MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING THIS WORK WAS COMPLETED AT

NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY

NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY

‹ Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Vu Hung

DO THANH LONG
Reviewer 1:

Exposure to Internet Content and

Reviewer 2:
the Formation of Green Consumption
Behavioural Intention among Generation
Yers in Vietnam Reviewer 3:

SPECIALIZATION: BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION The thesis will be defended at the Council of State granted the
thesis dots meeting at National Economics University in Hanoi
SPECIALIZATION CODE: 9340101
to cover on of 2022

PhD dissertation summary

This Thesis can be found at:

- National Library
- Library of National Economics University

Hanoi – 2022
 LIST OF PUBLISHED WORKS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
related to dissertation by PhD candidate 1.1. Reasons for choosing topic
Over the past decades, the development and welfare of human being have
been threatened by number of serious environmental problems such as air and
1. Nguyen, H.V., Do, L.T. and Le, M.T.T. (2022), "Encouraging pro-
water pollution, resource scarcity, deforestation, climate change, loss of
environmental consumption behaviour amongst Gen-Y consumers: right biodiversity and so on. It has been affirmed that the over-exploitation of natural
messages to different consumers?", Asia-Pacific Journal of Business resources for production to meet the increasing demand of rapidly proliferating
Administration, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of- population is one of main causes of these problems.

print. https://doi.org/10.1108/APJBA-08-2021-0391
2. Nguyen Vu Hung and Do Thanh Long (2022), “Fostering green
consumption behaviours among Gen-Y consumers: The relative importance
of norms and effectiveness of media information”, Journal of Finance &
Accounting Research, Vol. 14 No.
Solving the problems requires co-operation among academics and
practitioners from different field of science to find out practicable solutions. From
behaviour change perspective, since the late 1990s, there has been belief among
scholars that the view and patterns of consumption need to be changed toward
more environmentally friendly way in order to ensure sustainable development
for our planet. To date, sustainable production and consumption have become a
common concern throughout the world (Liu et al., 2017). Empirically, in order to
offer governments, marketers, and policy makers valuable insights to design
effective behavioural intervention to foster the changes, scholars have put great
effort into understanding which factors are promoters or inhibitors of
environmentally significant behaviours from different perspectives.

1.2. Purpose of the research

1.2.1. The human value – green consumption behaviour gap

Among different research lines in the field, many scholars have focused on
the roles of human value in driving pro-environmental consumption behaviours
with theory of basic human values as theoretical foundation (Steg & Vlek, 2009).
Accordingly, forming and changing values are a common stream of research
which is promising to change the behaviours.
To date, increasing numbers of research have investigated the link between
Schwartz’s value types (Schwartz, 1992) and pro-environmental consumption
behaviours. Among various values that guide human behaviours, Stern and
associates (1995) clearly distinguished underlying values for the behaviours,
basing on the work about human values of Schwartz (1992). The first one is
biospheric-altruistic value that implies the importance an individual places on the

1
benefits of other species, other people and the biosphere. The second one is
egoistic value that indicates the extent to which self-benefit is important to an
individual (Karp, 1996; Stern & Dietz, 1994; Wesley Schultz, 2001). The driving
force of these values behind pro-environmental consumption behaviours thus
have usually been examined.
Nevertheless, while providing significant contribution about value-
behaviour relationship in the field, there is still value-behaviour gap that remains
unexplained. More specifically, this is reflected by empirical evidence that people
may not always be ready to take pro-environmental actions even when they
emphasize the importance of environmental protection as well as altruism (e.g.:
Geiger & Keller, 2018; Groot & Steg, 2008; Lee et al., 2014). Conversely, people
may not always deny responsibility to protect the environment even if they
strongly display the importance of self-benefits to themselves (e.g.: Kim & Seock,
2019; Landon et al., 2018).
One of the most important reasons for the gap is that, this line of research
focused mainly on identifying the direct impacts of internal values in driving
green consumption behaviours while overlooking the roles of external factors
(Peattie, 2010; Steg & Vlek, 2009). More specifically, as “human value” reflects
desirable goals that people want to achieve in life, human value may match or
mismatch with various situations before being converted into behaviours. The
linkage between a value and a specific behaviour therefore may be moderated by
other factors. In fact, scholars suggested that peope’s beliefs towards target
behaviours can be one of such moderating factors (Ponizovskiy et al., 2019).
More specifically, from this view, people who hold strong value for the nature
may engage in green consumption behaviours for environment protection if they
are aware of the environmental degradation. Likewise, people who strongly value
personal benefits for themselve may take green consumption actions if they
believe that green consumption can bring them such gains and deny the behaviour
engagement if it is believed to be threats to their benefits (Groot & Steg, 2008;
Stern & Dietz, 1994). Relevant information about environment that consumers
are exposed to then can moderate the relationship between the values and green
consumption behaviours.
1.2.2. The role of environmental content exposure on the internet in filling
value – behaviour gap
2 3
In this study, I expect that environmental content that a consumer is
exposed to may play important role in narrowing value – green consumption
behaviour gap. It is because frequency of environmental content exposure can
change individuals’ beliefs and knowledge concerning the green consumption
behaviours (Green et al., 2019; Staats et al., 1996; Steg & de Groot, 2010;
Valkenburg et al., 2016). In line with my expectation, the important role of
external cues like environmental content in activating one’s values and motivating
or demotivating him/her to act in a given situation that is relevant to the values
has been mentioned by scholars (e.g.: Lindenberg & Steg, 2013; Steg, Bolderdijk,
et al., 2014; Verplanken & Holland, 2002). While being emphasized, the role of
environmental content exposure in filling value – behaviour gap to date has been
under-researched.
1.2.3. The research questions
Current study aims at addressing this gap in value - green consumption
behaviour relationship by examining the moderating effect of environmental
content exposure. By exposing to the contents, consumers’ may shape or change
their beliefs about costs and benefits of a behaviour for themselves, for other
species, other people and for the whole nature (Bandura, 2001; Stamm et al.,
2000). Exposure to environmental content therefore may activate relevant values
held by consumers to result in their green consumption behaviours.
In this study, two types of environmental content that are considered
important in fostering pro-environmental motivation including environmental
problem-related and action-related contents (Abrahamse & Steg, 2013;
Bolderdijk et al., 2013) are investigated. The former communicates and enhances
consumers’ awareness of the state of the environment or the existences of
environmental problems. The latter informs consumers of the course of actions
that are effective in alleviating the situation.
Furthermore, with the development of the internet and social network,
traditional media platforms such as television, radio, or paper magazine have been
no longer the influential platforms for information. Instead, the digital
environment of internet has become integral part of human society (Dawn &
Thomas, 2013) and ideal platform for the diffusion of content regarding
environmental protection to encourage green consumption practices among
consumers. Thus, current study focuses on investigating environmental content
on the platform of internet and social network.
This study is expected to contribute to the extant knowledge about value-
behaviour relationship in the field of green consumption behaviours and hence
offer marketers and policy makers valuable insights in designing more effective
behavioural intervention to foster the construction of green consumption culture.
Accordingly, the study aims at finding answers for following research questions:
Question 1: How and why do some relevant human value affect green
consumption behavioural intention?
Question 2: How and why does exposure to environmental problem-related
content on the internet moderate the relationship between the human value and
green consumption behavioural intention?
Question 3: How and why does exposure to pro-environmental action-
related content on the internet moderate the relationship between the human value
and green consumption behavioural intention?
1.3. Subject and scope of the research
Current research focuses on investigating the roles of environmental
contents on the internet and social network (hereafter called internet content) in
bridging the gap between human values and green consumption behaviours
among generation Y consumers for some reasons:
First, the generation Y consumers who were born from 1980 to 2000
(Belleau et al., 2007) is the most powerful cohort of consumers because of their
hefty size (Naderi & Van Steenburg, 2018). Accordingly, their consumption
behaviours are expected to have great impacts on the environment and the next
generation consumers’ behaviours. Shifting their consumption patterns towards
more sustainable ones is therefore significant to the environment protection.
Second, the internet and social network have become the most popular
channel for information seeking in modern societies instead of other traditional
media platforms such as television, radio, or paper magazine. The dependence of
consumers of generation Y on this digital environment for information is
indisputable (Dawn & Thomas, 2013). Understanding the effects of exposure to
environmental content from the internet and social network on their green
4 5
consumption behaviours therefore can offer insightful implications for
governments to design more effective behavioural intervention and ultimately
successfully build up green consumption culture.
Besides, to ensure the relevance of our research to the context of study in
Vietnam, this study focuses on a range of different environmentally significant
consumption behaviours that are economical, less behavioural efforts and
commonly appoved by society. The behaviours including recycling, plastic
product usage, public transport usage, product purchase, and energy saving are
expected to stem from both egoistic and prosocial motivations.
1.4. Original contributions of the research
Theoretically, the results of this study are to contribute to the extant
knowledge of value-green consumption behaviour relationships by specifying the
moderating role of environmental content exposure. This study, thus, may help
provide answers to the call by scholars for identifying the roles of external factors
in determining green consumption behaviour (Peattie, 2010; Steg & Vlek, 2009).
Practically, this study offers valuable insights for marketers and policy makers in
designing more effective environmental information campaigns to persuade
consumers to act environmentally friendly and hence ensure the sustainable
development for human society. Specifically, the campaigns will be more
effective in bring on behavioural change towards more sustainable pattern if they
communicate righ messages/ contents to right consumers who express different
values.
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Green consumption
The world has been threatened by many environmental problems. It is
recognized by academics that unsustainable consumption patterns of the
population are responsible for that. Obviously, people are undeniably dependent
on nature to live and to satisfy their demands. The environment provides
humankind with the necessary resources for human life, from fresh air to breathe,
clean water to drink, meat and cereal to food, living space and so on. The
environment also serves as a “waste repository” for wastes produced by the
process of production and consumption, absorbs or recycles them into substances
that are useful or at least harmless to human (Dunlap & Jorgensen, 2012).
Nevetheless, these functions of the environment have been jeopardized by
increasing level of unsustainable consumption alongside the growth of the world
population. To meet increasing demand, people over-hunt and poach wild animals
for meat and other products from them, deforest for land and timber, over-exploit
other natural resources such as oil, gas, minerals for production, over-use
fertilizers and pesticide for agriculture, etc. Consequently, the adverse impacts
humans have on the environment result in reverse one the natural environment
has on humans. The irresponsible consumption without considering the
environment conservation has been followed by the increasing number of natural
disasters such as severe changes in the weather patterns, melting glaciers, global
warming, frequent floodings and hurricanes, rising sea level, wildfires, an
enormous amount of greenhouse gase emission, contamination of air, soil and
water and so forth.
2.1.1. The emergence of green consumption
To prevent human society from adverse impacts of environmental issues,
changing the view and patterns of consumption is vital to sustainable development
for human society. To date, green consumption has become a common concern
throughout the world and the main target to achieved sustainable development
goal proposed by the United Nations (Liu et al., 2017; United Nations, 1992).
In 1994, the term “sustainable consumption” or “green consumption” was
first posed by the Oslo Symposium on Sustainable Consumption. It refers to “the
use of goods and services that respond to basic needs and bring a better quality of
life, while minimizing the use of natural resources, toxic materials and emissions
of waste and pollutants over the life cycle, so as not to jeopardize the needs of
future generations”. In fact, sustainable consumption, green consumption,
environmental responsible consumption, environmentally friendly consumption
are often used interchangeably by scholars.
To date, despite of existing debates, green consumption has become the
most concern and an attractive field for academic research (United Nations, 1992).
Many scholars have focused on investigating antecedents of green consumption
behaviours to offer insightful implications for governments and policy makers to
bring about the changes in consumer behaviours towards more sustainability.
6 7
Empirically, various factors have been explored from different theoretical
perspectives. These perspectives are dicussed in the following section.
2.2. Antecedents of green consumption behaviours
Behavioural interventions generally become more effective when they are
targeted at important determinants of the target behaviour. Thus, motivating
consumers to engage in green consumption behaviours requires an understanding
of what are inhibitors or motivators of the behaviours.
In order to offer marketers and policy markers better understandings of the
diversity in consumers’ decisions and their green consumption behaviours,
academic research has put great effort on investigating underlying factors of the
behaviours from different theoretical perspectives. The first research line starts
from the assumption that individual’s behaviours are results of reasoned choices,
based on consideration of costs and benefits. The most influential perspective of
this line is the Theory of planned behaviour (TPB) of Ajzen (1991) that was
extended from the preceding theory of reasoned actions. The theory assumes that
three factors namely attitude toward a behaviour, subjective norms and perceived
behavioural control together form consumers’ intention to perform the behaviour,
that is in turn translated into actual behaviour (Ajzen, 1987, 1991). Another one
is the Theory of consumption values developed by Sheth et al. (1991) that is a
powerful perspective in explaining consumers’ choice towards green products.
According to this theory, consumers’ choice towards a product is a function of
five main basic, independent perceived consumption values from purchase and
use of the product namely functional value, social value, emotional value,
epistemic value, conditional value. The second main stream of research focuses
on the role of moral and normative concerns in driving the behaviours or
examining the value-basis of consumers’ environmental beliefs and behaviours
with the the theory of basic human values (Schwartz, 1992, 2012), norm-
activation theory (Schwartz, 1977) or the Value – belief – norm theory (Stern,
2000) as theoretical foundations. The third line pays attention to social normative
influences on the behaviours with the Theory of normative conduct (Cialdini &
Trost, 1998) as theoretical basis.
Empirically, many factors have been investigated and posited to be
determinants of pro-environmental consumption motivation. These factors can be
categorized into two groups - individual factors or individual differences and
environmental/ external factors. Individual factors include demographic
characteristics, internal psychological variables such as attitude, moral norm,
personal values, consumer identity or perceptual factors such as perceived
behavioural control, perceived consumer effectivess, price sensitivity or
emotional factors such as guilt and pride and so on that affect individuals’
decission making process. Meanwhile, environmental factors indicate external
forces that motivate or inhibit consumers from acting pro-environmentally such
as social norms, media information, availability of green products and
infrastructure, etc.
Reviewing literature in the field showed that individual factors are not
always useful to predict green consumption motivation and behaviours.
Obviously, consumer behaviours are not affected by internal factors alone. Many
external or environmental factors may influence consumers’ motivations and
facilitate or constrain their behaviour engagement. For example, the availability
of infrastructure such as recycling facilities, public transport system, the supply
of green products, or pricing regimes can have strong impacts on people’s
engagement in green consumption behaviours.
Environmental factors may affect behaviours in different ways: directly
influences or indirectly effect through other individual. Environmental factors
may also moderate the relationship between individual factors/ differences and
behaviours or the effects of environmental factors on behaviours may be
dependent on individual factors. However, in the field of green consumption,
despite the importance of environmental/ external factors, the effects have not
been systematically examined. To date, the environmental factors have been
examined by a limited numbers of studies. Additionally, the interaction effects of
environmental and individual differences on green consumption behaviours have
been overlooked by scholars.
2.3. The effects of human values on green consumption behaviours
In the field of green consumption, one main stream of reseach has focused
on the role of human values in driving consumer’s behaviours. From this research
line, values are assumed to be internal guidance of people’s thoughts and actions
(Feather, 1995; Rokeach, 1973; Schwartz, 1992, 2012) and thus in a given
8 9
context, attitudes and behaviours are results of tradeoff among different
competing values that are relevant and important to the actor (Schwartz, 1992,
2012).
Regarding pro-environmental consumption behaviours, self-transcendence
and self-enhancement values have usually been studied and proved to be the most
important value basis of the behaviors. Self-enhancement value is referred to the
importance people place on self-interest. Conversely, self-transcendence indicates
people’ focus on the benefits of other species, other people and the biosphere
(Karp, 1996; Stern & Dietz, 1994; Wesley Schultz, 2001). Self-enhancement
value can be distinguished into two more specific ones namely power and
achievement. Power value refers to the desire for social status and prestige,
control or dominance over people and resources. Achievement value reflects the
importance people place on personal success through demonstrating competence
according to social standards. Meanwhile, self-transcendence value comprises
universalism and benevolence values. Universalism value expresses the
importance of understanding, appreciation, tolerance, and protection for the
welfare of all people and for nature while benevolence demonstrates the goal of
preserving and enhancing the welfare of those with whom one is in frequent
personal contact (Schwartz, 1992).
Based on the work of Schwartz (1992) on the measures of self-
transcendence and self-enhancement values, Stern and associates (1995) clarified
the most underlying values of pro-environmental behaviours and operationalized
them as biospheric-altruistic and egoistic values. According to Stern and Dietz
(1994), people endorsing egoistic value are predisposed to practice pro-
environmental actions basing on the consideration between personal costs and
benefits of the actions. Egoistic value therefore drives people to take actions to
protect the environment if they believe such actions are beneficial to them.
Whereas, biospheric-altruistic value predisposes people to protect the
environmnent basing on the consideration between costs and benefits for others
and the biosphere (Groot & Steg, 2008; Stern & Dietz, 1994). Pro-environmental
behaviours therefore are the result of tradeoff between costs and benefits of the
behaviours that are linked to people’s biospheric-altruistic and egoistic values.
Empirically, the role of self-transcendence value, self-enhancement value
or biospheric-altruistic and egoistic values in motivating consumers to consume
greenly are interchangeably examined by scholars. However, while many studies
supported the correlations between these values and pro-environmental
consumption behaviours, others showed insignificant or even reverse ones. Thus,
the effects of human values on green consumption behaviours have remained
inconclusive.
For example, biospheric value was found to positively predict consumers’
concern for the environment, their feeling of responsibility for the environmental
problems related to energy consumption and their donating intention to an
environmental organization by Groot and Steg (2008). Similarly, biospheric value
was reported to positively influence tourists’ favourable attitude toward the
environment and their ecotourism behaviours in study of Lee and Jan (2017).
Biospheric value was also proved to be a significant determinant of consumers’
attitude toward the environment that was then translated into eco-citizenship,
green consumption and green product purchase behaviours in study of Kim and
associates (2015). In the same way, consumers was found to be more likely to
engage in private sphere pro-environmental behaviour as well as environmental
activism if they strongly endorse biospheric value by Zibenberg and associates
(2018). The effect of biospheric value on ecotourism behaviour in the study of
Lee and Jan (2018) is further support for the importance of the value in driving
green consumption behaviours. Nevertheless, positive relationship between
biospheric value and green consumption behaviours was not always supported by
empirical evidence. No significant relationship between biospheric value and
attitude towards recycling was found in another study conducted by Groot and
Steg (2008). Likewise, biospheric value was no predictor of green lifestyle
behaviour in the study by Sony and Ferguson (2017). Furthermore, biospheric
value was found to insignificantly relate to consumers’ willingness to pay for
fairtrade labeled clothes that are produced in accordance with pro-environmental
standards by Geiger and Keller (2018).
Like biospheric value, the effect of altruistic value on green consumption
behaviours was also inconsistent. On one hand, altruistic value was found to be
predictor of consumers’ favourable attitude and concern towards the environment
(e.g.: Han & Hwang, 2017; López-Mosquera & Sánchez, 2012; Vanderploeg &
Lee, 2019) as well as positively predict various green consumption behaviours
such as green lifestyle behaviour (Sony & Ferguson, 2017), consumers’
10
willingness to pay extra for fair clothes produced in pro-environmental manners
(Geiger & Keller, 2018) or ecologically conscious consumer behaviour
(Straughan & Roberts, 1999). On the other hand, altruistic value was found to be
insignificant determinant of consumers’ attitude toward recycling and
evironmental concern (Groot & Steg, 2008; Landon et al., 2018), consumers’
attention to pro-environmental criteria of fashion product (Geiger & Keller, 2018)
as well as not to be predictor of good citizenship behaviour, environmental activist
behaviour and green purchase behaviour (Lee et al., 2014).
Similarly, empirical evidence also reported the same conflicting results
about the linkage between egoistic value and environmental attitude and
behaviours. For example, egoistic value has been found to have negative effect on
attitude toward recycling (Groot & Steg, 2008) and recycling behaviour,
consumers’ support for corporate social responsible practices and their
consideration of environmental impact of products (Lee & Cho, 2019), limiting
car use behaviour (Steg, Perlaviciute, et al., 2014), and consumers’ favourable
attitude towards the environment (Groot & Steg, 2008). Existing studies have also
found insignificant linkage between egoistic value and environmental concern
(Landon et al., 2018) or between egoistic value and consumers’ donating intention
to a humanitarian or an environmental organization (Groot & Steg, 2008).
Egoistic value was even positively related to consumers’ feeling of moral
obligation to purchase eco-friendly clothing for environment protection that then
was translated into the purchase behaviour by Kim and Seock (2019).
From reviewing literature about human value – green consumption
behaviour relationship, it appears that consumers may not always practice green
consumption even when they strongly express the importance of protecting and
enhancing wellfare of other species, other people and the nature. In reverse,
consumers who strongly desire for personal benefits may not always deny
responsibility to take green consumption activities. The human value - green
consumption behaviour gap therefore need to be further clarified to find a better
way to fostering green consumption culture.
2.4. Research gap
Within the scope of this study, I focus on dealing with the gap in the
relationship between values and green consumption behaviours. It is because
11
personal values play important role in understanding green consumption
behaviours for some reasons:
First, green consumption behaviours often involves conflicts between
personal and collective benefits. On the one hand, many important green
consumption behaviours aim at benefiting others (including other species and
other people) as well as the biosphere. On the other hand, the behaviours
somewhat require personal sacrifice (Chwialkowska & Flicinska-Turkiewicz,
2021). For example, using public transport instead of personal car reduces green
house gas emission and benefits the environment and the society, but it is
considered less comfortable, inconvenient, less pleasureable and time-consuming.
Also, reducing plastic bag usage is generally seen as an important behaviour to
the environment protection but is often perceived less convinient and personally
costly.
Second, it can be also argued that consumers are motivated to engage in
green consumption behaviours by personal interests (e.g: health and monetary
benefits, social status and prestige). For example, consumers purchase organic
foods for health benefit, saving energy for monetary benefit or reduce plastics use
for improving their image in others’ eyes. However, green consumption
behaviours usually decline over time when such external benefits are absent. So
that, to sustain green consumption behaviour motivation, the behaviours need to
be intrinsically motivated (Steinhorst & Klöckner, 2018).
Correspondingly, to fully understand green consumption motivation of
consumers, theoretical frameworks need to comprehensively explain green
consumption behaviours of consumers in terms of both intrinsic and extrinsic
motivation. Accordingly, I expect that the Theory of basic human value is such
one. From this perspective, consumers are more extrinsically motivated to
consume greenly if they prioritize their personal benefits over ones for the
environment, other species and other people. In reverse, consumers are more
intrinsically motivated to engage in green consumption behaviours when when
they strongly value benefits for the nature and the environment (Karp, 1996; Stern
& Dietz, 1994; Wesley Schultz, 2001). Current study thus considers the Theory
of basic human value as overarching theory to understand green consumption
behaviours of consumers.
12
As result of literature review, empirical evidence for the relationship
between the values and behaviour is mixed. Empirically, in accordance with the
theory, the findings of such research have generally supported that egoistic value
(or self-enhancement) and biospheric-altruistic value (or self-transcendence) are
important antecedents that eventually will lead to pro-environmental behaviours
(e.g.: Karp, 1996; Stern & Dietz, 1994; Wesley Schultz, 2001). Accordingly,
people expressing more concern about environmental degradation and others’
well-being are more inclined to protect the environment (Groot & Steg, 2008;
Stern & Dietz, 1994) while ones expressing concern about self-interest are more
likely to deny responsibility to practice pro-environmental activities (Lee & Cho,
2019; Steg, Perlaviciute, et al., 2014). However, the findings of such relationships
have been inconsistent across studies. There is also empirical evidence that the
same values are not always predictors of pro-environmental behaviours (e.g.:
Geiger & Keller, 2018; Groot & Steg, 2008).
While providing significant contribution about human value - green
consumption behaviour relationship, like most research in the field focused
mainly on identifying internal factors that drive pro-environmental behaviours,
the effects of contextual factors have often been overlooked (Peattie, 2010; Steg
& Vlek, 2009). More specifically, as a “human value” reflects abstract end-state
desirable goal that pertains to various situations and behaviours, the linkage
between a value and a specific behaviour may be interfered by other factors
including both internal and external ones (Ponizovskiy et al., 2019). Accordingly,
the inconsistence of value-behaviour relationship may be caused by potential
moderating factors which have been overlooked in previous research.
When combining with result of the review of media effect research in the
field, it is expected that the interaction between environmental values and
environmental contents, an external factor, may further clarify the relationship
between the values and green consumption behaviours. This study thus aims at
addressing this gap in human value- green consumption behaviour relationship by
examining the moderating effect of environmental content exposure. It is because
environmental contents as suggested by several scholars could shape or build up
beliefs of consumers about costs and benefits of green consumption behaviours
(Bandura, 2001; Stamm et al., 2000). Exposure to environmental contents
13
therefore may activate relevant human values held by consumers to result in
behaviours.
Factually, the important role of environmental content in activating
consumers values that then motivate or demotivate them to act has been discussed
in previous literature scholars (e.g.: Lindenberg & Steg, 2013; Steg, Bolderdijk,
et al., 2014; Verplanken & Holland, 2002). However, study that systematically
investigates the moderating role of environmental content exposure in the value
behaviour relationshp to date has not existed.
In current research, two types of environmental content on the internet and
social network (or internet contents) that are considered important in fostering
pro-environmental motivation including environmental problem-related and
action-related ones (Abrahamse & Steg, 2013; Bolderdijk et al., 2013) are
examined. The former heightens consumers’ beliefs and awareness of
environmental problems. The latter increases their knowledge and beliefs about
behavioural alternatives to protect the environment. This study is expected to
contribute to the extant knowledge about value-behaviour relationship in the field
of pro-environmental consumption behaviours, the role of internet content
exposure in the relationship and hence offer marketers and policy makers valuable
insights in designing more effective behavioural intervention to foster the
behaviour change towards more sustainability.
CHAPTER 3: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND
RESEARCH FRAMEWORK
3.1. Theory of basic human value
While different definitions of human values were posed by scholars
(Rohan, 2000), the concept generally indicates end-state desirable goals in human
life that motivate people to act in value-congruent ways to achieve. It is
consistently referred to as deep-rooted personal criteria that people base on to
evaluate and justify their thoughts and actions or environmental events (Feather,
1995; Rokeach, 1973; Schwartz, 1992). “Value” is therefore a very abstract term
that pertains to different situations and behaviours and reflects the general
principle guiding human behaviours. In other words, values indicate what are
important to us in life (Schwartz, 1992, 2012).
14
Value is assumed to influence what people attend to, what knowledge
becomes the most accessible cognitively, how much importance people ascribe to
different consequences of actions, how people evaluate various aspects of the
situation, and what alternatives are being considered. Value system of each
individual comprises various values that are ordered by their relative importance
to one another (Rokeach, 1973; Schwartz, 2012). Behaviours are results of
tradeoffs among different competing values that are relevant in the context and
important to the actor (Schwartz, 1992, 2012). In other words, people tend to
behave basing on evaluation of positive consequences for values that are central
to them in many different aspects. Value-behaviour relationship thus has been
studied in different consumer behaviour literature (Vinson et al., 1977).
3.2. Value basis of green consumption behaviours
In the field of green consumption behaviours, by supplementing the
measures of Schwartz (1992) assessing universalism, benevolence, power and
achievement values, Stern and associates (1995) clearly distinguished the most
underlying values of pro-environmental behaviours including biospheric-
altruistic and egoistic values that are referred to as the importance people place
on self-interest or on benefit of other species, other people and the biosphere
(Karp, 1996; Stern & Dietz, 1994; Wesley Schultz, 2001). The role of these values
in driving pro-environmental behaviours thus have usually been examined.
First, biospheric-altruistic value comprises universalism and benevolence
values. Universalism value expresses the importance of understanding,
appreciation, tolerance, and protection for the welfare of all people and for nature.
Meanwhile, benevolence demonstrates the goal of preserving and enhancing the
welfare of those with whom one is in frequent personal contact (Schwartz, 1992).
Second, egoistic value can be categorized into two more specific ones,
namely authority and money-based ones. While authority-based egoistic value
refers to the desire for social status and prestige, control or dominance over people
and resources, money-based one reflects the importance people place on personal
success through demonstrating competence according to social standards of
which money and possession are important measure.
Based on arguments and empirical evidence about positive linkage between
the values and behaviours, three hypotheses are developed as follows:
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 H1: Biospheric- altruistic value is positively related to green consumption
behavioural intention.
H2: Authority-based egoistic value is positively related to green
consumption behavioural intention.
H3: Money-based egoistic value is negatively related to green consumption
behavioural intention.
H5: Exposure to action-related content negatively moderates the
relationship between biospheric-altruistic value and green consumption
behavioural intention.
H6: Exposure to action-related content positively moderates the
relationship between money-based egoistic value and green consumption
behavioural intention.

3.3. Environmental internet content exposure as moderator H7: Exposure to action-related content negatively moderates the
relationship between authority-based egoistic value and green consumption
The term content exposure thus refers to “the extent to which audience
behavioural intention.
members have encountered specific messages or classes of messages/media
content” (Slater, 2004, p. 168) and is important concept in media effect research. Environmental problem- Demographic variables:
related content exposure - Gender
Exposure to environmental content, a contextual factor, could change - Age
Biospheric- - Education level

H4 (+)
behavioural beliefs and might be the moderator in human value - green altruistic value - Income
- Marital status
consumption behaviour relationships. Among two types of environmental content
of interest, the content about environmental problems that I label as environmental Authority-based Green consumption
H2 (+)
problem-related content communicates the states of the ecosystem or the egoistic value behavioural intention

H5 (-)
environment while the other, content about environmental behaviours that is
labelled as action-related content is concerning actions that people practice to deal

H6(+)
Money-based

with environmental problems (Hines et al., 1987). Exposure to the types of content
is critical to shift behaviours toward environmentally friendly way because people
cannot act on particular environmental problems if they are unaware of the
existence of such problems. Additionally, although people are cognizant of the
problems, they may not take a particular action if they don’t believe that the action
can be effective in this situation. These types of content are therefore prerequisite
to pro-environmental intention of an individual (Hines et al., 1987). In this
research, I argue that the contents can change the cost and benefit perception of
consumers and therefore exposure to such contents can moderate the relationship
between the values and green consumption behaviours.
Based on arguments and empirical evidence, hypotheses are developed as
follows:
H4: Exposure to environmental problem-related content positively
moderates the relationship between biospheric-altruistic value and green
consumption behavioural intention.
H7(-)
egoistic value
Action-related content
exposure
Figure 3.1: Hypothesis testing model
CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
4.1. Measurements
In particular, the measure for exposure to environmental problem-related
content includes four items that assess the extent the respondents have seen or
heard information from the internet and social networks about the four main
environmental problems namely loss of biodiversity, deforestation, energy
shortage and climate change (Dunlap & Jorgensen, 2012). Exposure to action-
related content measure includes five items asking respondents to rate the extent
they have seen or heard information about the green consumption behaviours on

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the internet and social network. The behavioural items are derived from those of
Braun and Dierkes (2019). The measures are evaluated on the 5-point frequency
scale (1= never; 2 = once per month or less; 3 = about twice per month; 4 = once
per week; 5 = almost every day).
Egoistic value measures are adapted from previous study of Bouman and
associates (2018), including three items for authority-based and two for money-
based egoistic values. Seven items adapted from those of Bouman and associates
(2018) measure the biospheric-altruistic value. For all the value measures,
respondents were shown a description of a person to whom which is important in
his/her life and asked to rate the extent to which they felt themselves to be like or
not like that person on a 5-point scale (1 = ‘not like me at all’ to 5 = ‘very much
like me’). Green consumption behavioural intention measure is adapted from one
in study of Braun and Dierkes (2019). The measure includes 5 items designed on
a 5-point Likert scale (from 1 = ‘Strongly Disagree’ to 5 = ‘Strongly Agree’).
4.2. Data collection
4.2.1. Research site and sampling
This focus on examining the effect of exposure to environmental content
on the internet and social network on green consumption behaviours of generation
Y consumers in the context of emerging country of Vietnam. Hanoi, the capital
of Vietnam, was chosen for collecting data as it is one of the most developed cities
of Vietnam with a large population of Generation Y and the internet
infrastructures and uses are prominent. To collect data, survey questionnaires
were directly or indirectly delivered to 350 residents of three residential groups in
Hanoi with the help of members of local security teams and residential
management.
4.3. Common method bias (CMB)
Since self-report survey questionnaire was used to collect data, this
approach raised a concern about common method bias that might distort the
research results. This problem occurs for some reasons.
To ensure CMB was well controlled before the hypotheses were tested,
Harman’s single factor test that remains the most widely used technique to
examine the problem was conducted (Jordan & Troth, 2020; Podsakoff et al.,
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2003). The result of Harman’s one factor test for CMB showed that the total
variance explained by a single factor of all measurement items was only 31.48%,
below the threshold of 50%. Thus, common method bias may not be a problem in
this study.
CHAPTER 5: RESEARCH RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
5.1. Reliability and validity of the measures
To examine reliability and validity of the measures, both exploratory factor
analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis were conducted. EFA results
confirmed the reliability and validity of the measures with factor loadings of
greater than 0.6 and Cronbach alpha values of greater than 0.6 (Hair et al., 2014).
With the structure of factors specified by EFA, measurement model was
established. The measurement model that was evaluated by the Chi-square (ꭓ2) =
585.209, Degrees of freedom (df) = 284 (p < 0.001), ꭓ2/df = 2.061, Root mean
square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.064; Standardized root mean
residual (SRMR) = .0549; Comparative Fit Index (CFI) = 0.914; Tucker Lewis
Index (TLI) = 0.901 appears to be good (Hair et al., 2014). All evidence from
CFA results together supports the construct reliatbility and validity in terms of
convergent, discriminant, and nomological validity.
5.2. Hypothesis testing
Hierarchical ordinary least squares regressions were used to test the models
with IBM SPSS Statistics version 22. The maximum variance inflation factor
(VIF) value in the model was only 2.045, lower than the threshold of 05 (Hair et
al., 2014). Current research model therefore showed no problems of
multicollinearity.
Among the three values, the study found strong and positive relationship
between biospheric-altruistic value and green consumption behavioural intention
as expected (β = 0.294; p-value < 0.01). Thus, H1 is supported. Authority-based
egoistic value is also positively and significantly related to green consumption
behavioural intention (β = 0.147; p-value < 0.05). Thus, H2 is also supported.
However, the relationship between money-based egoistic value and the
behavioural intention was found insignificant (β = -0.084; p-value > 0.1). H3 is
therefore not supported.
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 The interaction term between biospheric-altruistic value value and
problem-related content exposure is found insignificantly related to green
consumption behavioural intention (β = 0.096; p-value > 0.1). H4 is therefore not
supported. In the meantime, at confidence levels of 90%, the interaction term
between biospheric-altruistic value and action-related content exposure
negatively and significantly related to green consumption behavioural intention
(β = -0.149; p-value < 0.1). H5 is marginally supported.
For egoistic values, the interaction term between money-based egoistic
value and action-related content exposure was found to be positively and
significantly related to green consumption behavioural intention (β = 0.196; p-
value < 0.01). The result supports my expectation (H6) of positive moderating
effect of action-related content exposure on the relationship between money-
based egoistic value and green consumption behaviours.
Additionally, the interaction term between authority-based egoistic value
and action-related content exposure is negatively and significantly related to green
consumption behavioural intention (β = -0.133; p-value < 0.05). The result
indicates the negative moderating effect of action-related content exposure on the
linkage between authority-based egoistic value and green consumption
behaviours. Thus, H7 is supported.
5.3. Theoretical contributions of the research findings
This research contributes to the extant literature in some significant ways:
First, for human value based theories such as the Theory of basic human
value or Value – belief – norm theory, this study provides an empirical evidence
for the importance of considering external factors in the consistence of human
value-behaviour connection that has been mentioned in literature but often
overlooked by scholars (Lindenberg & Steg, 2013; Steg, Bolderdijk, et al., 2014;
Verplanken & Holland, 2002). While values reflect abstract desirable goals in
human life, the linkage between values and behaviours that are specific is
dependent on the beliefs toward the behaviours and therefore on various factors
that can change such beliefs. In this study, the findings indicate that environmental
content exposure, an external factor, could narrow the gap between values and
behaviours if the content is designed in proper ways.
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Second, going beyond the general suggestions of the potential moderating
effects by media content or information, current study contributes to the green
consumption literature by highlighting a nuanced picture about differential
moderating effects of media contents on the relationship between value and
behaviour. While some contents can activate and facilitate the value
transformation into behaviour, other may demotivate and hinder such
relationship. Research about pro-environmental consumption behaviours thus
should look at not only the individual difference but contextual factors.
Accordingly, for media effect theories and research, this study emphasizes the
importance of the combination of individual differences and the heterogeneity of
media content when explaining the effects. Overlooking individual differences
and media content heterogeneity means reducing overall explanatory power.
5.4. Managerial implications of the research findings
For governments, policy makers and marketers in general, the results of
this study offer some insightful implications in designing effective behaviour
change strategies to encourage the adoption of green consumption among
consumers. These strategies are dicussed as follows:
5.4.1. Strengthening biospheric-altruistic value
The motivational impacts of biospheric-altruistic value on consumers’
green consumption behaviours indicates an obvious strategy to foster green
consumption behaviours by strengthening consumers’ biospheric-altruistic value.
When biospheric-altruistic value of consumers is built up, consumers are more
likely to prioritize environmental consequences of their choice and actions.
5.4.2. Activating relevant personal values by proper media information
campaigns
While strengthening biospheric-altruistic value is a key way to encourage
the adoption of green consumption practices, the results of this study also reveal
another effective way to promote green consumption behaviours of consumers
who place more importance on their personal benefits by environmental
communication strategies. Accordingly, environmental information can also be
provided in a proper way to foster green consumption of egoistic consumers.
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 The provision of content about the green consumption behaviours of others
appears to be effective way in promoting green consumption consumption
behaviours of consumers who strongly desire for money and possession.
However, this study’s results also show that designing content in such way may
be counter-effective in promote green consumption behaviours of consumers who
desire for social status and power. It appears that such content may indicate a
conformity to social desire that may not in line with the value of such consumers.
A signal of social pressure may push them to act in opposing ways (Van Kleef et
al., 2012). The action-related content also appears to be counter-effective in
fostering green consumption behaviours of consumers who give more priority to
environment protection. The ineffectiveness of the information in promoting
green consumption behaviours of this kind of consumers can be attributed to the
bystander effect that indicates the beliefs of consumers about the unnecessity of
their own actions (Darley & Latane, 1968; Fischer et al., 2011; Schultz et al.,
2008).
In sum, current research emphasizes the importance of consumer
segmentation based on different values that they hold in designing behavioural
intervention through information campaign. The information/ content provided to
consumers may be effective with a certain group of consumers but may become
ineffective or even counter-effective if it is improperly designed. Informational
interventions may be more effective if they communicate and strengthen beliefs
about appropriate benefits of targeted behaviours that relevant to the values they
endorse.
5.5. Limitation and further research
There are some limitations in current research which can be capitalized for
further research. First, self-report measures of environmental content exposure,
values and behaviours have certain limitation that has been admitted among
scholars. However, this approach is very common in empirical research to prove
and extend the application of theories (de Vreese & Neijens, 2016). Still, scholars
can use different methods to mitigate any common method biases or utilize
experiment approach to examine the internal validity of our findings.
Second, this study investigates the roles of environmental contents, a
contextual factor, in the value-behaviour relationship. There may be other
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potential moderators that can strengthen or weaken the relationship. Future
research therefore can focus on exploring and investigating other moderators.
Third, as current research showed that providing content about green
consumption behaviours is counter-effective in motivating green consumption
adoption of people who hold strong motivation concerning well-being of other
people and the biosphere, the reasons behind the negative response need to be
further examined by future research. Also, future research needs to further
examine the general ideas of this study in other contexts. While the role of
environmental contents has been examined in Vietnam, an emerging country in
Southeast Asia, further evidence for the theoretical framework in other contexts
is also important. Additionally, as I applied the framework to study a range of
different green consumption behaviours that are general, the idea of moderating
effect of media contents on value-behaviour relationship can be applied in other
fields of human behaviours and for more specific ones.
Fourth, since the research framework in current study is applied to explain
green consumption behaviours of generation Y consumers, the explanatory power
of this framework for consumers of other generation needs to be examined by
future research to further validate this research findings.
Finally, as this study focuses only on green consumption behavioural
intention while the gap between reported behavioural intention and actual
behaviours has been mentioned by many scholars, future research need to re-test
the research model with actual behaviours.
As a conclusion, I hope empirical results of this study and research
framework would contribute to the recent controversy about the value-behaviour
incongruence in the field of human behaviours in general and green consumption
behaviours in particular as well as the effectiveness of media campaign in
fostering behavioural changes.. This is critical as understanding the interplay
between internal values and external factors of media content in driving human
behaviours may offer valuable insight to designing appropriate behavioural
interventions to nurture a consumption culture which ensure sustainable
development for human being.
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