1.4 Conclusion
We could observe three major determinants that are driving the
consumption of green products (Andrew Gilg 2005). As it was explained
previously, the first are the environmental concern and the values. The second
one is the psychological factors which is including various determinants like
the perceived effectiveness, social responsibility (Tucker 1980) and the effect
of the price, the last which is the less studied is the socio-demographics
factors.
However, most of the researches agree on one point which is
that the identification of consumer motivation underlying pro-environmental
behavior is still difficult to predict. It is also difficult because, the act
of sharing information about environmental problems can convince even those who
are not currently in favor of green purchasing. (Afzaal Ali 2011)
That could explain the number of researches that were
conducted on this topic. The Environmental concerned feeling increase and
nowadays consumer are inclined to take some responsibility and to reduce the
environment damages through recycling and purchasing responsibly.
1.5 Barrier of green consumption
Despites all of these studies about the determinants of buying
green products, less things have been done on the barriers of green products.
When studying a topic it is also important to have both point of view in our
case to explain the determinant of the green purchasing and the barrier to this
kind of consumption.
First of all, it is logical to assume that a high
environmental concern could lead to the consumption of green products. However,
it is far more complicated as András Takács-Sánta (2007)
has explained. For the author, people can be blocked because of «the
mental appraisal processes concerning environmental problems». In other
words, this means that consumers are not going to evaluate the environmental
problems at the same level of importance and, as a result, are not going to
consume green products as they don't feel concerned with environmental
problem.
In addition, according to Catherine Roche (2009) many
companies are reluctant to commercialize and advertise on their green products.
In fact, companies are scared of what is commonly called «green
washing». Green washing is «the practice of making an unsubstantiated
or misleading claim about the environmental benefits of a product, service,
technology or company practices» (Search CRM 2007). Indeed, in recent
years we could observe increasing consumer skepticism about the products
promoted as green and respectful of the environment (Tiffany Hsu 2011). Indeed,
according to the author «many companies are making the products out to be
greener than they really are». Because of that, consumers are less
trusting companies and not buying green product. Additionally, consumers can
feel
confused because of green washed, fair-trade, ethical, organic
etc finally: they don't know which product is really a good and a green one?
(Shrum et al 1995)
Confusion is also an important barrier to the consumption of
green products. Indeed, Cheryl D. Hicks (2011) has conducted a study about
consumers green behavior's which revealed that «38% of the respondents
were confused by companies' claims that their products were green and more than
58% wanted to know what specifically justified a green label». To resume,
consumers feel confused because of the numerous and different green campaigns
that are now emerging and the different label they want to know to what it
refer.
In addition, according to the BBMG Conscious Consumer Report
(2007), consumers could feel reluctant to buy green products because they feel
like it is difficult to see the personal benefits if they are consuming those
products. Consumers may have some difficulties to identify the environmentally
relevant aspect of the product; they need to be more visible, need to be seen
by the consumer. As Afzaal Ali (2011) also said, for consumers it may be
difficult to assess environmental friendliness of a product and as a
consequence they are not willing to buy those products. Additionally, the
quotation «One person can't make the difference» (The good human
2009), reveals that consumers tend to think that consuming green products is
useless and is not going to solve environmental problems.
Most of the time, consumers tend not to consume green product
because of the capital cost. Due to the higher price, consumer can feel
reluctant of consuming those products. (Lars Perner 1998)
However, there is a paradox on the price. Indeed, according to the
BBMG Conscious Consumer Report (2007) «50% of the respondents are willing
to pay more for green products» but for «66% of them the price is the
first factor in buying decision», as a consequence consumer are willing to
pay a premium price for green product but the majority of them are first
looking at the price before buying a product.
According to various researchers like Biwas et al (2000), one
main reason of the non-consumption of green product is the perception of
inferior product quality. In fact, most of the time green products are made of
recycle product and; in the general belief; it refers to a lower quality
product. Consumers are uncertain about
the quality: they thought that those products are not as good as
conventional product.
According to the BBMG Conscious Consumer Report (2007),
another barrier can be found; it is companies' green responsibility barrier. In
fact most of the consumers are not going to buy green products from companies
they disagree with: companies have social responsibility and providing green
products is one. (Lois A. Mohr, Webb J. D., Harris, K. E., 2001) As a result:
even if a company is selling green products, consumers may not consume them due
to the social responsibility of this company. The BBMG Conscious Consumer
Report (2007) also found that if people have the choice between various
products they are going to buy from a company that «manufactures energy
efficient appliances and products (90%), promotes consumer health and safety
benefits (88%), supports fair labor and trade practices (87%), commits to
environmentally-friendly practices (87%)». It revealed that consumers are
looking for companies' corporate responsibilities and product itself before
purchasing it.
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