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An alternative view of the Online product

review of green
millennial green product purchase: consumption
the roles of online product review
and self-image congruence 231
Yen Thi Hoang Nguyen Received 22 October 2019
Revised 2 January 2020
Department of Marketing, Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology, 24 January 2020
Hanoi, Vietnam, and 24 February 2020
Accepted 26 February 2020
Hung Vu Nguyen
Institute for Sustainable Development, National Economics University,
Hanoi, Vietnam

Abstract
Purpose – The paper aims to provide an alternative view to green consumption behaviors of millennials. In
fact, studies on green consumption have usually assumed a common attitude–behavior model for different
generations. Instead, the view in this paper highlights two other constructs, online product review and self-
image congruence, as the key antecedents to the behavior among the generation.
Design/methodology/approach – To test our proposed model, an online survey with a sample of 305
millennials in Vietnam was conducted. The sample shares similar demographic features with the millennials in
the country. The data were collected in popular social networks and then validated before being analyzed
with AMOS.
Findings – The model analysis results provided supports for the key roles of online product review and self-
image congruence among millennials. In particular, online product review was found to have both direct and
mediational impacts on green product purchase intention. Self-image congruence was also found to be a key
antecedent to the intention.
Research limitations/implications – The model in this paper only examined the purchase intention.
Moreover, only a single sample of millennials in Vietnam was investigated. Future research may incorporate
the green consumption behavior to enhance the external validity and/or directly compare models for different
generations or across countries to further confirm the differential generational patterns.
Practical implications – The paper includes recommendations for managers to use the online channels and
to promote green product self-matching among millennials. These recommendations are not contrary to but go
beyond the frequently suggested ones for attitude-related training or communication campaigns for green
consumption.
Originality/value – This paper fills an identified gap to provide an alternative view to green consumption
behaviors of millennials. Different from the common attitude–behavior view in green consumption research,
two key constructs of online product review and self-image congruence are highlighted for the generation in
this paper.
Keywords Green purchase, Millennial, Online product review, Self-image congruence,
Sustainable consumption
Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction
Green consumption has emerged as an important topic in marketing (Semprebon et al., 2019).
Multiple research has been carried out to explain the behaviors among consumers for
different types of green products in various contexts (Narula and Desore, 2016; Dangelico and
Vocalelli, 2017; Kumar and Polonsky, 2017). The scope of research of green consumption Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing
and Logistics
Vol. 33 No. 1, 2021
pp. 231-249
This research was funded by the Vietnam National Foundation for Science and Technology © Emerald Publishing Limited
1355-5855
Development (NAFOSTED) under grant no. 502.02-2016.07. DOI 10.1108/APJML-10-2019-0612
APJML behavior seemed to continue to expand toward different large groups or segments of
33,1 consumers in different countries who are considered homogeneous (Liu et al., 2017). Such
expanded knowledge will definitely be beneficial to marketers in formulating and carrying
out effective green marketing strategies (Huang et al., 2014; Narula and Desore, 2016).
However, research in the field may have relied on an invalid assumption of a common
behavior framework for different generations. In fact, while the geographical expansion in
research reflected the globalization of environmental concern and the consumption trend
232 (Peattie, 2010; Narula and Desore, 2016; Kumar and Polonsky, 2017), existing studies of green
consumption behaviors seemed to take the common perspective of attitude–behavioral
intention/behavior with the often-employed theory of planned behavior (Liu et al., 2017;
Nguyen et al., 2019). As a result, most of the studies seemed to assume no differences in the
behavior model among different generational groups. This assumption, however, may not be
valid because different generations born and grown up under different socioeconomic
environments may have some common but other distinctive purchasing or consumption
behavior patterns (Young and Hinesly, 2012).
This paper thus attempts to fill the gap by examining the key antecedents to green
consumption behaviors among millennials – an answer to the call for further segmentation
and consumer-profiling studies in various recent reviews (e.g.: Narula and Desore, 2016;
Dangelico and Vocalelli, 2017). In particular, we challenge the assumption of a common green
purchase behavior framework for different generations by theorizing and testing a model for
millennials. We argue that this important generational group who were born and have grown
up in the era of information technology development (Sullivan and Heitmeyer, 2008;
Valentine and Powers, 2013) should be featured accordingly and therefore behave in a
distinctive manner for their green consumption. Under this environment, as millennials have
usually been featured as “technologically savvy and connected” and “confident and
self-reliant” (Young and Hinesly, 2012), two key antecedents to their green product purchase
intention should be emphasized, including online green product reviews and self-image
congruence with green products. Moreover, for the “technologically savvy and connected”
millennials, online green product review may be a key mediator between the relationships
from some other commonly tested antecedents and the purchase intention. Our model thus is
novel and distinctive from the common view in many other studies in the field.
The rest of the paper will be organized as follows. After the introduction section, we
provide a literature review of green consumption behavior studies and emphasize the
generational assumption gap. Then, we develop an alternative framework that explains the
green purchase intention among millennials. Next, in the methodology section, we describe
our survey method and the measures used for this research. The research findings then
provide the tested evidence for our model. Our paper is concluded with the discussion section
to further explain our contributions in the field and some relevant managerial implications.

2. Literature review on green consumption and millennial generational features

2.1 Green consumption and the generation assumption
Green consumption has been the major trend in the global competitive business environment
for some recent decades as local governments, the citizens and even firms increased their
concerns over the environment and the environmental-friendly products (Narula and Desore,
2016; G€oçer and Sevil Oflaç, 2017; Liu et al., 2017). In fact, consumer is the focal point of green
marketing, and thus the literature has usually been revolving around consumers (Narula and
Desore, 2016). As a result, numerous research works have been conducted to theorize, identify
and empirically test the antecedents to the green consumption behavior (Narula and Desore,
2016; Liu et al., 2017). Moreover, despite a lack of agreement on the nature and scope of green
consumption due to its context-dependent, complex, and multifaceted nature, the general
picture of green consumption has emerged as a process that is strongly influenced by Online product
consumer values, norms and habits (Peattie, 2010; Liu et al., 2017). Researchers thus review of green
concluded that over the past decades, green consumption research has gradually developed
into a diverse field, spreading across countries, industries, firms and products (Narula and
consumption
Desore, 2016) but become more systematic with the focus on theory building and its
applicability in different contexts (Liu et al., 2017).
While diverse and complex, the most common perspective taken by researchers of green
consumption is the attitude–behavioral intention/behavior (Liu et al., 2017). Under this view, 233
the theory of planned behavior (TPB) (Ajzen, 1991) has usually been used (Peattie, 2010; Nair
and Little, 2016; Paul et al., 2016). According to TPB, a consumer’s behavior is shaped by the
behavioral intention which can be referred to as “indications of how hard people are willing to
try, of how much of an effort they are planning to exert, in order to perform the behavior”
(Ajzen, 1991). The consumer’s behavior intention then is driven by the consumer’s attitude
toward the behavior, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control. Green consumption
behavior is of no exception and has been tested under this validated framework in many
research studies (Ceglia et al., 2015; Hanss et al., 2016).
However, it should be noted that while useful research under TPB or the attitude–behavior
perspective has seemed to assume no differences between different age groups of consumers
– an assumption that may not be valid. Specifically, multiple research has validated the same
TPB framework and its extended forms on diverse samples with different age groups or in
different contexts of green consumption (e.g.: Cowan and Kinley, 2014; Wu and Chen, 2014; Paul
et al., 2016; Nguyen et al., 2017). As a result, green consumers of different generations in these
studies are presumed to behave under a common framework. This, however, is probably not a
valid assumption. In fact, studies using generation as a variable to predict different future
consumption behaviors have met with mixed results (Cowan and Kinley, 2014). Thus, the
dynamic nature of generational cohorts challenges marketers who seek to remain at the forefront
of the consumer demographic–changing trends that influence each generation behavior
(Gardiner et al., 2013). Similarly, there have been calls for further research to understand green
consumption behaviors of different consumer groups or cultures (Ceglia et al., 2015).
In fact, the call for more specific research of green consumption among a particular
generation has been repeated in multiple recent review works in the field of green marketing.
For example, Dangelico and Vocalelli (2017) stressed that green marketing should help firms
enlarge their segments and understand what their customers need. Kumar and Polonsky
(2017) emphasized the requirements for understanding needs and perceptions of a target
market. Similarly, Narula and Desore (2016) called for more studies of segmentation and
consumer-profiling targeted at identifying and understanding the right customer. Different
generations may behave differently, and our understanding of this is needed to fill the gap in
the literature.

2.2 Millennials and the typical generational features

Millennials (also called Generation Y or Gen Y) have been an important target of marketers
recently. In fact, while there is still no consensus on their birth time, the term millennials most
often refers to the demographic cohort who were born between 1980 to early 2000s (Gurau,
2012; Young and Hinesly, 2012; Lu et al., 2013). With this definition, the generation may have a
global strength in numbers, accounting for 24 percent of the global population (Nielsen,
2016a). In the advanced economies like the United States, for example, they were even
projected to overtake Baby Boomers (i.e. Generation X) to become America’s largest
generation with 71 million in 2016 and now account for the largest percentage of the global
workforce (Fry, 2018). More importantly, they are holding a major purchasing power to have
a significant current and future impact on world economies and thus become the most
APJML powerful consumer group in the marketplace (Tangsupwattana, 2017). Due to its big size and
33,1 growing market power, the millennial generation is currently the primary focus of popular
media and marketers (Moore, 2012) and the attractive target for many industries (Smith, 2012;
Lu et al., 2013).
Millennials are also the attractive consumer group for green marketers. In fact, the
consumers in this group are considered to be well-educated that might provide high
awareness of the benefits of going green to solve environmental issues (Spehar, 2006).
234 According to the global Nielsen survey’s report in 2016, 51 percent of millennials
participating in the survey said that they usually checked package labels to ensure
positive social/environmental impact when making purchases, compared to only 12 percent
of generation X. As a result, the sizable consumers may be more willing to pay extra for
sustainable offerings compared to other generations. In fact, the Nielsen’s survey also showed
that 73 percent of the millennials were willing to pay more for sustainable brands, compared
to only 51 percent of the generation X.
Given their marketing attractiveness, millennials have been the important subject of
various works in marketing fields and across different contexts of consumption in recent
years (e.g.: Valentine and Powers, 2013; Pomarici and Vecchio, 2014; Luna-Cortes et al., 2019).
In fact, previous studies on millennials have focused on investigating the demographic and
attitudinal characteristics of this generation with an aim to develop this generation’s profile
(Young and Hinesly, 2012). The findings have seemed to converge that millennials have a
considerably different and unique portrait compared to previous generations (Hershatter and
Epstein, 2010; Gurau, 2012; Young and Hinesly, 2012).
Being born and growing up in the era when information technology has proliferated into
nearly every facet of their daily lives, millennials are becoming more globally homogenous,
exhibiting similar attitudes and behaviors worldwide (Moore, 2012; Gonzalez-Fuentes, 2019).
This generation then is heavily influenced by technology and the Internet (Sullivan and
Heitmeyer, 2008; Valentine and Powers, 2013). As a result, while different profiles of
millennial consumers may have been projected, two typical features of the generation usually
stood out in many research, including “technologically savvy and connected” and “confident
and self-reliant” (Young and Hinesly, 2012).
First, millennials are technologically savvy and connected because they have been
familiar with computers at their very early age (Howe and Strauss, 2000; Bolton et al., 2013).
The intense exposure to the Internet and other modern technologies distinguishes this
generation from the previous ones (Bolton et al., 2013). In fact, compared to Generation X,
millennials are more active in integrating information technologies into their daily lives
(Moore, 2012; Bolton et al., 2013). Millennials use more mobile devices to connect to retailers
and brands (Moore, 2012). The global Nielsen survey’s report in 2016 also showed that
millennials were significantly more mobile and connected than their previous generations
(Nielsen, 2016a). Thus, the electronic media is the primary media used by the millennials
(Valentine and Powers, 2013). Via this channel, they are regularly attracted by blogs, reviews
and social networks to openly express their interests and feelings (Hershatter and Epstein,
2010). In fact, according to a survey conducted by eMarketer in 2010, millennials talked about
products and services online more than others in the general population, and social network
sites were usually used by 56 percent of them. Moreover, millennials often look to peers to
determine the merit of a product or service and consider opinions from their peers or fellow
consumers to be more credible than traditional media or commercial sources (Smith, 2012).
Given the feature of being technologically savvy and connected, online product reviews
can be an important determinant to the millennial’s green consumption behavior. Here online
product review refers to the consumers’ creating and posting product information basing on
their usage experiences (Chen and Xie, 2008). Today, it constitutes one of the most important
forms of electronic word of mouth otherwise called e-WOM (Sen and Lerman, 2007;
Bambauer-Sachse and Mangold, 2011; Jalilvand and Samiei, 2012), which can be defined as Online product
“any positive or negative statement made by potential, actual, or former customers about a review of green
product or company which is made available to multitude of the people and institutes via the
internet” (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2004). In fact, online platforms today make this review
consumption
channel comparatively more popular, from both the writer’s and the reader’s perspective
(Bambauer-Sachse and Mangold, 2011). The social media and virtual communities provide
interactive platforms for millennials to communicate to the whole world how they feel about a
product or brand. Online product review, therefore, may provide a very popular consumption 235
information source for millennials to determine their green consumption behaviors.
Second, a typical millennial has been identified by previous studies as more confident and
self-reliant (Young and Hinesly, 2012). Different from the previous generations, the main
struggles that millennials face include striving for independence from their parents and
figuring out who they (as consumers) are, to be distinctive from their families and friends
(Noble et al., 2009). According to the Pew Research Center’s report in 2010, millennials
remained the most likely generation to self-identify as liberals and confidently embrace
multiple modes of self-expression.
Given this feature of being confident and self-reliant, different from other generations, self-
image congruence can be another key determinant to the millennials’ green consumption
behaviors. In this context, self-image congruence or consumer self-image congruence is
referred to the match between a consumer’s self-concept and his or her image of a consumer of
a given product, brand or store (Sirgy et al., 1997; Kressmann et al., 2006). It has been argued
that the motivation to express one’s self is often the driving force that prompts the consumer
to purchase products and services (Sirgy, 1985). It was also found that millennials often
desired distinctive brands that match with their own distinctive traits to serve as a form of
self-expression (Gupta et al., 2010).
In summary, in this study we argue that the above distinctive generational features may
generation-specifically determine the millennials’ green consumption behaviors. In
particular, we argue that two key factors including online product review and self-image
congruence, corresponding to the features, significantly affect a millennial’s green product
purchase intention beyond the other psychological factors which have been commonly used
under the TPB framework. The alternative framework proposed for the millennials can be
seen as in Figure 1. Discussion of the framework will be presented in the next section.

3. Theoretical framework for millennial green product purchase intention

This study focuses on explaining the green purchase intention among millennials. In fact,
behavioral intention has been studied since the beginning of the green consumer domain and
by far is still the largest subject domain in the field (Kumar and Polonsky, 2017).

3.1 Online product review and green product purchase intention

Different studies have indicated the role of online product review in gathering information
about products to form a consumer’s purchase intention in a variety of contexts (Chatterjee,
2001; Chen and Xie, 2008; Jalilvand and Samiei, 2012). Researchers have concluded that online
product review is a new channel for product information with growing popularity and
importance, especially for tech-savvy consumers (Chen and Xie, 2008). This communication
channel which usually provides independent product information (Chen and Xie, 2008) can
help consumers to form an unbiased understanding of a product, to construct a set of criteria
for evaluating the product, to make the accurate choice and to reduce the cognitive costs of
making the product purchase (Liu et al., 2011). Modern consumers are then usually studying
online reviews intensely to determine their purchase decision (Tuten and Solomon, 2018).
APJML
Online green
33,1 product review

Self-image H6
congruence with
H1
236 green product
consumers

H7 H2
Attitude towards
green product H3 Green product
purchase purchase
H8 H4 intention

Subjective norms
of green product H5
purchase

Figure 1.
Theoretical framework Perceived
of green product behavior control
purchase intention for over green
millennials product purchase

In fact, reading online opinions was found as a way to help consumers to reduce risk and search
time (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2004; Goldsmith and Horowitz, 2006) before making purchases.
In the field of green consumption of millennials, we expect online green product review (i.e.
online reviews about green products) will influence the product purchase intention. This is
because empirical research has found that millennials usually both posted online product
reviews and were influenced by these before making a purchase. More importantly, contrary
to popular belief, consumers were more prone to posting positive than negative reviews
(Mangold and Smith, 2012). As a result, the Internet-powered and technology-savvy
millennials who do more online product reviews will be more susceptible to the positive
information posted via this communication channel to enhance their intention to purchase
products. We argue that this can be also the case for green products because they are still
relatively new in many countries (Nguyen et al., 2019). Thus, consumers may rely more on the
independent and less biased sources of information like online product review to form their
green product purchase decision. Formally, we hypothesize the following:
H1. For millennials, online green product review has a positive impact on green product
purchase intention.

3.2 Self-image congruence with green product purchase and green product purchase
intention
Self-image congruence is argued to affect consumer’s purchase motivation through the
activation and operation of self-consistency motive or consumers’ need to act in ways that are
consistent with their self-perception (Sirgy, 1985). Thus, when the image of a typical
consumer of a product, brand and store matches one or more of the self-image of a person, the
individual tends to purchase that product (Shin et al., 2016).
Similarly, we expect the same relationship with green consumption for millennials. This is
because as the environmental issues are becoming more serious in different countries, green
consumption may be an effective solution (Wu and Chen, 2014; Nguyen et al., 2019). Under Online product
such contexts, green product consumers may want to express their self-images via the review of green
products they buy (Sparks and Shepherd, 1992; Oliver and Lee, 2010). This is especially true
for millennials who are often more confident and self-reliant (Young and Hinesly, 2012) and
consumption
thus desire to express themselves via the distinctive matched image of product or brand
consumers (Gupta et al., 2010). Millennials with green consumer self-image then may be more
likely to express such an identity via purchasing green products.
Empirically, Sparks and Shepherd (1992) found that a consumer’s self-identity or his 237
identification with green consumerism (i.e. he thinks himself as a green consumer, as someone
who is very concerned with green issues) has a significant and positive influence on his
intention to consume organic vegetables. Similarly, it was found that consumers’ perceptions
that having a hybrid car reflects positively on their self-image would be positively related to
their intention to purchase a hybrid car (Oliver and Lee, 2010). In the same vein but for
adolescent consumers, Lee (2008) pointed out that concern for self-image in environmental
protection was a predictor of green buying behavior. For the above arguments and empirical
evidence, we formally hypothesize the following:
H2. For millennials, self-image congruence with green product consumers has a positive
impact on green product purchase intention.

3.3 TPB’s variables as predictors of millennials’ green product purchase intention

As discussed before, TPB has been commonly used to explain green consumption behavior or
the green product purchase intention for different age groups of consumers (Verma and
Chandra, 2017; Nguyen et al., 2018; Taufique and Vaithianathan, 2018). In this research, thus
we expect similar relationships between TPB’s variables and green product purchase
intention among millennials.
In particular, we expect attitude toward the green purchase behavior, which can be
understood as the degree to which a person has a favorable or unfavorable evaluation or
appraisal of the green product purchase behavior (Ajzen, 1991), to have a positive impact on
the green product purchase intention. Empirical studies have tested the relationship in a
variety of contexts. For example, Kim and Chung (2011) found the positive impact of
consumers’ attitude toward buying organic skin/care products on their intentions to buy
organic skin/hair care products. Wu and Chen (2014) found that visitors’ attitude toward
staying at a green hotel positively influences their intention to stay at the green hotel when
travelling. More recently, Taufique and Vaithianathan (2018) found that young consumers’
positive attitude toward environment is a significant motivator of their proenvironmental
behavioral intentions. Thus in this research, we retest the relationship which can be formally
hypothesized as follows:
H3. For millennials, attitude toward green product purchase has a positive impact on
green product purchase intention.
Similarly, subjective norm of green product purchase, which can be referred to as the
perceived social pressure to make or not to make the green product purchase (Ajzen, 1991), is
expected to have a positive impact on the green product purchase intention among
millennials. Empirically, subjective norm has been found as a predictor of behavior intention
in previous works on green consumption (Kim and Chung, 2011; Wu and Chen, 2014; Paul
et al., 2016). For millennial consumers, recent empirical studies have also confirmed that
significant relationship. For example, the expectation of the reference others (e.g. friends,
family members) for students to engage in environmentally sustainable product usage
behavior was found to have a positive and direct effect on the students’ purchase intention for
the products (Kumar et al., 2017). Verma and Chandra (2017). Nguyen et al. (2018) also found a
APJML strong and positive relationship between subjective norms and millennials’ green product
33,1 purchase intention. In this research, we retest the relationship which can be formally
hypothesized as follows:
H4. Among millennials, subjective norm of green product purchase has a positive impact
on green product purchase intention.
The third variable in TPB, the perceived behavioral control over green product purchase,
238 which can be referred to as the individuals’ perceived ease or difficulty in making the green
product purchase (Ajzen, 1991), is also expected to have a positive impact on the purchase
intention. Previous research has found supports for the relationship in the context of green
consumption across cultures and for different consumer groups (Kim and Chung, 2011; Wu
and Chen, 2014; Paul et al., 2016). A recent study of young consumers also confirmed a
positive association between the perceived behavioral control related to staying at a green
hotel and their intention to visit the hotel (Verma and Chandra, 2017). Again, we retest the
relationship in this research and formally hypothesize the following:
H5. Among millennials, perceived behavioral control over green product purchase has a
positive impact on green product purchase intention.

3.4 Mediating role of online green product review

Beyond the above hypothesized direct effect, we argue that online green product review is the
important mediator to the relationships from the self-image congruence, attitude and
subjective norm to the green product purchase intention among millennials. This is because
the independent variables can be argued as leading to online green product reviews with or
without willingness of the consumers to engage in purchasing the green products.
In particular, Millennials’ self-image congruence with green product consumers means the
consumers want to express their self-images through the green product consumption (Sparks
and Shepherd, 1992; Oliver and Lee, 2010). The millennials then must have felt involved in the
green products (Burton and Khammash, 2010). In this case, the consumers may want to read
more about the products because the products are considered important to them
(Dichter, 1966).
Similar relationships can be argued for the attitude towards and the subjective norms of
green product purchase. This is because, on the one hand, if a consumer has a favorable
evaluation of the green product purchase (i.e. positive attitude) or is under social pressure to
make the purchase (i.e. the subjective norm) (Ajzen, 1991), he or she may feel more involved
with the products. In both cases, the consumers may engage more in reading about the green
products to expand their general knowledge and to satisfy their curiosity. It is also worth
noting that the more reviews consumers read, the more they can learn about products even if
they might not necessarily be interested in any purchases yet (Burton and Khammash, 2010).
Given that online activities including online reading and reviews are common in the millennials’
daily lives (Moore, 2012; Bolton et al., 2013), we can then expect the consumers to engage
more in online green product reviews if they felt involved with the green products. On the other
hand, Burton and Khammash (2010) found that product involvement is positively associated
with more online product reviews. Therefore, we formally hypothesize the following:
H6. Among millennials, self-image congruence with green product consumers has a
positive impact on online green product review.
H7. Among millennials, attitude toward green product purchase has a positive impact on
online green product review.
H8. Among millennials, subjective norm toward green product purchase has a positive
impact on online green product review.
4. Research method Online product
4.1 Data collection review of green
Vietnam has been facing numerous environmental problems recently (Nguyen et al., 2019). In
fact, according to the World Bank’s report on Vietnam in 2017, the economic and population
consumption
development in the country has been accompanied with intense exploitation of natural
resources, increased pollution and greenhouse gas emissions and increasingly unmet
demand for energy. Moreover, Vietnam is one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to
climate change impacts including sea level rise, longer and more severe droughts and floods 239
and tropical cyclones. Thus, environment issues and green consumption can be one of the top
concerns for Vietnam recently (Koning et al., 2015).
To test our theoretical model, we conducted a survey in Vietnam, an emerging country
where millennials account for 30 percent of the current population of 95.5 million (Nielsen,
2016b; UNESCAP, 2019). While the definitions of millennials have not been unanimously
agreed, we used year of birth as the main criterion. Our classification can be justified by
several reasons. First, this criterion has been used by different top marketing agencies (e.g.:
Nielsen, 2016b; Deloitte, 2019) and is accepted in academia (e.g.: Moore, 2012;
Tangsupwattana, 2017; Gonzalez-Fuentes, 2019). Second, with the fast development of
Internet and social media, millennials today are considered a globally homogenized group in
terms of attitudes and behaviors (Moore, 2012; Gonzalez-Fuentes, 2019). Thus, despite the
economic and social differences across countries, behaviors of the illennials can be similar
across countries, especially when they are related to online activities.
It has been found recently that Vietnamese millennial consumers also share the global
generational features. For example, according a Nielsen’s survey, the Vietnamese consumer
group are the most connected and networked worldwide among Asia–Pacific millennials,
with the average 27.2 h/week spending on online activities. Moreover, 81 percent of
Vietnamese millennials showed their needs to be connected everywhere (Nielsen, 2016b).
Similarly, according to a report by Kantar Worldpanel in 2019, Millennials in Vietnam are not
only well-educated, technological-savvy but arevalso open-minded and early adopters of
healthy lifestyle. The consumers were born in a digital world and now are inseparable from
mobile phones and very active on social media platforms. As a consequence, they seem to be
more focused on their self-identities than previous generations and have early self-
consciousness about their appearance (Kantar WorldPanel, 2019).
Our data collection focused on Vietnamese millennial consumers who are frequent users of
social network sites like Facebook, Zalo or Instagram. An online survey was used to collect
data in March 2018. After two months, we got 305 millennial respondents aged from 21 to 34
who fully answered all the questions. The sample demographics can be seen in Table I.

4.2 Measures
Measures for this study were adapted from those used in previous research related to green
purchase intention, TPB’s variables, online product review and self-image congruence. In
particular, the measure of green product purchase intention and TPB’s variables were
adapted from that of Paul et al. (2016). Online green product review was measured using the
scale adapted from Bambauer-Sachse and Mangold (2011). The measure of self-image
congruence with green product consumer was adapted from that by (Sirgy et al., 1997). All of
these measure items were evaluated on a seven-point Likert scale, ranging from strongly
disagree (1) to strongly agree (7).
To further ensure the content validity of the measures, we conducted a qualitative
research via two traditional focus group interviews. The measurement instrument was tested
with millennial consumer groups to check the clarity of items and the language. The final
measure items used can be seen in Table II.
APJML Variable Categories Percentage
33,1
Gender Male 27.5
Female 72.5
Occupation Student 29.5
Works in state enterprises/organizations 23.6
Works in private/foreign companies 36.7
240 Others (free lancers, self-employed. . .) 10.2
Place of residence (provinces) Hanoi 83.3
Others cities/provinces 16.7
Table I. Average annual individual income Under VND 60 millions 6.7
Demographic profile of Between VND 60–120 millions 51.1
respondents Over VND 120 millions 42.2

5. Analysis results
5.1 Reliability and validity of measurement scales
As recommended by Anderson and Gerbing (1988), the measurement model was first refined
to ensure the acceptable reliabilities and validities of the measures. Two phases of factor
analyses were conducted. First, we conducted an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) using
SPSS 23.0 on all items in order to initially identify underlying factors and to assess the degree
of unidimensionality of measures. After eliminating some items, in the second phase, we
performed a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) for the overall measurement model.
The items used and the results of the reliability and convergent validity tests from the
CFA can be seen in Table II. Factor loadings of items (λ) are all higher than 0.7 while
the internal consistency reliability (ρ) of all constructs in our research is greater than 0.8. The
AVE of all constructs is also higher than 0.5. The measures thus can be considered to have
adequate convergent validities and reliabilities (Hair et al., 2010) (see Table II).
The discriminant validity tests of the independent constructs can be seen in Table III. All
the explained variances are greater than the variances shared with other constructs as
estimated in the measurement model, demonstrating the discriminant validities of the
measures used (Fornell and Larcker, 1981).

5.2 Hypotheses testing results

After assessing the reliabilities and validities of the measures used, a structural model was
specified to test the research hypotheses. Bootstrapping with 500 samples was used. The
overall fit measures of the structural model indicate the adequate fit (Chi-square 5 444.069;
DF 5 234; Chi 5 square/DF 5 1.898; CFI 5 0.961, TLI 5 0.954, GFI 5 0.894, RMSEA 5 0.054)
(Hair et al., 2010). R2 for green product purchase intention was 0.597, indicating that the
proposed model provided a considerable explanation to the intention variance. Table IV is a
summary of the bias-corrected estimates for the hypothesis tests.
As can be seen in Table IV, millennials’ online green product review and self-image
congruence with green product consumers are positively and significantly related to
millennials’ green product purchase intention (β 5 0.138, p-value < 0.01 and β 5 0.253,
p-value < 0.01, respectively). Thus, H1 and H2 are supported.
With regard to the hypotheses related to the TPB’s variables, the estimates showed that
the paths from attitude toward green product purchase and perceived behavior control over
green product purchase to green product purchase intention are significant and positive
(β 5 0.535, p-value < 0.01 and β 5 0.098, p-value < 0.05, respectively). Thus, H3 and H5 are
supported. However, the path from subjective norms of green product purchase to green
product purchase intention was nonsignificant (β 5 055, p-value 5 0.366). H4 then is not
supported.
Constructs Items λ ρ AVE
Online product
review of green
Green product purchase I will consider buying green products in the 0.822 0.902 0.698 consumption
intention (INT) future
I will consider switching to green product brands 0.844
I expect to purchase green product in the future 0.864
I definitely want to purchase green products in 0.811
the near future 241
Attitude towards green product I like the idea of purchasing green products 0.794 0.898 0.638
purchase (ATT) Purchasing green products is a good idea 0.797
I have a favorable attitude toward purchasing 0.758
green products
I think purchasing green products is a civilized 0.798
behavior
I think purchasing green products is a positive 0.845
trend
Subjective norms of green Most people who are important to me think 0.836 0.903 0.700
product purchase (SN) I should buy green products when going for
a purchase
Most people who are important to me would want 0.904
me to buy green products when going for a
purchase
People whose opinions I value would prefer that 0.781
I purchase green products
Most people who are close to me would want me 0.821
to buy green products when going for a purchase
Perceived behavior control over Green products are generally available in the 0.922 0.876 0.780
green product purchase (PBC) shops where I usually do my shopping
There are likely to be plenty of opportunities for 0.843
me to purchase green products
Online green product review I often read other consumers’ online product 0.839 0.914 0.727
(OPR) reviews to know what green products/brands
make good impressions on others
To make sure I buy the right green product/ 0.930
brand, I often read other consumers’ online
product reviews
I often consult other consumers’ online product 0.898
reviews to help choose the right green product/
brand
I frequently gather information from online 0.731
consumer product reviews before I buy a certain
green product/brand
Self-image congruence with The image of the green product consumer 0.854 0.936 0.786
green product consumers (SIC) is similar to how I am
The image of the green product consumer 0.921
is similar to how I see myself
The image of the green product consumer 0.894 Table II.
is similar to how others believe who I am Reliability and
The image of the green product’s consumer 0.877 convergent validity of
is similar to how others see me measurement scales

Regarding the mediating role of online product review, the paths from self-image congruence
with green product consumer to online green product review was positive and significant
(β 5 0.525, p-value < 0.01). Thus, H6 is supported. However, the paths from attitude toward
green product purchase and subjective norms of green product purchase to online green
product review were not significant (p-value 5 0.355 and p 5 0.199, respectively). H7 and H8
then are not supported.
APJML 6. Discussion and recommendations
33,1 6.1 Discussion
Our research challenged the common view in the extant literature of green consumption
behavior, which assumes that green consumption behavior could be understood from the
common attitude–behavior perspective for different age groups of consumers. Accordingly,
different generational consumers may act similarly (Cowan and Kinley, 2014; Wu and Chen,
2014; Paul et al., 2016). This research and its analysis results showed that while the attitude
242 can still be an important determinant to the green consumption behavior, the story should be
modified for millennials. Table V demonstrates the key modifications compared to what were
found in typical previous research in green consumption.

Constructs (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)

1. Green product purchase intention 0.698 0.635 0.392 0.382 0.532 0.650
2. Attitude towards green product purchase 0.638 0.470 0.169 0.360 0.480
3. Subjective norms of green product purchase 0.700 0.335 0.387 0.460
4. Perceived behavior control over green product 0.780 0.306 0.422
purchase
Table III. 5. Online green product review 0.727 0.584
Discriminant validity 6. Self-image congruence with green product consumers 0.786
of measurement scales Note(s): Numbers in the diagonal are the average variances extracted

Bias-corrected
90 percentile
# Estimate Lower Upper p-value Supported

H1 Online green product 0 Green product 0.138 0.057 0.230 0.004 Yes
review purchase
intention
H2 Self-image congruence 0 Green product 0.253 0.153 0.344 0.004 Yes
with green product purchase
consumers intention
H3 Attitude towards 0 Green product 0.535 0.418 0.658 0.004 Yes
green product purchase
purchase intention
H4 Subjective norms of 0 Green product 0.055 0.150 0.044 0.366 No
green product purchase
purchase intention
H5 Perceived behavior 0 Green product 0.098 0.037 0.170 0.015 Yes
control over green purchase
product purchase intention
H6 Self-image congruence 0 Online green 0.525 0.370 0.673 0.004 Yes
with green product product review
consumers
H7 Attitude towards 0 Online green 0.096 0.069 0.267 0.355 No
green product product review
Table IV. purchase
Bootstrapping test H8 Subjective norms of 0 Online green 0.134 0.018 0.280 0.199 No
results for the green product product review
hypotheses purchase
 Sparks and Oliver Kim and Wu and Paul Taufique and
This Shepherd and Lee Chung Jalilvand and Chen et al. Vaithia-nathan
# Relationships in the model research (1992) (2010) (2011) Samiei (2012) (2014) (2016) (2018)

H1 Online green product 0 Green product ✔ ✔

review purchase
intention
H2 Self-image 0 Green product ✔ ✔ ✔
congruence with purchase
green product intention
consumers
H3 Attitude towards 0 Green product ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
green product purchase
purchase intention
H4 Subjective norms of 0 Green product ✖ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✖ ✖
green product purchase
purchase intention
H5 Perceived behavior 0 Green product ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
control over green purchase
product purchase intention
H6 Self-image 0 Online green ✔
congruence with product
green product review
consumers
H7 Attitude towards 0 Online green ✖
green product product
purchase review
H8 Subjective norms of 0 Online green ✖
green product product
purchase review
Note(s): ✔: supported in the research; ✖: not supported in the research; otherwise: not tested in the research
review of green
Online product

243
consumption

consumption
Table V.
Some typical research
results in green
APJML First, our research model and the empirical results emphasized the important role of online
33,1 green product review among millennials. In fact, online green product review not only has a
positive and significant impact on the green product purchase intention but also mediates the
influence of another determinant through the intention. The finding of direct impact of online
product review on the purchase intention corroborates with other surveys which have
showed that millennials usually posted and were influenced by the online reviews, especially
the positive ones, before making a purchase (Mangold and Smith, 2012). More importantly,
244 our research showed that the online product review mediates the influence of self-image
congruence on the purchase intention. This probably happens because as green products are
important for millennial consumers to identify themselves with the products (i.e. self-image
congruence), the consumers may want to review more about the products. This finding
corroborates with what have been found in the literature about the positive relationship
between involvement and online product review (Burton and Khammash, 2010).
Second, self-image congruence with green product consumers was also found to be a key
determinant to green purchase intention among millennials. Thus, as the generational
consumers are often more confident and self-reliant than the previous generations (Young
and Hinesly, 2012), they may want to express their concerns over environmental issues by
being identified with green products and becoming a green consumer. This finding
corroborates with others in the field regarding the relationship between consumer’s identity
and green consumerism (Sparks and Shepherd, 1992; Lee, 2008; Oliver and Lee, 2010). In this
research, we also found the green product congruent millennials are willing to learn more
about the products before making their purchase.
Third, in this research the subjective norm of green product purchase was found to have
neither significantly direct nor indirect effects on purchase intention among millennials. This
is contrary to what have usually been found for general consumers (Cowan and Kinley, 2014;
Wu and Chen, 2014; Paul et al., 2016) or even for young consumer samples (Kumar et al., 2017;
Verma and Chandra, 2017; Nguyen et al., 2018). This may happen because the millennials are
more self-reliant than the previous generations (Young and Hinesly, 2012). As a result, their
behaviors may not be directly influenced by the important others, including their friends or
family members. The influences may even be considered negative if the millennials have too
strong independent minds. However, when suggested by the important others, the millennial
consumers may be directed to review more about the green products which then will
influence their purchase intention. Our research found the positive influence of the subjective
norm on the purchase intention among the millennials though the relationship is not
significant.
Fourth, the attitude toward green product purchase and the perceived behavior control
over the purchase were found to have direct impacts on the purchase intention. These results
corroborate with findings from previous research for young consumers (Verma and Chandra,
2017; Nguyen et al., 2018; Taufique and Vaithianathan, 2018). Thus, we can expect that a
millennial who has favorable evaluation of green product purchase or feels that the purchase
can be done with ease will be more likely to make the purchase. In contrast to our hypothesis,
however, the attitude has no indirect effect via online product review. This may happen
because the millennial consumers when already having formed their evaluations will need no
further reviews as they are “too confident”. As already found in the literature, consumers of
this generation are often more confident in determining their consumption behaviors
compared to the previous generations (Young and Hinesly, 2012).
Our research thus makes several key contributions to the literature. First, the theoretical
model and its tested results in this research provide an alternative view of green consumption
behaviors for millennials. Different from the commonly used TPB framework, our model
highlights the important role of the generational traits which make the millennial consumers
more prone to online product reviews and self-image expression. Our model, however, does
not replace but complement the TPB framework. As a result, while attitude toward green Online product
behaviors is still an important determinant, the direct and mediating effects of online product review of green
review and self-image congruence are emphasized among millennials.
Second, our research also contributes to the recent literature of e-WOM. In fact, in this
consumption
research, we focus on one dimension of e-WOM, the online product review. Thus, we highlight
the importance of this communication channel for providing product information
independently and unbiasedly. As a result, e-WOM should be considered as an important
marketing channel, especially for the tech-savvy consumers as millennials (Chen and Xie, 245
2008; Tuten and Solomon, 2018).
Third, our research once again highlights the importance of understanding consumer
behaviors of separate generations (Schuman and Scott, 1989; Gardiner et al., 2013) and
answers the call for further segmentation research in green marketing (Narula and Desore,
2016). While consumers of different generations may show some common general patterns,
each generation should be featured and their behavior modeled differentially for better
targeted marketing campaigns. The model in this research showed some typical features of
the millennials which result in the important and complement determinants beyond the
common ones to their green behaviors.

6.2 Practical implications

The model in this research is a modified and complement view of the TPB framework that has
usually been used in studying green consumption behaviors. Thus, other recommendations
from studies of green consumption behaviors under the TPB framework, including
communication or training campaigns to enhance the attitudes or trade-facilitating programs
to make green products available and accessible to consumers, can also be valid here for
millennials (Wu and Chen, 2014; Nguyen et al., 2019).
However, in addition to traditional recommendations, online channels should be more
effectively used for millennials. Therefore, governments or firms who are targeting the
millennial consumers are encouraged to facilitate online forums and social media for the
consumers to share reviews on green products, the benefits to individuals’ health and
the positive impacts on the environment. For example, marketers could focus more on viral
marketing or influencer marketing by inspiring users to spread or share the green message to
other users. This marketing strategy is feasible because 70 percent of Vietnamese millennials
are actually connected or interacting with organizations and firms via social marketing sites
very often (Nielsen, 2016b).
Moreover, the generational consumers should be encouraged to express themselves
congruent with green lifestyles and the related product image. Marketing and communication
campaigns thus should promote such green individual images to further encourage a socially
responsible lifestyle among the millennials. For example, marketers could develop a
personality for their green product that closely matches the ideal self-concept of potential
millennial consumers. Green brand marketers should also consider creating and adapting
their advertising messages to target millennials’ self-concept.
In fact, the above recommendations can be applied to other emerging countries, especially
those in the ASEAN region. Thanks to the global generational features of millennials and
similar culture and socioeconomic development within the region, environment-friendly
global brands could devise regional branding and marketing strategies for emerging
countries and the ASEAN.

6.3 Limitation and further research

Our research is not without limitation. In fact, the model in this research only examines the
purchase intention. Even though the intention has usually been considered to be the key
APJML determinant to the actual behavior (Nguyen et al., 2019), future research may incorporate the
33,1 behavior to enhance the external validity of green consumption studies. Moreover, in this
research, we only examine a single sample of millennials in Vietnam. While it is insightful for
the generation behavior, a future research directly comparing different generation models or
across countries will help confirm the differential generational patterns.
In summary, this research makes several key contributions to the literature of green
consumption by providing an alternative view for millennial consumers. This generation is
246 now definitely an important consumer group with growing and significant purchasing power
in many developed and developing countries. Studies focusing on typical features and
patterns of this group are important for better targeted marketing activities.

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Corresponding author
Hung Vu Nguyen can be contacted at: nguyenvuhung@neu.edu.vn

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