Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on consumer behavioural intention to purchase green products

Interested to start a venture but worried about the future: Investigating the role of resilience in fear of career uncertainty and entrepreneurial intention

Entrepreneurship is inherently characterised by immense uncertainty. Thereby, fear becomes an obvious experience and poses a significant threat to entrepreneurial intention (EI). This study aimed to extend this understanding by exploring how specific fears, such as fear of career uncertainty and fear of perceived inability, affect EI and how resilience impacts these fears and their interaction with EI. This study tested a mediation model on a sample of young university students in Bangladesh (n = 553), using a two-phase survey (before and after the COVID-19 pandemic) and applying the partial least squares - structural equation model in Smart PLS 4. The findings indicated that fear of career uncertainty had a significant negative influence, and resilience had a significant positive influence on EI. Additionally, resilience reduced both fear of career uncertainty and fear of perceived inability and, transformed fear of career uncertainty into a positive driver toward EI. In contrast to the extant evidence that suggested fear as a threat to EI, this study indicated that not all forms of fear are detrimental to EI and that experience of fear can be mitigated. This study suggested that resilient students can overcome fear concerning their careers and focus on establishing new ventures.

Willingness to pay premium prices for green buildings: evidence from an emerging economy

The building sector is one of the major contributors to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which may impede the achievement of Malaysia's intended nationally determined contribution (INDC) by 2030. Therefore, this paper is aimed at identifying the underlying factors that affect working adults' willingness to pay (WTP) premium prices for green buildings. Data were collected from a total of 1198 respondents and analyzed using structural equitation modeling partial least square (SEM-PLS) to measure the willingness to pay for green buildings among working adults in Malaysia. The findings reveal that environmental literacy affects environmental belief as well as awareness of consequences among working adults in Malaysia. The findings also reveal that incentives for green building buyers have a significant impact on perceived behavioral control, while awareness of consequences has a significant influence on ascription of responsibility. However, the results reveal that awareness of consequences does not influence buyers' willingness to pay for green buildings. Moreover, the ascription of responsibility and perceived behavioral control have a significant effect on willingness to pay for green buildings. The findings of this study will help the concerned authorities to take appropriate steps to promote willingness to pay for green buildings, which will contribute significantly to the realization of INDC by 2030 as part of the Paris Agreement.

Factors Influencing Consumers' Organic Food Continuous Purchase Intentions during the Post-Pandemic Era: An Empirical Investigation in China

During the evolutionary phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers' eating habits and spending behaviours have progressively shifted to the pursuit of the safer and healthier food products, such as organic food. Therefore, this study investigated the factors affecting Chinese buyers' organic food continuous purchase intentions (CPI) during the post-pandemic era. To better adapt to the current consumption context in China, this study proposed a modified TPB framework (M-TPB), by replacing subjective norms with Chinese cultural variables, such as face consciousness and group conformity, and adding constructs of perceived value of organic food (PVOF), health consciousness, and the impact of COVID-19 (IOC). Convincingly, experimental results from a structural equation model analysis of 460 usable responses indicate that M-TPB has superior explanatory power (R² = 65%) compared with the TPB model (R² = 40%) for explaining organic food CPI during the post-pandemic period. The path analysis demonstrated that perceived behavioural control, attitude, face consciousness, group conformity, health consciousness, IOC, and PVOF had substantial positive effects on CPI, while subjective norms were not significantly related. Moreover, IOC exhibited a positive and significant relationship with health consciousness and PVOF. These findings can be useful for stakeholders in the Chinese organic food industry to generate timely promoting strategies during the post-pandemic period.