User’s willingness to pay for natural environment conservation and protection with commitment

Abstract

Using the commitment model, this study examines the effects of satisfaction, alternative choices, and investment scale about the environment would predict users' environmental commitments. Furthermore, this study also investigated the relationship between the commitment to environment and the willingness to pay for the environmental conservation at the particular natural site. A survey was conducted at Yangmingshan National Park. The data were collected from April to July 2019. The findings of the analysis suggested that satisfaction and investment scale had the significantly positive effects on the commitment to the environment; but the alternative choices had the significantly negative relationship with the commitment. However, the level of environmental commitment failed to predict the willingness to pay via the entrance fee for environment conservation and protection. The level of commitment did not mediate the effects of satisfaction, alternative choices, and investment scale in the environment on the willingness to pay more for the national park, which will require refinement in future research.

The Impact of Environmental Commitment on Green Purchase Behavior in China

“…On the contrary, the study results by Goh and Balaji [ 40 ] showed that environmental knowledge plays a significant mediating role in promoting green purchasing intentions. What is more, some scholars believe that consumers’ environmental commitment has a positive impact on their green purchase behavior [ 8 , 41 , 42 ], while others suggest that environmental commitment cannot predict consumers’ green purchase intention [ 9 ].…”

“…Therefore, there is no consensus about whether environmental commitment can promote consumers’ green purchase behavior. Currently, the relevant studies mostly focus on whether environmental commitment has an impact on consumers’ green purchase behavior [ 8 , 9 , 41 , 42 ], with a clear lack of research on its internal influence mechanism. Additionally, in recent years, most research studies on green purchasing were concentrated in developed countries, with limited research conducted in developing countries [ 12 ].…”

“…However, other scholars have obtained different conclusions. The research results of Shen et al [ 9 ] have shown that the level of environmental commitment failed to predict the willingness to pay an entrance fee for environment conservation and protection. The following reasons may explain this inconsistency: (1) Different samples.…”

“…Based on the national environment, Hojnik et al [ 8 ] randomly selected 705 consumers living in Slovenia and speaking the local language as respondents. While based on a particular site, Shen et al [ 9 ] randomly selected 370 visitors in Yangmingham National Park as respondents. The reason could be that Yangmingshan National Park has environmental goods, a subset of public goods, where the individual who pays more money for protection or conservation cannot prevent other environmental users from using the natural site without paying anything.…”