The influence of personal motives and personal norm on purchasing sustainable products

Abstract

This paper investigates personal motives and their role in predicting the purchaseof sustainable products. Five types of personal motives were identified and testedby applying structural equation modelling. The present research also confirms theinfluence of inherent constructs of the Theory of Planned Behaviour. It investigatesthe role of personal norms, often neglected in previous research. The resultsrevealed that altruism, generativity, and environmental concern significantlypositively influence the attitude toward purchasing sustainable products.Furthermore, a negative impact of frugality on the attitude towards purchasingsustainable products was found. It confirms that, although pro-environmentalbehaviour can be seen as frugal behaviour, frugality can harm the attitude towardspurchasing sustainable products if consumers perceive sustainable products asmore expensive. However, the impact of health consciousness on the attitudetowards the purchase of sustainable products was found to be insignificant, whichcould be explained by the fact that consumers may not perceive all sustainableproducts to be healthier, indicating that this variable is category-specific. Finally,a positive impact of personal norms on the intention to purchase sustainableproducts was confirmed, indicating that personal norms should be included inprediction models alongside social norms.