Organic hair care and the green purchasing gap : A TPB approach

Sammanfattning: The following explores the effects of certain consumer values such as health-, environmental- and appearance consciousness as well as of certain factors of perceived behavioral control such as trust, availability and price on the purchase intention of organic shampoo, in the German organic hair care market. This has been done through combining the theory of Ajzen (2002) about planned behavior and the study done by Yeon Kim and Chung (2011) on the attitude- intention relationship of organic hair care products in the US-market. For this, a quantitative online survey has been conducted, which generated 306 valuable respondents. Correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis as well as an independent sample t-test were executed, in order to accept or reject the relationships among the different variables. From this study it could be found that the consumer value environmental consciousness, as well as trust, as an aspect of perceived behavioral control, influence the intention towards buying organic shampoo. In contrast, the consumer values health- and appearance consciousness as well as the factors price and availability do not show a significant influence. This is why it is suggested to emphasize the marketing of organic shampoos on both environmental consciousness and trust, as they can have a significant influence on the purchase intention and therewith on the future success of the product. Concerning the originality, this paper provides valuable insights for the German organic hair care market, about their customer’s wants and needs. This in turn will give the industry tangible advice for their marketing strategies and campaigns, and will help them prosper in the future. In addition, this paper broadens the perspective towards purchase influencing factors of organic hair care products, by extending and modifying the applications of the theory of planned behavior and the perceived behavioral control in the attitude-intention relationship.