Identifying factors that affect consumer choice of eco-friendly packaging for drinks in Ho Chi Minh city
Abstract
Research background: Environmental issues in Vietnam are not as new a concept as it used to be a decade ago. Plastic wastes, especially plastic bags and unrecyclable straws that came from the F&B industry were the main culprits behind worsening environmental conditions. Vietnamese consumers, despite being aware of the adverse effects their daily usage of plastics had on the environment, were hardly interested in buying eco-friendly products (Nguyen, A. T., 2018). Deeper knowledge about factors that could lead to buying decisions of green products would help bridge this attitude – behavior gap.
Research aim: This study aims to explore factors that influence consumer choice of eco-friendly drink packaging. Such knowledge would potentially uncover ways in which marketing practitioners, manufacturers, and policy makers address consumers’ environmental concern better, and ultimately stimulate demand for green products.
Research framework: This thesis adapted the Theory of consumption values (Sheth et al., 1991), and added Environmental concern into consideration to test which factors could lead to Consumer choice of eco-friendly packaging for drinks. Questionnaire was distributed within two months in Ho Chi Minh city, and obtained 250 valid responses. Results from PLS-SEM algorithm suggested that, aside from Quality, all predictors had significant impacts on the variable of interest.
Keywords: Theory of consumption values, green product, green consumption, eco-friendly, food and beverage, packaging for drinks, environmental concern.