This document is an abstract for a research paper presented at the 6th International Scientific Conference on Applied Sciences and Engineering in 2016. The paper examines what motivates consumers in developing countries like Indonesia to purchase green products. Through a survey of 150 customers of The Body Shop, the researchers found that while Indonesian consumers are aware of environmental impacts, this awareness does not strongly motivate them to buy green. In contrast, consumers' ecological knowledge better predicted green purchases. However, Indonesian consumers generally lacked ecological knowledge. The researchers also found that collectivist cultural values had no significant impact on green purchasing behavior. Customers were more motivated by personal benefits than social influences. The study was limited by focusing only on middle-to-high income customers.

1. Abstract of Applied Sciences and Engineering, 2016, Vol.6
DOI: 10.18488/journal.1001/2016.6/1001.6
6th
International Scientific Conference on Applied
Sciences and Engineering
26-27 January, 2016
Bayview Hotel Singapore
Conference Website: www.scihost.org
10
Paper ID: 510/16/ 6
th
ISCASE
Green Marketing in Developing Country: Should it be
Socially-or Psychologically-Approached?
Widya Paramita1
--- Ratih Dina Kusumaningrum2
1,2
Universitas Gadjah Mada,Fakultas Ekonomika dan Bisnis. Jalan Sosiohumaniora 1
Bulaksumur, Depok, Sleman, Yogyakarta
Abstract
The need for performing green behavior in order to reduce environment degradation
and pollution has been widely recognized, including green consumption behavior.
However, such behavior is hard to be observed in many developing countries due to
the limited amount of green products available in the market. As in Indonesia, one
example of green product that is quite popular and well-distributed is the Body Shop’s
products. This research aims to understand what motivates consumers to buy green
products. We addressed this issue in individual level through the lenses of cultural
value which is collectivism and individualism and psychological factors such as
response to ecological impacts and ecological knowledge. The data was collected from
150 the Body Shop consumers and was analyzed by using multiple regression
analysis. The results shows that although Indonesian consumers aware of the impact
of consumption on ecology, it does not motivate them enough to buy green products.
On the contrary, ecological knowledge was found to better predict consumers buying of
green products while Indonesian’s performance on ecological knowledge was very
poor. Collectivism value has been found insignificant in affecting purchase on green
product, consumers of green product do not consider others’ opinion about their
behavior but the benefits that they get from consuming the product. The limitation of
this research is due to the homogenous characteristics of sample which is medium to
high class customers, therefore it lacks of generalizability. Future research is expected
to consider other related cultural values and more proportional sample of respondents.
Keywords: Green marketing, Cultural value, Psychology, Green consumption