The Influence of Environmental Values, Economic Values and Social Structure on Consumers’ Choice of Green Hotels: The Case of Luxury Hotels

While many hotel companies have participated in various green initiatives and adopted green policy, when it came to the real purchasing decision, their willingness was not matched by action. There could be many reasons for such inconsistency. Lack of consumer demand, increasing environmental regulation, managerial concern with ethics, customer satisfaction, maintenance issues related to physical plant, the need for aesthetics, financial barriers and stakeholder pressures (Foster, 2000, Kassins & Soterious, 2003) are some of the issues that hotels rustle with. One of the major missing parts is economic considerations. A second important consideration is social support and social structure. Ajzen and Fishbein (1980) found that the primary predictor variable for green consumption behavior is green consumption behavioral intentions, which are primarily affected by attitude. Consumers could theoretically express higher green practice expectations for luxury hotels than for budget hotels. This research intend to examine how consumers environmental values, perceived social structure/support, economic values function together as drivers for consumers attitude towards hotel green practices and ultimately consumers green hotel use intention, all in the context of the luxury hotels. This research differentiates itself from other consumer choice models by examining the dynamic roles of not just environmental roles and social norms but also the role of economic values. To assess values concerning the environment, an 18-item scale adopted from Stern (1995) is used. Social structure will be measured by 6 items following work by Jose A. Corraliza (2000). Economic Values will be assessed by the Stated Preference (SP) techniques by Bateman et al(2002). Intention to use green hotels will be assessed by the NEP by Dunlap and Van Liere’s (1978). The outcome of the research will provide a better understanding of consumer green hotel choices and better account for the discrepancies between consumers environmental believes and their actual hotel decision choices.