Green brand awareness, green brand association, green perceived quality, and intention to purchase electric vehicles: The mediating effect of green trust

doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-2540718/v1

As part of their effort to curb CO2 emissions, many big players in the automobile industry have adopted a green branding approach through the design and manufacturing of lightweight electric vehicles. Nevertheless, there are limited studies that address consumers’ intention to purchase these types of vehicles from the perspective of green branding. To fill this gap, this paper examines the direct and indirect effects of green brand awareness, green brand associations, and green perceived quality on consumer intention to purchase electric three-wheelers. A total of 400 useful responses were collected through a questionnaire survey and the hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling. The results show that all the direct effects were positive and statistically significant. Furthermore, the analysis shows that green trust plays a mediating role in the effects of brand associations and green perceived quality on consumers’ intention to purchase three-wheel electric vehicles from a familiar and trusted brand. Given the potential of electric three-wheelers in curbing CO2 emissions and stakeholders’ skepticism about companies' green branding claims, managers need to give special attention to green trust to better position their green products and stimulate the purchase of these products.

Green brand awareness

green brand association

green perceived quality

intention to purchase

green trust

electric vehicle

Air pollution and climate change are among the most debatable environmental issues to date. Reports show that the energy sector accounts for 75% of global CO2 emissions (United Nations Development Programme, nd) and that 41% of these emissions are caused by motor vehicles such as passenger cars (Statista, 2022). Though the transportation sector remains a driver of economic growth (Umar et al., 2021), its associated consequences on the environment and public health are undeniable as this sector heavily relies on fossil fuels, which support a global call for clean production and consumption. In this respect, electric vehicles can play a major role in reducing global dependence on fossil fuels (Kim et al., 2020; Liao et al., 2019; King et al., 2019).

Particularly, important environmental and social benefits have been attributed to the production and adoption of electric vehicles. For example, the growing sales of electric vehicles across Europe have resulted in a significant drop in CO₂ emissions (Transport & Environment, 2020), meaning fewer human casualties and public health issues and less environmental damage. It is believed that the social benefits attributed to recent decreases in vehicle CO₂ emissions, particularly in the US, are due to technological innovations by car manufacturers and federal air pollution regulations (Choma et al., 2021). Because electric vehicles can help tackle CO2 emissions, governments across the globe have joined forces to accelerate the adoption of these vehicles under the Electric Vehicles Initiative which is a multi-governmental policy forum established in 2010 (International Energy Agency, 2022a).

Despite persistent promotions by car manufacturers and government initiatives, consumer acceptance of electric vehicles remains too low to make a substantial impact (Tarei et al., 2021; Liao et al., 2019) on CO2 emissions. For example, a recent report by International Energy Agency (2022a) indicates that the global market share of electric vehicles has quadrupled from 2019 to 2021 to reach a global share of 9%, which is eventually too low to compensate for CO2 emissions from conventional vehicles. In contrast to the conventional cars, the same report indicates that the sales of electric vehicles accounted for 16% and 17% of cars sold in China and Europe, respectively, where China and Europe alone accounted for 85% of the global sales in 2021 followed by the US with 10% of the global sales. Thus, it becomes a serious problem when China, Europe, and the US only account for 90% of global sales of electric vehicles.

The race for dominance in green products such as electric vehicles is growing (Transport & Environment, 2020) as major manufacturers announced the production of 100% by 2030 (International Energy Agency, 2022a). This race seems to amplify as governments across Europe (International Energy Agency, 2022b) and different other countries expect to phase out fossil fuel vehicles by 2030 and beyond (Pressman, 2021). Consequently, vehicle manufacturers have been gradually developing business strategies that help them maintain their competitive edge by capturing market share while responding to government incentives or complying with environmental regulations (International Energy Agency, 2022a). Consequently, this has opened new perspectives on green branding among different vehicle manufacturers.

Fundamentally, the growing popularity of green products such as electric vehicles and the global trends on green consumption have opened a new perspective and opportunity for green branding. In this respect, a great number of valuable frameworks, for example, have included different elements of green brand equity such as green trust (e.g; Chen and Chang, 2012; Tarabieh, 2021), green brand associations (e.g; Chen and Chang, 2016; Wang and Horng, 2016; Chen et al., 2020b; Hartmann and Ibáñez, 2006), green brand attitude (e.g; Chen and Chang, 2016; Chen et al., 2020b), and green purchase intentions (e.g; Chen and Chang, 2016; Chen et al., 2020b; Chen and Chang, 2012). Although green product attributes have been examined in the literature (Chen and Chang, 2012), the role of green branding has not yet been thoroughly examined (Chen et al., 2020b).

Though several studies have defined different elements of green brand equity (Chen, 2010; Ng et al., 2014; Kang and Hur, 2012; Bekk et al., 2016), we found no previous study that predicts the intention to purchase green products such as electric vehicles from the perspective of green brand equity. Moreover, studies on electric vehicles focus more on different antecedents to the adoption of this technology (e.g., the total cost of ownership, charging infrastructure development, and purchase-based incentive policies) and are predominantly carried out in the context of the USA, China, Germany, and the UK (for more insight, see Kumar and Alok, 2020). To fill these gaps, we examine the direct effect of green brand awareness, green brand associations, perceived green quality, and green trust on consumers’ intention to purchase a particular type of electric vehicle (three-wheelers) from familiar and trusted brands using Sri Lanka as the research context and owners of diesel-powered three-wheelers as the statistical unit. We also examine the mediating role of green trust on the effects of green brand awareness, green brand associations, and green perceived quality on consumers’ intention to purchase electric vehicles. Our focus on owners of diesel-powered three-wheelers as the statistical unit is justified by the fact that customers’ intention to purchase a brand is considered an attitude that is formed following their experience with the brand and the knowledge they have accumulated about the brand (Razak et al., 2019).

Several other reasons justify the contribution of this study to sustainable development. Compared to developed and emerging economies, three-wheel vehicles, commonly known as three-wheelers, remain an affordable solution to the problem of transportation facing many countries in Southeast Asia. Consequently, the growing usage of electric three-wheelers offers pollution-free and passenger-friendly services (Hossain et al., 2022) representing an affordable solution to curb CO2 emissions in public transportation in many developing countries. Furthermore, the lightweight and short driving distances of electric three-wheelers can help reduce significantly the issues related to the requirements of charging infrastructure (International Energy Agency, 2022a). More importantly, the announcement of the ban on imported diel-powered three-wheelers by the Sri Lanka government in early 2019 has created an opportunity for major players such as Mahindra, Piaggio, and Atul Auto to commercialize their respective electric three-wheel vehicles. Though market research showed that the electric three-wheelers market in Sri Lanka is expected to reach a compound annual growth rate of 33.4%, that is, an increase from INR 2,604.2 Lakh in 2019 to INR 8,624.7 Lakh by 2027 (Research and Markets, 2020), little is known about consumers intention to purchase three-wheeled electric vehicles from the established brands.

Green brand equity

Brand equity represents an important asset that companies can use to create strong brands and influence consumers’ behavior and attitude (Keller, 1993; Aaker, 1991). Though Keller’s brand equity models (1993; 2013) are well-known, Aaker’s brand equity model remains mostly used in the marketing literature. In his generic conceptualization, Aaker (1991) identified brand awareness, brand association, perceived quality, brand loyalty, and other branded assets as the key dimensions of brand equity. Aaker’s generic dimensions of brand equity have been theoretically confirmed in predicting consumers’ purchasing behavior across different product categories (e.g; Chinomona and Maziriri, 2017; Susilowati and Sari, 2020; Vazifehdoost and Negahdari, 2018; Pranata and Permana, 2021).

With the rise in consumer preference for green products, researchers and practitioners have attempted to green Aaker’s brand equity dimensions to fit today’s green marketing era. Thus, green marketing has been established as a new area in the marketing field that satisfies consumers’ green needs (Chen and Chang, 2012). In this vein, green marketing encompasses all marketing activities that are developed to activate and sustain consumers’ environmental behaviors and attitudes (Jain and Kaur, 2004) or green differentiation strategies to satisfy customers’ environmental needs (Chen, 2008). Building on the corpus of the literature on green marketing (e.g; Alamsyah et al., 2020; Alamsyah and Febriani, 2020; Chen et al., 2020a; Chen, 2010) and Aaker’s conceptualization of brand equity, this study contributes to the literature by examining effects of green brand awareness, green brand associations, green perceived quality, and green trust on green purchase intention concerning a green product category (electric three-wheelers). In this study, green purchase intention is defined as “the likelihood that a consumer would buy a particular product resulting from his or her environmental needs” (Chen and Chang, 2012: 507).

Electric vehicles and research context

Based on the type of energy sources used, electric vehicles are classified as battery electric vehicles (BEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) (U.S. Department of Transportation, 2022). Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) are often referred to as all-electric vehicles because they run only on electricity and are recharged from an external power source, whereas Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles are referred to as the type of electric vehicles that use batteries to power an electric motor. The PHEVs offer substantial benefits as they possess a small internal combustion engine that recharges the batteries for longer driving ranges but these batteries can also be recharged from an external power source. Nevertheless, hybrid electric vehicles come with an internal battery pack that cannot be recharged from an external source but is powered by an internal combustion engine allowing greater efficiency. Fuel cell electric vehicles use an efficient electrochemical process that converts hydrogen into electricity to run an electric motor (for more insights, see U.S. Department of Transportation, 2022).

Based on the weight and purpose, electric vehicles are classified as medium- and heavy-duty electric trucks, light-duty electric vehicles, electric buses, and electric two/three-wheelers (see, International Energy Agency, 2022a). Electric three-wheelers will be game changers in curbing CO2 emissions in many Southeast Asian countries once governments fully implement the ban on diesel-powered three-wheelers. In Sri Lanka, we expect to see a growth in the adoption of electric three-wheelers for the following reasons. First, current owners of diesel-powered three-wheeler will need to replace their vehicles in the foreseeable future. Second, lack of public transportation, insufficient road, and growing urbanization, will drive the purchase of electric vehicles in the future. More importantly, three-wheelers have become a cheap means of transportation and a source of income for some less fortunate Sri Lanka families. From a branding perspective, it is generally assumed that consumers prefer to buy brands that they are familiar with or trust. Thus, we expect owners of diesel-powered three-wheelers to replace their current vehicles with a familiar and trusted electric three-wheeler brand.

Hypotheses development

Green Brand Awareness

Brand awareness is referred to consumers’ ability to quickly recognize and recall a brand (Aaker, 1996; Hoeffler and Keller, 2002) or “the strength of a brand’s presence in consumers’ minds” (Pappu et al., 2005: 145). Parallelly, green brand awareness is defined as consumers’ ability “to recognize and to recall that a brand is environmentally friendly” (Tseng and Hung, 2013; Chen and Chang, 2012). Using the traditional branding approach, empirical studies found that brand awareness positively influences market performance or purchase intention (e.g. Chi et al., 2009; Malik et al., 2013; Shamsudin et al., 2020) and brand trust (e.g. Deka et al., 2020; Bernarto et al., 2020).

Doszhanov and Ahmad (2015) examined the effect of green brand awareness, green brand trust, green brand image, and green perceived value on consumers’ intention to purchase green products in the retailing context. Except for green brand image, their results revealed significant and positive effects on customers’ intention to purchase green products. In an almost similar study, Ottman (2008) found a significant and positive effect of green brand awareness, green brand image, and green trust on green brand preference. Importantly, the effect of green brand awareness on consumers’ intention to purchase green products is confirmed in several other studies (e.g; Suki, 2013; Hussain et al., 2014; Alamsyah et al., 2020; Ayodele et al., 2017). However, Jiang et al. (2021) found no significant effect of brand awareness on consumer's intention to buy green products such as Electric Vehicles from unfamiliar brands such as start-up companies in the Chinese context. Also, Junarsin et al. (2022) found no significant effect of green awareness on green purchase intention. These two empirical findings revealed inconsistency in the effect of green brand awareness on green purchase intention. Consequently, we propose to test the following hypotheses:

Hypothesis 1a: Green brand awareness will positively influence consumers’ intention to purchase green products such as three electric vehicles from familiar and trusted brands.

Hypothesis 1b: Green brand awareness will positively influence consumers’ green trust in familiar and trusted brands.

Green Brand Associations

Brand associations are the underlying information customers have in mind about the brand, be it negative or positive, that is linked to the node of the brain memory (Emari et al., 2012; Aaker, 1991). Consequently, brand associations can act as an information-gathering instrument that helps to accomplish brand differentiation (Van Osselaer and Janiszewski, 2001). Likewise, green brand associations can be established through green product attributes (Hartmann and Ibáñez, 2006) to accomplish green brand differentiation. On this basis, Chen and Chang (2016) define green brand associations as the extent to which consumers know about green brands, and how they feel about and evaluate the green brand.

Several studies show that positive brand associations have a significant effect on brand loyalty (e.g; Chinomona and Maziriri, 2017; Azadi et al., 2015; Alexandris et al., 2008; Atilgan et al., 2005) and consumer trust (Chen, 2017; Ngoc Phan and Ghantous, 2013). Although there are numerous studies on brand associations, our literature search revealed a scarcity of studies on green brand associations. Given today’s green era, we expect green brand associations to influence green trust and green purchase intention as companies tend to capitalize on green branding. In this regard, Chen et al. (2020b) found a significant effect of green brand associations on green purchase intentions among consumers who have purchasing experience with information and electronics products. Except for the results of the study by Chen et al. (2020b), we have not come across other studies that investigated the effect of (green) brand associations on green purchase intention, especially in the case of electric vehicles at the time of this study. To fill out these gaps, we propose to test the following hypotheses:

Hypothesis 2a: Green brand associations will positively influence consumers’ intention to purchase green products such as three electric vehicles from familiar and trusted brands.

Hypotheses 2b: Green brand associations will positively influence green trust in familiar and trusted brands.

Green Perceived Quality

The concept of perceived quality is commonly associated with consumers’ subjective judgment about a product or service (see, for example, Zeithaml, 1988; Dodds et al., 1991). Bhuian (1997) referred to perceived quality as consumers’ judgment of the reliability of product specifications or consumers’ evaluation of the benefit of a given product. Using a green marketing perspective, Chen and Chang (2013) consider green perceived quality as customers’ judgment about the overall environmental excellence or superiority of a brand/product. More succinctly, they define green perceived quality as “a consumer's overall appraisal of the net benefit of a product or service between what is received and what is given based on the consumer's environmental desires, sustainable expectations, and green needs” (Chen and Chang, 2013: 505).

Empirical studies found that perceived quality has a positive impact on purchase intention (e.g. Chuang and Chiu, 2018; Calvo-Porral and Lévy-Mangin, 2017; Wang et al., 2020) and brand trust (e.g. Cakmak, 2016; Azizi, 2014; Alhaddad, 2015). Parallelly, we expect similar effects for green perceived quality. In this respect, Gil and Jacob (2018) found a positive and significant effect of green perceived quality on green purchase intention and green trust. Also, Wasaya et al. (2021) found a significant effect of green perceived quality and green trust on green purchase intention. More importantly, the positive and significant effect of green perceived quality on green trust is supported in other product categories (Chen et al., 2015; Cheung et al., 2015). Based on the empirical results, we thus propose to test the following hypotheses:

Hypothesis 3b: Green Perceived Quality will positively influence Consumers’ Intention to Purchase Green Products such as three electric vehicles from familiar and trusted brands.

Hypothesis 3a: Green Perceived Quality will positively influence Green Trust in familiar and trusted brands.

Green Trust

Long-term relationships can be sustained only if trust exists between the interested parties. Fundamentally, “trust exists when one party has confidence in an exchange partner's reliability and integrity” (Morgan and Hunt, 1994: 23). Theoretically, trust is often presented as a tridimensional concept, consisting of competency, trustworthiness, and benevolence (Gurviez and Korchia, 2002; Frisou, 2000; Rempel et al., 1985). Following the global trends in making every aspect of businesses to be green, Chen (2010: 312) defines green trust as “a willingness to depend on a product, service, or brand based on the belief or expectation resulting from its credibility, benevolence, and ability about its environmental performance”. Green trust comes to the forefront during consumers’ decision to purchase a green product as green trust can influence consumers’ decisions to purchase green products especially when their exposure to greenwashing is relatively high. While most empirical studies have found a significant influence of green trust on green purchase intention (Gil and Jacob, 2018; Chinomona and Chivhungwa, 2019; Cheung et al., 2015; Wasaya et al., 2021), empirical results by Tarabieh (2021) revealed no significant effect of green trust on green purchase intention. Consequently, we propose to test the following hypothesis:

Hypothesis 4: Green trust will positively influence consumers’ intention to purchase green products such as three electric vehicles from familiar and trusted brands

The mediating effects of green trust were found in different studies. For example, Amin and Tarun (2021) found that green trust significantly mediates the relationship between the dimensions of consumption values and green purchase intention. Similarly, the mediating effect of green trust on the relationship between green perceived quality and green purchase intention was found in a study by Rahardjo (2015), Gil and Jacob (2018), and (Zulfanizy and Wahyono, 2019). At the time of this study, however, we have not come across previous studies that investigated the mediating effect of green trust on the relationships between green brand awareness and green purchase intention as well as the effect of green brand associations and green purchase intention. To fill these gaps, we propose to test the following hypotheses:

Hypothesis H5: ‘Green trust’ will mediate the relationship between ‘green brand awareness’ and ‘consumers’ intention to purchase green products such as three electric vehicles from familiar and trusted brands.

Hypothesis H6: ‘Green trust’ will mediate the relationship between ‘green brand associations’ and ‘consumers’ intention to purchase green products such as electric three vehicles from familiar and trusted brands.

Hypothesis H7: ‘Green trust’ will mediate the relationship between ‘green perceived quality’ and ‘consumers’ intention to purchase green products such as electric three vehicles from familiar and trusted brands.

Respondents and Sample Size

Our target respondents constituted owners of diesel-powered three-wheel vehicles in the Colombo district of Sri Lanka. A report by Goldstein Market Intelligence (2019) showed that Sri Lanka had over 10.1 million registered three-wheel vehicles with an expected market to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 7.2% from 2017 to 2030. To estimate the minimum sample size, we considered 10 million registered three-wheel vehicles as our population and used the formula proposed by Krejchie and Morgan (1970) assuming a 5% sampling error, a 95% confidence interval, and a standard population proportion of 50%.

Questionnaire Development, Measures, and Data Collection

To meet the objectives of this study, we used a structured questionnaire. A total of six items were developed for the measurement of green brand awareness following Yoo et al. (2000), Netemeyer et al. (2004), and Pappu et al. (2005). Four items were developed for the measurement of green brand associations following Chang and Chen (2013). Four items were developed for the overall measurement of green perceived quality following a study by Dodds et al. (1991). For the measurement of green trust, five items were developed following Chaudhuri and Holbrook (2001), Matzler et al. (2008), and (Chen, 2010). And three items for the measurement of intention to purchase green products were developed following a study by Chang and Chen (2013). Also, the questionnaire was designed to collect biographic data on the respondents: gender, occupation, education, and monthly income.

Common Method Bias Procedures

To address issues related to common method bias, we adopted different remedies. For example, we kept the item measurements as simple and concise as possible as Jordan and Troth (2020) suggested. To increase response accuracy as suggested by Hair et al. (2019), we attached a memo-type letter that explains the purpose and guarantees the respondents our commitment to confidentiality, privacy, anonymity, and their rights to decline participation. This was particularly important because this could motivate the respondents to provide accurate responses when they are informed about the objective of the study (Podsakoff et al., 2012; Podsakoff et al., 2003). Additionally, we adopted different responses to the Likert scales to measure each item in the questionnaire (see, Jordan and Troth, 2020), rather than using monotonous answers like strongly disagree and strongly agree in order to mitigate instances of unthoughtful answers.

Following Presser et al. (2004), we pre-tested and piloted the questionnaire with a conveniently chosen sample of 30 owners of three-wheel vehicles, which helped us to determine the length of time for the completion of the questionnaire and also identified and corrected some minor issues. The final questionnaire survey was administered using the purposive sampling technique consisting of owners of three-wheel vehicles in the Colombo district, Sri Lanka. The data was collected from February 10, 2022, to March 20, 2022. In total, 400 useful responses were collected.

Descriptive Analysis

Data relevant to the sociodemographic characteristics of the respondents are shown in Table 1. The analysis of this table shows a large gap between male and female respondents, as male accounts for 96.8 percent (387 out of 400). The values for the age groups were in the following decreasing order between 36 - 45 years (37.0 %); between 26 -35 years old (23.5%); between 46 - 55 years old (20.3%); between 18 - 25 years old (11.8%), and more than 55 (7.5%). Similarly, the monthly income is presented in the following decreasing order: less than Sri Lankan rupee (Rs) 20,000 (45.3%); between 20,001 and 30,000 Rs (44.5%); and between 30,001 - 40,000 Rs (7.2%). Most of the respondents were self-employed (63.0%) followed in decreasing order by professionals (25.5%), businessmen (5.0%), farmers (3.8%), and the non-specified category (2.8%). The results show a large gap in terms of education level. For example, respondents reaching the primary education level account for 85.5% followed by those who have reached the secondary education level, which accounts for 12.5%. Most of the respondents reported that they use their three-wheeler for ‘taxis service hiring’ (57.8%), family use and taxis service hiring (25.5%), the family uses only (13.3%), transportation of goods only (2.3%), and institutional use (1.3%).

Table 1. Demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of respondents

Items	Category	Frequency	Percentage
Gender	Male	387	96.8
	Female	13	3.3
Age	Between 18 - 25 years old	47	11.8
	Between 26 - 35 years old	94	23.5
	Between 36 - 45 years old	148	37.0
	Between 46 - 55 years old	81	20.3
	More than 55	30	7.5
Education Level	Primary school	342	85.5
	Secondary school	50	12.5
	Certificate/diploma	6	1.5
	Graduate degree	2	.5
Occupation	Self-employed	252	63.0
	Farmer	15	3.8
	Businessman	20	5.0
	Professionals	102	25.5
	Other	11	2.8
Monthly Income	<Rs. 20,000	181	45.3
	Rs. 20,001 - 30,000	178	44.5
	Rs. 30,001 - 40,000	29	7.3
	Rs. 40,001 - 50,000	8	2.0
	>Rs. 50,000	4	1.0
Use of 3-wheeled vehicles	Taxis servicing	231	57.8
	Family use	53	13.3
	Taxi servicing and family use	102	25.5
	Transporting of goods	9	2.3
	For the use of the company/institute	5	1.3

Note: Rs means Sri Lankan rupee

Model and Measurement Assessment

In this study, we used confirmatory factor analysis to assess the extent to which the models fit the data the fit of the model presented in Figure 1, and structural equation modeling to test hypotheses using AMOS 26. As shown in Table 4, the Tucker-Lewis index (TLI = 0.973 ) and the comparative fit index (CFI = 0.978) are above the minimum value required for the acceptance level of 0.9 (Bentler and Bonett, 1980). The root means square error approximation (RMSEA) value is 0.048, which is below the suggested value of 0.08 (Browne and Cudeck, 1992). Therefore, the measurement model displays a good fit with the collected data and also provides evidence for metric invariance because there is no decline in the fit indexes (Hair et al., 2006; Steenkamp and Baumgartner, 1998).

For the assessment of reliability, factors loading equal to or higher than .71 are considered excellent, whereas those equal to .63 and above are considered very good and those equal to .55 and above and .45 and above are considered as good and fair, respectively (Tabachnick et al., 2007; Comrey and Lee, 2013). and the Composite Reliability (CR) and average variance extracted (AVE) of the composite variables are equal to or higher than the cutoff values of 0.6 and 0.5, respectively (Bagozzi and Yi, 1988). We eliminated one item related to brand awareness, 1 item related to brand trust, and 1 item related to perceived brand quality because of poor loadings and then reran the analysis. After rerunning the analysis, the results indicated that the factor loadings, CR, and AVE all exceed the cutoff values suggested, as shown in Table 2.

Table 2: Validity and Reliability of the Measures

Variables	Items	Loadings
Green Brand Awareness (Mean = 3.68; AVE = 0.713; CR = 0.925)	1. I can recognize the electric models of this brand quickly among competing brands.	.790
	2. The electric three-wheeler of this brand is the first model I often recall	.809
	3. The electric three-wheeler of this brand comes up first in my mind when I think of replacing my current diesel-powered E-three-wheeler	.892
	4. The electric three-wheeler of this brand is the dominating model in the market.	.810
	5. Some benefits of the electric three-wheeler of this company’s brand come to my mind very quickly.	.820
	6. I have learned more about the electric three-wheeler of this company’s brand than any other companies	Removed for poor loading
Green Brand Association (Mean = 3.50; AVE = 0.706; CR = 0.906)	1. I think this company’s electric three-wheeler is far safer than other brands on the market	.803
	2. I think this company’s electric three-wheelers are highly unlikely to pollute the environment.	.840
	3. This company’s three-wheeler offers good solutions for the environmental	.883
	4. I have a clear image of all the environmental benefits of this electric three-wheeler of this company	.833
Green Trust (Mean = 3.68; AVE = 0.639; CR = 0.876)	1. I feel that the environmental commitments of this company’s electric three-wheeler brand are reliable	.808
	2. I feel that the environmental performance of this electric three-wheeler model of this company is dependable	.812
	3. I feel that the environmental statements of this company’s electric three-wheeler brand are trustworthy	.784
	4. I think this company’s electric three-wheeler brand will meet my environmental expectations	.791
	5. This brand keeps its promises and commitments to net zero CO2 emissions.	Removed for poor loading
Green Perceived Quality (Mean = 3.68; AVE = 0.770; CR = 0.910)	1. The quality of this company’s electric three-wheeler is regarded as the best standard about environmental-friendliness	Removed for poor loading
	2. The quality of this company’s electric three-wheeler is environmentally reliable	.864
	3. with respect to environmental performance, the quality of this company’s electric three-wheeler is durable	.888
	4. The quality of this company’s electric three-wheeler is excellent with respect to environmental features and characteristics	.881
	5. This company’s electric three-wheeler is highly reputed for its environmental friendliness.	Removed for poor loading
Intention to Purchase Electric Vehicle (Mean = 3.43; AVE = 0.603; CR = 0.820)	1. For my next purchase, I will choose an electric three-wheeler from the current brand I am using.	.742
	2. I would consider buying an electric three-wheeler from the same brand I am currently using.	.742
	3. I will certainly purchase an electric three-wheeler from the current brand I am using.	.842

The discriminant validity of the variables was assessed through a comparison of the correlation scores of the correlation matrix with the square root of AVE for each construct. In this instance, the loading for each indicator should be greater than its designated construct and greater than any of the other constructs (Urbach and Ahlemann, 2010). As indicated in Table 3, the square root of the AVE for each construct in our model is greater than the corresponding nondiagonal correlations of the constructs to their latent variables, which supports the adequacy of the discriminant validity of all the constructs (Fornell and Larcker, 1981).

Table 3. Comparison of squared inter-construct correlations with AVE

Variables	1	2	3	4	5
1. Green Brand Awareness	0.844
2. Green Brand Associations	0.720	0.840
3. Green Perceived Quality	0.664	0.689	0.878
4. Green Trust	0.691	0.742	0.760	0.799
5. Intention to purchase E-vehicle	0.721	0.725	0.748	0.746	0.777

Note: Diagonal (in bold) is the square root of the Average Variance Extracted (AVE) for each factor.

Common Method Bias

In addition to the procedural remedies to limit common method bias (CMB) mentioned earlier, we tested our model for possible CMB using Harman's single-factor test. The results of this test showed no serious concern with CMB given the poor model fit obtained (χ²/df = 5.419, GFI = .812, CFI = .880, IFI = .881, RMSEA = .105). Furthermore, we assessed the CMB using a full collinearity approach (Kock and Lynn, 2012) and the results indicated the lowest and highest variance inflation factor were, 2.096 and 2.250, respectively which thus provided evidence of no

multicollinearity issues (Petter et al., 2007) showing no serious CMB issue.

Hypothesis testing

To test the hypothesized relationships shown in Figure 1, we used structural equation modeling. We used 5000 bootstrap samples at a 95% confidence interval and deviation correction percentile bootstrap to test the mediating effect of brand trust. The direct effects are reported in Table 4 and the indirect effects in Table 5. Figure 2 shows the results of the SEM analysis. Consistent with what was hypothesized, Table 4 and Figure 2 show that Green Brand Awareness has a significant and positive effect on Consumers’ Intention to Purchase Three-wheel Electric Vehicle (β = .235, p < .001) and Green Trust (β = .155, p = .003). Furthermore, the results show that Green Brand Associations have a significant effect on Consumers’ Intention to Purchase Three-wheel Electric Vehicle (β = .190, p = .009) and Green Trust (β = .270, p = .009). Table 4 also indicates a significant influence of Perceived Green Quality on Consumers’ Intention to Purchase a Three-wheel Electric Vehicle (β = .292, p < .001) and Green Trust (β = .352, p <. 001). The results show a significant influence of Green Trust on Consumers’ Intention to Purchase Three-wheel Electric Vehicle (β = .240, p =.016).

Table 4. Results of the direct effects

*** Denotes that p-value < .001

Table 5 shows the brand has no mediating effect of Green Trust on the relationship between green brand awareness and consumer's intention to purchase electric three-wheel vehicles as the confidence interval crosses the value of zero (Bayesian estimate = .037, 95%CI low = -.001, high = .008). However, the results show that Green Trust has a partial mediating effect on the relationships between green brand associations and consumers’ intention to purchase electric three-wheel vehicles from familiar and trusted brands (Bayesian estimate = .065, 95%CI low = .001, high = .139) and the relationship between green perceived quality and consumers’ intention to purchase three-wheel vehicles from familiar and trusted brands (Bayesian estimate = .084, 95%CI. Low = 002, High = .196).

Table 5. Test for Mediating effect of Green Trust

Indirect Relationships	Direct Effect	Indirect Effect	Bias-Corrected 95% CI		P-value	Conclusion
Indirect Relationships		Indirect Effect	Low	High	P-value	Conclusion
Green Brand Awarenessà Green Trustà Intention to Purchase EV	.235 (3.680)	.037	-.001	.088	.109	Not supported
Green Brand Associations à Green Trust à Intention to Purchase EV	.190 (2.612)	.065	.001	.139	.094	Supported
Green Perceived Quality à Green Trustà Intention to Purchase EV	.292 (4.094)	.084	.002	.169	.093	Supported

Note: Unstandardized coefficients reported. Values in parentheses are t-values. Bootstrap sample = 5,000 with replacement and a 95% Confidence Interval

Though recent empirical studies have examined the relationships among several variables of green marketing, this study is among the rare studies that addressed consumers’ intention to purchase lightweight electric vehicles such as three-wheelers through the development of a green brand equity framework. In this respect, the theoretical framework developed in this study contributes to the green marketing literature by examining the direct and indirect effects of green brand awareness, green brand associations, and green perceived quality on consumers’ intention to purchase electric three-wheel vehicles from familiar and trusted brands. The results of this study provide empirical evidence showing a significant direct effect of green brand awareness, green brand association, and green perceived quality on consumers’ intention to purchase electric three-wheelers. These findings are consistent with several previous empirical findings addressing the significance of green branding using different product categories other than electric vehicles (e.g; Ottman, 2008; Doszhanov and Ahmad, 2015; Chen et al., 2020b; Wasaya et al., 2021).

From a managerial perspective, these results suggest the need for companies to adopt a green marketing approach by designing products that are environmentally friendly and are capable of meeting consumers’ green consumption expectations. Though brand equity represents a source of competitive advantage (Jung and Sung, 2008; Aaker, 1992), a brand competitive advantage can fade away if it is not in sync with today’s trend in green branding. Thus, the results of this study reiterate the conventional thinking that in the absence of core functional quality and strong brand credibility companies will face serious challenges attracting environmentally conscious customers using green product attributes (Rios et al., 2006; Mourad and Ahmed, 2012; Ng et al., 2014). Consequently, by developing robust electric three-wheelers that can easily cope with the poor quality of the roads in most developing countries, companies will be more likely to convert consumers’ intentions to actual purchases and at the same time increase green brand awareness, green brand associations as well as green actual quality and green trust.

Two major findings of this study concern the significant mediating effect of green trust on the relationships between green brand associations and consumers’ intention to purchase electric three-wheelers and the relationship between green perceived quality and consumers’ intention to purchase electric three-wheelers, which have not been investigated in previous studies. To build a higher level of green trust and attract environmentally conscious consumers to purchase electric three-wheelers, manufacturers of three-wheelers need to deliver superior functional quality such as an increase in the riding range of these vehicles. By delivering robust three-wheelers with higher riding range and less dependent on recharging from external sources (e.g., hybrid electric three-wheelers, fuel cell electric three-wheelers), manufacturers can enjoy higher green brand awareness, green brand associations, perceived brand quality as well as green trust and higher market share. The results of this study further support the benefits companies can enjoy by integrating a green marketing approach in their overall business strategy in order to differentiate their green products from those of the competition. By integrating a green marketing approach into their overall strategy, companies can foster a culture of innovation that help achieve breakthroughs leading to the development of a new market (Chen et al., 2020b) as well to the development of core competencies in green innovation.

Limitations and future research

Besides the contributions of our study, some limitations are worth mentioning. First, the sample is not representative of the whole population of users of three-wheel vehicles in Sri Lanka as the data were collected only in the Colombo district. Though this study is relevant to Southeast Asia, our findings need to be supported by cross borders studies as green brand awareness, green brand associations, green perceived quality, green trust, and consumer's intention to purchase electric three-wheelers may be influenced by characteristics of the market, cultures, and institutions. Second, there is a high likelihood of gender bias regarding the results of this study given the highly disproportional representation of men versus women as shown in Table 1. This potential issue of gender bias was stemming from the fact that the use of three-wheel vehicles for the transportation of goods and passengers is mostly a male-centric activity in the context of Sri Lanka and thus limits the external validity of the instrument used in this study. This limitation needs to be addressed in future studies given the potential gender difference regarding the purchase intention of electric three-wheel vehicles and other green product categories (e.g; Li et al., 2019; Essiz et al., 2022; Lee, 2009).

Moreover, this study only focused on the electric three-wheeler market segment ignoring the electric two-wheeler market segment and other market segments of green durable goods. Therefore, the generalizability of our results can be extended by including different demographic groups and by considering different green product categories. Last and not least, the research framework used in this study did incorporate consumers’ attitudes toward the environment and some commonly used antecedents of green consumption such as environmental concerns, environmental knowledge, and environmental beliefs. Thus, combining some of these variables with green brand equity variables into a single research framework would increase our understanding of consumers’ intention to purchase electric vehicles and other green product categories.

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

The authors declare that no funds, grants, or other support were received during the preparation of this manuscript

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No competing interests reported.

Green brand awareness, green brand association, green perceived quality, and intention to purchase electric vehicles: The mediating effect of green trust

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Abstract

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Introduction

Literature Review

Research Method

Results

Discussion And Implications

Statements And Declarations

References

Additional Declarations

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