or even as ‘the mother of all environmental issues’ (EEA 2012) . Individual and household consumption behavior has a substantial impact on the environment (European Commission 2012b) . In most countries, household consumption over the lifecycle of products accounts for more than 60 % of all environmental impacts of consumption (UNEP 2010) . World population growth and resource use increase faster than the population and make the disconnection of economic growth from environmental degradation even more urgent (SERI 2009) . In this context, the role of purchasing eco-friendly products (EFP) to reduce consumers’ environmental 1 3 footprint has recently been addressed (Griskevicius et al. 2012), especially for products that are purchased on a regular basis, such as eco-friendly tissue paper products, biodegradable detergents, and energy-saving light bulbs (European Commission 2011b) . Con

FAQs

What drives and prevents the purchase of eco-friendly products in the proposed model?

The model includes positive altruistic motives, positive ego-centric motives, and negative ego-centric motives, linking them to eco-friendly product intention and behavior.

How does the study compare green and non-green consumers?

It validates the conceptual model separately for green consumers (n=453) and non-green consumers (n=473) using multi-group analysis to detect differences in drivers and outcomes.

What key differences in motivations are found between green and non-green consumers?

Altruistic motives matter more for green consumers, while negative ego-centric motives influence purchase intentions of non-green consumers more than those of green consumers.

Aug 31, 2026

Upload by Himbo