The Impact of Consumer Attitudes on Green Investment with Reference to the Investment Sector in Sri Lanka

Abstract

This research investigates the impact of Consumer attitudes of green investment in Sri Lanka. Positioned within the context of the Sri Lankan economy the research explores the individual green investment opportunities and how it affected by consumer attitudes with effective marketing strategies. This research examines how consumers perceive their tendency to invest in green investments born from the green concept instead of making personal investments through the usual traditional methods such as savings, fixed deposits, and asset purchases. This also aims to see how far consumer opinions and habits have changed regarding green investments, especially after the global pandemic season. The study adopts a deductive approach, employing a structured questionnaire survey to collect data from 399 participants within the employed population of Sri Lanka. However, although consumer life is a very wide area, for this study, the previous researchers have identified four basic habits that can fully summarize the consumer life and analyzed the relationship under those four. Surprisingly, the findings reveal a positive association between these variables, suggesting that individuals in green investment with the attitudes of environmental conciseness, environmental responsibility, health consciousness and social influence. A notable finding of this study reflects a clear difference in response to green investments by gender. A relatively higher contribution is shown especially in the male population. The finding here is that under the concept of green, through an investment, consumers consider their own financial benefits rather than environmental benefits. Moreover, it highlights the expectation and motivation to green investment at an individual level. Where individuals perceive their own decisions and opinion about green investment which leads to increased consumer attitudes. Managerially, the research underscores the need for green marketing strategies, considering the interplay between consumer attitudes and green investment. Also, due to the lack of a specific theory or defense for green investment, this study describes the understanding and belief of general consumers about it. In some very limited green investment research done in Lanka, it has been raised that consumer skepticism affects green investments a lot. The implication of this study is to correctly identify the significance of consumer habits such as social influence and the relationship with green investments and provide a correct guide to avoid that skepticism. This study provides an understanding of the behavior of consumers to green investment projects based on sustainability instead of traditional investment methods for the needs of their life as an individual consumer such as investment and savings.