Volume 30, Issue 2, 2021
DOI: 10.24205/03276716.2020.4022
Green Product and Sustainable Tourism Development: The Role of Green Buying Behavior
Abstract
This paper aims to test the direct impact of tourists' perceptions about green products with its three dimensions: green brand positioning, consumers’ attitude toward green brands, and green brand knowledge on sustainable tourism development (STD) and the indirect impact through green buying behavior. A questionnaire was employed to collect the data from tourists (n=615). A two-steps approach with Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was employed to evaluate the measurement and the structural models. The results showed that all the direct path coefficients from green product to green buying behavior and STD are positive and significant. Furthermore, the results also displayed that green buying behavior partially mediated the relationship between green product dimensions and STD. The values of the three direct path coefficients from green product dimensions (green brand positioning, consumers’ attitude toward green brands, and green brand knowledge) and green buying behavior, are almost twice the values of the three direct path coefficients from green product dimensions and STD, which further shows the vital moderation effect of green buying behavior in the relationship between green product and STD. Research implications, limitations, and further research opportunities are also considered.
Keywords
: Green product; Sustainable tourism development, Green buying behavior; structural equation modeling (SEM).