Title: Consumers' pro-environmental behaviour towards reducing single-use plastic bags - a moderated mediation approach

Authors: Rajendran Geetha; Chandrasekaran Padmavathy

Addresses: Vellore Institute of Technology, VIT Business School, Vellore, 632 014, India ' Vellore Institute of Technology, VIT Business School, Chennai, 600 127, India

Abstract: Globally, the usage of single-use plastic (SUP) bags has increased significantly and has become a major threat to the environment. Reducing the consumption of SUP bags is one of the foremost agendas to achieve sustainable development goals (SDG). This study, by employing S-O-R framework, aims to test the relationships among intrinsic motivation, attitude towards bring your own bag (BYOB), and intention to reduce SUP bags. This study also tests the mediating effect of attitude between intrinsic motivation and intention. Further, this study aims to investigate the moderating roles of time pressure and lack of convenience in predicting intention to reduce SUP bags. To fulfil the objectives, data was collected in India with a sample of 909. The findings of this study reveal that attitude partially mediates the relationship between intrinsic motivation and intention. Time pressure and lack of convenience negatively moderate the mediating impact of attitude between motivation and intention. This study provides important implications to the government and policy makers.

Keywords: single-use plastics; SUP; intrinsic motivation; attitude; sustainable development goals; SDG; bring your own bag; BYOB.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGE.2024.138502

International Journal of Green Economics, 2024 Vol.18 No.1, pp.32 - 44

Received: 19 Jul 2023
Accepted: 02 Nov 2023
Published online: 08 May 2024 *

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