1. Introduction
Environmental issues have increasingly become a part of public concern over the past few decades [
1], motivating consumers to purchase green products. The increasing awareness among consumers to purchase green products has led to increasing attention focused on green consumerism [
2]. According to a worldwide survey conducted by Nielsen Company in 2015 [
3], the Asia-Pacific area has the second highest number of consumers who wish for increased availability of green products in the market. As a consequence, green strategy has become a critical aspect in supporting business sustainability. Green companies have become more important in modern manufacturing [
4,
5]. However, few companies are capable of implementing green strategy in their organization. Many companies implemented the green concept as piece meal because of vague and varying definitions of “green” that have led to different interpretations among practitioners [
4,
6]. The term “green” was defined as the “environment need to be part of the consideration for products or services that will not pollute the earth or deplore natural resources” [
7]. Considerable effort is required to be a truly green company. Companies have to implement environmentally friendly initiatives into their activities to embrace the opportunities. The term “environmentally friendly” was sourced from social discourse and is based on the values, attitudes, perceptions, knowledge, and behaviors related to the environment. The companies that implement environmentally friendly initiatives are able to increase consumer purchasing intention toward green products and support the global trend to protect the environment [
4,
8].
According to Cheong et al. [
9], Indonesia will be one of the top five cosmetics markets for the next 10–15 years as a result of its position as Southeast Asia’s largest economy. Indonesia has a gross domestic product (GDP) of US
$888.5 billion, a population of 250 million, and rising incomes (World Bank, 2015) [
9]. In 2017, the Indonesian GDP growth rate was expected to increase to 7%. Moreover, the demand for budget consumer products among Indonesia’s middle class has increased. This has led to the rapid and consistent growth of the demand for cosmetics and personal care products. Skin care is one of the two largest categories of product sales, accounting for 20% of the cosmetics market. Green initiative trends among companies worldwide have led to the creation and production of green cosmetics products to attract consumers. Skincare products are being transformed to green skincare products. There is a highlighted demand for green skincare products because consumers are becoming increasingly concerned about buying ecofriendly products. Green skincare products reach the fastest growing market compared with other green cosmetic products [
10,
11,
12]. As in many other countries, green cosmetics in Indonesia are accounting for a growing share of the market. According to a survey conducted by Euromonitor International in 2015, the market share of green cosmetics in Indonesia was increasing [
13]. However, compared with general cosmetic products, the market share of green cosmetic products in Indonesia is relatively low. Green cosmetics are more expensive, which has led to fewer customers intending to buy the products [
13]. Moreover, there are fewer green cosmetics available in Indonesia compared with general cosmetic products. Accordingly, there is background for green consumer research in Indonesia with the aim of increasing Indonesian consumer intention to purchase green cosmetics products, and particularly green skincare products. The potentially large market for cosmetic products in Indonesia provides more room for green cosmetics, particularly green skincare products, to attract more consumers and support the need to protect the environment.
Several studies have addressed the topic of green cosmetics. Pudaruth et al. investigated consumer purchasing patterns of green cosmetics [
12]. They used multiple regression and found that some factors, such as belief of the ethical claims in green messages, brand image, usage experience, sales representative, and social influences, affected green cosmetics purchasing patterns. Hansen et al. [
14] combined the theory of reasoned action (TRA) with a value-driven approach and found that self-transcendence and self-enhancement affect the attitudes toward free-of cosmetics (cosmetics free from chemicals and other non-natural ingredients). However, in most green cosmetics research, there is a lack of behavioral research. Behavior influences the consumer purchasing intention of green skincare products. This study examines the consumer behavior and intention to purchase green cosmetics. The findings of this research serve as a reference for cosmetic companies designing green cosmetic strategies.
Developed by Ajzen and Fishbein, the TRA delivered a significant fundamental theoretical model for investigating human behavior [
14]. More recently, Postmus [
15] identified the factor influencing consumers’ green buying behavior using the TRA. One of Postmus’s research subjects was the green cosmetics company. Corporate green reputation was found to be influenced by consumer green buying behavior. Researchers have studied the purchasing intention of general skincare products using the TRA, which was modified or combined with other theories [
16,
17,
18]. Attitudes, consumer innovativeness, attribute, self-image, and normative influence were confirmed to influence the consumer intention to purchase the skincare product.
Although researchers have modeled the factors that influence consumer purchasing intention for skin care products using the TRA, research modeling consumer purchasing intention toward green skincare products using the TRA is lacking. Previous studies proved that combining or extending the TRA with other theories and factors is critical for obtaining specific findings and analyzing the findings [
16,
17,
18,
19,
20]. This finding was supported by Askadilla and Krisjanti [
21], who mentioned that manufacturers should focus on environmental issues to market green cosmetics products. According to Liobikienė and Bernatonienė [
22], the factors that influence consumer intention to purchase green cosmetics are different across different types of green cosmetics. The findings underlined the importance of research to model consumer intention to purchase green skincare products.
This study is the first to apply the newly developed pro-environmental reasoned action (PERA) model to study consumer purchasing intention of green skincare products. The PERA model is a continuation of the TRA model by adding two pro-environmental factors—perceived authority support (PAS) and perceived environmental concern (PEC)—as its antecedents. Persada and Lin [
23] mentioned that PEC is an “individual feeling concerning with any physical activities leading to pro-environmental consequences” [
24]. According to Fransson and Gärling [
25], every individual has specific concerns about the environment. This PERA model was newly developed by Nadlifatin et al. [
26] to analyze eco-label product usage in society. The present study also proposes a new hypothesis that was not investigated in the previous research of Nadlifatin et al. [
26]. More importantly, the research about green marketing and green consumers has not been highlighted in Indonesia. Room for such research in Indonesia has been mentioned [
27]. This study hypothesizes the relationship of the two additional pro-environmental factors (PAS and PEC) in the PERA model using a case study from Indonesian female green skincare customers. Overall, the main contribution of this study is validating the newly developed PERA model to analyze female Indonesian customers’ intentions to purchase green skincare products. In this study, the additional relationship of PAS and PEC is hypothesized, enriching the previous study of Nadlifatin et al. [
26]. This study identifies the key factors that influence the consumer green skincare product purchasing intention using the PERA model. This model is suitable for pro-environmental behavior, as it can properly explain the consumers behavior intention. Lastly, this study provides managerial recommendation to increase Indonesian female customers’ intentions to purchase green skincare products.
Given this context, supporting the use of green skincare products has become necessary, especially because skincare products dominate the cosmetics market. The important perspective in the present research is the consumer’s perspective as the end user. Our research questions were as follows:
Can the PERA model be applied to analyzing the female Indonesian customers’ intention to purchase green skincare products?
What are the factors and key factors that influence the female Indonesian customers’ intention to purchase green skincare products?
What managerial recommendations can be provided to increase female Indonesian customers’ intention to purchase green skincare products?
To summarize, the present study aimed to answer these research questions by clarifying the key factors of pro-environmental theory of reasoned action (PERA) that influence consumer green skincare product purchasing intention, and to explore the potential relationship within perceived authority support and perceived environmental concern.
To address the purpose constraints, we (1) validated the PERA model for analyzing the female Indonesian customers’ intention to purchase green skincare products and (2) identified the literature framework in terms of perceived authority support and perceived environmental concern, and tested the relationship between PAS and PEC. This research provides the managerial recommendation for green skincare companies to increase their consumers’ purchasing intention. The rest of this paper is arranged as follows.
Section 2 discusses the related literature and research model. Several hypotheses are proposed in this section, including the research methodology.
Section 3 provides the results, followed by the discussion in
Section 4.
Section 5 summarizes the research with practical and theoretical information.
3. Results
With regard to age, of the 251 female respondents, the majority were 21–30 years old (76.4%), followed by 31–40 years old (12.4%) and 41–50 years old (11.2%). The scores of the 251 respondents were in the range of 3.26 to 4.07, showing a neutral to agreeing response [
26]. The model was reliable, supported by the minimum Cronbach’s alpha score of 0.7 [
59,
60]. The reliability score confirmed the internal consistency of the measures [
42,
61,
62]. The item loadings were ideal, shown by a score above 0.7, indicating the high loading of items in the specific construct [
57,
63,
64]. All the AVE scores were acceptable (
Table 2), shown by scores above 0.5, which indicated the acceptable average percentage of variance extracted among items of the specific construct [
41,
57,
63]. The CR scores were acceptable (
Figure 2), given the score above 0.7 [
57]. The CR is a reliability test based on factor loading as the parameter according to the constructed formula [
26,
40,
65].
The overall fit scores of the model showed good fit (
Table 3). All the
/df, CFI, and TLI scores were acceptable—below 3, above 0.9, and approaching 1, respectively [
57].
/df showed that the model fit the data [
66]. The acceptable CFI and TLI values support the high fit improvement compared with the baseline model and the higher normed chi-square value for the null model compared with the specified model [
57,
63,
66]. The RMSEA score below 0.08 confirmed that the model not only fits the sample, but also fits the population [
57].
Table 4 reveals the strength of the direct relationship between constructs. There were seven significant correlations found in the PERA model, and the strongest was AT with BI (β = 0.607,
p 0.003), supporting H6.
5. Conclusions
We used the newly developed PERA model for investigating consumer BI to purchase green skincare products. The PERA model was newly proposed by Nadlifatin et al. [
26] and was proven to be applicable to pro-environmental research regarding consumers’ intention to use eco-labeled products. The PERA model is an extension of the TRA that considers PEC and PAS. This study extended the application of the PERA model. We analyzed the intention of consumers to purchase green skincare products. The results confirmed that PAS positively affects PEC, while PAS and PEC have a positive effect on AT and SN, and AT and SN have a positive effect on the BI to purchase green skincare products. This study’s findings reveal that attitude is the key determinant that predicts the behavioral intention, as was found by Nadlifatin [
26]. We recommend that green skincare companies implement some programs and strategies such as emphasizing the green attributes of the company and the products that support environmental sustainability. Lastly, we recommend that green skincare companies be involved in many pro-environmental activities. The consumers were expected to intend to purchase green skincare products as a representation of their environmental awareness.
This study validated the PERA model for application in the analysis of consumer purchasing intention toward green skincare products. All seven proposed hypotheses were supported. We developed a method to describe the causality of the positive relationships of AT, SN, and BI, as well as the connection between PEC and PAS. The PERA model was developed from many studies of green products, which also support the results of this study [
16,
17,
18]. Thus, this study contributes to the developing green product literature. By increasing consumer intention to purchase green skincare products, we will be closer to achieving the goal of a sustainable environment. The limitation of this study is the narrow coverage of the respondents, as well as the exploration factors. In SEM, the model that is best supported may depend on sample size, and some researchers recommended a sample size minimum of 200. Wolf et al. demonstrated that model characteristics, such as sample size and degree of factor determinacy, affect the accuracy of the parameter estimates and model fit statistics [
68]. Further research should identify the potential factors outside the PERA model, such as motivation and behavior control, that are responsible for the remaining 37.4% contribution by involving respondents from a wider scope and enhancing the coverage by including respondents from several countries. We also recommend presenting practical implementations of the managerial implications in future studies.