How "Green" Thinking and Altruism Influence Electronics Purchases (2020 PDF)

Sustainable Production and Consumption 24 (2020) 281–291 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Sustainable Production and...

Sustainable Production and Consumption 24 (2020) 281–291 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Sustainable Production and Consumption journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/spc Research article How “Green” thinking and altruism translate into purchasing intentions for electronics products: The intrinsic-extrinsic motivation mechanism Fayaz Ali a, Muhammad Ashfaq a,∗, Saira Begum b, Ayaz Ali c,∗ a School of Business Administration, Dongbei University of Finance and Economics, Dalian, China b School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China c School of Business Management, Central South University, Changsha, China a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: “Green” antecedents and consequences have been widely explored recently. Despite the prominence of Received 7 April 2020 antecedents of green behavior, literature provides little attention to how green thinking and altruism Revised 22 July 2020 may translate into purchasing intentions for green electronics products. This research investigates two Accepted 22 July 2020 main questions: first, whether green thinking and green altruism directly predict green purchasing inten- Available online 23 July 2020 tion, second, how green intrinsic and extrinsic motivations can explain these relationships. Based on the Keywords: cognitive-affective behavior model and collection of 2021 samples of buyers from the electronics indus- Green thinking try in China, the results show that: both green thinking and green altruism have a substantial impact on Green altruism green purchasing intention. Notably, green intrinsic motivation mediates these relationships, while green Green intrinsic motivation extrinsic motivation moderates the effect of green thinking and green intrinsic motivation on green pur- Green extrinsic motivation chasing intention. Thus, this research advocates that marketers and policymakers should focus on cogni- Green purchasing intention tive and affective elements of green stimuli as well as the intrinsic motivation (enjoyment) of consumers Cognitive-affective behavior model for the success and adoption of green electronics products. While care should be taken when using green extrinsic motivation as it reduces the impact of green altruism and green intrinsic motivation on green purchasing intention. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. © 2020 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction and brand personality have a significant impact on purchase inten- tion of green products (Chan, 2001; Chan and Lau, 20 0 0; Goh and Environmental pollution has led many consumers to rethink Balaji, 2016; Hahnel et al., 2014; Hassan, 2014; Lee et al., Lee, 2014; their buying choices today. For example, in Europe and Asia, con- Panda et al., 2020). Looking further into the internal mechanism, sumers label buying as contributing to environmental hazards due we find that cognitive and affective factors such as evaluation of, to pollution caused by the mass production of non-green prod- and attachment with, green products can deliver lasting effects on ucts (Sanchez & Sabaté, 2019). For “green” consumers, although consumers’ purchase behavior (Bosque & Martín, 2008) than those environmental protection and waste reduction are major con- of external factors such as price discounts and appreciation from cerns (Wu et al., 2018b) and consider adopting green products social actors (Wenjing et al., 2020). Therefore, it would be insight- (Panda et al., 2020), yet literature suggests that the acceptability ful to further understand the intrinsic mechanism of consumer be- of green electronics products is slow (Jones, 2019; Kam-Sing et al., havior in this context. To serve this objective, the current research 2012; Zammit-Lucia, 2013). focuses on the internal makeup of consumers and investigates how Environmentalist researchers have extensively studied various green thinking as a cognitive antecedent and green altruism as an precursors of green behavior both from internal and external per- affective antecedent lead to purchasing intention for green elec- spectives and unanimously reported that environmental awareness, tronics products. attitudes, beliefs, social influence, product price, product quality, We hold the view that individuals’ power of thinking about and feeling for the green environment can actuate consumers to buy ∗ green electronics products even at a higher price when they be- Corresponding authors. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (F. Ali), lieve that these products are performing environmentally-friendly [email protected] (M. Ashfaq), [email protected] (S. Be- (Kumar and Ghodeswar, 2015; Wu et al., 2016a). Green thinking gum), [email protected] (A. Ali). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2020.07.013 2352-5509/© 2020 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 282 F. Ali, M. Ashfaq and S. Begum et al. / Sustainable Production and Consumption 24 (2020) 281–291 refers to “being aware of our interconnectedness with the world and reflecting on the unintended damage we cause to nature in the daily course of our lives” (The Environmental Action Alliance, 2004, p. 1). Green thinkers show strong cognitive abilities and tend to be more cautious in their decisions and actions in the wake of recently growing environmental issues (Jones, 2019; Wu et al., 2016b). The affective values of individuals, on the other hand, also mark a significant influence on the choices and adoption of products. Al- truism is a well-established trait of individuals studied in contem- porary environmental research (Bautista et al., 2020; Panda et al., 2020; Tan et al., 2020). Of particular relevance to the adoption of green electronics products, green altruism has been the addition in current research to account for the affective effect on individu- als’ environmental behavior. The sense of what is right and what should be done for the general good of society and others reflects on the altruistic characteristics of individuals (Panda et al., 2020; Fig. 1. Conceptual model. Tan et al., 2020). When altruistic individuals see that firms act and fulfill their environmental responsibilities, they would be more likely to consider buying products from these firms (Panda et al., (such as appreciation and rewards from external sources) using a 2020; Zhang et al., 2018). However, the influencing mechanism of motivation theory and cognitive-affective behavior model. The con- how consumers’ thinking and feeling about environmental welfare ceptual model is shown in Fig. 1. This way, our research offers in- transforms into intentions to purchase green electronics products corporation of two novel constructs in consumer behavior study: is under-explored. green intrinsic motivation and green extrinsic motivation. More- Additionally, to understand this psychological process—in which over, we show how green thinking and green altruism may directly consumers go through during the pre-buying stage, we include impact green purchasing intention and indirectly through green in- green intrinsic motivation which refers to consumers’ tendency to trinsic motivation. Finally, we investigate how green extrinsic mo- engage in environmental behaviors out of their affection for the tivation may moderate the effect of green thinking, green altruism, environment (Wenjing et al., 2020). In this motivation, individu- and green intrinsic motivation on green purchasing intention for als perceive internal locus of causality and manifest selfless in- our robust understanding of this internal mechanism of consumer terest in taking green measures, such as volunteer act of planting behavior. seeds, furnishing surrounding with flowers, or searching for green products—green laptops, mobile phones or accessories even at a 2. Literature review and hypotheses development distance (Wu et al., 2012; Zhang et al., 2018). Drawing on the find- ing of Ojo et al. (2019), we argue that green products are more 2.1. Motivation theory likely to be accepted if consumers are intrinsically motivated to prioritize eco-friendly measures. Love for nature internally drives Broadly, motivation theory can explain individuals’ intention of these consumers to preserve the environment by preferring to con- accepting green electronics products. Deci (1975) categorized mo- sume green products over non-green ones and minimize the dam- tivations intro intrinsic and extrinsic factors that produce an effect age caused by excessive use of carbon-based and non-recyclable on the criterion variable. Similarly, we can derive from the finding products (Jones, 2019; Wu et al., 2012; Zhang et al., 2018). Such of Davis et al. (1992) that both intrinsic factors such as a natu- motivations stem from an inherent passion for a greener envi- ral passion for the green environment and extrinsic factors such as ronment and could lead to the process of intention formation for positive environmental outcomes are likely to influence consumers’ green electronics products. motivation to develop purchase intentions for green technology Furthermore, consumers’ intentions absorb the effects of not products. Considering these intrinsic (cognitive and affective) and only intrinsic factors but can also have the impact of extrinsic ones extrinsic (marketing and social) stimuli in the environmental con- (Wang, 2014; Wenjing et al., 2020). Among which, we consider text (Lin and Lu, 2011), we propose green intrinsic motivation and a novel construct—green extrinsic motivation which may regulate green extrinsic motivation as two constituents of consumers’ green the mechanism under study. Green extrinsic motivation refers to purchasing intention. behaving in an environmentally friendly manner because of exter- nal benefits such as reward, appreciation, or approval that are not 2.2. Cognitive-affective behavior model coming naturally from within individuals’ selves but instead indi- viduals are driven by separate motives (Huang et al., 2016). For To further build our understanding of intrinsic motivation, we example, green extrinsic motivation occurs when consumers buy use the cognitive-affective behavior model in the present study. green electronics products because of discounts from firms or ap- This model proposes that thinking as well as feeling play a role preciation from family, friends, or society. However, past literature in shaping human behavior (Bosque & Martín, 2008). In this sense, suggests that extrinsic motivations last shorter in effect and thus the current study may serve to explore in-depth the cognitive and may arguably reduce consumers’ self-driven motivation (intrinsic) the affective psychological processes that an individual consumer to buy green products (Deci and Ryan, 2010). goes through at the time of deciding to buy green electronics prod- Therefore, we develop an integrated research model to address ucts. the cognitive-affective intention gaps through consumers’ green thinking (which is ‘evaluation’ subcomponent of human makeup) 2.3. Green thinking and green purchasing intention and green altruism (which is ‘emotion’ subcomponent of human makeup), and focus on the mediating role of green intrinsic moti- According to the cognitive-affective behavior model, consumers’ vation (consumers’ enjoyment derived from using green electron- decision making begins with cognitions such as perceptions, ics products) and the moderating role of green extrinsic motivation thoughts, beliefs, and meanings about certain objects or issues.  F. Ali, M. Ashfaq and S. Begum et al. / Sustainable Production and Consumption 24 (2020) 281–291 283 Morel and Pruyn (2003) witnessed that consumers’ cognitive confi- likely to show interest in green products and thus ultimately be- dence indicates favorable product judgment that leads to purchas- come intrinsically motivated to buy green products. The cognitive ing decisions. Likewise, Hughner et al. (2007) found that positive assessment of environmental greening is often considered as an thinking about green labels creates a positive evaluation of green antecedent of individuals’ engagement in green activities (such as products. Consumers tend to see intellectually how the perceived gardening and planting) and love for a green environment (such benefits of green products match their motives when deciding to as basking in the garden and playing golf) (Deci and Ryan, 2002; purchase green products (Hahnel et al., 2014). Additionally, envi- Wenjing et al., 2020). ronmental opinions and deliberations of consumers were found to Moreover, green thinkers possess sufficient knowledge of envi- have a positive relationship with the purchase decisions of green ronmental problems and show readiness to tackle the issue from products (Wu et al., 2018). In the prior studies, consumers’ green various viewpoints (Akehurst et al., 2012). Factually, consumers thinking has been considerably studied in the green advertising with high cognitive powers tend to show self-driven engagement, field (Jones, 2019; Rademaker and Royne, 2018), in which the find- take an interest in solving the problem at hand, and behave ings revealed the acceptance of green promotion messages by en- environmentally-friendly (Biswas and Roy, 2015), as such, they par- vironmentally conscious consumers. Not only did it enhance the ticipate in recycling, energy-saving, and buying green products to acceptability of green marketing information, but it also actuated see the positive environmental outcomes. In China, individuals har- consumers to buy expensive green products (Minbashrazgah et al., monize with nature quite amicably, and the prevailing sense of 2017). Thus, we can derive that consumers’ green thinking could be greening in societies and businesses provokes consumers’ thoughts a potential construct to increase consumers’ intention to purchase and concerns, which may lead to consumers’ interest in taking green electronics products. Therefore, we hypothesize that: green initiatives for environmental welfare (Zhang et al., 2018). Fol- H1. Green thinking is likely to increase purchasing intention for lowing this thought and considering the growing pollution issues, green electronics products. Chinese consumers with ecological thinking are likely to take a volunteer role in greening their environment by preferring green 2.4. Green altruism and green purchasing intention products over non-green ones. Therefore, we hypothesize that: H3. Green thinking is likely to increase intrinsic motivation for For years, researchers have investigated the “like-dislike” atti- green electronics products. tudes of consumers towards green products or brands (Choi and Johnson, 2019; Greaves et al., 2013; Teng et al., 2013; Yadav and 2.6. Green altruism and green intrinsic motivation Pathak, 2016). The conceptualization of consumers’ altruism has been extended to environmental studies (Corbett, 2016; Altruism is an affective motivational factor that encourages peo- Guéguen and Stefan, 2014) and has recently attracted researchers ple to perform pro-social consumption behaviors. Green altruism to study the consequences of altruism (Bautista et al., 2020; is a natural tendency towards greening the environment which is Davari et al., 2017; Panda et al., 2020; Tan et al., 2020), which intrinsically motivated (Teng et al., 2013). Since individuals with can be more pronounced for environmentally friendly consumers. more selfless values tend to act in a manner to benefit others and Altruistic consumers are more inclined to the ecological bene- are more likely to be internally driven, their desire to help the en- fits of their actions than the positive outcomes for their gains vironment and others can be an important driver for their engage- (Guéguen and Stefan, 2014). Green altruism can be precisely de- ment in green initiatives (Verhagen et al., 2015). Drawing upon the scribed here as the extent to which consumers generally de- findings from psychology literature (Batson, 2014), ‘being kind to sire to benefit the environment and others selflessly. It stems the environment and associated others’ can arguably be perceived from individuals’ sense of self-imposed obligation to do the as joy in itself for altruistic individuals. Furthermore, altruism in- right thing without paying attention to what other people think. creases consumers’ positive feelings when they engage in activities Stern et al. (1993) described altruism as the affective concern of to help others (Philip et al., 2019; Wei et al., 2013), which could individuals about the wellbeing of society and others. Unlike the be more impactful on pro-environmental behavior such as buying consumers with cognitive concerns such as green thinking, altru- green products, green brands, or organic foods. Similarly, it makes istic consumers with pro-environmental traits have a more inborn sense how individuals with more altruistic values would feel joy tendency to be emotionally attached to the greenness of the en- and satisfaction from using green electronics products. Their envi- vironment and wellbeing of overall living beings in our ecosystem ronmental affection would be strong enough to enhance their self- (Panda et al., 2020). Cognitive-affective behavior theory supports driven responsibility and engagement with such products. We posit the humane trait of individuals as a motivating factor to partic- that such increased intrinsic motivation would be an outcome of ipate in certain green behaviors (Corbett, 2016). Relatedly, suffi- altruistic individuals, leading us to hypothesize that: cient empirical evidence reports that altruism is directly linked to H4. Green altruism is likely to increase intrinsic motivation for the purchase intentions for green products (Bautista et al., 2020; green electronics products. Davari et al., 2017) and organic food (Arvola et al., 2008; Tan et al., 2020; Yadav, 2016). Thus, it leads us to hypothesize that: 2.7. Green intrinsic motivation and green purchasing intention H2. Green altruism is likely to increase purchasing intention for green electronics products. Individuals are naturally inclined towards those objects that are interesting and enjoyable (Moon and Kim, 2001). Intrinsically 2.5. Green thinking and green intrinsic motivation motivated consumers for the greener environment may thus in- tend to buy green electronics products because of inborn attach- Intrinsically motivated individuals perform tasks with their in- ment with the green environment. For example, if their passion terest in the task rather than for external rewards (Deci and for the green environment supersedes other dissuading factors Ryan, 1985). Inferring from insinuations that Moon and such as cost, greenwashing perception, or marketing deception, Kim (2001) described as how conscious individuals take plea- they would be more interested to adopt green electronics products sure in taking green measures, we can posit that green thinking (Wenjing et al., 2020). Consumers who take pleasure in activities is likely to increase consumers’ green intrinsic motivation to per- that are constructive for the green environment also tend to prefer form environmentally-friendly behavior. That is to say that, when buying green products (Bailey et al., 2016). These consumers may consumers consider the merits of a green environment, they are become deeply involved in green products and, as such, may find 284 F. Ali, M. Ashfaq and S. Begum et al. / Sustainable Production and Consumption 24 (2020) 281–291 shopping for green electronics products exciting and pleasurable. products. Such pleasure is characteristically self-created and is ex- On this note, we argue that green intrinsic motivation can play a empt from external effects (Wenjing et al., 2020). central role in forming consumers’ intention to buy green electron- Past findings suggest that satisfied consumers are more readily ics products. willing to buy green products even at a higher price (Zhang et al., We find additional empirical support in the information tech- 2018). Similarly, consumers who feel gratified with green electron- nology literature in which intrinsic motivation was found to build ics products would be more likely to buy these products. By under- consumers’ intention to use pleasure-oriented information systems standing the consumers’ intrinsic motivation (such as interest and (Lin and Lu, 2011). Drawing on the motivation theory, we argue joy derived from green electronics products) as a mediating mech- that consumers’ green purchasing intentions would increase when anism, we would be able to comprehend the correct picture of this they have higher motivation for green electronics products. For in- relationship in the face of contemporary controversies in the liter- stance, consumers who do not show interest in green initiatives ature. With this purpose, we propose that: and lack the passion for performing green tasks are likely to spurn H7. Green intrinsic motivation mediates the relationship be- green products (Huang et al., 2016). Conversely, we can say that tween green altruism and purchasing intention for green electron- consumers with more love for the green environment tend to be ics products. more willing to buy green electronics products. Therefore, we hy- pothesize that: H5. Green intrinsic motivation is likely to increase purchasing 2.10. Green extrinsic motivation as a moderator intention for green electronics products. When consumers intend to buy green electronics products be- 2.8. The mediating role of green intrinsic motivation in the cause of discounts and/or recommendations from others, they are relationship between green thinking and green purchasing intention extrinsically motivated (Huang et al., 2016). Green extrinsic moti- vation can be described as the tendency of individuals to behave Consumers’ green thinking can provide the first cognitive signal environmentally friendly due to external rewards such as saving, to generate green intrinsic motivation, which may eventually lead admiration, or popularity (Wenjing et al., 2020). Literature sug- to the purchase intention for green electronics products. Individu- gests that extrinsic motivation tends to reduce the intrinsic motiva- als with more concern and consideration of the green environment tion of individuals to perform eco-friendly behaviors (Huang et al., tend to attach themselves with nature and floriation and take plea- 2016). It was further endorsed by a finding of Moser (2015) in sure in shopping for green products (Huang et al., 2016). According which individuals were found to be less inclined to voluntarily en- to Rademaker and Royne (2018), marketing communications that gage in green measures when bonuses and prizes were offered provoke consumers to think about environmental well-being in- to them as compared to those individuals who were intrinsically stills urge in consumers in a way that they find taking green mea- motivated to do so without external rewards. We may thus ar- sures challenging and exciting. gue that individuals who are self-driven to consider green mea- Similarly, green intrinsic motivation has the potential to trans- sures as important are likely to be less willing to purchase green late consumers’ environmental characteristics such as passion, in- electronics products when external factors regulate their behaviors. terest, and love for a green environment into consumers’ purchase For example, the inclusion of external rewards such as discounts, intentions for green products. With the increasing awareness of time-bound offers, or gifts might affect the intrinsic motivations environmental problems, we postulate that consumers’ cognitive of these consumers for green electronics products (Wenjing et al., capabilities tend to increase their interest in greening the envi- 2020). Because they may become more willing to achieve external ronment through their product choices, which in turn may lead gains in the form of social appreciation, price discounts, or gratu- to purchasing intention for green electronics products. For exam- ities than intrinsically-motivated environmental objectives. In line ple, when consumers think about how to protect the environment with this, we can say that green extrinsic motivation is likely to from continuous deterioration, they would be more involved in minimize the intention to purchase green electronics products of finding the solutions to salvage the environment, this would in- environmentally conscious (green thinkers), self-motivated (intrin- crease their internal motivation for a green environment, and as sically motivated), and environmentally friendly (altruistic) con- a result, these consumers would intend to consider buying green sumers. This discussion leads us to formulate the following three electronics products. With this thought, we can say that green in- hypotheses: trinsic motivation is likely to mediate the relationship between H8. The higher the green extrinsic motivation is, the lower will green thinking and green purchasing intention. Thus, we hypoth- be the effect of green thinking (H8a), green intrinsic motivation esize that: (H8b), and green altruism (H8c) on the intention to purchase green H6. Green intrinsic motivation mediates the relationship be- electronics products. tween green thinking and purchasing intention for green electron- ics products. 3. Research methodology 2.9. The mediating role of green intrinsic motivation in the relationship between green altruism and green purchasing intention 3.1. Survey method and data collection Consumers with high altruistic traits may not always re- We focused on green electronics products that have a high im- sult in buying green products as evidenced by the findings of pact on the environment and collected 2021 valid samples in total Paladino and Ng (2013). While various research studies vindicate from young Chinese buyers from March 2019 to May 2019 by cir- the positive relationship between altruism and green behavior culating about 30 0 0 questionnaires in total at various stores and (Bautista et al., 2020; Corbett, 2016). Such a contradiction remains shopping malls in the three metropolitan cities of China (Dalian, unresolved and necessitates further research to understand the Hangzhou, and Shenzhen). Fifty-three percent of the samples con- mechanism precisely. We argue that consumers’ selfless pro-social tain female buyers with an average age of 22 years (Table 1). We behavior would only account for purchase intention for green elec- used both online and offline means to distribute our questionnaires tronics products when consumers are intrinsically enjoying these and collect the data from the respondents.  F. Ali, M. Ashfaq and S. Begum et al. / Sustainable Production and Consumption 24 (2020) 281–291 285 Table 1 ination of any single construct. We also applied it on Smart-PLS by Demographic profile of respondents. testing all the constructs with each other and found the inner VIF Demographic variables Category Frequency Percent value of each construct in the tested relationship below 3.3 as rec- Gender Male 950 47 ommended (Kock, 2015). The R-square value of green purchasing Female 1071 53 intention 0.47 explains the research results with appropriate pre- Age Below 18 81 4 18–22 1273 63 dictive capability. Thus, the study meets all the requirements for 23–27 424 21 research analyses. Above 27 242 12 Education Bachelors 1435 71 Masters 505 25 4.2. Hypotheses tests PhD 81 4 Income/month (RMB) Below 3000 1475 73 Next, Table 5 displays the direct, mediated, and moderated re- 3000–6000 344 17 6001–9000 61 3 sults of the hypotheses (H1 to H8) respectively. Before including Above 9000 141 7 mediating and moderating analyses in model 1, green thinking and Cities Dalian 829 41 green altruism, as expected, increased green purchasing intention Hangzhou 606 30 (b = 0.36, p = 0.0 0 0) and (b = 0.17, p = 0.0 0 0) with substantial Shenzhen 586 29 impact of green thinking. Hence, H1 and H2 are supported. After introducing a mediator in model 2, the effect of green thinking (b = 0.10, p = 0.0 0 0) on green purchasing intention sharply de- 3.2. Measures creased, while green altruism (b = 0.02, p = 0.459) turned out to be insignificant. Green thinking (b = 0.53, p = 0.0 0 0) and green al- We adapted measures for green thinking (GT) and green altru- truism (b = 0.23, p = 0.0 0 0) also substantially increased green in- ism (GA) from a study of Lee (2008) and Ferguson et al. (2008) re- trinsic motivation, supporting H3 and H4 respectively. We argued spectively. We followed the studies of Zhang et al. (2018) and that thought and emotion-provoking occurrences tend to stimulate Abdul-Muhmin (2007) to design the measures for green purchas- attention and interest in environmental drive. Furthermore, green ing intention. Green intrinsic motivation and green extrinsic mo- intrinsic motivation has been found to have a pronounced effect on tivation were adapted from Wenjing et al. (2020) (see Table 3). green purchasing intention (b = 0.51, p = 0.0 0 0). We thus accept Using a five-point Likert scale for all variables: 1 representing H5. The indirect effects of green thinking (b = 0.27, p = 0.0 0 0) and strongly disagree and 5 representing strongly agree, we conducted green altruism (b = 0.12, p = 0.0 0 0) on green purchasing intention a pilot test on 30 respondents before launching the research study indicated a stronger influence on the hypothesized relationships. and found no major issues with the research questionnaire items Thus, H6 and H7 are also accepted (see Table 5). The moderat- and wording. To reduce common method bias, we designed a ques- ing effect of green extrinsic motivation was found to be insignif- tionnaire according to the guidance of Podsakoff et al. (2003); and icant for green thinking and green purchasing intention (b = 0.05, used post hoc tests and found that common method bias was not p = 0.325), while it was significant for green intrinsic and green a serious threat in our study. We found no problems with the re- purchasing intention (b = −0.04, p = 0.013) and green altruism liability and validity of the measures under study. Moreover, so- and green purchasing intention (b = −0.09, p = 0.063) relation- cioeconomic characteristics such as gender, age, income, and edu- ships, supporting only H8b and H8c respectively. The complete cation of respondents were controlled in our model for potential model with direct effets is shown in Fig. 2. alternative effects (Dimitrova et al., 2019). The questionnaire was designed in English, and then it was translated into Chinese and back-translated into English by two professionals to ensure content 4.3. Mediation and moderation analysis validity (Brislin, 1970). For the understanding of the context, we re- quested the respondents to read a short description on top of the According to Hair et al. (2016), a mediator is a variable that questionnaire regarding the awareness and importance of green intervenes in the effect between two variables. In this research, electronics products before filling the questionnaire (Appendix B) green intrinsic motivation considerably mediates the effect of (Jensen et al., 2019). green thinking and green altruism on green purchasing intention. Table 5 shows that the first condition of mediating analysis is ful- 4. Results filled by finding that the relationships between independent vari- ables and the dependent variable are significant. The second con- 4.1. Measurement model dition is also achieved by having a significant indirect effect of green thinking and green altruism on green purchasing intention. The Cronbach’s alpha (CA) ’ and composite reliability (CR) val- We also found that after entering the mediator, the direct effect ues of constructs were found to be greater than 0.70, which is a of green thinking and green altruism on green purchasing inten- minimum requirement for reliability (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). tion prominently reduced from 0.36 to 0.10 and 0.17 to 0.02 co- The values of the average variance extracted (AVE) were found to efficient value respectively, satisfying a third required condition of be greater than 0.50 (Bagozzi and Yi, 1988), which was further val- a mediation analysis (Hair et al., 2016). Finally, to see the inten- idated by Heterotrait-Monotrait Ratio (HTMT) having all the ratio sity and type of mediation, we tested the Variance Accounted For lying below 0.95. (Hair et al., 2017). Table 2 shows the correlation (VAF) value by dividing the indirect effect of green thinking 0.27 between the variables. While Tables 3 and 4 confirm the establish- and green altruism 0.12 on green purchasing intention by the to- ment of reliability and discriminant validity. tal effect (the total effect is calculated by adding indirect and di- Variance inflation factor (VIF) values ensured that there were no rect effects) of each relationship separately which are 0.362 and multicollinearity issues (Ashfaq et al., 2020) and common method 0.136 and found the resultant VAF value 0.75 for green thinking bias in the research as all the VIF values were less than 3.3, which and green purchasing relationship and VAF value 0.88 for green is an indication of no common method bias (Kock, 2015). For fur- altruism and green purchasing relationship. Accordingly, green in- ther verification, since all the items used in our study were re- trinsic motivation partially mediates the effect of green thinking flective, we carried out Harman’s single-factor analysis on SPSS in and fully mediates the effect of green altruism on green purchas- which only 30.9% of the variance was explained, showing no dom- ing intention (Hair et al., 2016). 286 F. Ali, M. Ashfaq and S. Begum et al. / Sustainable Production and Consumption 24 (2020) 281–291 Table 2 Correlations of the constructs. No Variables 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 Gender 2 Age 0.015 3 Education 0.007 0.502∗∗ 4 Income 0.040 0.447∗∗ 0.298∗∗ 5 GEM 0.220∗∗ −0.011 −0.073∗∗ 0.029 6 GA 0.177∗∗ −0.016 −0.058∗∗ −0.034 0.509∗∗ 7 GT 0.102∗∗ 0.010 −0.003 0.058∗∗ 0.396∗∗ 0.351∗∗ 8 GIM 0.133∗∗ 0.041 0.043 0.082∗∗ 0.388∗∗ 0.410∗∗ 0.623∗∗ 9 GPI −0.019 0.050∗ 0.092∗∗ 0.106∗∗ −0.085∗∗ 0.206∗∗ 0.385∗∗ 0.573∗∗ ∗∗ Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). ∗ Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). GEM=green extrinsic motivation, GA=green altruism, GT=green thinking, GIM=green intrinsic motivation, GPI=green purchasing intention Table 3 Items’ reliability and validity. Constructs Items Loading CA CR AVE Green Thinking 0.76 0.86 0.68 1. I am thoughtful about the environment. 0.85 2. The condition of the environment makes me think about the quality of my life. 0.87 3. I am willing to find ways to protect the environment. 0.75 Green Altruism 0.87 0.87 0.87 1. By buying green electronics products I would be fulfilling my duty to society. 0.87 2. By buying green electronics products I would be doing something to help others. 0.87 3. By buying green electronics products I would be saving someone’s life. 0.79 4. I believe that the world would be a better place if everyone, who could, buy green electronics products. 0.88 Green Purchasing Intention 0.80 0.86 0.56 1. I intend to purchase green electronics products because of their environmental concern. 0.77 2. I expect to purchase green electronics products in the future because of their environmental performance. 0.73 3. Overall, I am glad to purchase green electronics products because they are environmentally friendly. 0.84 4. I am willing to buy green electronics products because of their environmental performance. 0.74 5. I will be willing to pay higher prices for green electronics products that are environmentally friendly. 0.66 Green Intrinsic Motivation 0.82 0.87 0.58 1. I enjoy accepting new green ideas and products. 0.77 2. I enjoy solving environmental problems through green measures. 0.84 3. I enjoy searching for green electronics products that are completely new. 0.74 4. I enjoy giving feedback to improve existing green electronics products. 0.76 5. I feel excited when I have green electronics products. 0.70 Green Extrinsic Motivation 0.88 0.87 0.64 1. I feel motivated by the recognition I earn from people when adopting green electronics products. 0.66 2. I often think about discounts, gifts, and prizes when buying green electronics products. 0.82 3. I have to feel that I am saving something from my green electronics purchases. 0.98 4. I am concerned about how other people are going to react to my green electronics products. 0.68 Table 4 Discriminant validity (HTMT). Constructs GT GA GIM GEM GPI GT GA 0.43 GIM 0.76 0.49 GEM 0.48 0.58 0.75 GPI 0.49 0.32 0.67 0.21 GT=green thinking, GA=green altruism, GIM=green intrinsic motivation, GEM=green extrinsic motivation, GPI=green purchasing intention Green extrinsic motivation, on the other hand, negatively mod- such as green thinking and green altruism is under-explored in en- erates the effect of green intrinsic motivation and green altruism vironmental research. In particular, the current literature is limited on green purchasing intention. Figs. 3 and 4 exhibit that higher to explain how purchasing intentions can be advanced in an inte- green extrinsic motivation marks a lowering effect on green pur- grated framework under the context of environmental thinking and chasing intention when green intrinsic motivation and green altru- affection. By broaching effective insights into how green thinking ism are higher. In other words, we can derive that lower extrin- and green altruism translate into green purchasing intention, the sic motivation leads to higher green purchasing intentions for con- current research contributes to the process—green intrinsic moti- sumers who are intrinsically motivated and characteristically altru- vation as a mediator and green extrinsic motivation as a moderator istic. in consumer behavior and reports the following outcomes. First, green thinking and green altruism produce a significant 5. Discussion positive effect on green purchasing intention, which is in line with the findings of Liu et al. (2017) who compared the effects of con- Although the literature has substantially studied and provided sumers’ evaluation abilities and affection tendencies on green con- empirical evidence about various internal and external antecedents sumption and concluded that consumers’ cognitive as well as af- of green purchasing intentions and buying behaviors, the influenc- fective concerns of how green measures can contribute to the ing mechanism to further dig down psychological characteristics  F. Ali, M. Ashfaq and S. Begum et al. / Sustainable Production and Consumption 24 (2020) 281–291 287 Fig. 2. Estimated structural model. Table 5 Hypotheses assessment. Model HyposPaths Effect b-value t-value p-value Model 1 without mediation H1 GT → GPI Direct effect 0.36 17.54 0.000 H2 GA → GPI Direct effect 0.17 8.21 0.000 Model 2 with mediation of GIM GT → GPI Direct effect 0.10 3.77 0.000 GA → GPI Direct effect 0.02 0.74 0.459 H3 GT → GIM 0.53 25.81 0.000 H4 GA → GIM 0.23 11.85 0.000 H5 GIM → GPI 0.51 21.66 0.000 H6 GT → GPI Indirect effect 0.27 17.32 0.000 H7 GA → GPI Indirect effect 0.12 9.45 0.000 Model 3 with moderation of GEM GT → GPI Direct effect 0.15 5..58 0.000 GA → GPI Direct effect 0.16 3.50 0.001 GT → GIM 0.53 28.53 0.000 GA → GIM 0.23 12.09 0.000 GIM → GPI 0.53 21.49 0.000 GT → GPI Indirect effect 0.28 17.92 0.000 GA → GPI Indirect effect 0.12 10.54 0.000 H8a GT∗ GEM → GPI Moderating effect 0.05 0.99 0.325 H8b GIM∗ GEM → GPI Moderating effect −0.04 2.50 0.013 H8c GA∗ GEM → GPI Moderating effect −0.09 1.87 0.063 GT=green thinking, GA=green altruism, GIM=green intrinsic motivation, GEM=green extrinsic motivation, GPI=green purchasing intention Fig. 3. Moderating effect of green extrinsic motivation on the relationship between green intrinsic motivation and green purchasing intention. 288 F. Ali, M. Ashfaq and S. Begum et al. / Sustainable Production and Consumption 24 (2020) 281–291 Fig. 4. Moderating effect of green extrinsic motivation on the relationship between green altruism and green purchasing intention. green environment reflect an elevated level of pro-environmental Finally, green extrinsic motivation showed a moderating effect behavior. Somewhat contrary to their findings, we found more pro- for green intrinsic motivation and green purchasing intention re- nounced effects of green thinking on green purchasing intention as lationship as well as for green altruism and green purchasing in- compared to the effects of green altruism, which could be due to tention relationship. However, the moderating effects were found the type of product—electronic products in our study which may to be little in size and the negative sign of these relationships is stimulate cognitive ability more than affective feelings while pur- consistent with a motivation theory (Otero-López and Villardefran- chasing. Furthermore, Hartmann and Apaolaza-Ibáñez (2012) re- cos, 2015; Wenjing et al., 2020), which posits that external influ- vealed that environmentally conscious consumers with sufficient encers such as punishment or reward tend to reduce internally- environmental information showed a willingness even to pay more driven interest or enjoyment. Therefore, it becomes essential to un- for green products, supporting the outcome of consumers with derstand that green promotions in marketing may increase green green thinking in this context. Consumers in China have become purchasing intentions in the short run. But these promotions tend well aware of growing environmental issues and, therefore, show to reduce consumers’ genuine interest in the environment, which inclination and thoughtfulness over how to overcome this prob- can ultimately decrease consumers’ green purchasing intention. lem with their green initiatives and behaviors (Leonidou et al., The possible reasons for this occurrence could be the controlling 2017). The spread of global news and increased use of social media effect that external factors have on human behavior, which has have enabled consumers to receive environmental news frequently, the potential to diminish the impact of internal self-driven moti- worrying them about imminent environmental threats and thus vation. Because consumers in China are known for their love with stimulates thought-process about the solutions to this problem nature and tend to pursue their interests during shopping (Yu and (Bedard and Tolmie, 2018). The more consumers feel for the en- Bastin, 2010; Zhang et al., 2018), they are thus more inclined to vironment and cogitate over environmental problems and benefits, buy green electronics products when they are self-absorbed in the more they show a willingness to take green measures which green products. It is insightful to consider that external rewards can lead them to buy green electronics products (Maniatis, 2016) such as discounts or green advertisements would be a little value Second, we find that green intrinsic motivation partially medi- for consumers who are themselves interested in considering buy- ates the relationship between green thinking and green purchas- ing green electronics products out of their environmentally friendly ing intention. This way green intrinsic motivation plays a catalyst characteristics. role and transfers the partial effect of consumers’ green thinking through their love for the environment to green purchasing in- 5.1. Theoretical implications tention. While green intrinsic motivation fully mediates the effect of green altruism on green purchasing intention, explaining how Our research contributes to the literature by introducing a psy- individuals with a tender heart can prefer green products based chological mechanism through which green thinking and green on their interest and enjoyment derived from these products. This altruism influence green purchasing intention for green technol- finding helps drive out the confusion regarding why certain en- ogy products. It explains the direct and indirect impact of green vironmentally friendly individuals are less likely to buy green thinking and green altruism on green purchasing intention through products despite their environmental concerns (Johnstone and green intrinsic motivation. Moreover, these findings add insights to Tan, 2015). Since green intrinsic motivation here is viewed as more the literature of green purchasing intention by testing the roles of involvement in green measures by consumers’ self-interest and en- two novel constructs green intrinsic motivation and extrinsic moti- joyment without being caused by any external stimuli (Liu et al., vations in this process. This way, this research improves the funda- 2017), it strongly influences the underlying mechanism. When con- mental knowledge on the subject and advances the understanding sumers feel that the environment should be safe, and enjoy green- of the role of different motivations in a green product context. ing the environment by recycling, reusing, or saving, they tend to Results support the role of green thinking and green altruism in consider buying green products and bring about effective green shaping consumers’ green behaviors. In particular, the tendency to outcomes (Joshi and Rahman, 2017). This result corresponds to ear- think about and feel for environmental problems and their sub- lier established findings that report that love, passion, and interest sequent solutions leads to develop pro-environmental intentions are vital motivators for any behavior (Liu et al., 2017). Relatedly, it which can be used as indicators of consumers’ ultimate purchase becomes more operational in an environmental context when con- decisions (Klein et al., 2019). The process of thinking and feel- sumers consider it as general global welfare. This way, our findings ing leading to purchasing intention for green electronics products establish that green intrinsic motivation is a necessary constituent is stimulated by the mediating role of green intrinsic motivation, of green purchasing intention. which is a crucial theoretical contribution of this research. Green intrinsic motivation imbibes a massive effect (especially of green  F. Ali, M. Ashfaq and S. Begum et al. / Sustainable Production and Consumption 24 (2020) 281–291 289 altruism) and thus significantly mediates the hypothesized rela- ferences that may share distinctive traits, perceptions, and behav- tionships. It is thereby signifying a central role in promoting green iors for males and females in adopting green electronics products. products and green consumption behaviors. Expectedly, green ex- There are also other prospective gaps for a comparative study such trinsic motivation reduced the effect of green intrinsic motivation as how marketing deception and green thinking can affect green and green altruism on green purchasing intention. These results purchasing intention and how it may differ across cultures or mar- also contribute theoretically; in that, external drivers do not only kets to advance our understanding and knowledge of this buying weaken the effect of intrinsic motivation (interest or enjoyment) process. of consumers but also reduce the affection for the environment. 6. Conclusion 5.2. Practical implications Greener world is hard to make unless both firms and con- The mass production of electronics products in China, coupled sumers begin with thinking green and feel affectionate towards a with green marketing strategies, witness the response to the envi- clean environment collectively. Because of the increasing number ronmentalists’ call for greening measures. Today, more than ever of green productions and businesses, advancing the understand- before, consumers sense what firms are real green and deliber- ing of consumers’ psychology about green products is imperative ate on the products that can impact the environment positively for marketers to grow green consumption. Notably, this research (Mitra et al., 2019). To stimulate consumers’ demand for green uncovers that cognitive antecedent ‘green thinking’ as well as af- electronics products, our research reveals many practical insights fective antecedent ‘green altruism’ contribute to the purchasing for marketers and policymakers. First, promoting ads or messages intention of consumers for green electronics products. The green concerning greening the environment that reinforce thought and intrinsic motivation plays a central role in this process by par- feeling has the potential to lead the consumers to prefer green tially mediating the relationship between green thinking and green products over non-green ones. Second, identifying the consumer purchasing intention and fully mediating the relationship between segment that is self-motivated to engage in greening the environ- green altruism and green purchasing intention. In contrast, green ment, such as taking an interest in planting seeds, decorating sur- extrinsic motivation negatively moderates the effect of green al- roundings with flowers and gardens, and buying green products, truism and green intrinsic motivation on green purchasing inten- can show a prompt response to green marketing initiatives and tion. Therefore, green thinking and green altruism are noteworthy products. Finally, introducing the green rewards in the form of dis- in environmental behavior. These traits should not only be prac- counts, bonuses, trips, or appreciation on green products could re- ticed by firms alone but should also be experienced by consumers. duce the intention of self-motivated consumers to buy green prod- To encourage such experience, more emphasis should be given on ucts (Huang et al., 2016). Therefore, care should be taken when en- employing measures to increase consumers’ intrinsic motivations forcing promotions on green products. Also, we suggest that atten- by creating attractive and interesting green electronics products. tion should be paid to enhancing the feeling and thinking concern- In contrast, marketing promotions of green electronics products ing the current conditions of environmental deterioration. More with respect to discounts, bonuses, or gifts should be carefully importantly, green intrinsic motivation such as interest and joy thought, keeping in mind the possible unfavorable response by that green products can provide should be focused on consumers self-motivated green consumers. Therefore, companies must adopt for the effective adoption of green products. In this way, environ- methods to generate consumers’ attention and feeling towards the mentally friendly and conscious consumers may take up the op- environment. In particular, their objective should be to create con- portunity to contribute to environmental sustainability by buying sumers’ self-interest in green electronics products instead of luring and stimulating the market growth of green products as well as them with external benefits. they may strengthen the confidence of investors and governments to invest in eco-friendly firms (Wu et al., 2018). Declaration of Competing Interest 5.3. Limitations and future research None Although this research presents novel contributions, it is not ex- Supplementary materials empt from various inadequacies and limitations. First, the study focuses on the internal factors of consumer behavior with little Supplementary material associated with this article can be consideration of external factors influencing the consumers’ pur- found, in the online version, at doi:10.1016/j.spc.2020.07.013. chasing intentions. Second, despite large samples, the study is lim- ited to psychological processes and purchase intention without ac- References counting for the actual purchasing behavior of consumers. Third, a cross-sectional survey study might not adequately detect the ef- Abdul-Muhmin, A.G., 2007. Explaining consumers’ willingness to be environmen- fect of antecedents ‘green thinking’ and ‘green altruism’ and in- tally friendly. Int. J. Consum. 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