What determines Australian consumers’ motivation to buy green energy?

This research is concerned with the question of consumer motivations for purchasing green energy. Towards this direction, the study aims to investigate the role of psychological factor affecting green energy consumption and whether they influenced the purchase intention. This paper presents results from a study, undertaken in Australia, intending to contribute to the scarce literature about the determinants of green energy purchase intention (GPI). The study attempted to develop a conceptual framework of GPI to provide deeper insights into a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms, improved predictions of the resulting choices and consumer behaviours relevant to green energy consumption and in turn, help in encouraging and reinforcing green energy buying behaviour among consumers. In doing so, the study took a holistic approach to propose the framework of GPI following – Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA, Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980) and Social Cognitive Theory (SCT, Phipps et al. 2013) to shed lights on green energy consumption. This framework includes constructs identified and hypothesized to have relationships. In the direction of motivation, four key psychological factors on the GPI has been explored viz: attitude, social norm, environmental concern and moral reflectiveness. To predict the power of considered constructs, partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) were employed for a robust outcome fulfilled the objective of the study. Social norm towards buying green energy was the strongest predictor of intention found in the study. The study leads to implications for academics, policymakers, energy marketers.