“Intention of Bangladeshi young girls toward green consumption: A study on private university students”

Consumer purchase intentions determine the process of developing green consumption behavior. The demand for environmentally friendly goods has stayed divisive, multifaceted, and particular to each societal setting. In order to examine this, this paper applied Ajzen’s theory of planned behavior as a theoretical framework with modification of some factors to investigate the effect of subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, environmental responsibility, and self-efficacy on the purchase intention of Bangladeshi female students toward green consumption. A self-administered questionnaire is used to collect data from the respondents. Based on convenience and snowball sampling, 280 questionnaires were analyzed in this study, received from participants aged 18 to 25. The SPSS 22.0 and Smart-PLS were employed to analyze the model and estimate the parameters by considering a 95% confidence interval. The results indicate that all factors (p values < α = 0.01) had an overall significant and strong positive influence. Self-efficacy has a slight specific indirect effect (p = 0.051 > α = 0.05) on the purchase intention toward green consumption among university girls in Bangladesh. Additionally, this study explored a significant correlation between five independent variables and the dependent variable. The strongest correlation (r = 0.849) between green consumption behavior and environmental responsibility was discovered. Also, the t-test demonstrates that the intention to engage in green consumption significantly (tcal = 3.684 > tcri = 1.96) influences actual green consumption.


INTRODUCTION
Rapid industrialization changes the economy from one based primarily on agriculture to one based on massive manufacturing, which results in economic growth and social changes (Wang et al., 2021).Every purchase can contribute to an environmental and eco-friendly consumption habit.Every purchase affects communities, resource consumption, waste, and ethics (Young et al., 2010).According to Young et al. (2010) and Moisander (2007), while considering adopting a sustainable lifestyle, individuals participate in a decision-making process that is getting more difficult.These regular choices about workable ethical or environmental solutions frequently result in an exchange between competing objectives and create a "motivational and practical complexity of green consumption." The world faces an emerging problem with green behavior or consumption.Different types of environmental hazards have posed various environmental threats (Haque et al., 2018).Since Earth Day's in-ception in 1970, when people were urged to safeguard nature and biodiversity, the public's awareness of environmental issues has increased gradually but consistently over the last three decades (Kim & Choi, 2005).Due to increasing consideration of various topics, new programs, regulations, and approaches are being created to guarantee ecological responsibility.By stepping up its commitment to "going green," the Asian region is taking on the duty to improve the quality of the environment (Lee, 2008).
Using environmentally friendly practices is referred to as going green.Some examples of going green include cycling, quitting smoking, avoiding plastic bags, and turning off electronics when leaving home or place of business.Governments in Singapore have widely adopted the "3Rs" campaign to encourage citizens to reuse, reduce, and recycle household waste (Pariatamby & Fauziah, 2014;Haque et al., 2018).The natural environment presents several trade-offs for people.To live safely on this planet, people must preserve the environment from deterioration.People's consumption habits greatly impact the environment.To have a good effect on the environment, consumers must focus on sustainable or green consumption activities and avoid traditional harmful consumption (Wu, 2015;Haque et al., 2018).
Compared to the developing world, the developed world has created an environment that is relatively cleaner thanks to a gradual rise in public awareness.Due to the reduction of the earth's natural resources, people in developed nations have adopted environmentally conscious habits.Most American and European consumers realize the value of green products and are willing to pay a premium for them (Oyewole, 2001).Therefore, academic research in this area has concentrated on identifying consumers' perceptions affecting pro-environmental behaviors (Bagozzi & Dabholkar, 1994;Kim & Choi, 2005) and elucidating the connection between perceptual or inspirational factors and eco-conscious behavior (Bagozzi & Dabholkar, 1994;Dietz et al., 1998;McCarty & Shrum, 1993;Kim & Choi, 2005).Prior studies have identified several key drivers of environmental consciousness, including people's environmental concerns, their confidence in their capacity to solve the issue, and their general orientation toward the well-being of others (Stern et al., 1993;Schwartz, 1976;Kim & Choi, 2005) or toward their relationships with others (McCarty & Shrum, 2001; Kim & Choi, 2005).With the growth of economies and the growing concern among young people about their impact on the environment, sustainability is becoming an increasingly important issue in the modern world.However, there has not been adequate research done on green consumption among adults in Bangladesh.

LITERATURE REVIEW
The green revolution that is currently taking place requires delaying further environmental damage because consumers are becoming more environmentally conscious worldwide.The term "green purchasing behavior" refers to consumer behavior in which buying green products is driven primarily by environmental considerations (Mostafa, 2007;Sh. Ahmad et al., 2022).Consumer buying patterns vary according to a country's environmental impact (Haque et al., 2018).There is broad consensus that consumption levels should be kept constant and considered when estimating the earth's carrying capacity (Huneke, 2005;Haque et al., 2018).Marketers must understand green consumers' buying patterns and why they select green products to design effective campaigns.
Green purchase intention defines customers' desire to buy eco-friendly products while taking environmental well-being into consideration (Chan, 2001;Zahan et al., 2020).Research studies discovered an underlying connection between green purchase intention and green purchase behavior in several earlier studies on green products (Kang et al., 2013; Wang et al., 2014;Zahan et al., 2020).Furthermore, perceived behavioral control, subjective norms, and attitude are direct (indirect) causes of consumers' green purchase intention (Chen & Tung, 2014;Zahan et al., 2020).Besides, consumers' environmental responsibility is still a subject that has received relatively little research and understanding, even though it is a concept that is frequently used to encourage sustainable consumer behaviors (Wells et al., 2011;Lai & Cheng, 2016).Customers often express their support for sustainability when they anticipate businesses and organizations will act in an environmentally respon-sible manner, especially when making purchases of goods.Therefore, consumers may purchase green goods if businesses can effectively promote the products (Lai & Cheng, 2016;Chan, 1999).
Subjective norm means the social pressure people feel and how that pressure affects whether they act in a specific way (Han et al., 2010;Zahan et al., 2020).Besides, a person's subjective norm is their opinion, which influences how they make decisions (Zahan et al., 2020;Park, 2000).According to several studies, consumers' green purchasing behavior for green products is significantly influenced by perceived social pressure (Chen & Tung, 2014; Zahan et al., 2020;Zukin & Maguire, 2004).By choosing an environmentally friendly product, consumers can demonstrate their willingness to put up with inconveniences as well as their commitment to strong subjective norms (Nguyen et al., 2017;Zahan et al., 2020).Moreover, perceived behavioral control is defined as the degree to which a person perceives a behavior as easy or difficult (Ajzen, 2002;Zahan et al., 2020).It depends on a person's self-assurance and ability to exercise self-control.It is based on an individual's views of external and internal factors influencing behavior (Ajzen, 1991).Instead of when a person possesses just one or neither factor, people's motivation and ability influence them to carry out a given behavior (Zhou et al., 2013;Zahan et al., 2020).Regarding behavior control, a person's capability and self-assurance are positively connected with their aim to purchase green items.Self-efficacy is a concept that Bandura (1982Bandura ( , 1997) ) has put forth and describes a person's faith in his or her ability to carry out a plan of action to produce a successful outcome (Sh. Ahmad et al., 2022).
Self-efficacy is a critical factor in determining someone's chances of success.Some psychology experts have ranked self-efficacy as being more important than aptitude in the process of success.When setting goals, one must take special care to consider self-efficacy to ensure that their efficacy beliefs align with the objectives of the concerned (Haque et al., 2018).However, this study defines self-efficacy expectations as an individual's convictions regarding his or her capacity to carry out a specific task or behavior (Bandura, 1977;Qader & Zainuddin, 2011).
Concerning the purchase intention of green consumption, the scientific review provides an excellent overview of past studies by highlighting the connections between self-efficacy, perceived behavioral control, environmental responsibility, and subjective standards.In order to influence consumers' intentions to purchase environmentally friendly products, comprehending and applying these aspects is still essential.

AIMS AND HYPOTHESES
This study aims to investigate the effect of factors such as subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, environmental responsibility, and self-efficacy on the purchase intention of young girls in Bangladeshi private universities toward green consumption (Figure 1).
The suggested hypotheses are presented as follows: H1: Green purchase behavior positively affects purchase intention toward green consumption.
H2b: Environmental responsibility positively affects perceived behavioral control.
H2c: Environmental responsibility positively affects green consumption behavior.
H3: Subjective norm and purchase intention toward green consumption are positively and significantly correlated.
H4: Perceived behavior control and purchase intention toward green consumption are positively and significantly correlated.

METHODS
To learn more about people's intentions (behavior), an epic model suggested by Ajzen (1985), the theory of planned behavior (TPB), was employed.
The TPB framework calculates behavioral intention using three fundamental variables: attitude, perceived behavioral control, and subjective norm.
The TPB model was previously used in studies to track consumers' green purchase behavior and purchase intentions toward green consumption.
In order to get accurate results in the context of Bangladesh, a developing country, and to more effectively understand the clarification of young girls' desires toward sustainability, this investigation attempted to broaden TPB by incorporating other variables (environmental responsibility and self-efficacy).However, this paper does not consider attitude an independent variable.
The data were gathered using a web-based survey questionnaire.Because of its flexibility and global reach, it was decided to make it web-based (Evans & Mathur, 2005;Sh. Ahmad et al., 2022).A Google Form with the survey questionnaire was accessible to respondents via an electronic link.The questionnaire was divided into two main sections.The first section consists of five questions to gather demographic information about the respondents, including name, age, level of education, program of study, and institution.A series of questions were created for the second section.Social media like WhatsApp and email were used to share the link.
In addition, multiple links were shared on social media to increase the number of responses.As a result of this process, 280 questionnaires could be used for further analysis from the total responses received.
Young girls were taken as a focus group as previous research on environmental behavior has discovered that women are more concerned about the environment and are more likely than men to act in environmentally sustainable ways (Uitto et al., 2011;Okumus et al., 2019).Nonprobability sampling was the chosen sampling strategy.Additionally, the units chosen for the sample were convenience samples.Furthermore, it was a snowball sampling because participants were asked to help identify other potential subjects.The young girls of Bangladesh who would be the subject of this study are primarily students at private universities.To assess the convergent validity of each construct's internal consistency, the outer loading (measurement model) is used.Additionally, all the indicators loaded on the constructs that they were predicted to load.Prakash and Pathak (2017) and ranged between 0.534 and 0.787.Even so, the environmental responsibility and green consumption behavior have average variance extracted (AVEs) of 0.473 and 0.463, respectively.Thus, the measurement model used in the current study was accurate and significant for examining the structural relationships between the constructs used in this investigation.

RESULTS
A matrix was used to compare each construct's AVE and squared correlations to evaluate the discriminant validity of the constructs (Fornell & Larcker, 1981).Table 5 shows that when on-diagonal values (AVE) are considered, they are higher than off-diagonal values, and discriminant validity has been achieved.The strongest correlation between green consumption behavior and environmental responsibility was discovered to be 0.849.Furthermore, the correlation between purchase intention toward green consumption and environmental responsibility was found at 0.769, followed by environmental responsibility and perceived behavioral control at 0.749, environmental responsibility and self-efficacy at 0.803, and environmental responsibility and subjective norm at 0.787.As an example, the study considers the relationships between purchase intention toward green consumption and green consumption behavior (r = 0.698), perceived behavioral control and purchase towards green consumption (r = 0.639), self-efficacy and purchase intention towards green consumption (r = 0.641), subjective norm and purchase intention towards green consumption (r = 0.608).Each factor was statistically distinct from the others, so they each adequately explained the discriminant validity evidence.
The total indirect effects of the proposed hypotheses are shown in Table 6.The t-statistic value is 2.777 for the first hypothesis, with a p-value of 0.006, less than 0.05, based on the parameter coefficient between the variable's environmental responsibility and green consumption behavior.The first hypothesis is accepted, or the latent variable As a result, either all of these hypotheses are true and significant, or there is a significant effect of the latent variables of environmental responsibility on purchase intention toward green consumption, perceived behavioral control on green consumption behavior, self-efficacy on green consumption behavior, self-efficacy on purchase intention toward green consumption, and subjective norm on green consumption behavior.
Table 7 displays the result of specific indirect effects.The fourth hypothesis shows that the t-statistic value is less than the critical value, which is 1.955 < 1.96 with a p-value of 0.051> α = 0.05.So, the fourth hypothesis is rejected, and there is no significant impact among these latent variables for this hypothesis.That means self-efficacy has an insignificant specific indirect effect on the subjective norm toward intention to purchase green and green consumption behavior.However, for all remaining hypotheses in Table 7, the statistical value is greater than the critical value and significant at 0.05 level, as p-value < α.So, these hypotheses are accepted, and each significantly impacts the concerned latent variables.Environmental responsibility, perceived behavioral control, subjective norm, and so on have a significant specific indirect effect on one another.This suggests that all hypotheses are valid and significant at the 0.05 level.It also implies that there is a significant interaction between all latent variables.That is, all independent variables, such as intention toward green consumption, environmental responsibility, self-efficacy, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control, have a significant total effect on each other and  also on the dependent variable, which was green consumption behavior.
Figure 2 shows the structural model.This result indicates that purchase intention toward green consumption significantly affects green consumption behavior, which satisfies the first proposed hypothesis: p-value = 0.000 < α = 0.01 at a 99% confidence interval.Besides, environmental responsibility positively affected the subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and green consump-tion behavior with a p-value of 0.000, which also significantly satisfied the proposed hypotheses.Furthermore, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control positively influenced purchase intention toward green consumption; p-value < α.Self-efficacy significantly affected subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and green consumption behavior.However, SEC5 has an insignificant effect on consolidated self-efficacy, as the p-value is 0.010 at a 99% confidence interval with α = 0.01.

Figure 2. Structural model
Descriptive statistics are listed in Table 9.The items representing each factor were then averaged.
Applying the mean as a measurement of central tendency revealed that all variables were above their mean value.The rating for respondents' purchase intention toward green consumption was the highest (X = 6.1688), followed by environmental responsibility (X = 5.6450).In addition, the rating was followed by subjective norm (X = 5.4714), perceived behavioral control (X = 5.5643), and green purchase behavior (X = 5.9368), indicating that respondents' intentions toward green consumption were relatively high.Out of them all, self-efficacy revealed the lowest rating (X = 5.1143).

DISCUSSION
The results showed a substantial correlation between purchase intention toward green consumption and green consumption behavior, indicating a positive relationship (p-value < 0.01); so, H1 is accepted.This outcome is also consistent The remaining hypotheses (H5a, H5b, and H5c) assumed that self-efficacy significantly and positively correlated with subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and green consumption behavior.The results illustrated that self-efficacy was significantly correlated with subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and green consumption behavior and positively affected them when considering the total direct effect.However, in the case of a specific indirect effect, self-efficacy is insignificantly correlated with green consumption behavior (p-value = 0.051 > α = 0.05).H5a, H5b, and H5c are accepted in the case of total direct effect (p-value < α), but H5c is rejected when considering specific indirect effect (p-value > α).That means the self-efficacy of Bangladeshi young girls in private universities does not directly affect their purchasing behavior to consume green.
Finally, the study's findings showed that purchase intention toward green consumption, environmental responsibility, self-efficacy, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and green consumption behavior have overall positive, significant, and total effects on one another while ignoring the specific indirect effect.Consumers with various levels of education do not all share the same desire to buy eco-friendly goods, as evidenced by the questionnaire responses.There are, therefore, encouraging indications that the Bangladeshi market for green purchases will grow steadily over the coming years.Understanding customers' attitudes, behaviors, and motives toward ecologically friendly products and services is facilitated by the findings of green consumption research.Researchers can determine the most effective techniques for promoting eco-friendly habits and lowering environmental damage by analyzing green consumption trends.Lastly, research on green consumerism can increase consumer, company, and policymaker awareness and education regarding environmental challenges.

CONCLUSION
Green consumption has been examined with regard to the purchase intentions of Bangladeshi young particularly those who attend private universities.The considered latent variables in the literature are purchase intention toward green consumption, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, environmental responsibility, self-efficacy, and green consumption behavior.According to the findings, the specific indirect effect of self-efficacy on the purchase intention toward green consumption and on the green consumption behavior of young girls in Bangladesh is negligible.Additionally, through the findings of this study, it was discovered that factors such as purchase intention toward green consumption, environmental responsibility, self-efficacy, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control had an overall significant and strong positive influence on green consumption behavior.
According to estimates, eco-friendly shopping is gaining popularity in Bangladesh, and the eco-products market is expanding quickly.The investigation findings display that eco-friendly association advertising agencies should continually assess and monitor university students' needs and concerns by considering their propensity to purchase environmentally friendly products.This study has provided some additional insight into the environmental problem brought on by a decline in the consumption of environmentally friendly goods.There are, therefore, encouraging indications that the Bangladeshi market for green purchases will grow steadily over the coming years.Understanding green consumption can also contribute to a more sustainable and equitable society by avoiding the detrimental effects of unsustainable consumption behaviors.It assists businesses in developing and marketing sustainable products to fulfill rising demand for eco-friendly alternatives.Further research is required to recognize and handle expenditure issues that are questionable, as Bangladesh is genuinely attempting to take a significant percentage in the progression of sustainable consumption.More research in Bangladeshi sustainable acquiring is necessary to further explore the effects of various societal stakeholders on green purchasing.
In nd de ep pe en nd de en nt t V Va ar ri ia ab bl le es s D De ep pe en nd de en nt t V Va ar ri ia ab bl le e Independent University (CIU).Hair et al. (1998) and Sh.Ahmad et al. (2022) advised considering a ratio of 1:15, or 15 observations for each statement item when calculating the sample size.280Figure 1. Theoretical framework

Table 1 .
Questionnaire details

Table 3
ever, have values of 0.224 and 0.494, respectively, which show a low level of internal consistency.All other values point to relatively high internal consistency besides these two.

Table 3 .
Outer loadings or measurement

Table 4 .
Validity and reliability of each measurable variable

Table 6 .
Total indirect effects

Table 8 .
Total effects