How packaging materials influence the Consumers’ Purchase Intention

: the mediation role of perceived quality

Abstract

Nowadays, the Global Warming and Climate Change urgency have become undeniable. The disposal practice is universally recognized as one of the main causes of this societal challenge. As a consequence, the introduction of Environmentally Friendly (EF) Packaging Materials (PM) is part of the solution. Nevertheless, several questions must be raised. How do consumers perceive different PM in terms of quality? Are consumers translating their environmental concerns into actual purchasing behavior?This study intends to evaluate how PM influence consumers’ purchase intentions (PIs), considering Perceived Quality (PQ) as a mediator and Ethically Minded Consumer Behavior (EMCB) as a moderator. After choosing two different beverages (Gin and Whisky), the study went through four different steps: a focus group, the creation of stimuli, interviews and an online survey. The focus group unveiled three PM (Glass, Paper and Plastic), that were materialized under fictitious brands. The interviews aimed to test the acceptance of the stimuli. Furthermore, a quantitative analysis using IBM SPSS Statistics was performed based on 512 questionnaires.Results show Glass as the preferred PM in both beverages, and Paper overcome Plastic PQ and PI’s levels. This result suggests that consumers are willing to give up on Plastic for Paper, EF packaging options. This change of paradigm indicates the increasing reliability of consumers on EF options. This study also demonstrated the role of PQ as a moderator on the relationship between different PM and PIs, which was not proven in this study for the EMCB variable.

Date of Award	3 Feb 2021
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Daniel Fernandes (Supervisor) & Paulo Romeiro (Co-Supervisor)