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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
1. To assess the awareness of consumers regarding green products

2. To analyze the attitude and behavior of Indian consumers towards
green products

3. To identify obstacles that respondents perceive to come in the way of
adopting green lifestyle

4. To segment consumers in Pune according to their green lifestyle and to
come up with five consumer segments:
belonging to highly green group (True Blue Greens)
belonging to moderately high green group (Green Backs)
belonging to medium green group (Sprouts)
belonging to low green group (Grousers)
belonging to non green group (Basic Browns)
3.2 NEED OF THE STUDY: Many studies reveal that consumer concern
about the environment has steadily increased all over the world in the past two
decades. These studies are mainly carried out in highly developed countries
which are major contributors to environmental degradation. There is a need of
such a research in less affluent countries, as they also have registered their
names in the black list of polluters. As per Copenhagen Climate Talks on 5
th

Dec. 2009
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, India is one of the world's biggest emitters of carbon dioxide - a
greenhouse gas blamed for global warming.
Although the consumers environmental concern is showing an increasing
trend in India, still it is highly questionable, that this environmental
sophistication will get translated into increased green purchasing or
conservation of energy. Moreover, all green activities cannot be put into the
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same basket, as these activities are the outcome of different ecological
philosophy.
The present study includes selection of a sample from one of the most polluting
city like Pune in India, establishes the relationship between the consumer
attitude and behavior and different demographic variables.
3.3 HYPOTHESIS FORMULATION:
The present study comprises a sample from one of the most polluting city
(Pune) in India. It tries to find out peoples interest about environment, when
green has become the buzzword. Pune being an economically well developed
city has emerged as an education hub in India. There is nothing wrong in
assuming that the city with considerably good literacy rate is well aware of the
environmental degradation and its repercussions to the human race. Thus the
hypothesis was formulated as:
H1: Environmental concern varies with age and income of respondents
H2: There is no relationship between consumers attitude and purchase
behavior of green products.
H3: There is no relationship between consumers attitude and
conservation behavior.
H4: Consumers of Pune city are well aware of green products.
The Sample Size Stratified random sampling was employed to select 500
respondents, from Pune city. The respondents were classified as under:
1. Students
2. Housewives
3. Professional
4. Business and trade , and
5. Services
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Punes sex-ratio among male and female is approximately established at
38:33. As the study is related to the educated youth, only graduates and post
graduates were taken into consideration.
A Survey method was employed and a structured questionnaire was developed
to measure demographic variables (age, gender, education etc.) attitudes and
purchasing & conservation behavior of the respondents. Both open ended and
close ended questions were employed for eliciting desired information from
respondents.

3.4 QUESTIONNAIRE DEVELOPMENT: A structured
questionnaire with four major sections (Refer Appendix A for questionnaire)
was developed. The first section comprised of General questions related to
demographics. To avoid any misrepresentation, the first question which was
about the name of respondent was made optional. The demographic variables
such as age, gender, education and occupation were included in this section.
In the second section, 4 Attitude questions were asked to understand the
respondents view about their own responsibility towards environment.
Respondents were asked whether they felt themselves capable of doing
something good to improve the state of environment or whether they felt that it
was the job of the government. The attitude of respondents about use of plastic
was also asked. With the increased concern towards the environment, many
companies are coming up with more and more goods with eco information, but
whether the consumers believe in such information is the last question
addressed in this section.
The third part of the questionnaire dealt with the behavioral information of the
respondents. In this section consumers were asked various questions about
their purchase and conservation behavior. The purchasing habits like products
with re-usable packaging, carrying own bags to supermarkets, reading labels
for environmental information about the product, using biodegradable soaps,
detergents etc. buying less polluting or recyclable products, were asked.
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Consumers willingness to pay a little more for eco friendly product was also
addressed in this section. Not only the products but even services are green like
use of e-mails instead of manual billing, are becoming popular now a days. To
acquire consumer behavior towards eco friendly services, a question was
posted at the end.
In the same section consumers conservation behavior was also checked,
respondents were asked to answer the questions about conservation of
resources like recycling bottles cans, consuming organic food, boycotting ivory
leather etc. avoiding non-veg. to save the ecology were included in this section.
The Fourth section of the questionnaire was devoted towards consumers
perception about adoption of green lifestyle, they were asked whether they see
eco friendly lifestyle to be very expensive or time consuming or they are just
ignorant about it. Respondents were also asked to answer the question Are
they not adopting the green lifestyle because of lack of knowledge?
At the end, an open ended question, inviting suggestions to improve the natural
environment was included for the better understanding of the subject.
The systematic approach to questionnaire development was as follows:
Independent Variables
The dependent variables employed in the analysis were all related to
individuals demographics. 5 questions related to name, age, gender, income
level and occupation were asked. To avoid any kind of biasness, the first
question about name of the respondent was kept optional. Close ended options
were given to each question for convenience.
Dependent Variable
The environmental consciousness of the consumer was judged as a
combination of attitude, knowledge, behavior and perceived barriers in
adaptation of green lifestyle. Therefore measures encapsulating all four
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dimensions were included as independent variables using four point likert
scales which include:
1. A knowledge scale, measuring the respondents self perception of
knowledge on a total of 4 key environmental problems scored on a four
pointed category format (1=know nothing about, to 4= know a great
deal about )
2. An attitudinal scale consisting of 4 statements aimed at capturing the
respondents concern about the environmental protection at four point
Likert scale (1= strongly disagree to 4= strongly agree)
3. Purchasing and conserving habits about ecology was judged with
purchasing behavior scale. These two types of behaviors are also taken as
dependent variables on attitude as well. Responses to 11 purchasing
statements was measured on a 4 point frequency purchase scale (1=Never,
4= always)
Similarly specific pro environmental conservation behavior was captured
with 8 statements each item was then measured on a 4 point frequency
purchase scale (1=Never, 4= always)
4. Barriers to green lifestyle scale determining the consumer perception about
the barriers in the way of adopting eco friendly lifestyle, comprising of 4
statements of a four point Likert scale (1= strongly disagree to 4=
strongly agree)







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Approach to Questionnaire Development

Figure: 12 Questionnaire development chart

3.5 DATA COLLECTION AND RESPONSE
Stratified random sampling was employed to select 500 respondents, from the
Pune city. The work status strata was based on the basis of different groups like
students, housewives, professional business and, service. Considering Punes
Demographic
Variables
(Independent)
5 statements related to
Name, age, gender, income and
occupation
Knowledge
Variables
(Dependent)
5statements
4 point scacle
1= Never, 4= always

Attitude Variables
(Dependent)
4 statements
4 point scale
1= strongly disagree, 4=
strongly agree


Purchase
Behavior(Dependent)
11 statements
4 pont scale
1= never, 4= always
Conservation Behavior
(Dependent)
8 statements
4 points scale
1= never, 4= always
Barriers to green
lifestyle
(Dependent)
4 statements
4 points scale
1= strongly disagree, 4=
strongly agree
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sex ratio Approx 38:33

the sample is taken tentatively. As the study was about
the educated people, only graduates and post graduated people were
considered.
The draft questionnaire was pilot tested with 50 selected consumers based on
the observations made by respondents in the pilot study; modifications were
made in the questionnaire. A revised questionnaire was personally
administered to a sample of 1000 out of total population of 3760636 (2001
census)
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respondents living in Pune, after repeated follow ups only 731
questionnaires could be received, out of which some questionnaires were
rejected on account of incompletion. Finally 500 completed questionnaires
were selected for the present study.
Though, the sample comprises people belonging to different socio
demographic groups, it is somewhat skewed towards more students and
salaried class persons.
3.6 ANALYSIS OF RESULTS: The data was first presented in tabular
and graphical form representing the different responses given by the
consumers. Then analysis was done in four stages as follows:
Stage I- Demographic profile of the respondents was tabulated in a self
explanatory manner. Percentage analyses were performed to find out exact
number of people giving response in similar manner. Demographic categories
of age and income level were then analyzed for each dependent variable
(knowledge, attitude, behavior, and lifestyle) to find out how people of one
demographic sub-category show their concern toward environment.
Stage II- As demographic variables are taken as independent, the dependency
of other variables on demography was checked with the help of one way
ANOVA (Analysis of Variance). ANOVA is a technique where the influence
of one factor on another factor is checked. The researcher employed ANOVA
for inspecting whether the responses of sample depend on demographic
variables or not. The results were in favor of demographics that mean the
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responses given by the sample population were outcome of sample belonging
to different age, and income level. In other words, people belonging to
different demographics show different concern about the environment.
Stage III- At this stage the data was segregated on the basis of responses given
to various questions about variables under consideration. Each question of
attitude was checked with all purchase behavior and conservation behavior
questions with the help of Chi square test. This is done to test whether there is
a potential relationship between attitude and behavior (Purchase and
conservation). Chi square test is a non-parametric test of statistical significance
for bivariate tabular analysis. Typically, chi-square test indicates whether or
not, two different samples are differed enough in some characteristic or aspect
and let us know the degree of confidence we can have in accepting or rejecting
the hypothesis.
Stage IV- With the help of percentage analysis the whole sample was then
divided into five major groups on the basis of their concern about the
environment. This was done as per Ropers green gauge
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(1996) method.
Roper had divided the US Population into 5 groups on the basis of the attitude,
and behavior towards environmental, barriers to green living and
environmental knowledge.
The identity of all environmentalists cannot be recognized as common. It
depends upon their ways of conserving the ecology. The researcher divided the
total sample population into three sub-categories namely, animal lovers, health
fanatics, and planet passionate people. To do this, the percentage response
given to each category was taken into consideration.