Pro-environmental behavior in nutricosmetics product purchase context: Scale development and validation

• Published in: International journal of pharmaceutical and healthcare marketing 2020-03, Vol.14 (2), p.217-250
• Main Authors: Quoquab, Farzana, Mohammad, Jihad, Shahrin, Ruzanna
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Attitudes; Behavior; Consciousness; Conservation; Consumer behavior; Consumers; Consumption; Context; Cosmetics; Dietary supplements; Environmental behavior; Environmental impact; Factor analysis; Market shares; Marketing; Purification; Studies
• ISSN: 1750-6123; 1750-6131
• DOI: 10.1108/IJPHM-04-2019-0033

PurposeThough the concern over pro-environmental behavior is growing, there is a lack of a valid scale to measure pro-environmental behavior in nutricosmetics context. Nutricosmetics products are believed to boost health and fitness and thus gained worldwide popularity. Many consumers in recent days are purchasing nutricosmetics products because of its positive impact toward human health and less harm toward the environment. However, to date, there is no valid instrument to measure this construct. To fill this gap in the existing literature, this study aims to develop a valid and reliable scale to measure pro-environmental behavior in nutricosmetics purchase (PEB-NP).Design/methodology/approachTo develop and validate the PEB-NP scale, a sequential process is followed which includes item generation, item selection, item purification and item validation. Relevant literature was reviewed and qualitative interviews were carried out to generate the items. Next, experts’ opinion was sought to select the items. Two studies were conducted (N = 150, N = 448) to explore the factor structure and to validate the scale. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to purify the scale, whereas confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using SmartPLS (version 3) was used to validate the scale.FindingsBased on EFA output, 14 items were retained which were then validated using CFA. The results revealed that, PEB-NP is a hierarchical multi-dimensional construct. The dimensions are “environmental aesthetics,” “conservation behavior (reduce and recycle)” and “health consciousness.” The findings from CFA confirmed the EFA results and established that pro-environmental behavior is a third-order factor model in which conservation dimension is consisted of two sub-dimensions, namely, “reduce” and “recycle” behavior.Practical implicationsThe newly developed scale will enable the marketers and policymakers to segment their consumers based on this scale to better strategize the marketing efforts in fulfilling their needs. Not only this, the PEB-NP scale will benefit marketers in understanding the behavioral pattern and purchase preference of the pro-environmental consumers with regard to the nutricosmetics consumption. This research also provides suggestions for future researchers in the pro-environmental behavior and nutricosmetics fields.Originality/valueThis study is a pioneer study to develop and validate the PEB scale in the context of nutricosmetics purchase.