The relationship between sustainability-related user generated contents and Vancouver Island visitors’ intention to purchase sustainable products
Subject
Abstract
Thanks to the rapid growth of online resources, tourism consumers can share their online purchase experiences with other users on popular platforms such as Trip Advisor (Henning-Thurau, Gwinner, Walsh, & Gremler, 2004). It is also becoming increasingly important for people to learn from other customers' reviews prior to purchasing tourism products. In addition, there has been a paradigm shift towards purchasing sustainable tourism products; however, the relationship between sustainability-related user generated content (UGC) and consumers’ purchase intention is yet to be investigated in greater detail. The present study investigates factors that influence visitors' intention to purchase sustainable tourism products through online platforms. The theory of planned behaviour (TPB; Ajzen, 1991) guided the framework of this study. The TPB posits that attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control predict people’s behavioural intentions. With a focus on online purchase behaviours, this research extended the TPB by adding ecological worldview (New Ecological Paradigm; NEP; Dunlap et al., 2000) values, beliefs, and personal norms (Value-Belief-Norm theory; VBN; Stern, 2000) in an attempt to improve the theory's predictive power. This research utilized an online questionnaire to obtain data. Social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram as well as Vancouver Island's tourism and recreation organizations' (e.g., Tourism Nanaimo, Tourism Victoria, Tourism Vancouver Island, etc.) websites were used to recruit participants. The survey included 59 questions measuring online purchases. Data were collected from visitors of Vancouver Island who were over 19 years old. The partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) approach was used to test the hypothesized relationships in the proposed model. The result of structural equation modelling showed that attitude towards purchasing environmentally sustainable products was the strongest predictor, and found to be positively and significantly related to the purchase intention. The impacts of the subjective norm, PBC, value, ecological worldview on sustainable purchase intention were all positive and significant. Based on the results, the influence of beliefs and personal norms on sustainable purchase intention was not statistically significant. This study discusses these associations and their practical and theoretical implications.