Increasing demand for products with eco-friendly packaging is an example of the environmental consciousness of customers. That consciousness forces companies not only to develop eco-friendly products, but also motivates practitioners and academicians to understand the eco-friendly buying behaviour of the customer. Yet in current literature, there is little discussion available where researchers talk about the influencing relationship of altruistic and egoistic values of customers on their attitudes and purchase intentions towards eco-friendly packaged products. Therefore, this work aims to build a structural model to establish the relationship between egoistic and altruistic values on customers’ attitudes and their intention to purchase products with eco-friendly packaging. With the help of a structured questionnaire, data from 227 young Indian customers was collected. An empirical investigation was carried out and the conceptual model was tested using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The analysis indicates that these values do influence purchase intention for products with ecofriendly packaging. However, altruistic value exerts greater influence than egoistic value. This research provides relevant findings about young consumers and their response to products with ecological packaging. These findings will assist marketers in reducing the environmental footprint caused by packaging materials, helping them to retain customers as a result. From the Asian perspective, the present research is among the early efforts towards understanding the significance of values (altruistic and egoistic) pertaining to products with ecological packaging.

Introduction

Grocery packaging material accounts for one-third of the total pollution from household consumption (Koenig-Lewis et al., 2014); it is also a significant source of solid waste (Radwan et al., 2012). Today, consumers are inclined to contribute towards environmental protection by adopting sustainable consumption (Moser, 2015; Luthra et al., 2016). The packaging industry carries crucial significance to safeguard the environment and achieve sustainable development (Martinho et al., 2015). Eco-friendly packaging is a recent innovation to accomplish a balance of ecological development and economic growth (Martinho et al., 2015). That is why organisations are taking various initiatives to minimize their packaging waste (Mintel, 2018). For instance, Walmart aims to become ‘packaging neutral’ by 2025 by introducing initiatives to reduce, reuse and recycle (Walmart Inc, 2018). Coffee brands such as Starbucks and Costa are offering discounts to customers for using reusable cups and many pub and bar groups have stopped using plastic straws (The caterer, 2018). Many organisations are now also taking initiatives to educate consumers about green brands (Han and Yoon, 2015). However, Gustavo et al. (2018) indicate that organisations remain most concerned about economic gains while ensuring environmental benefits due to packaging redesigning. According to this research, organisations remain uncertain about consumer response towards packaging redesigning. Hence, the goal of sustainable packaging depends upon acceptability of such initiatives by consumers to quite a large extent (Adeyeye et al., 2017; Petersen and Brockhaus, 2017). Consequently, an understanding of consumer intention to purchase products with eco-friendly packaging becomes important.