The Impact of Environmental Awareness, Perceived Value and Consumer Attitudes on Eco-Friendly Packaging Adoption in Developing Economies
Keywords:
eco-friendly packaging; consumer adoption; developing economies; green marketing; affordability; sustainability; attitude-behaviour gap.Abstract
Eco-friendly packaging has emerged as a central instrument in the global effort to reduce plastic pollution and decouple economic consumption from environmental degradation. Yet in developing economies the transition from conventional to sustainable packaging remains slow and uneven, constrained by a web of economic, cognitive, structural and institutional factors. This study investigates the barriers and breakthroughs that shape consumer adoption of eco-friendly packaging by examining five determinants: affordability, environmental awareness, infrastructure readiness, government policy and regulatory support, and technological innovation. Drawing on the Theory of Planned Behaviour and the value-attitude-behaviour framework, a structured questionnaire comprising forty-five Likert items measuring six constructs was administered to four hundred consumers. The measurement instrument demonstrated strong internal consistency, with Cronbach's alpha values ranging from 0.81 to 0.90, and the data satisfied the conditions for factor analysis and multiple regression. Descriptive results reveal that environmental awareness and support for pro-environmental policy are high, whereas affordability and infrastructure readiness lag substantially, the latter recording the lowest construct mean in the study. Inferential analysis indicates that all five determinants are positively and significantly associated with consumer adoption, with affordability and technological innovation emerging as the strongest predictors, together explaining the majority of the variance in adoption behaviour. The findings expose a persistent gap between favourable environmental attitudes and actual purchasing behaviour, a gap driven principally by price premiums and inadequate waste-management infrastructure. The study concludes that awareness alone is insufficient to accelerate adoption; breakthroughs will require coordinated action on price parity, recycling infrastructure, credible certification and continued packaging innovation. These findings carry direct implications for manufacturers, policymakers and retailers seeking to mainstream sustainable packaging in emerging-market contexts.
References
Ajzen, I. (2015). Consumer attitudes and behavior: The theory of planned behavior applied to food consumption decisions. Rivista di Economia Agraria, 70(2), 121–138.
Joshi, Y., & Rahman, Z. (2015). Factors affecting green purchase behaviour and future research directions. International Strategic Management Review, 3(1–2), 128–143.
Magnier, L., & Schoormans, J. (2015). Consumer reactions to sustainable packaging: The interplay of visual appearance, verbal claim and environmental concern. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 44, 53–62.
Prakash, G., & Pathak, P. (2017). Intention to buy eco-friendly packaged products among young consumers of India: A study on developing nation. Journal of Cleaner Production, 141, 385–393.
Steenis, N. D., van Herpen, E., van der Lans, I. A., Ligthart, T. N., & van Trijp, H. C. M. (2017). Consumer response to packaging design: The role of packaging materials and graphics in sustainability perceptions and product evaluations. Journal of Cleaner Production, 162, 286–298.
Yadav, R., & Pathak, G. S. (2016). Young consumers' intention towards buying green products in a developing nation: Extending the theory of planned behavior. Journal of Cleaner Production, 135, 732–739.
Kumar, A., Prakash, G., & Kumar, G. (2018). Does environmentally responsible purchase intention matter for consumers? A predictive sustainable model developed through an empirical study. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 42, 22–31.
White, K., Habib, R., & Hardisty, D. J. (2019). How to SHIFT consumer behaviors to be more sustainable: A literature review and guiding framework. Journal of Marketing, 83(3), 22–49.
Ketelsen, M., Janssen, M., & Hamm, U. (2020). Consumers' response to environmentally-friendly food packaging: A systematic review. Journal of Cleaner Production, 254, 120123.
Nguyen, A. T., Parker, L., Brennan, L., & Lockrey, S. (2020). A consumer definition of eco-friendly packaging. Journal of Cleaner Production, 252, 119792.
Testa, F., Iraldo, F., & Frey, M. (2020). Drivers and barriers of green consumption: A comparative analysis. Business Strategy and the Environment, 29(6), 2600–2613.
Rhein, S., & Schmid, M. (2020). Consumers' awareness of plastic packaging: More than just environmental concerns. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 162, 105063.
Zhang, X., & Dong, F. (2020). Why do consumers make green purchase decisions? Insights from a systematic review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(18), 6607.
Wang, L., Liu, T., & Qi, X. (2021). Bridging the attitude-behaviour gap in green consumption: The role of situational constraints in emerging markets. Sustainable Production and Consumption, 27, 1741–1752.
Boesen, S., Bey, N., & Niero, M. (2019). Environmental sustainability of liquid food packaging: Is there a gap between Danish consumers' perception and learnings from life cycle assessment? Journal of Cleaner Production, 210, 1193–1206.
Lindh, H., Olsson, A., & Williams, H. (2016). Consumer perceptions of food packaging: Contributing to or counteracting environmentally sustainable development? Packaging Technology and Science, 29(1), 3–23.
Herbes, C., Beuthner, C., & Ramme, I. (2018). Consumer attitudes towards biobased packaging – A cross-cultural comparative study. Journal of Cleaner Production, 194, 203–218.
Orzan, G., Cruceru, A. F., Bălăceanu, C. T., & Chivu, R. G. (2018). Consumers' behavior concerning sustainable packaging: An exploratory study on Romanian consumers. Sustainability, 10(6), 1787.
Popovic, I., Bossink, B. A. G., & van der Sijde, P. C. (2019). Factors influencing consumers' decision to purchase food in environmentally friendly packaging: What do we know and where do we go from here? Sustainability, 11(24), 7197.
Norton, V., Waters, C., Oloyede, O. O., & Lignou, S. (2022). Exploring consumers' understanding and perception of sustainable food packaging in the UK. Foods, 11(21), 3424.
Downloads
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 International Journal of Engineering Science & Humanities
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
