How Will Changes toward Pro-Environmental Behavior Play in Customers’ Perceived Value of Environmental Concerns at Coffee Shops?

Our theoretical framework was designed to explain customers’ decision-making process for (adopting/using?) environmentally responsible products in an eco-friendly coffee shop. We employed theory of planned behavior (TPB) and value-attitude-belief (VAB) to test their parallel mediating effect on attitudes toward environmental behavior (ATEB), perceived marketplace influence (PMI), and overall image (OI) as well as the moderating effect of switching cost (SC) on pro-environmental behavioral intentions. Data were collected through a survey of 527 customers who frequently visited a coffee shop in Korea, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the research hypotheses. The findings generally supported the hypothesized associations of the study variables within our proposed theoretical framework (ATEB, PMI, and OI of the parallel mediating effect on pro-environmental behavioral intentions) and confirmed SC’s moderating effect. In addition, the study’s results have important 1) theoretical and 2) practical implications for the environment. 1) This study confirmed the relationship between mediating variables on PCBI and the parallel mediating effect on PCBI as demonstrated in previous studies. 2) Furthermore, these findings might lead coffee shops to voluntarily put an end to the use of disposable products such as plastic cups or straws, which carry great environmental risk.