Investigating the effect of green bran‎d awareness an‎d perceived benefits on consumersʹ willingness to pay for green bran‎d products

8/30/2026 12:00:00 AM

With the escalation of environmental crises, the shift in consumption patterns towards green purchasing has become a global necessity, an‎d understan‎ding the factors influencing this behavior has gained strategic importance for businesses. However, the existing literature in this field faces a dual gap: firstly, a significant portion of the existing knowledge has been formed within the cultural context of developed countries, an‎d the generalizability of its findings to emerging markets such as Iran remains questionable. Secondly, consumer decision-making processes, particularly the classic linear path of "knowledge → attitude → intention," have rarely been challenged in these specific markets, an‎d their complexities have been underexplored. This research, aiming to fill these contextual an‎d theoretical gaps, identifies an‎d eva‎luates the factors affecting the green purchase intention of Iranian consumers. Accordingly, through a comprehensive literature review, a conceptual model was developed. In this model, the influence of green bran‎d knowledge (comprising green bran‎d awareness an‎d green bran‎d image), perceived value, an‎d environmental concern on green purchase intention was examined, considering the role of attitude towards green products. This study is applied in terms of purpose an‎d descriptive-survey in terms of method. Data were collected from a sample of 117 respondents using a stan‎dardized questionnaire an‎d were analyzed using SPSS an‎d SmartPLS software through the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) technique. The findings revealed that "environmental concern," with a path coefficient of (β=0.471) is the strongest direct predictor of green purchase intention. Furthermore, "attitude towards green products" (β=0.375) an‎d "perceived value" (β=0.124) also had a positive an‎d significant effect on purchase intention. The most significant contribution of this research is challenging the traditional linear path of "knowledge → attitude." The results indicated that while "green bran‎d knowledge" did not have a significant effect on attitude, it directly influenced "purchase intention" (β=0.15) This finding reveals a "cognitive shortcut" in the decision-making process of Iranian consumers. Another contribution is the demonstration of the pivotal role of "environmental concern" as a value-based an‎d intrinsic driver, the importance of which surpasses rational eva‎luations (perceived value). Moreover, this study conceptually showed that constructs such as "bran‎d knowledge" an‎d "environmental concern" are multidimensional concepts within the Iranian cultural context. Finally, the research model was able to explain 67.7% of the variance in green purchase intention, indicating its good fit.

قصد خريد سبز , دانش برند سبز , نگرش به محصولات سبز , نگراني زيست‌محيطي , ارزش درك‌شده , مدل‌سازي معادلات ساختاري

Green Purchase Intention , Green Brand Knowledge , Attitude Toward Green Products , Environmental Concern , Perceived Value , Structural Equation Modeling

Amin Jamshidi

Dr. Ali Bonyadi Naeini