Dissertation on "From Thai Consumers Perspectives What Criteria Influence Consumers Purchasing Behavior Towards Green Product"

Dissertation 45 pages (12814 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

consumers' perspectives, what criteria influence consumers' purchasing behaviour towards green product?

This dissertation could not be accomplished without Professor Sarah hypes, research method lecturer who is my supervisor at Coventry University. I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor for her recommendation and her advices. She encouraged and guided me throughout this dissertation.

Special thanks to all lecturers who taught me in MA Marketing Management course and fulfilled me the knowledge.

In addition, thank you very much to all questionnaire respondents that spend their precious time and information to be a part of my survey and become this dissertation. Thanks you all of my dear friends who always support me and thanks all of Coventry University's Thai society (ThaiCov) that made me happy and enjoy life in UK.

Finally, I would like to say a billion thanks to my parents and my elder sister who always support me in every moment of life.

Abstract

A multitude of elements and changes have emerged throughout the past decades and they have come to impact all aspects of personal and professional life. Within the business community for instance, two of the most important changes have materialized in the growing focus on customer data as a source of customer satisfaction, but also the growing needs of the population, which is now becoming more environmentally conscious and demanding as such environmentally friendly processes, decisions, products and services.

This situation has initially occurred within the western hemisphere, particularly within the United States of America and several European countries. It has managed to become globally spread and to direct consumers and businesses in all global regions to become more environmentally responsible. Regarding this context, the current research endeavor focuses on the status of green products in Thailand, specifically on the attitudes and purchase decisions towards green products among the population of young Thai consumers.

The starting point is established of the background for this study and its objectives. The objectives are understood as the gradual goals which need to be completed in order to ensure that the overall aim is achieved. Once the background and the research aims, objectives and research. Nevertheless, the questions of the research would be answered by direct interaction with the young Thai consumers rather than from secondary sources. In other words, the literature review only constitutes a starting point in the analysis to be conducted as it introduces the researcher and the reader to the topic and presents the findings which have already been made.

As a series of secondary sources are assessed, the research endeavor moves on to revealing the research plan or the methodology to be used in the construction of the findings. At this stage, several elements are discussed, including the sample selected to conduct the research, a discussion of the questionnaire and the presentation of the focus group research methodology.

Once this stage of the work is completed, another is commenced. The next section deals with the collection of the information, their processing, presentation and the discussion of the findings. At an overall level, the research findings are consistent with the findings in the specialized literature. For instance, as previous academic studies have shown, the decision to purchase green products is associated with higher levels of education as well as with higher levels of income.

Ultimately, the research project comes to an end with a section on concluding remarks which restates and summarizes the most important findings of the endeavor. Aside conclusions, this section also presents several recommendations for green product businesses to consider in order to improve their levels of customer satisfaction. These recommendations include the development and implementation of green strategy within the internal structures and processes of the organization or the constant collection of customer data in order to quickly adjust to emergent needs and requirements. Finally, the last section also draws on the findings and applies them in the identification of several questions to sit at the basis of future research endeavors.

Chapter 1: Background and Objectives

This chapter introduces the context of the research problem, reveals the background of the study as well as states the research questions and aims and objectives.

Background

In the modern day business community is extremely complex and marked by elements such as an incremental emphasis on consumer benefit, environmental friendliness or employee motivation. In this multifaceted context, the organizational leader is faced with incremental pressures, and present one being the satisfaction of the customers' needs and demands.

Throughout the past decades, the consumers have suffered from a process of modification by which they turned from the force purchasing the products manufactured by the economic agents into the force demanding what items to be manufactured and sold. With the customers growing more and more demanding and pretentious, elements such as product quality or high quality services are no longer sufficient in attracting and retaining customers. It is now necessary to know and understand the customers, to ensure that organizations create value through the purchase and to ensure that they simultaneously meet the demands of as many stakeholder categories as necessary.

In order to comply with these needs, economic agents have placed incremental emphasis on a multitude of marketing endeavors. This very project is in fact a marketing endeavor aimed at recognizing the perspectives and behaviors of Thai consumers regarding green products. The research question was born out of a combination of two distinct areas of contemporaneous interest that is customer understanding and green products. In a context in which environmental threats are more and more common, the business community and the consumers are striving to become more environmentally responsible (Johri and Sahasakmontri, 1998). This materializes in a series of efforts, including the replacement of older technologies with newer and more energy efficient ones, the sustained efforts in reducing greenhouse gases emissions or the creation of green products.

The market for green products is still emergent and intriguing. On the other hand, the market for green products is perceived as the necessary solution to implement a healthier life style not only for the environment, but for the populations as well. In contrast, the market for green products is perceived as expensive and more of a trend, rather than a real necessity. In order to get to the bottom of the argument, it is necessary to directly interact with the customers and comprehend their views, including their perspectives or the criteria which influence their buying behavior.

During this decade, the purchasing decisions of individual consumers are no longer pegged strictly to product quality, but a series of social and environmental factors have emerged to influence a client to finalize a purchase (Menon et al., 1999). The green market is influencing consumers on all corners of the world to become more environmentally conscious. Within the western hemisphere for instance, green marketing has been becoming more and more popular since the 1980s decade (Ottman et al., 2006). According to a study conducted in 1996 on European countries, it has been found that 88 per cent of the German consumers were prepared to switch to green products. Similarly, In Italy and Spain, the percentages indicated 84, 82 per cent respectively. Within the United States of America, an estimated 52 million households were believed to be included in the green market (Wasik, 1996). The trend emerged within the western hemisphere and it is now gaining more popularity globally. It is in this context expected that green marketing commence plays more important role in the eastern hemisphere as well, with Asian economic agents and individual consumers placing more emphasis on environmental stability. Moreover, within the business community, it has materialized in the necessity for companies to also develop and implement environmentally friendly strategies. "While products and packaging will need to be brought into line with escalating consumer and regulatory demands, companies need to be seen as environmentally responsible. In the age of environmental consumerism, the perception is reality" (Ottman, et al., 2006).

But the elements and features of green markets cannot be extrapolated to explain the entire world, but they need to be understood in specific context. In the context of the Asian continent, a major threat to environmental stability is posed by the emergent industry, which generates alarming pollution. The rapid growth in industrial activities remains the root of pollution within the Asian region. Subsequently, Carter and Narasimhan (2000) expect that in the current decade would bring about enhanced consumer awareness over environmental issues.

In Thailand for instance, the environmental threats revolve around a wide range of environmental problems such as deforestation, wildlife trade, soil erosion, and air and water pollution relevance to green purchasing (WWF, 2010). The environmental problem is deforestation through which attempts are made to convert forested land into agricultural land. The direct effect was that Thailand's forest cover dropped from 53% in 1961 to 25% by 1998. Deforestation generates a tremendous impact to global warming as well.

Then, as the result of the rapid industrial expansion in Thailand, high levels of air and water pollution have… READ MORE

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