The direct and indirect effect of green purchasing behavior of consumers in the northern region of Malaysia

In the recent years, consumers have started to express their concern over environmental issues, which caused manufacturers together with governments and policy makers to introduce green products as a partial solution. Many studies have put a significant thumbprint in this field, however, with this being an emerging market, there are still many gaps in both literature and in practice. Therefore, this research examines the influence of the perceived value of green products, environmental concern, green advertisement and eco-labels on Malaysian consumers' purchasing behaviour of green products. Furthermore, the study examined the moderating effect of green trust in order to provide a better understanding of the Malaysian consumers' green product purchasing behaviour. This quantitative study presents and discusses empirical findings from a survey of 383 respondents residing in the northern region of Malaysia using partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The results from the structural model revealed that the perceived value of green products together with green advertisement and price were crucial in directly affecting Malaysians' green purchasing behaviour. However, hypothesized paths for environmental concern, eco-label and availability of green products were not supported. The findings further indicate that the links between environmental concern and green purchasing behaviour are stronger when the respondents have high green product trust, supporting the moderating effect of green product trust. Finally, the implications are discussed, and the limitations of the study and future directions are briefly outlined