Sustainable Consumption in Chinese Cities: Green Purchasing Intentions of Young Adults Based on the Theory of Consumption Values

Abstract The efforts of businesses, governmental and non‐governmental organizations notwithstanding, unsustainable consumption continues to threaten society's vision of sustainable development. Green purchasing, therefore, offers a chance of reducing negative environmental impacts and promoting sustainable development. Yet, the question of how to encourage green purchasing behaviour remains poorly understood. Based on the theory of consumption values, this paper examines the antecedents of green purchasing intentions among young adults in Chinese cities. The structural equation modeling (SEM) technique was applied to data collected from 309 respondents by means of a mall‐intercept survey. The findings indicate that social and emotional values are positively related to young adults’ green purchasing intentions, but functional, conditional and epistemic values are not significantly related to green purchasing intentions. This paper has verified the contribution of the theory of consumption values to the green purchasing intentions of young adults in Chinese cities. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment