The more concerned you are, the greener you are: The role of consumer personality towards adoption of biobased shopping bags.

Abstract

Plastic waste is known as the worst pollutant to our environment, with single-use plastic shopping bags perceived as the biggest cause of this issue. However, despite massive actions undertaken by environmentalists and government agencies to promote the adoption of biobased shopping bags, human behavior towards single-use plastic shopping bag consumption continues to persist and unfortunately, is soaring. To address this issue, we propose that consumer personality traits  significantly influence this behavior. Therefore, we apply motive disposition theory (MDT) and institutional theory to examine consumers’ motives, specifically focusing on the power motive and the institutions that influence them. By employing an online survey and moderated mediation analysis, a sample of 207 individuals was engaged to investigate the influence of consumers’ power motives on green consumption towards biobased shopping bags. The results indicate that this relationship is contingent upon the mediating role of consumer environmental concern. Additionally, it has been observed that the level of adoption is even stronger when consumers perceive that knowledge supporting environmentally friendly behavior is accessible to them.