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The effects of behavioral intention on the choice to purchase energy-saving appliances in China: the role of environmental attitude, concern, and perceived psychological benefits in shaping intention

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Abstract

Purchasing energy-saving appliances is a sensible and practical way to reduce carbon emissions from the residential sector in China. This study examines the relationship between pro-environment behavioral intention—undergirded by environmental attitude and concern as well as perceived psychological benefits—and the choice to purchase energy-saving appliances among Chinese households. Integrating psychological benefits (i.e., warm glow and self-express benefits) into the theory of planned behavior, a first of its kind for China, we designed and implemented a cross-sectional online survey in 2016. We conducted Probit regression analyses based on the 942 effective responses collected. The results reveal that behavioral intention has significantly positive effects on the choice to purchase energy-saving appliances. Environmental attitude and concern, as well as psychological benefits, have a significantly positive impact on respondents’ behavioral intention to buy energy-saving devices. Also, age and household size significantly and positively correlate with purchasing energy-saving appliance decision. These results point to useful policy implications to boost consumer support for energy-saving appliances in China and provide a foundation for similar research in other developing contexts.

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Notes

  1. The latest subsidy policy on household energy-saving appliances in 2017. http://www.jayall.com/article/73258.html.

  2. The Ali platform hosts China’s largest e-commerce market.

  3. The URL of the website is https://www.sojump.com.

  4. So far, there is no standard response rate in the literature (Nachmias and Nachmias 2000).

  5. Due to space constraints, we do not report our test results, but they will be available from the authors upon request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.

Funding

Xianchun received financial support from the National Social Science Foundation of China (17AJL008) and the Social Science Foundation by Tianjin Education Council (2014ZD07). Xunpeng acknowledges financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 71828401 and No. 71873029.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Business School and Institute of Green Development, University of Jinan, Jinan, 250022, Shandong, China

    Xianchun Liao

  2. Environmental Politics, University of Virginia, 1540 Jefferson Park Ave., Charlottesville, VA, 22904, USA

    Shiran Victoria Shen

  3. Australia-China Relations Institute, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, NSW, 2007, Australia

    Xunpeng Shi

  4. Center of Hubei Cooperative Innovation for Emissions Trading System & School of Low Carbon Economics, Hubei University of Economics, Wuhan, 430205, Hubei Province, China

    Xunpeng Shi

  5. Energy Studies Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 119620, Singapore

    Xunpeng Shi

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  1. Xianchun Liao
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Highlights

• This paper integrates psychological benefits into the theory of planned behavior.

• This study is based on a cross-sectional online survey of 942 Chinese households conducted in 2016.

• Behavioral intention positively affects the choice to purchase energy-saving appliances.

• Environmental attitude and concern positively influence the intention to buy energy-saving appliances.

• First to reveal that perceived psychological benefits positively affect behavioral intention in China.

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Liao, X., Shen, S.V. & Shi, X. The effects of behavioral intention on the choice to purchase energy-saving appliances in China: the role of environmental attitude, concern, and perceived psychological benefits in shaping intention. Energy Efficiency 13, 33–49 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-019-09828-5

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