Toward Green Consumption: What Makes Us Care?

Green consumption and sustainable consumer behavior

It is evident that the consumption rate of world’s resources is way out of the recommended levels. Neither governments, organizations, nor citizens could igonre this reality.  Environmental concerns have pushed organizations and governments to shift their focus to use biodegradable materials. Hamerman et al. (2017)  note that climate change and other sustainability issues of global interest has pushed global economies to come to an agreement that there is need to contain the consumption levels that have negatively impacted the eco-system. Individual need to be aware and pushed toward more responsible behvior or “ environmentally friendly”  when it comes to consumption.  

Green consumption is part of a  sustainable consumer behavior. It represent the consumer responsibility for resent environmental problems and taking the needs of their descendants and next generation into consideration as well through the adoption of several attitudes and behaviors such as: the consumption and use of organic products, clean and renue and efficient use of energy, purchasing products of zero impact companies, recycling of materials, protection of environment and preservation of species.The Green consumer behavior also is known as the pro-environment behavior of people concerns with a kind of resource utilization tendency, which would have little or no adverse impact on nature. Past studies have suggested that the pro-environment behavior of consumers can have two spheres of construct namely ‘Private-sphere’ and ‘Public-sphere’. The former refers to the purchasing, utilizing and discarding of products for household and personal usage, impacting the environment(Axsen et al. 2012). Whereas the latter corresponds to behaviors that can have direct effects on nature manifesting through devoted environmental activism, restoration on nature by being a part of an organization and influencing government policies through petitions on issues.

Green consumerism in the broader society can be established through individual actions and change of perception. For this purpose, an individual must act ethically, not stimulated solely on personal needs and preferences but, by preserving the well-being of the society and be accountable for the environmental consequences as a result of the actions taken in everyday life. Researchers even argue that the act of Green consumption does not limit only to the consume organic food and choosing zero impact products, but extends to efficient energy utilization, environment-friendly organic apparels, rejuvenating nature and spreading the awareness among other members of the society too (Bailey & Caprotti, 2014).

Contrary to this aspect, surveys conducted in the European Union during 2013 have shown that of the 80% of citizens that buy green products only 26% are regular buyers. This implies that people are not aware of the noteworthiness of Green consumerism and opt for it not as a change in behavior but as an impetuous decision in most of the cases. The reluctance in consumer behavior could be a result of economic and market constraints. It is a fact that organic products are much high-priced than the non-organic products. At the same time, the green-retailer are scarce and the organizations that produce and market organic goods in various categories are not very widespread (Harbo et al. 2017). Multitude of such factors pose a significant challenge in moulding consumer behavior towards Green consumption and marketing.

Challenges in molding consumer behavior towards green consumption

This paper  reviews the literature on green consumption behavior and the motivational approach towards green consumerism with a focus on the social environment and individual decision making using the theory of planned behavior TPB as theoritical background to predict and explain the green consumption behavior among consumers in the United Arab Emirates.TPB can be used to explain the behavioral self-efficacy of the consumer to undertake the actions required to establish the mechanism of Green Consumerism. At the same time, the theory can explain the expectancy of the consumers of UAE towards the outcomes and the positive effects of such a behavioral change in regards to Green consumption.

The perceived behavioral control as explained in the theoretical model is a strength that can be used to establish a relationship between the intention of a consumer regarding sustainable habits, and actually undertaking such behavior in practice. However, the limitation of this theory as criticized by many scholars is the exclusion of ‘need’ of the consumer to take an action. Need can significantly affect the change of behavior despite the intentions or underlying behavioral efficacy of the consumer in regards to a pro-Green consumption attitude(Hargreaves, 2011). Nonetheless, the application of TPB in health and nutrition related behavior can be a strong tool in the present context.

Establishing policies and increasing awareness on various environmental issues and problems has led to a change in consumers attitudes towards a green lifestyle and purchases. Over the last few years as a part of United Arab Emirates vision 2021, the government with the help of private sector have outlined plans for long-term sustainable environmental issues (infrastructure, trasportation and energy).  Some of those projects are The Royal ‘Green’ Decree,Dubai Supreme Council of Energy, Ecological Footprint Initiative, Estidamaregulations,Green Building Code and Masdar City. Soon more plans will be annonced for additional sustainable projects. That resulted in increasing consumer concern with regards to green products to ensure sustainability of resources.

Nowadays, consumers in United Arab Emirates should shift to show higher interests with environmentally friendly products. Consumers have a critical role to play in environmental protection and there are a significant increase of green product awareness among consumers in many industries. Companies should understand the underling factors that motivate consumers to adopt a green behavior in order to be able to successfully develop and sell green brands.

A very few studies addressed the subject of green consompation the United Arab Emirates.  The purpose of this research is to analyse the green consiciouness of consumers and  the way it affects their purchasing behavior. Particularly, the present study builds on the well established theory of planned behavior and propose and test a theoretical model of the potential factors that may explain green consumption behavior among UAE consumers.

Initiatives taken by the UAE government

The following sections provide a brief literature review, problem definition and study methodology.

Overview of Green Consumption

The notion of Green Consumption is directly related to concepts like sustainable development or sustainable customer behaviour according to a study done by Elliott (2013). It is a kind of consumption pattern that is in agreement with the environmental protection for the existing and future generations. The idea of ‘Green Consumption’ attributes with customers’ responsibility or co-accountability for dealing with environment-based challenges while adopting eco-friendly measures as opined by Bleda and Valente (2008). This can be done by using organic goods, renewable energy sources, and looking for products that have minimal or zero environmental impact. In Western countries, in the 1960 and 1970, the requirement to safeguard the environment and the population wellbeing from the impacts caused by industrial wastes has originated this newfound idea of ‘Green Consumption’. In accordance with the study of Peattie (2010), in the 1980 first US ‘green’ products started to launch in the market and exploded the global marketplace. In 1990, green brands had a slow and moderate growth, remaining a niche trend. US interest in green brands begun to rise again in early 2000 with improved speed and, irrespective of the current financial crisis, it has been growing at a constant rate.

This literature review highlights the conceptual framework of the research . Thus it contains the expectations, assumptions, theories, and systems of concepts that support the research. The review is therefore thorough as it combs major literaturethat tries to expound on green consumerism. This review is not only descriptive but digs deeper to bring out the need for research and information about green consumerism and the “motivation approach” towards green consumption. The review highlights issues with previous research and shade light on critical questions that have not been sufficiently dealt with in past literature. It, therefore, constructs an argument of how the study will make a valuable contribution to the knowledge of motivation approach towards green consumerism.

Green consumption values and responses to environmentally friendly products has been a challenge for most governments and policymakers. Jacopo et al. (2018)  note that the challenge being faced by government and pressure group in motivating citizens to adopt green consumption behavior is due to a number of reasons, among them the fact that while governments gather resources to educate and inform its citizens on the benefits of green consumerism and its positive impact on the environment, other marketing and profit-oriented organizations continue to promote a materialistic and unsustainable lifestyle that leads to overconsumption of available resources. This culture of over-consumption has a negative impact on the environment and detrimental to the gains made in conserving the environment through Green consumerism.

Theoretical background of the study

However, Souriet al (2018) posits that widespread campaigns on the advantages of conserving the environment has gain traction over the years.This, in turn, has led some consumers to reduce their level of consumption and make more sensible decisions that favor green consumption behavior. Moreover, the rise of  postmodern movement which champions for environment conservation has pushed consumers to become socially conscious and  attempt  to make it their moral obligation to conserve the environment by adopting green consumption behavior.

Green consumption has become a prominent strategy to move towards eco-friendly societies and combat poverty at the global level. Where earlier environmentalist groups considered surplus consumption as central to the dilemma, green consumerism now puts consumption pattern at the centre of the solution (Haws, Winterich, and Naylor, 2014). On the other hand, Haller et al (2017) opine that green and sustainable consumption are also imperative to maintain the class distinction.  Considering the global standpoint, the challenge of ‘green consumption’ emerged first time as a central issue in 199 at the UN Conference on Environment and Growth. After ten years, at the Worldwide Summit on Sustainable Growth in Johannesburg, the global community was invited to enhance international living conditions and to ‘support and advocate the development of a 10-year framework of initiatives on ‘Green Consumption and Production’ in favour of local and nationwide programs to increase the speed towards green consumption as reported by Elliott (2013) in his study on green consumption.  The global outlook for green consumption refers to the use of products and services that respond actively to fundamental needs and yield an improved lifestyle, whilst minimising the consumption of natural assets, harmful materials and releases of wastage and other lethal elements over the product lifecycle, so as not to jeopardize the need of upcoming generations as evident in the study of Gilg, Barr and Ford (2005).

Green Consumption involves businesses, governments, societies, and customers contributing actively to preserve natural surroundings by means of effective production and use of natural assets and the optimisation of goods and services. The WBCSD (1997) recognises the need for global companies to assume a leadership role in supporting ‘green’ patterns of production and utilisation that cater to social demands within environmental limitations. Organisations can work towards such objectives through socially responsible ecological management, improved competitive strength and cost-effective operations. The Green Development Strategy implemented by the European Council in 2006 integrated the task of formulating an action plan for ‘green’ production and consumption across Europe (WBCSD, 2008). This action program considers using innovative measures through quality leadership and global networks; leveraging dynamic performance requirements, sustainability level, environment friendly design tools, and standardisation to bring about the production of ‘green’ products; initiatives to promote cleaner production procedures. Moreover, the action plan allowed the businesses to work in the best interest of international markets that support first-movers who support sustainable products and green consumption patterns.

Present global consumption patterns seem unsustainable. Based on the emerging trends, it is becoming perceptible that efficiency gains and technological advancements alone would not be enough to bring global consumption to a sustainable degree; changeovers would also be needed to customer lifestyles, together with the manners in which they prefer and utilize products and services according to a study done by Peattie (2010). To deal with the challenge of ‘green consumption’, global leaders can assist to promote more sustainable and green levels of consumption across different industrial sectors. There is a great opportunity for global leaders to support customers decide and consume their products in a ‘green’ manner (Gilg, Barr and Ford, 2005). In order to perform so, it is essential for global companies to generate sustainable value for customers by offering goods and services that cater their functional and psychological demands – now and for upcoming generation groups – whilst maintaining ecological limitations and general values.

The outsized amount of ecological problems experienced by the global customers is the fundamental object behind the swipe from traditional buying actions to greener procuring patterns. It has been defined by Balasubramanian (2014) that the eco-friendly products are more responsive and recyclable by nature that helps both the sellers and buyers to get facilitated from the environment. Thus, the customers across the globe are aiming not only for green packaging but also involved in purchasing more green products to get immediate benefits. In recent years the UAE product market for healthy and sustainable existence is continuously increasing its value and covers almost 80% of all consumers (Darkoa et al. 2017). It has been identified that this market comprises construction services, energy-efficient products, solar panels, and eco-tourism etc. that increases the customers’ responsibility towards green purchasing. In addition, the consumer’s awareness of social responsibility for establishing self-identity is also encouraging the majority to procure more green products in UAE. Similarly, Bhattacharya et al. (2015) asserted that the ‘product-image congruity theory’ postulates that the global consumers are highly influenced by the pro-environmental self-image factor that actually measures the customer’s effort and seriousness towards eliminating the environmental issue. Moreover, the governmental protocols such as scattering prohibitions and green product subsidies have inspired the customers to pay more attention towards the environment and green products.

From 1972, the Global Environment Day has been hosted by different cities under the sponsorship of UN Environment Program (UNEP).  This day epitomizes the attempts of people and organizations all over the globe involved in addressing ecological impacts and maintaining the environmental structure (Raouf, 2018). The UN Secretary General publicly acknowledged the remarkable measures taken by UAE towards green environment awareness, capacity development, and green consumption, amid other things, since the country hosted the Worldwide Conference on Partnership for Action on Green Market in March 018 according to a report provided by Stanley (2018). UN lauded all attempts towards the country’s vision 201 and ‘Green Growth Approach’. The United Nations has also signed a contract with the UAE to reinforce collaborative efforts in order to tackle ecological challenges effectively and decisively. UAE strongly supports the phenomena of ‘green consumerism’ and celebrates the National Environment Day on February 4 of every year. The key aim is to underline the devotion of the UAE government and other stakeholder groups toward safeguarding the natural environment and realising the gains provided by ‘green’ consumption patterns according to (Raouf, 2018). More significantly, it is a day to create awareness regarding the significance of protecting natural resources and moving towards a sustainable way of life.

Despite the country’s copious petrochemical resources, the UAE government has emphasised on shifting from non-renewable energy sources to renewable ones. Abu Dhabi aims to generate 7 per cent of its energy from renewable resources by 2020 and Dubai is devoted to generate 5 per cent of its total energy from renewable resources by 2030 (Shahbaz, Sbia, Hamdi and Ozturk, 2014). This would be attained through projects like Sir BaniYas, which considers the use of leading wind turbine of the world, Shams-1 solar energy plan which has the ability to generate 100MW electrical energy and Al-Maktoum Solar Park which presently has a capacity of 13MW but which would be increased further to 200MW in the near future. Dubai’s Asif (2016) opines thatExpo 2020 aims to promote the idea of ‘green consumption’ along with the philosophy of bringing in sustainability in the construction sector as well. Reused materials would be consumed in 30 per cent of the construction and 50 per cent of the Expo’s operating energy needs will cater from renewable resources on the site according to Asif (2016). Other plans take account of initiatives to reprocess wastage water, recycle resources and manage the carbon footprints onsite.

The trend of green consumption and development has become significant in the UAE in the past five years, from Dubai stating its goal of being one of the most ‘green’ regions across the world to sustainability is one of the key themes of the EXPO 2020 plans. Federal Law 24 of 1999 lays downs the legal grounds for ecological protection and conservation of natural resources within the UAE. This ruling requires businesses conducting developmental projects in the country to think about the ecological impacts of their operations and makes it illegitimate to damage the surroundings (Asif, 2016). The main philosophy behind this rule is ‘the polluter pay fines’ referring that the individual who pollutes the surroundings would be legally responsible for the clean-up cost and subject to other punishments as per the law (which vary from penalties, detention centre, and even the capital punishment in response to break the nuclear requirements).

Progressively recognized as a trendsetter in ‘green’ energy consumption and other sustainable measures, the UAE’s attempts exist in different forms. Whilst development of Dubai Green City is underway, the Abu Dhabi has initiated 150 new natural gas driven vehicles to its fleet service. Such vehicles are equipped with a GPS tracking scheme with a viewpoint to decrease consumption and make certain the efficient use of vehicles (Mokri, Ali, and Emziane, 2013). Moreover, 20 stations giving compressed natural gas and 9 conversion work stations are to be developed by coming years. Dubai, on the other hand, follows the plan of cutting unnecessary power and water consumption by 30% in near future. A report of Stanley (2018) confirms that Dubai’s Supreme Body of Energy has articulated that around 30,000 of the emirate’s 130,000 buildings can be subject for effective modifications at a total expense of 3 billion Dirhams.

The main issue faced by the UAE population is a distressing level of pollution that actually blocks the global impression of this country in terms of managing environmental performance. The rising percentage of UAE’s carbon footprint due to using the non-degradable mix of materials has forced the government to bring new modification in improving the waste management process. Supporting that Diabata & Govindan (2011) added that the conventional buildings and the huge energy consumption are the prime reasons for increasing environmental and sustainability issue in UAE that enforced the government to bring most viable approach of green buildings. However, the country’s energy and water sector are reducing its performance by making excessive uses by the customers. Additionally, the product market of UAE is also struggling for misusing the multi-layered packaging system (Nada Al Taher, 2018). There are several industries in UAE who are incompetent to use the advanced recycling technology in the product packaging. As a result, the biodiversity sector is losing its global position due to lack of environmental management programme. Furthermore, the inadequate role of civil societies in the process of maintaining corporate accountability is another challenging factor to experience such an ecological issue (Nanath& Pillai, 2017). Therefore, developing an energy-efficiency standard through green packaging is highly essential for UAE to limit the biodiversity threats.

Some scholars such as, Peattie, K. (2010)  and He, A., Cai, T., Deng, T., & Li, X. (2016) have weighed in the discussion of green consumerism and to them, they have described  “green consumer behavior” as more of a moral obligation by consumers rather than something that needs to be enforced. It has been assumed by proponents of green consumerism that adoption of green economy and behavioral decisions are only acquired through individuals moral obligation to maintain a greener lifestyle. Other scholars (e.g. Asif et al. 2018) refer to it as a decision by consumers to act in a socially responsible manner to conserve the environment in which they live in.

Taking into account customers’ pro-ecological motivations, it is worth inquiring about what impact their ‘green’ behaviours have on environmental sustainability. If ones think about a free marketplace viewpoint, buying ‘green’ goods and services might be a way for them to vote with their pocketbooks (Shaw, Newholm, and Dickinson, 2006), directed towards massive ecological gains through general policy changeovers (for instance, automakers self-initiating policies to produce more fuel efficient vehicles). From a psychological angle, current evidence proposes that reasonable low-priced green conducts like purchasing sustainable goods may act as an opportunity to more noteworthy and more committal pro-ecological conduct, for instance, regular reprocessing or extending support for alternate renewable energy resources (Thogersen and Noblet, 2012). Thus, for the main part, it seems that green consumption has a neutral to a positive influence on the environment. For the past four decades, customer psychology has garnered attention to the aspects that motivate consumers to purchase eco-friendly goods and involve in other measures of green consumerism.

Much of the psychology scholarship assessing the association between the ecological attitudes and motivational behaviour disclose a value – action gap. Empirical evidence proposes that whilst a greater part of the population may support pro-ecological gains, some will be motivated to forego pricing levels, expediency and easiness in support of a good’s ‘greener’ aspect (Young et al., 2010 and Kollmuss and Agyeman, 2002). Nonetheless, advocacy is also discovered for rationalist approaches, displaying a steadiness between ecological attributes, individuality, and some kinds of ‘green’ purchase decisions (Sparks and Shepherd, 1992, p.388). For example, in few investigations, combined measures of ‘environment-based awareness’ are more extrapolative of green buying intents or motives compared with the demographics or personality traits (Schlegelmilch, Bohlen and Diamantopoulos, 1996).

In other studies, just some types of pro-ecological beliefs and motives (for instance, those concerned about product packaging or labels) seem to envisage green consumption but not involved in reprocessing waste or other eco-friendly measures (Mainieri et al., 1997).  Notwithstanding the multiple factors that might impact and motivate consumers, green consumption is often considered as a challenging task. It could be costly in the short-range (for instance, buying solar panel sources for energy renewable) and may demand great sacrifices (for instance, loner walkways for using public transports). Some of such impediments to ‘green consumption’ might be dealt by reforming the landscape in which green customer decisions are considered with utmost priority (Thogersen, 2010).

Looking at the motivation approach towards green consumerism, scholars have come up with divergent views. One school of thought proposes that to have complete control of going green, individuals much change their lifestyle. This means that these individuals will have to reduce the number of non-biodegradable products they consume and increase the number of green products they purchase (Yu Liu et al.2017). Many factors have been seen to drive consumers to engage in conserving the environment through green consumerism initiative. Despite this, the motive behind green consumption behavior has been the point of focus for many researchers as they seek to find out what is this motivation that drives individuals to indulge in green consumerism. Other  tried to understand which group of consumers are more likely to take part in green consumerism. Several studies have indicated that women, especially in developed countries, are more pro-environmental than their male counterparts (e.g., Mousavi et al. 2017).

Researchers have pegged this to the fact that women are more concerned about their young ones the generation to come due to their nurturing role in the society. However, there is limited literature that seeks to explain environmental concern in relation to demographic variables. This is largely due to the fact that several studies have depicted demographic variables as poor indicators of green consumption behavior(e.g. Obery,  and  Bangert.2017).

This has, in turn, shifted the focus of researchers on other motivational drivers that consumers may experience in relation to green consumption behavior. Nabin, and Rabotyagov (2017) note that consumers may experience many motivations towards taking part in green consumption behavior. However, their  work has not examined how the underlying consumer motivations might affect their loyalty to green values while at the same time distinguish between the different types of consumers.

One of the reasons proposed by different scholars for the inadequate understanding of the gap between attitude and behavior towards green consumption is the focus on individual consumer patterns isolated from historical and social context. When this happens green consumers have to justify their green values to the social setting in which they live in. Moreover, studies have indicated the negative perceptions that people have towards green consumption can also serve as an inhibiting role towards adopting green consumption ( Cerri et al. 2018).

Scholars have argued that environmental performance in the field of green behavior consumption does not equally translate to a bigger number of consumers adopting green consumerism. Research has shown that  green products  continue  to fill the market  with estimates  of over $ 300 billion in 2008 and this figure is expected to rise  to over $ 1 trillion  by 2050  (Constantinos and Skarmeas,  2017)

Despite this encouraging figures on the growth of green products the consumption still remains all-time low. Research has depicted that  regardless of the fact that many people have shown the willingness of preventing environmental degradation, most people are still unwilling to pay for a higher price at the point of purchase to obtain these green products. The majority of consumers do not consider green consumption a must do behavior. (Shih?Tse, and Hung?Chou, 2017)

Wang,  et al. (2018), note that consumers are only ready to indulge in the purchase of green products or change their consumption behavior when the negative environmental issues directly affect their lives.  Research has shown that consumers continue to overlook environment implications of their choices as the most important purchase criteria for this consumers is price, quality and most of the time brand familiarity.

Considering Figure 1 in the appendix it can be derived that the Green Reputation of a building is a significant marketing tool that can be employed by promoters to influence the consumer behavior in UAE (Abuamer & Boolaky, 2015). While Figure 2 implies that the indoor environment including the quality of air, ventilation, thermal conduction, and construction material quality are some important aspect that the consumer a looking forward to while purchasing a Green house. People are much concerned with the energy efficiency of a building and the construction materials used to develop a Green building as compare to the sustainability of the site (Figure 3, appendix). Research shows that 30% of the populace in UAE agree that Green building indeed enhance the growth of the economy in general (Figure 4, appendix). Almost 38% of them agree that face to face meetings are a preferred choice of marketing tool over website information while making the decision to purchase a Green flat (Figure 5, appendix).

The study conducted by Al-Taie et al. (2015) have suggested a mixed attitude of consumers on organic food. The researchers have sent questionnaires to 600 candidates concerning their choice and habits of Green food consumption. Almost 30% of the respondents had an interest in organic food for over 3 years and a close by 28% had interest for less than a year(Figure 6, appendix). Contrary to the interest of the respondents most of them consume organic food only once every month which is a reluctant attitude. However, 21.3% of them consume such food 4 to 5 times a week and 22.8% consume 2 to 3 times per week(Figure 7, appendix). On the question of the preference on organic food type, the researchers found that fish (19.9%), fruits (15.2%) and chocolate (13.7%) were among the most favored (Figure 8, appendix).

Research has been conducted on the consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP )for the certified organic food in the UAE. Such a factor can be segregated into 2 separate categories: aspects related to the product and related to the consumers. The regression results of the study conducted on 300 random respondents in UAE is presented in Table 1 in the appendix (Fdrsinc.org, 2018). The results as discussed by the researchers highlight the fact that, age has a significant positive impact on buying behavior which increases with time. A logical reason being, education and income increases with age which in turn has the positive effect on the WTP. Additionally, the concerns over health and well-being of a youngster are much lesser than older people. With age thought of disease and health-related problems creep into the mind making the aged person much more health-conscious. Education and monthly income have the obvious impact on the WTP as they influence the awareness and budget factors of an individual(Amirshahi et al. 2012). A key finding in this research is the effect of nationality on the buying behavior of organic food. The study shows that the Emirati people have a higher tendency to pay for organic food than the non-emirates as the immigrants struggle to cope with the high cost of living.

In the field of psychology, the theory of planned behaviour refers to an assumption that a person’s beliefs and behaviour are linked with each other. Moreover, the theory claims that approach towards behaviour, biased standards, and apparent behavioural performance, together form a person’s behavioural intents and motivations. The theoretical concept was suggested by IcekAjzen (1991) to enhance the analytical power of the Theory of Reasoned Action by considering apparent behavioural controlling measures.

A number of investigations on decision making process of ‘green’ customers use the theory of planned behaviour in order to understand the behavioural aspect that motivates customers to get involved in buying green products and services. The theory defines behavioural intent as one’s eagerness to perform a particular behaviour and planned it to become the key interpreter of real behavioural conduct. In addition, this theoretical assumption upholds what Theory of Reasoned Action hypothesized about the individual behaviour being directed by one’s approaches and intents characterised by the presence of societal beliefs and the use of volitional control. On the other hand, the theory of planned behaviour integrates some alterations that enable for better accuracy and validity in comprehending a person’s mind-sets and analysing his or her intentional, planned and resultant real behavioural conduct.

Green consumption in UAE according to scholars has been strongly attributed to consumer’s attitude toward the environment. This means if there is no strong demand for such a shift in the attitude of UAE citizens, organizations and the government will not have gone an extra mile to bring into existence green products and services (Kotchen and Reiling, 2000)

Recentlty, the UAE government has been on the forefront in championing for green products in the region. In 2012, the Prime Minister launched a long term national program to build a green economy in UAE. In the development of a  green economy the region has also tasked itself with raising economic competitions through new green investments. The government has also embarked in supplying the local market with green products and technologies while at the same time socializing its citizens on the benefits of green consumerism (EGBC, 2014).

From 2006 to 2013 the UAE government has been on the frontline in implementing strategies that support sustainable development and consumption behavior that is not harmful to the eco-system. To sustain this strategies government in the process introduced a series of regulations and policies enforced primarily by the rulers of Abu Dhabi and Dubai (Abuamer & Boolaky,2015).

• Royal ‘Green’ Decree – This is decree was passed in 2007 by the ruler of Dubai who ordered that all new urban structures to conform to environmental friendly green standards.
• Dubai Supreme Council of Energy – This body was formed in 2009 with a sole vision  of making Dubai a global icon in developing and using sustainable sources of energy that are not harmful to the environment.
• Ecological Footprint Initiative –This initiative launched in 2007 was meant to ensure that UAE was within the safe standards when  measuring the environmental impact of human activities on the earths.
• Estidama –  Estidama is an Arabic word meaning sustainability.UAE government also came up with regulations  which seek to establish a region specific criteria which would address various aspects including  sustainable building constructions.
• Green Building Code – The green building code was a code established by the UAE government to ensure that modern buildings would adhere to green strategies during their construction.
• Masdar City – This was an ambitious project launched by the Abu Dhabi government to create  world’s first carbon- neutral  and  waste-free human settlement where everything would be recycled in a bid to conserve the flora and fauna.

This are just few but part of the many initiatives that had been put across by the government to ensure that the citizens of UAE had shift their attitude and behavior towards green consumerism. Despite these efforts there is still a challenge in converting the larger population into consuming green products. Some scholars have weighed in on this subject and described “green consumer behavior” as more of a moral obligation by consumers rather than something that needs to be enforced. It has been assumed by proponents of green consumerism that adoption of green economy and behavioral decisions are only acquired through individuals’ moral obligation to maintain a greener lifestyle. Other scholars refer it to as a decision by consumers to act in a socially responsible manner to conserve the environment in which they live in (Kharmani and Khan, 2016).

In view of the above literature its evident the current consumption levels in UAE is above safe level and unsustainable. As a result there is need for green consumerism and a shift in consumers’ attitude and behavior towards more environmental friendly practices. The current study of consumer behavior in UAE has revealed that majority of consumer still lack knowledge on the benefits of green consumerism. Due to this knowledge gap and low awareness towards green products organizations and the government in UAE are still not pushing hard enough towards developing more green products and influencing consumer behavior towards green consumerism. Green consumption is a continuous process that will require constant input from the people, manufacturers, government legislations and policies (Cherian and Jacob 2012).

The prupose of this research is to propose an intergative framework that  identify the key factors that may explain green consumption in the UAE.  Previous research acknowledge the discrepancies between the attitudes and behaviors when it comes to green consumption. Therefore, our proposed model build in the Theory of Planned Behavior and introduce subjective normes and perceived behvioral control as key antecends of green consumption along with consumer attitude toward green consumption.

The theory of planned behavior ( TPB)  is the base of our intergative framework. Ajzen (1991) stated that behavioral intention is an important predictor of actual behavior and according to the TPB the behavioral intentions is impacted by the following three factors: individual attitudes, subjective norms, and behavioral control. The first predictor is the attitude toward act or behavior which is the individual believes of a certain behavior or the positive or negative contribution that the act performs to that person’s life. It’s a self appraisal of the behavior. The second predictor is the  subjective norms that focus on everything around the individuals such as (Network, culture norms, group believes, …etc). Its the social pressure to perform or not perform the behavior. Percieved behavioral control is the third antecedent of intention that refers to people’s perception of the easiness or difficulty of performing the behavior of interest., It also reflect past experience and obstacles. These factors work together to form a influence the consumer intention to adopt the behvior and consquentely to perform the behvior. In general if one of those constructs is not favourable, It is less likely that the person will perform the actual act.

As emotions are more and more admitted as strong predector of cosnumer behavior. We included anticipated emotions in our framework aiming to have better understanding of green buying behviour.

Several studies thus far have directly linked green purchase intention with attitude, subjective norms as well as behavioral control (e.g. ,Wu and Chen , 2014; Askadilla and Krisjanti 2017).  These studies have attempted to explain that behavioral and normative belief have positive effect on consumers’ attitude in purchasing green products. Another finding was also made by Wu  & Chen (2014) that there is positive effect of control strength and control belief on actual consumer behavior. However, none of them, to the best of our knowledge, considerd the role of aniticpated emotions. Previous research has indicated that environmental consciousness has a positive impact on buying organic products and the additional past experiences considered as a predictor of purchase intention, which provides evidence that an organic lifestyle is reflected in an individual’s consumption pattern. (Yeon Kim & Chung,2011).

The purpose of this research is to  examine the consumers green behavior and consumption based on  TPB model in United Arab Emirates. The theory describes behavior as influenced by values, functional, social emotional and conditional values.

The review has emphasized the lack of social aspect in green research and literature in this area. More attention should be directed to individual decision-making processes, The review further acknowledges to pay more attention to the motivational approach towards green consumerism and emphasizes the importance of understanding the factors beyond individual decision-making process in United Arab Emirates. Finally, it is clear  from the literature review that a number of gaps  and questions still need to be answered and more research needs to be done in this area.

Automate packaging operations – The product manufacturing organizations operating in UAE, has changed the manual trend of product packaging towards automatic packaging process (www.waste-recyclingme.ae, 2018). It is expected that it would reduce the consumption of mix materials and further improve the packaging process.  

Go Solar initiatives – An exclusive opportunity for using solar power in the new buildings would help the UAE population to take more advantages of using light and natural features which can make the investment effort a successful one (https://emiratesgbc.org, 2018). The use of solar power in green buildings is started by the government which is found offering more cost-cutting advantages related to energy consumption.

The concept of sustainability is relatively not a new one since a great deal of scholarly work has already been done in the past to underscore the significance of sustainability at the international level (Haws, Winterich, and Naylor, 2014). However, the term ‘sustainability’ is broad and takes multiple forms like sustainable marketing, sustainable production, sustainable development and much more. The term considers a range of topics that are still in the infancy stage of scholarship, and among them, the subject of green consumption hardly gets enough attention of scholars. Considering the significance and scope of green consumption, limited research has been done in this aspect regardless of its centrality in the broad domain of sustainable development.

Scholars have done great work in the field of green marketing and cleaner production, but the little investigation has been carried out to know about the clients’ perspectives on sustainability. To address the research gap and further complement the extant base of literature review, the following study aims to understand the concept of green consumption in a comprehensive manner while focusing majorly on the case of UAE. This case has been chosen, particularly, to limit the research scope in order to better answer the research question of how the attitude towards ‘green consumption’ would impact the consumer behaviour of purchasing green products and services.

This study intends to understand the factors that may influence the consumer behavior buying of green products. Particulary, it aims to to answer the following questions:

• Does attitude toward green consumption impact the intention and behaviour of buying green product?
• Do subjective norms impact the intention and behaviour of buying green products?
• Does perceived behavioural control impact the intention and behaviour of buying green products?
• How anticipated emotions will affect the intention and behaviour of buying green products?

Hypothesis Overview

Based on the conceptual framwork propose in figure 1, the following hypotheses are formulated:

H1:Positive anticipated emotions will be positively related to the intention to buy green.

H₂: The consumers attitude toward green consumption will be positively related to their intention to buy green.

H₃: The  consumers’ assesment of subjective norms about green consumption will be positively related to their intention to buy green.

H₄: The consumers’ perceived behavioral control will be positively related to their intention to buy green.

H_5:  The consumer intention to buy green will affect positively their behavior of buying green products.

H₆: The effect of positive anticipated emotions on buying green product is mediated by the intention to buy green.

H₇: The effect of attitude toward green consumption on buying green product is mediated by the intention to buy green.

H₈: The effect of subjective norms  on buying green product is mediated by the intention to buy green.

H₉: The effect of preceived behavioral control on buying green product is mediated by the intention to buy green.

The conceptual framework for the following study is based on the theoretical grounds provided by the theory of planned behaviour. It is clear from the theory that perceived behavioural control can impact one’s intent, which then impacts performance. On the other hand, approach towards behaviour is comprised of beliefs and assessment of such beliefs. Biased norms deal with the impact of others and are based on ideas regarding what others believe (Ajzen, 1991). Few studies have considered variables like self-individuality, apparent customer efficiency, and knowhow, sense of duty, prior performance and routine habits (Knussen et al., 2004).

On the other hand, a number of scholarly researches do not highlight disparities in purchase decision among different customer segments, giving marketing experts with limited knowledge about how to target eco-friendly products to different market segments. To close this gap, the following conceptual model has been prepared while considering a range of variables that constitute one’s behavioural intent and motivate him or her to buy green products. Such variables include and represented below in a model form: emotional values, attitudes, subjective norms, time constraint, budget requirements, and behaviour control measures. The following model has been designed while considering the assumptions made by the Theory of Planned Behaviour.

This study will adopt a  quantitative approach. It will use the survey method with convenience sample to collect data from UAE consumers. A questionnaire will be distributed by usinganonymous survey link that will be distributed via email message and social media to help increase the response rate.

The developed questionnaire will be designed as follows:

• The first part will cover demographic variables, such us age, gender, marital status, employment status, education level and income level of the target respondents.
• The second part will measure the construct included in the conceptual framework.

The following study is based on quantitative reasoning due to the nature of the research topic. This design is justified by the fact that it will allow the researcher to test already established theory relating to green consumption and use quantitative approaches to derive a valid conclusion concerning the research problem (Creswell, 2013). Keeping in mind the research design (quantitative), the researcher would be able to gather quantitative data from the study respondents in a form of a survey in order to address the research question and problem statement.

To make the research project successful, relevant and important data that is interlinked with the research aim and objectives are needed to be collated. There are two kinds of data collection approaches: primary and secondary (Panneerselvam, 2014). The following study would use both kinds of the method in order to get relevant data relating to the research topic. Primary data would be gathered through conducting interviews, surveys, observations, and focus group studies. The primary sources of data enable the researcher to get rich and fresh data, which is not used by any other author in the past (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2007). Moreover, the survey would be the key source of primary data where a researcher will design a questionnaire and distribute among the consumers to get an idea about their behavioural intent in relation to purchasing ‘green’ products and services. Moreover, secondary data would also be considered by the researcher while referring to journal articles based on sustainability, textbooks, companies’ annual reports (focusing majorly on UAE data) magazines and newspapers. The secondary data may become out-of-date over time but currently, it can be used by the researcher to add value to the study while supporting arguments with the seminal works of different scholars.

It refers to a practice used by researchers to assess collected data while using statistical tools and techniques. This step in a research activity enables the researcher to use suitable data analysis technique in order to either reject or approach stated research hypotheses. Moreover, it allows the researcher to test the existing theories and derive a final conclusion for the research. Considering the following study, SPSS tool would be used to interpret quantitative data collected through surveys. This data would analysed while applying Correlation technique of SPSS to check if there is a relationship between the dependent and independent variables used in a study.

We will use a convient sample of 150 UAE  individuals above 18  years old, including not only green consumers, but also who not be aware of environmental problems. A pilot study will be conducted using 10 respondants to examine the measurement instrument prior to data collection. This pretest will help us to clarifiy any ambiguities in the the questionnaire before the fianl data collection.

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