Introduction

 For the last decade, environmental consciousness had been a concern (Thi & Giang 2014).
 Although this concern existed as early as 1980, where the primary concerns were: pollution,
global warming, climate change and greenhouse effect (Sandu 2014). Presently, it has shifted
mainly to environmental problems and the climate change issues are pretty evident (Polo 2015).
 Therefore we can see that Consumers are rapidly becoming environmentalist and demanding
eco-friendly products. However the demand is not consistent among and across nations.
 In a study by Thi and Giang (2014), showed that Vietnam natural environment was at alarming
level and their consumers had limited knowledge on environmental protection, thus the
demand for eco-friendly products was low.
 But on the other hand in a study by Arttachariya (2010) on Thai consumers, it was observed that
although, consumers had special interest in eco-friendly products, the benefits of these
products are yet to be clearly perceived by the wider market.
 There is a growth of shopping malls and retail stores across the world including India, has led to
imprudent use of plastic bags, which is either used either for shopping or packaging.
 The indiscriminate use of plastic has greatly disturbed our Ecology, as decomposition period is
too long.
 Plastic bags are mostly preferred by shoppers due to their lightweight, lower price, convenience
and strength (Hopewell et al. 2009).
 To restrain consumers’ use of plastic bags, several environmentalists along with NGOs have
come up with different campaigns to educate consumers. Due to environmental degradation,
most of the Indian states have banned use of plastic bags since October 2019 (Clapp and
Swanston, 2009).
 The shopping malls are also charging little extra money for carry bags as “Go Green” initiatives
(Yadav and Rao, 2014).
 Consumers are adapting environmental friendly behaviour such as use of paper bags and
minimum use of plastic bags. Adaptation of green buying behaviour helps the individuals in
better health and also provides an opportunity to contribute to the environment sustainability
(Leonidou et al., 2013).
 Here eco-friendly bags are defined as those which do not harm the nature and also can be
recycled and conserved (Kim et al., 2013; Shamdasani et al., 1993).
 The preference for eco-friendly bags are rising because consumers believe that these bags are
lesser harmful to the environment (Radesh, Ndia & Maheshwari 2014).
Literature review

Theory of planned behaviour

 Human behavior is difficult to explain and understand. Theory of planned behavior by

Ajzen is one of the most useful models to explain the behavior.
 Theory of planned behaviour (TPB) is used in different studies like sociology, social
psychology and psychology to explain human behaviour.
 It is an extension of Ajzen’s Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975).
 The difference between the two theories is the addition of one variable i.e. Perceived
Behavioural Control (PBC).
 According to previous TRA theory, attitude towards behaviour and subjective norms has
a positive impact towards intention. Whereas in TPB there are three factors of
intentions: attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control (Paul et al.,
2016).
 Here attitude is defined as the degree to which and individual has a favourable or
unfavourable assessment of the behaviour of interest (Ajzen, 1991).
 Subjective norms refers to belief whether consumer approve or disapprove the
behaviour (Ajzen, 1991).
 PBC is defined as perceived ease of use or difficulty of performing a particular behaviour
(Ajzen, 1991).
 Intention is defined as the readiness of an individual in performing a given behaviour
(Ajzen, 1991).
 TPB has been widely used in understanding the consumer behaviour in green purchase
in different context of the study (Yadav and Pathak, 2017; Dean, 2016; Paul et al.,
Liobikienė et al., 2016, Mostafa, 2007; Tonglet et al., 2004; Davies et al., 2002; Chan and
Lau, 2002; Chan, 2001) which will be discussed latter.
ATTITUDE

 Attitude has been defined as a degree to which an individual has a favorable or

unfavourable assessment of the behaviour in question (Ajzen, 1991).
 Attitude includes analysing the behaviour whether it’s good or bad and whether the
induvial wants to execute that behaviour (Leonard et al., 2004).
 According to a study by chen and Tung, (2014) attitude is considered to be a
psychological emotion passed through consumers evaluation and if it’s positive, then
behavioural intention is tends to be more positive.
 Birgelenetal (2009) in his study found that consumer who were having a positive
attitude towards environment preferred environment friendly beverage packing.
 The relationship has been verified in the wine tourism context in the study by Barber et
al. (2010).
 The relationship has been positively established by many studies in the green hotel
context (Han and Yoon, 2015; Teng et al., 2014; Chen and Tung, 2014; Chen and Peng,
2012; Han et al., 2011; Han and Kim, 2010; Han et al., 2010, 2009).
 There exists a positive relationship between attitude and intention in the context of
organic food choice behaviour (Dean et al., 2012; Ha and Janda, 2012; Zhou et al., 2013),

Subjective norm

 In theory of perceived behaviour, subjective norm is the second determinant that

affects behavioral intention.
 Subjective norm is defined as “the perceived social pressure to perform or not to
perform the behaviour” (Ajzen (1991).
 In a study by Hee (2000) it was seen that those who are close to an individual are
influenced by their relatives, colleagues, close friends or business partners.
 Subjective norm expresses an individual feeling they feel from social pressure in a given
behaviour( Paço et al., 2008)
 In the green consumer behaviour many studies have shown that subjective norm as an
important factor of buying intention.
 There are many studies on subjective norms in context of participation intention (Lee,
2005), technology-use intention (Baker et al., 2007), organic food purchase intention
(Dean et al., 2012; Ha and Janda, 2012), green hotel revisit intention (Teng et al., 2014;
Chen and Tung, 2014; Han et al., 2010) and environmental conscious consumption
(Khare, 2015; Moser, 2015; Tsarenko et al., 2013).
Perceived behavioural control

 The inclusion of perceived behavioural control (PBC) extends the boundary of theory of
reasoned action (TRA).
 PBC refers to an individual perception of executing a particular behaviour is difficult or
easy (Ajzen, 1991).
 It is how an individual tends to behave in a certain situation but fails to do so due to lack
of control on their behaviour.
 Here we can take an example that a consumer has an intention of buying eco-friendly
products as they have a positive attitude towards it, they might still not be able to do so
because of lack of knowledge in distinguishing between an eco-friendly product and
conventional alternatives.
 PBC is positively related with purchase intention as seen in various research contexts
such as recycling(Taylor and Todd, 1995), conservation (Albayrak et al., 2013), green
hotels (Han et al., 2010; Chen and Tung, 2014; Teng et al., 2014; Chang et al., 2014),
organic foods (Thøgersen, 2007; Tarkiainen and Sundqvist, 2005), and green products in
general (Moser, 2015).

Purchase intention and behavior

 As per TPB theory the performance of behavior is an outcome of intention whenever

behavior is voluntary in nature (Ajzen, 1991).
 Intention is defined as an individual willingness to perform certain behavior (Yadav and
Pathak, 2017).
 Therefore we can say that Intention is defined as the motivation to perform a certain
behavior such as willingness to perform and intensity of effort an individual is ready to
exert.
 In the study by Yadav and Pathak (2017) in the context of green products there exist a
positive relationship between purchase intention and behavior. Studies have also
reported a positive relationship between intention and behavior (Chan, 2001; Chan and
Yam, 1995).

Environmental Concern

 According to Hu et al. (2010), Environmental Concern is a degree of awareness among

the people about the environment and willingness to solve the issue personally.
 Environmental Concern is an attitude of an individual which is affected by experience of
others or personal experience and communication produced by media (Paço et al.,
2008, p. 131).
  “Environmental Concern is the consciousness about the environmental problems by an
individual” (Suki, 2015, p. 3). The same study by suki (2015) showed that Environmental
Concern has a strong impact on subjective norms.
 A study by Echavarren (2017) showed that being women, being more educated and
being older have higher probability to have Environmental Concern.
 In a study it was seen that consumers are ready to pay an extra price for eco- friendly
products
 In another study on Australian consumers it was seen that those who are concerned
about the environment responds positively towards green products.
 Chen and Tung (2014) in their study on Taiwan consumers found out that Environmental
Concern is an important factor in buying intention through its effect on subjective norm,
attitude and perceived behavioural control. In a similar study in Indian context by Paul
et al. (2016) it was found that Environmental Concern had a positive impact on green
purchases directly and indirectly through a mediation of theory of planned behaviour
factors

Participants and procedure

 We did an online survey via google form across different undergraduate institutes in
India under convenience sampling technique.
 A total of 700 students were targeted but eventually got 185 responses.
 161 responses were accepted after removing all the outliers.

Results

 The proposed six-factor model indicated good level of fit index with
 CMIN/DF (chi sq. mean/ degree of freedom) MINIMUM DISPREPENCY = 1.957 (<3 is
considered to be good) Byrne, 1994;
 IFI (incremental fit index) = 0.948 (exceeds .90) Byrne, 1994)
 CFI (comparative fit index) = 0.947 (exceeds .93 (Byrne, 1994)
 RMSEA (root mean square of approximation) = 0.077 (.08 Browne & Cudeck, 1993)--and
ideally less than .05 (Stieger, 1990).
  CMIN/DF (chi sq. mean/ degree of freedom) MINIMUM DISPREPENCY = 2.213 (<3 is
considered to be good) Byrne, 1994;
 RMSEA (root mean square of approximation) = 0.087 (.08 (Browne & Cudeck, 1993)--
and ideally less than .05 (Stieger, 1990).
 CFI (comparative fit index) = 0.93 (The CFI value is between 0 and 1. A value close to 1
indicates a very good fit. (Byrne, 1994)
 TLI (Tucker Lewis Index) = 0.919 (exceeds .90) Byrne, 1994)
 GFI (Goodness of fit index) = 0.828 (GFI is always less than or equal to 1. GFI = 1
indicates a perfect fit.) Tanaka and Huba (1985).
 AGFI (adjusted goodness-of-fit index) = 0.781 (A value close to 1 indicates a perfect fit.)

DISCUSSION

 This paper tries to examine the applicability of TBP in predicting the usage intention of
consumers for eco-friendly bags in India.
 Therefore this study supports and extends the literature for Eco-friendly products using TPB
framework.
 This study is based on TPB framework but there are few exceptions too like there is no
significant relationship found between attitude and purchase intention as well as subjective
norms and purchase intention.
 The finding confirms the results of prior studies as these are some of the studies where it was
found that subjective norms had no impact on purchase intention. (Paul et al., 2016; Tarkiainen
and Sundqvist, 2005; Khare, 2015, Chaudhary and Bisai, 2018).
 Therefore we can say that there is little or no impact of social entities like family, friends, and
teachers on purchase intention of these respondents.
 This paper also adds an extra construct in TPB model i.e Environmental Concern in predicting
intention and behavior.
 It was found that Environmental Concern was positively related with all the predictor variables
of intention i.e. attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control.
 Although the direct relation between Environmental Concern and intention was insignificant, it
was found to influence intention indirectly through PCB.
 Unlike most of the previous studies this study also extends the research, which were restricted
to intention, whereas this study explores the linkage between usage intention and behavior. It
was evident for the analysis that intention to use eco-friendly bags successfully turned into
actual buying behavior among the consumers. This supports the finding of limited number of
studies where usage intention significantly impacts behavior for eco-friendly products (Yadav
and Pathak, 2017).
  Therefore we can say that this study validates the importance of TPB framework in
comprehending consumer purchase intention and behavior in a culturally different context of
India.

Practical implication

 The findings from the study will enhance the marketers’ knowledge towards consumer’s
intent to usage of eco-friendly bags.
 As we saw from the analysis that purchase intention was found to be a significant
predictor of purchase behavior, therefore it is important for the marketers to take
measures for improving the perception of all predictor variables as identified in the
given model.
 Though the focus should be on the predictor variable of purchase intention of the TBP
model, but the marketers may also be benefitted by diverting their attention towards
other variable like Environmental Concern.
 This is because it was found that Environmental Concern was found to have a significant
influence on all the three predictors of purchase intention in TPB framework and this
could help the marketers to move towards the targeted consumers, who are more likely
to be influenced by exhibiting positive eco-friendly purchase intention.
 As we know that perceived behavioral control only had a positive impact towards
purchase intention out of all the 3 predictors of purchase Intention. Therefore it is
important for the marketers to try and influence the attitudes of the consumers towards
usage of eco-friendly bags. This can be done by building a favorable image through
promotion which describes the utility and the benefits of eco-friendly bags. ( go to next
slide )
 Also they marketers need to enhance the perception of ease with which eco-friendly
bags can be acquired which helps the marketers to expand their eco-friendly market.
 Marketers for eco-friendly bags should target that their products are easily available to
consumers with minimum efforts. This can be done by broadening the choices among
eco-friendly bags and improving the accessibility by opening alternative distribution
channel and enhanced R&D (Paul et al., 2016).
 Marketers as well as policy maker’s needs to educate the society towards the benefits of
eco-friendly products in reducing the carbon footprints. As we see that subjective norms
had no impact on intention.
 This can be done by Promotions and campaigns which showcase the deteriorating
condition of the environment and also by contribution of prominent individuals in
uplifting the quality of the environment; this will helps to increase the environmental
 consciousness and concern and will lead to induce consumer’s consumption towards
eco-friendly products.
 Therefore we can say that in long run, this will help in making green consumption a
socially accepted norm and behavior, by influencing the consumer’s attitude, intention
and behavior towards eco-friendly bags.