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Research Journal of Social Science & Management - RJSSM - The ...

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message that answers this question is preferable to<br />

generalities that require the buyer to search for meaning.<br />

6. Green marketing is an evolving discipline, but uses<br />

similar marketing tools to more established marketing areas.<br />

Campaigns that leverage user commentary, case studies,<br />

thought leadership initiatives and other means attract<br />

potential buyers and establishes a comfort level with your<br />

company.<br />

Methodology<br />

Hypotheses<br />

Based on the previously cited theoretical and empirical<br />

literatures, the following hypotheses referring to the sales<br />

were proposed.<br />

Hypothesis 1: There is a significant difference between male<br />

and female in their attitude towards environment and Green<br />

Products.<br />

Hypothesis 2: There is a significant relationship between<br />

consumer’s attitude towards government’s role and their<br />

attitude on green products.<br />

Hypothesis 3: There is a significant relationship between<br />

Green Labeling and product sell<br />

Hypothesis 4 There is a significant relationship between<br />

Cost and Greenness <strong>of</strong> the products.<br />

Hypothesis 5: Cost is deciding factor for sell and purchase<br />

<strong>of</strong> Green Products.<br />

Research Instruments<br />

In order to obtain reliable information from the respondents,<br />

established and validated scales were selected for data<br />

collection. In this study, the survey instrument <strong>of</strong> attitudes<br />

toward the environment as the independent variable was<br />

adopted from the scales developed by Tantawi et al. (2007).<br />

Only Fifteen items were used out <strong>of</strong> the original 38 items.<br />

Some items were dropped, as it was not suitable in the<br />

Indian context. The dependent construct, attitude towards<br />

green product was derived from Mostafa (2006) and consists<br />

<strong>of</strong> two items. The respondents were asked to rate each item<br />

on a 5-point Likert scale from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 =<br />

strongly agree. Schuessler (1971) stated that a scale is<br />

considered reliable if it has an alpha value greater than 0.60.<br />

Hair et al. (1998) added that reliability estimates between<br />

0.60 and 0.70 represent the lower limit <strong>of</strong> acceptability in<br />

quantitative research studies. Due to the exploratory nature<br />

<strong>of</strong> this research, alpha value greater than 0.60 for reliability<br />

estimates is considered adequate.<br />

Data Collection and Characteristics <strong>of</strong> Respondents<br />

The questionnaires for this study were administered to 500<br />

citizens from a major cities in India. Ferber (1977) argued<br />

that using citizens sample is considered valid for exploratory<br />

studies. Furthermore, citizens are representing the new<br />

generation <strong>of</strong> consumers and have been a growing<br />

population <strong>of</strong> consumers in India. The survey was conducted<br />

online, personally and telephonically with proper care,<br />

assured anonymity. Participation was voluntary and no<br />

remuneration was <strong>of</strong>fered. The respondents were consisted<br />

<strong>of</strong> both sexes and <strong>of</strong> different races. A total <strong>of</strong> 472<br />

completed the questionnaires (yielding a response rate <strong>of</strong><br />

94.4%) were obtained and deemed sufficiently complete to<br />

be useable. The majority <strong>of</strong> the respondents were female<br />

(67.4%) and <strong>of</strong> Indian ethnicity (89.2%).<br />

Findings:<br />

About 90% <strong>of</strong> the respondents considered environment<br />

friendly products to be safe for nature. Concern for future on<br />

one hand and cost effectiveness on the other extreme <strong>of</strong> the<br />

spectrum <strong>of</strong> highly idealistic to highly pragmatic clients<br />

were articulated by very few respondents (about 10 per cent<br />

each). Apparently the customers are appraising the products<br />

on safety to nature and human health. While the cost is not<br />

mentioned as a major consideration, it becomes crucial<br />

when the willingness to pay the premium is inquired.<br />

About 75 per cent respondent were willing to buy most<br />

environment friendly products and the 40 per cent<br />

respondent had actually never bought one. Most important<br />

aspect <strong>of</strong> this dimension is that the ones who were willing to<br />

pay premium for one kind <strong>of</strong> green good were willing to pay<br />

premium for other goods as well and more or less in the<br />

same range.<br />

Attitudinal Pr<strong>of</strong>ile:<br />

Several iterations were tried to understand the attitudinal<br />

pr<strong>of</strong>ile <strong>of</strong> different groups <strong>of</strong> consumers. There are primarily<br />

four kinds <strong>of</strong> consumers at the most general level we could<br />

discern from this survey:<br />

The Motivated mobilizers are wiring to join an ecological<br />

club, pay pollution tax, do not think that environmental<br />

problems are for government to worry about.<br />

The populist mobilizers are those who will not hesitate in<br />

carrying a plastic bag even for those things which can be<br />

carried otherwise, consider government to be responsible for<br />

environmental problems, do not try to save energy and have<br />

never shifted brands due to environmental reasons.<br />

The passive committed consumers are responsible for their<br />

own conduct but do not want to bother others. They are<br />

highly educated, are aware <strong>of</strong> many brands <strong>of</strong> environmental<br />

friendly products, and do make effort to save energy.<br />

The indifferent and indolent consumers have never<br />

contacted any agency for reducing pollution, never looked<br />

around for organic products and consider environmental<br />

problems to be the concern <strong>of</strong> government.<br />

Conclusion<br />

The correlates <strong>of</strong> the attempt to look around for organic food<br />

articles provide an interesting insight about the people<br />

behave. Those who never looked around for organic<br />

products will prefer to use a plastic bag even when the<br />

things can be carried otherwise, will not carry a cloth bag,<br />

may not join an ecological club, may not donate a day’s<br />

salary, neither will stop buying products <strong>of</strong> companies that<br />

are guilty <strong>of</strong> pollution, and <strong>of</strong> course are unwilling to pay<br />

www.theinternationaljournal.org > RJSSM: Volume: 01, Number: 10, Feb-2012 Page 30

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