Young Consumer Green Purchase Behavior

Environmental pollution is increasing day by day which is causing serious threats to our planet. Global warming, increase in temperature, melting of glaciers are some of issues which the world is facing now. Due to ease of information sharing and technology business across the globe has become quite easier and businesses are operating in whole world. Multinationals are working in whole world. Business is one of the sources of pollution. The production process, supply chain process and many other processes from manufacturing to end product cause pollution. So, to prevent Earth from pollution concept of green marketing emerged which means to produce products which are eco-friendly and then promote these products through ecofriendly ways. The main aim of a company is to satisfy consumers. So, company keeps focus on the factors which forces the consumer to buy the product. Consumer can be motivated by various factors while purchasing product. In this paper those factors are discussed and their effect is measured on green purchase behavior. According to environmental performance index Pakistan is among top 12 countries which are affected by pollution. Meanwhile according to DAWN newspaper 2019 Pakistan has largest population of youngsters in history. So, this paper investigates the factors that influence green purchase behavior of young students.


Introduction
Due to hazards to environment, green marketing has gained importance. According to Mintu & Lozada (1993) green marketing is implementation of marketing tools that not only satisfy organization and consumer needs but it preserve, protect, and conserve physical environment. According to American Marketing Association, Yazdanifard & Mery (2011) green marketing is approach to marketing whose focal point is environmental safety which includes activities like packaging, modification, green ads, and production process.
Environmentally concern consumers pay leading role in reducing problems related to environment (Laroche, Bergeron & Barbavo-Ferleo, 2001;Mustafa, 2006;Zelezny et al., 2000;Milfont, 2012,) like in other continents, in Asia green marketing has also become popular. (Gurau & Ranchod, 2005 ;Khan & Kirmani,2015 ;Uddin & Khan,2016).Marketers are showing great interest in ecological climate. Organizations lack of interest in environmental issues encouraged consumers to shift their focus towards green movement (Mandelson & Polonsky, 1995). Companies are trying to gain competitive advantage over other firms by applying different strategically approaches and by relocating consumers thinking using green products (Elham Rahbar, 2011). Trust, Belief, taste of young customer depends upon external and internal factors. Internal factors are usually psychological factors like needs, motivations, personality and characteristics, ability to learn (Olejniczak-Merto, 2009, p52-53).External factors are economic, cultural, family, groups and opinion leaders. Since, young consumers have sufficient environmental knowledge, so they act as potential force for the protection of environment. (Caruana & Rosella , 2003).Young consumers can be influencing tool for their peers (Moses, 2000;Lee, 2009).But research of (McCrndle, 2005) disclosed that environmental awareness and peer impact did not change into actual behavior, still there is gap, a value action gap.

Background of Study
Consumer purchasing pattern has been altered due to rapid growth in population. (Gruber & Schlegelmilch, 2014). Advancement in technology and consumption of non-sustainable products has played their part in creating problems for environment. Lancet commission report on pollution and health (2017) blamed pollution for the death of 9 million people. Environmental pollution has existed for centuries but got attention in 19 th century after industrial revolution (internet). According to United nations every year world uses 500 billion plastic bags,8 million tons of plastic ends up in ocean. (Axelrod & Lehman 1993: pg. 153) In order to determine the ecological behavior psychologists, focus on individual behavior instead of focusing the behavior of whole society (i.e. which actions will make contribution towards preservation of nature). So environmental attitude can answer these questions. (New house,1990). Over last three decades vast study have been conducted to find the factors of consumer behavior. (main) Balder-jahn, 1988;Bamberg, 2003;Kaiser & Fuhrer, 2003;Bamberg & Moser, 2007;Chen& Chai, 2010;Cholette et al., 2013;Punyatoya, 2014).
According to DAWN (2019) Pakistan has largest percentage of young people in its history. According to UNDP report 64% of population is below 30 while 29% are between 15 to 29 years. As Pakistan has largest percentage of youngsters so they can play leading role in protection of environment. Since youngsters have innovative mindset and they have knowledge, they can be source of promotions of green products. So, this study explores the relationship between green purchasing behavior and factors such as knowledge, altruism, interpersonal influence, and environmental attitude in the context of young consumers of Pakistan.

Problem Statement
Due to increase in world population, consumption of consumers is increasing which leads to pollution i. Pollution is creating serious threats for our plant. Change in weather, melting of glaciers, depletion of ozone is some threats for Earth. Companies are diverting towards ecofriendly products to reduce the impact of harmful products and production procedures on environment. Consumers green buying behavior is influenced by various factors so this study tends to see the impact of various variables on green purchase behavior.

Research Gap
Previous studies measured the impact of altruism, environmental knowledge, interpersonal influence on green purchase behavior wit mediating role environtonal attitude but this research will measure the direct influence of these variables on green purchase behavior of young consumers of Pakistan.

Research Objective
 To measure direct influence of altruism  To measure direct influence of, environmental knowledge on green purchase behavior  To measure direct influence of interpersonal influence on green purchasing behavior.

Research Question
 What is impact of altruism on green purchase behavior of young consumer?  What is impact of environmental knowledge on green purchase behavior of young consumer?  What is impact of interpersonal influence on green purchase behavior of young consumer?

Research Model
Hypothesis: H1: There is direct influence of altruistic values on green purchase behavior H2: There is direct influence of, environmental knowledge on green purchase behavior H3: There direct influence of interpersonal influence on green purchasing behavior.

Research Design
This is descriptive research. Survey method was used to conduct the research. Different respondents were surveyed. 2.1.1 Instrument Research instrument consist of two sections. First section comprises of validated scales which were taken from previous studies. Whereas second section consist of demographic characteristics of the respondents. Research instrument consist of 5 constructs. interpersonal influence (IP), environmental knowledge (EK), altru-ism (ALT), environmental attitude (EA), and green purchasing behavior (GPB). The EK measure com-prised four statements and was adapted from (Ellen et al., (1991); Suki 2013). Five items to measure IP were adapted from Bearden et al. (1989). There were four scale items to measure GPB, while the EA scale had five statements adapted from Lee (2009). The five items employed to measure ALT were borrowed and modified from the study by Shwartz (1977).

Data collection
English is spreading fast in Pakistan. According to Wikipedia 92 million of population has command over English language. Pakistan produces 445000 university graduates every year. This researcher-controlled sampling was employed. So final research tool was administrated on graduated and undergraduate student of different universities of Multan.

Population
The population of the research consists of English medium university of Multan. University of education Lahore, Multan campus.

Sample
Sample is the representative part of the population. So, researcher collected data from 100 students by distributing questioner for data collection pen and paper format was used.

Green Purchase Behavior
The purchase of eco-friendly products and avoiding the products which are harmful avoiding the products which are harmful to environment is known as green purchase behavior (Chano, 2001). Most oftenly green purchase intention and green buying behavior are measures of green purchasing. Willingness of consumers to pay for green products is known as green purchase intention. Green purchase behavior of consumer is influenced by factors which captured by intention (Ramayah, Lee & Mohammad, 2010).Green purchase behavior is regarded as socially responsible behavior. A green consumer consider himself as socially responsible consumer and he always keep in mind the public consequences that might others have to face due to his private consumption. He try to utilize his purchasing power to change the society ( Morsander, 2005).
For the explanation of green purchase behavior the focal point of the previous was underlying attitudes, values and intention towards eco-friendly products ( Foxall & Pallister,2002;Vermeir & Verbeke, 2006;Wheale & Hinton, 2007). The theory of reasoned action (TRA) by Ajzen & Fishbein (1980) and the theory of planned behavior (TPB) were 2 approaches that most of the studies followed. According to TRA there are2 factors that determine the behavior of the individual which are individual attitudes and social norms. TPB included additional factor which was individual behavior-perceived behavior control.

Environmental Attitude
All favorable or unfavorable responses of individual towards certain thing, place or object can be referred as attitude (khan & khan 2006). There are 3 basic components of attitude: cognitive (thinking about the object) conative (include action) affective (feeling about object) (Breckler,1984). There might be confusion with attitudes and other construct such as beliefs and values, opinions, personal norms. Although these construct to some extent relates to the components of attitudes but there is difference. ( Shrigley, Koballa & Simpon, 1988 pg 659).
Environmental attitude is explained along with similar lines. The ability to assess the condition of environmental in favorable or unfavorable responses (Milfont & Duckitt, 2010).Green purchase behavior of individual is affected by environmental attitude (Laroche et al., 2001Lee, 2001Akhurst et al., 2012;Zhao et al., 2014). If individual are concerned about environment, they will behave to minimize the impact of one's actions on nature and there will be positive affect on green purchase decision (Chan & Lau, 2001;Laroche et al., 2001;Chen & Chai, 2010;Zsoka et al., 2013;nguyen et al., 2017).
According to previous studies, one of the most relevant factors of green purchase behavior is environmental attitude (Stern & Dietz, 1994;Lee, 2011;Akeshurst et al., 2012;Uddin & Khan, 2016a). There is substantial impact of environmental attitude on green buying behavior of youngster (Kaise et al., 2007).

Interpersonal Influence
According to S.M. Fateh & M. Naeved Khan (2018) interpersonal influence is composed of persuading others or convincing others. Interpersonal influence is widely accepted as one of determinants of individual (Bearden et al., 1989;Cheah & Phau, 2011). According to suggestion of Stanford & Cocan…..1977 ip3) to fully understand behavior of consumer effects of interpersonal influence on formation of values, attitudes, aspiration and purchase behavior should be considered. Family and friends are the source of giving awareness about eco-friendly products to consumers friends (Cheah & Phau, 2011;Lim et al., 2014). Many researchers have proposed that buying behavior of consumers is shaped by the influence of peer's consumers (Singh et al., 2006;Kaur & Singh, 2007;Lueg & Finney, 2007;Lee, 2011). Social groups and norms also influence attitude of consumer towards green products (Chan & Lau, 2001;Lee, 2009;Kim & Chung, 2011. Cheah & Phau (2011.

Altruism
Definition of Matear (1993) describe altruism as kind behavior for benefit of others and without expecting any reward. Leads (1963) stated that altruism is voluntarily performed behavior that is beneficial to at least single individual and action is done without any desire or demand of any reward. Altruistic behavior is shaped by personality traits. The actions which are done with intention of helping others are called altruism. Biological and evolutionary minds tend to focus on potential benefits of particular behavior while psychologist interest is in knowing the motivation behind particular behavior. According to biological view point behavior which reduces the fitness of one individual while increasing the fitness of other individual is altruism.

Environmental Knowledge
Knowledge is important factor that influence the ways of customer collection, organization of information and the ways by which consumer evaluate product and services (Syahbandi, 2012). Environmental knowledge is the awareness of general public on health and welfare issues. It also includes the issues that rise from negative impact of harmful gasses, pollutants, chemicals and potential issues that affect positive attitude regarding green products (Ali et al.  A. Dependent Variable: Green purchase behavior Interpretation: According to ANOVA table value of significant is 0.25 which is less than 0.05 so our hypothesis is accepted that there is significant relationship between green purchase behavior and environmental attitude. The value of R square is 0.50 which means environmental attitude can influence GPB up to 5%.