Male consumers' pro-environmental motivation and intent to acquire eco-friendly apparel in South ...

166 Pages·2015·3.75 MB·English

by  Sandra Taljaard

Male consumers’ pro-environmental motivation and intent to acquire eco-friendly apparel
in South Africa

HANRI TALJAARD
(29111774)

Dissertation

M Consumer Science (Clothing Retail Management)

Supervisor: NC Sonnenberg (University of Pretoria)
Co-supervisor: BM Jacobs (University of Pretoria)

July 2015
Male consumers’ pro-environmental motivation and intent to acquire eco-friendly apparel
in South Africa

by

Hanri Taljaard

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree
M Consumer Science (Clothing Retail Management)

In the

Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Department of Consumer Science
UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA

The financial assistance of the National Research Foundation (NRF) towards this research is
hereby acknowledged. Opinions expressed and conclusions arrived at, are those of the author
and are not necessarily to be attributed to the NRF.

Supervisor: NC Sonnenberg (University of Pretoria)
Co-supervisor: BM Jacobs (University of Pretoria)

July 2015
DECLARATION

I, Hanri Taljaard, declare that this dissertation, which I hereby submit for the degree of M in
Consumer Science: Clothing Retail Management at the University of Pretoria, is my own
work and has not previously been submitted by me for a degree at this or any other tertiary
institution. I also confirm that all reference material in the dissertation has been duly
acknowledged.

HANRI TALJAARD

July 2015

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Throughout the duration of this dissertation various people have assisted and encouraged me
for which I am very grateful and I would like to thank:

 My two supervisors, Nadine Sonnenberg and Bertha Jacobs, for their enthusiasm,
words of encouragement, guidance and patience throughout.
 Andries Masenge and Loina Bodenstein, from the Department of Statistics at the
University of Pretoria, for their time, statistical guidance and assistance during data
processing and analysis.
 The National Research Foundation (NRF) for their financial assistance towards this
research. Opinions expressed and conclusions arrived at, are those of the author and
are not necessarily to be attributed to the NRF.
 The University of Pretoria for granting financial support for my studies.
 Hanlie van Heerden, for her assistance in editing my dissertation.
 My fellow post graduate students and colleagues at the University of Pretoria for
continuously motivating and supporting me.
 All my friends and family that kept enquiring about the dissertation and continuously
encouraged me as well as reassured me that I could do it.
 My two sisters, Tialise and Danielle, for their loving enquiries, their encouraging quotes,
and our spontaneous afternoon outings when one of us is “down”. You mean the world to
me and continuously inspire me in every way. Life would be “ordinary” without you two.
 My parents, Johan and Sandra, for always believing in me, always being proud of me
and never doubting the fact that I am capable of anything that comes my way.
 The Lord, who keeps me going by keeping the lamp of my life burning every day (Psalm
18:28), and for always calming the storm in my life when strong winds blow and waters
grow rough (John 6:18).

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SUMMARY

Male consumers’ pro-environmental motivation and intent to acquire eco-friendly apparel
in South Africa

By

HANRI TALJAARD

Supervisor: Mrs N Sonnenberg
Co-Supervisor: Mrs BM Jacobs
Department: Consumer Science
Degree: Masters in Consumer Science (Clothing Retail Management)

Keywords: Pro-environmental behaviour, sustainability, apparel industry, apparel acquisitions,
Theory of planned behaviour, Norm-activation theory, eco-friendly apparel/clothing, South
African consumers

Over the past few years, humans’ consumption patterns have increased in such a way that
natural resources are being depleted and pollution of the environment continuously increases
because of the way they are living. The textile and apparel industry is also a big contributor to
numerous environmental problems as it is one of the most polluting industries in the world. Both
the consumers as well as the textile and apparel industry have neglected the necessity of pro-
environmental behaviour in recent years and therefore it has not yet become a familiar concept
in terms of apparel acquisitions. This research study focuses on exploring and describing male
consumers’ pro-environmental motivation and intent to acquire eco-friendly apparel in the South
African market. The intention was to introduce empirical evidence that could contribute to
addressing the factors that influence pro-environmental intent with regards to apparel in the
South African context. Therefore the research hypotheses as well as the framework of the
research study focus on the various components or constructs from the Norm-Activation Theory
(NAT) and the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) as influencing factors for acquiring eco-
friendly apparel in a pro-environmental manner. The relevant concepts of the NAT (i.e.
awareness of consequences, moral norms) together with all the applicable concepts related to
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the TPB (i.e. social norms, attitude, perceived behavioural control, and behavioural intent) were
included into the conceptual framework for this research study. Perceived behavioural control in
particular, was extended and separated into two sub-components, namely perceived self-
efficacy and controllability. For this research study, the apparel acquisition methods included
apparel acquisition limits as well as apparel acquisitions based on pro-environmental attributes.

The research study was conducted in the Gauteng province with a sample of 305 male
consumers. Male consumers were specifically selected as it has been found that pro-
environmental behaviour seems to be less popular amongst male consumers. There also seems
to be limited research regarding male apparel consumers and their apparel consumption
behaviours in the South African context, contrary to female consumers and their apparel
consumption behaviours. A quantitative research approach was used, with a cross-sectional
survey design, for exploratory research purposes and respondents were reached by means of
non-probability, convenience and snowball sampling methods. Respondents completed online
as well as paper-based questionnaires that were developed according to the constructs and
hypotheses of the research study. Lastly, the data was captured and coded by the researcher,
and then analysed by statisticians of the University of Pretoria by making use of descriptive and
inferential statistics.

The results indicated that the respondents seem to be quite aware of the consequences that the
apparel industry and consumers have on the environment. It also appears to influence their
overall behavioural intent quite significantly. However, it would seem that the male consumers
that participated in this research study are not significantly influenced by their social and moral
norms while making decisions regarding the process of acquiring eco-friendly apparel in a pro-
environmental manner. The male consumers’ attitudes and self-efficacy regarding pro-
environmental apparel behaviour contributed significantly to their pro-environmental intent.
Controllability was not seen as a significant predictor and continued to be a challenging
construct throughout the duration of this research study, with various obstacles that need to be
further explained and/or explored in the future research.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION………………………………………………………………………………….…..…….i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………………….…………….ii
SUMMARY………………………………………………………………………………………………..iii
LIST OF TABLES …………………………………………………….…………………………..…....viii
LIST OF FIGURES……………………………………………………………………………..……..…ix
LIST OF ADDENDA…………………………………………………………………………………..….x

CHAPTER 1: THE STUDY IN PERSPECTIVE .......................................................................... 1
1.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 1
1.1.1 Males’ apparel consumption in the South African market ........................................ 2
1.2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ........................................................................................ 4
1.3 RESEARCH PROBLEM ..................................................................................................... 6
1.4 JUSTIFICATION OF THE RESEARCH .............................................................................. 7
1.5 OVERALL OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH STUDY .................................................. 10
1.6 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY ................................................................. 11
1.7 DEFINITIONS OF TERMS AND CONCEPTS .................................................................. 12
1.8 PRESENTATION AND OUTLINE OF THE STUDY .......................................................... 14
1.9 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................. 15

CHAPTER 2: A REVIEW OF LITERATURE ............................................................................. 16
2.1 GENDER .......................................................................................................................... 16
2.2 PRO-ENVIRONMENTAL CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR ...................................................... 17
2.3 PRO-ENVIRONMENTAL APPAREL ACQUISITIONS ...................................................... 20
2.3.1 Need-based apparel acquisition............................................................................ 20
2.3.2 Apparel acquisitions based on pro-environmental attributes ................................. 21
2.3.3 Apparel acquisitions through pro-environmental sources ...................................... 24
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2.4 SUPPORTING THEORIES TO EXPLAIN MALE CONSUMERS’ PRO-ENVIRONMENTAL
APPAREL INTENTIONS .................................................................................................. 25
2.4.1 The Norm-Activation Theory (NAT) and the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) . 26
2.4.2 Awareness of consequences ................................................................................ 28
2.4.3 Social Norms ........................................................................................................ 31
2.4.4 Attitude ................................................................................................................. 35
2.4.5 Moral Norms ......................................................................................................... 35
2.4.6 Perceived Behavioural Control (PBC) ................................................................... 36
2.4.7 Perceived self-efficacy .......................................................................................... 37
2.4.8 Controllability ........................................................................................................ 38
2.4.9 Behavioural Intent ................................................................................................. 39
2.5 THE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK ................................................................................ 40
2.6 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................. 42

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ........................................................................... 43
3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN ....................................................................................................... 43
3.2 SAMPLE AND SAMPLING TECHNIQUE ......................................................................... 44
3.3 INSTRUMENT DEVELOPMENT ...................................................................................... 46
3.4 DATA COLLECTION ........................................................................................................ 53
3.5 DATA ANALYSIS ............................................................................................................. 54
3.6 QUALITY OF DATA ......................................................................................................... 55
3.7 ETHICAL ISSUES ............................................................................................................ 57
3.8 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................. 58

CHAPTER 4: DISCUSSION AND INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS ..................................... 59
4.1 DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SAMPLE............................................... 59
4.1.1 Gender ................................................................................................................. 59
4.1.2 Age ....................................................................................................................... 60
4.1.3 Population group .................................................................................................. 61
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4.1.4 Level of education ................................................................................................ 62
4.1.5 Area of residence ................................................................................................. 64
4.1.6 Respondents’ income per month .......................................................................... 65
4.2 RESPONDENTS’ CURRENT APPAREL BEHAVIOUR AND THEIR EXPERIENCE WITH
REGARDS TO PRO-ENVIRONMENTAL BEHAVIOUR ................................................... 67
4.2.1 Current apparel purchasing and store patronage behaviour ................................. 67
4.2.2 Past experience and familiarity with pro-environmental apparel acquisitions ........ 69
4.2.3 Respondents’ subjective knowledge regarding pro-environmental apparel
acquisitions ........................................................................................................... 72
4.3 RESPONDENTS’ PRO-ENVIRONMENTAL MOTIVATION AND INTENT TO ACQUIRE
ECO-FRIENDLY APPAREL ............................................................................................. 77
4.3.1 Results and interpretation of the Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) ..................... 77
4.3.2 Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) ..................................................................... 90
4.3.3 Bivariate correlation: Pearson’s correlation coefficient .......................................... 92
4.3.4 Multiple regression analysis .................................................................................. 96
4.3.5 Path analysis ...................................................................................................... 102
4.4 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................... 105

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................................... 106
5.1 REFLECTION OF THE STUDY ..................................................................................... 106
5.2 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS ............................................................................................. 108
5.3 CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................................................. 111
5.4 IMPLICATIONS FOR INDUSTRY AND POLICY FORMULATION ................................. 119
5.5 THEORETICAL CONTRIBUTION .................................................................................. 121
5.6 LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH ...................... 123
5.7 FINAL CONCLUSION .................................................................................................... 125

LIST OF REFERENCES ......................................................................................................... 126

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LIST OF TABLES

TABLE TITLE PAGE

TABLE 1.1 DEFINITIONS OF TERMS AND CONCEPTS……………………………….. 12
TABLE 3.1 OPERATIONALISATION TABLE…………………………………………….. 50
TABLE 4.1 AGE CATEGORIES OF RESPONDENTS…………...………………………. 60
TABLE 4.2 REPRESENTATION OF POPULATION GROUP…………..……………….. 62
TABLE 4.3 RESPONDENTS’ LEVEL OF EDUCATION………………………...……….. 63
TABLE 4.4 AREA OF RESIDENCE IN GAUTENG…………..…………………………… 64
TABLE 4.5 RESPONDENTS’ INDIVIDUAL INCOME PER MONTH…………………… 65
TABLE 4.6 RESULTS OF THE EXPLORATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS……………….. 80
TABLE 4.7 STANDARDISED FACTOR LOADINGS/REGRESSION WEIGHTS……… 90
TABLE 4.8 CORRELATIONS BETWEEN THE TOTAL SCORES OF
THE CONSTRUCTS…………………………………………………………… 94
TABLE 4.9 ANOVA REGRESSION MODEL……………………………………………… 97
TABLE 4.10 MODEL SUMMARY……………………………………………………………. 98
TABLE 4.11 REGRESSION COEFFICIENTSa…………………………………………..…. 98
TABLE 4.12 RESULTS OF THE PATH ANALYSIS………………………………………… 103

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