Factors Influencing the Purchase of Energy-Efficient Appliances by Young Consumers in South Africa

Olawale Fatoki

doi:10.2478/fman-2020-0012

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Factors Influencing the Purchase of Energy-Efficient Appliances by Young Consumers in South Africa

Foundations of Management

Volume 12 (2020): Issue 1 (January 2020)

By: Olawale Fatoki

Open Access

|Oct 2020

Figures & Tables

Conceptual framework (*Source:* Author's own research)

Table 1

Descriptive statistics (Source: Author's own research)

Construct	Mean	Standard deviation	Kolmogorov–Smirnov
Attitude	4.10	1.06	0.175
Subjective norms	2.75	1.18	0.102
Perceived behavioral control	3.80	1.03	0.127
Environmental concern	4.10	1.05	0.133
Moral norms	3.98	1.15	0.127
Perceived benefits	4.15	1.09	0.121
Informational publicity	4.02	1.02	0.125
Intention	4.05	1.01	0.127
Behavior	3.10	1.09	0.116

Table 2

The measurement model (Source: Author's own research)

Construct	Measurement items	Item loading	Cronbach's alpha	Composite reliability	AVE
Attitude (A)	A1	0.782	0.739	0.875	0.636
	A2	0.826
	A3	0.805
	A4	0.776
Subjective norm (SN)	SN 1	0.827	0.721	0.792	0.655
	SN2	0.792
	SN3 deleted	0.479
Perceived behavioral control (PBC)	PBC1	0.848	0.814	0.856	0.664
	PBC2	0.827
	PBC3	0.769
Moral norms (MN)	MN 1	0.899	0.727	0.881	0.737
	MN 2	0.836
	MN 3	0.795
Environmental concern	EC1	0.848	0.792	0.884	0.655
	EC2	0.812
	EC 3	0.769
	EC4	0.808
Perceived benefits	PB 1	0.826	0.816	0.882	0.651
	PB 2	0.783
	PB3	0.811
	PB4	0.806
Informational publicity	IB1	0.836	0.729	0.857	0.667
	IB2	0.799
	IB3	0.814
Purchase intention (PI)	PI1	0.829	0.801	0.876	0.635
	PI2	0.786
	P13	0.817
	PI4	0.753
Purchase behavior (PBe)	PBe1	0.899	0.725	0.873	0.711
	PBe2	0.852
	PBe3	0.746

Table 3

Discriminant validity (Source: Author's own research)

Construct	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
A	0.797
SN	0.315	0.809
PBC	0.446	0.520	0.815
MN	0.401	0.464	0.499	0.859
EC	0.416	0.508	0.514	0.459	0.809
IP	0.602	0.643	0.508	0.511	0.606	0.817
PB	0.416	0.524	0.506	0.603	0.646	0.705	0.806
P1	0.524	0.595	0.621	0.575	0.429	0.558	0.602	0.797
PBe	0.493	0.508	0.482	0.445	0.518	0.526	0.599	0.530	0.843

[i] Diagonals in bold signify the square root of the AVE while the other figures depict the correlations

Table 4

Path coefficient and T-statistics (Source: Author's own research)

Hypothesized path	Standardized Beta	T-statistics	Decision
H1: A to P1	0.136	3.042^**	Accepted
H2: SN to PI	0.029	1.129	Rejected
H3: PBC to PI	0.188	3.886^*	Accepted
H4: MN to P1	0.135	3.648^**	Accepted
H5: EC to PI	0.117	2.912^**	Accepted
H6: IP to PI	0.128	3.321^*	Accepted
H7: PB to P1	0.148	2.991^**	Accepted
H8: PI to PBe	0.253	3.385^**	Accepted

* p < 0.01;

** p < 0.05

Concept	Survey items	Response category	Authors
Attitude	I consider the purchase of energy-efficient appliances (EEAs) unfavorable (1)/favorable (5) I consider the purchase of EEA undesirable (1)/desirable (5) I consider the purchase of EEA unpleasant (1)/pleasant (5) I consider the purchase of EEA negative (1)/positive (5)	Semantic differential scale	Hua and Wang (2019) Akroush, et al. (2019)
Subjective norms	Most people who are important to me think I should buy energy-efficient ones when it comes to the choice of household appliances If I buy an EEA, this can influence other people to buy an EEA People whose opinions I value would prefer that I purchase EEAs	Five-point Likert scale with 1 being “strongly disagree” and 5 being “strongly agree”	Chen and Tung (2014) Tan, et al. (2017)
Perceived behavioral control	I can largely decide whether or not to buy an EEA I will have the ability to buy an EEA in the future I am confident that if I want to, I will definitely be able to choose an EEA in the near future	Five-point Likert scale with 1 being “strongly disagree” and 5 being “strongly agree”	Tan, et al. (2017)
Moral norms	It is morally responsible to (other people and/or) the environment for me to conserve the natural resources It is my moral obligation to (other people and/or) the environment for me to save natural resources because they are limited It is my moral obligation to (other people and/or) the environment for me to reduce electricity usage	Five-point Likert scale with 1 being “strongly disagree” and 5 being “strongly agree	Tan, et al. (2017) Shalender and Sharma (2019)
Environmental concern	I think the individuals and the society have the responsibility to protect the environment I think the environmental issues are becoming more serious in recent years I take into account environmental consequences while I buy an appliance I think we should live in harmony with the environment for achieving sustainable development	Five-point Likert scale with 1 being “strongly disagree” and 5 being “strongly agree	Li, et al. (2019) Shalender and Sharma (2019)
Informational publicity	Related informational publicity about climate change and the environment promotes my energy-saving behavior The information learned from newspapers, television, and other media influences my energy-saving behavior Informational publicity has encouraged me to buy EEAs	Five-point Likert scale with 1 being “strongly disagree” and 5 being “strongly agree	Wang, et al. (2014)
Perceived benefits	EEAs give me extra value (e.g. economic value, environmental value, and social value) EEAs have high utility EEAs can meet my product requirements I believe EEAs will save costs	Five-point Likert scale with 1 being “strongly disagree” and 5 being “strongly agree”	Wang, et al. (2017) Akroush, et al. (2019)
Intention to purchase	In the future, I am willing to buy EEAs if I need to have home appliances In the future, I plan to buy appliances with better energy efficiency In the future, I intend to buy appliances with better energy efficiency	Five-point Likert scale with 1 being “strongly disagree” and 5 being “strongly agree”	Wang, et al. (2017) Akroush, et al. (2019)
Purchase behavior	I have purchased EEAs in the past I currently use EEAs Purchasing EEAs makes me feel that I have played a great part in helping the environment	Five-point Likert scale with 1 being “strongly disagree” and 5 being “strongly agree”	Jaiswal and Kant (2018) Chaudhary and Bisai (2018) Bhutto, et al. (2018)