Young consumers' attitudes towards green products: an empirical study from Greece.

The overconsumption of non environmental friendly products is strongly related to the environmental degradation. Consumers are one of the most important stakeholder groups that their purchase choices affect the environmental degradation. Thus, the need to study the determining factors of green consumption principles has arisen. The purpose of this study is to examine the determinants that affect consumer purchase intentions towards green products. For this purpose we employ cross section data from Athens, Greece. Previous studies have focused on the factors affecting green product purchase intention, such as environmental awareness (Hussain et al., 2014; Cowan and Kinley, 2014, Bernard et al, 2015; Jonell et al., 2016). Others examined the effect of eco-labelling to willingness to pay for eco-friendly products (Bisaws and Roy, 2016; Jonell et al., 2016; Chen et. al., 2015; Ariffin et al, 2016; Dreyer et al., 2016) and the impact of marketing strategies on consumer purchase intentions (Lai et al., 2010; Adams et al., 2011; Awan and Wamig, 2016; Lam et al., 2016). For the purpose of the study, we carried out an extensive survey of young Greek consumers. The survey was based on a questionnaire, which was administered using face-to-face interviews with each consumer. The empirical analysis presents some insights on the determinants that affect consumer purchase intention towards green products. Empirical results are on the estimation of regression models. Results suggest that young consumers are willing to pay for green products. However, quality is found to be an important criterion on the decision to buy green products. Price of the product is also found to be a statistical significant factor. The income of the consumer positively affects their purchasing habits towards eco friendly products. Consumers that are satisfied from the previous consumption of green products are more prone to repurchase green products. It is confirmed that information provided on an eco label has a strong impact on consumers' decisions to buy a green product. The consumers that adopt an eco-friendly lifestyle are more frequently buyers of green products. The research on green consumer behaviour is critical factor to achieve sustainable consumption patterns. An understanding of consumer's behaviour towards green products is important for policy implications since by profiling green consumers attitudes companies can adjust their marketing campaigns to the needs and the characteristics of specific groups. However, further research is needed on the effectiveness of marketing strategies to promote consumers' willingness to purchase green products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]