Factors Influencing Consumer Behavior Towards Green Consumption: An Empirical Study in Vietnam

This study aims to investigate factors influencing customer behavior towards nylon bags and single-use plastics. These factors are environmental protection awareness, health protection awareness, sense of responsibility, expectations, and green marketing. A quantitative method with the use of surveys is deployed to collect data of young people under 30, generating 1650 valid responses. The collected data is then analyzed with SPSS 22, using Cronbach's Alpha and Exploratory Factor Analysis to test the reliability of the model before validating the hypotheses by regression analysis. The study found that the majority of respondents are inclined to use plastic bags, despite their environmental awareness. The results also demonstrate that health consciousness, environmental concerns, self-driven responsibility for the sustainability of young people have a significant impact on their behaviors in using nylon bags and plastic products, whereas expectation and green marketing are confirmed not to be the factors. The study suggests that if green marketing is to gain higher influence, an increase in research and development to support other environmentally friendly packaging would be the right path. Finally, this research proposes some feasible recommendations for the government, which include imposing bolder and more targeted environmental policies on consumers and introducing educational campaigns to raise awareness about minimizing plastic consumption.