Effects of ethical values on consumers’ green product purchase intentions. Mediating roles of egobiocentric values and green purchase behaviour. Moderating role of green price sensitivity

Abstract

The study aims to integrate the theory of planned behaviour and the Hunt-Vitell ethical theory to evaluate the effects of ethical values on Gambian consumers’ green product purchase intentions. Also, given the lack of clarity on least developed nations’ consumers’ intentionbehaviour gap, the study evaluates the mediating roles of green product purchase behaviour between green product purchase intentions and green product repurchase intention. Hence, by employing a structural equation modeling with a sample size of 300 Gambians, the findings reveal both deontological evaluations and teleological evaluations exerting positive and significant direct effects on consumers’ green product purchase intentions although the magnitude of the effects is higher with teleological evaluation to deontological evaluations. Further, the relationships between deontological evaluations, teleological evaluation, and green product purchase intention were found to be partially mediated by egobiocentric values. Similarly, green product purchase behaviour also partially mediated the relationship between green product purchase intention and green product repurchase intention. Besides, by evaluating the moderating roles of green price sensitivity between green product purchase intention and green product purchase behaviour, the results indicate green price sensitivity plays a significant moderating role, although the effect differs between high green price sensitive consumers and low green price sensitive consumers. Overall, the findings from the study provide useful insights on how green marketers can position their products in the market by communicating the ethical aspects of their products.