Investigating the mediating role of brand attitude in the relationship between green packaging and bulk products on willingness to pay

Introduction
Today, consumers are increasingly environmentally conscious and committed to adopting healthy lifestyles. Since they consider packaging as a source of waste, they prefer to buy more environmentally friendly packaged goods or, if available, purchase unpackaged goods. Consumers often find environmentally friendly packaging to be too expensive. Understanding consumers’ attitudes towards sustainability is essential in order to assess their willingness to pay more for environmentally friendly products. Companies may encourage consumers to exhibit environmentally friendly behaviors by offering recyclable or biodegradable packaging or by eliminating excess packaging. As a result, companies are improving their environmental offerings by selling sustainably packaged products or bulk products. Health concerns are a powerful driver of pro-environmental purchasing behavior. The most effective way to promote environmentally friendly packaging is to set packaging standards and regulations, and enterprises adopt greening for various reasons such as compliance with laws, gaining competitive advantage, shareholder pressure, and top management initiatives. While assuming social responsibilities and facing fierce competition, companies are gradually realizing the importance of creating a green image to highlight their environmental awareness and social responsibility. Dairy product packaging using plastic constitutes the main consumer waste due to its relatively low recycling rate. This has prompted environmental researchers to explore the discussion on how to reduce packaging waste by studying the behavior of dairy consumers. For consumers, packaging and environmental friendliness are two complex environmental issues. This study compares two packaging practices (i.e., sustainable packaging products and bulk products). The aim of this study is to investigate the difference between green and bulk packaging practices in willingness to pay for the product with the mediating role of attitude towards the brand.
Methodology
The present study is of correlational type and according to the purpose of the study, it is of applied type and the data collection was done in the field. The statistical population of this study was the consumers of dairy products in Tehran province, who completed 384 questionnaires using the Cochran formula using the available sampling method. In this context, the general framework of questions of the Green Packaging and Bulk Products Questionnaire by E. Di Canio (2023), Brand Attitude by Crystallis and Christo (2013), and Akbari's research (2014) were used, which were provided to the research participants, and the validity and reliability of these questionnaires had been confirmed in previous research.
Findings
According to the findings, the path coefficients from green packaging and bulk products to willingness to pay for the product indicate that different green packaging methods and bulk products affect the willingness to pay for the product. Also, according to the path coefficients from green packaging and bulk products to brand attitude, it is concluded that different green packaging methods and bulk products affect brand attitude and are significant at the 0.05 error level. From brand attitude to willingness to pay for the product, it is concluded that brand attitude affects willingness to pay for the product. Based on the results of composite reliability, extracted variance, model determination coefficient and goodness of fit index, we concluded that the model presented in the field of path analysis has appropriate empirical-theoretical assumptions and has a very good fit. Therefore, the main hypothesis of the study, namely, green and bulk packaging methods affect willingness to pay through the mediation of brand attitude, is confirmed.
Discussion and Conclusion
According to the results of this study, bulk products had a greater impact on the willingness to pay for the product compared to green packaging. The results of this hypothesis are consistent with the results of the study by Ghanji et al. (2022), Dariy et al. (2021), and Mahmoud et al. (2022). According to the findings of the study, an important point that we have reached is that although the effect of bulk products on the willingness to pay for the product is greater, despite the effect that green packaging has on brand attitude, the overall effects of green packaging on the willingness to pay for the product are greater through the mediation of brand attitude. Green and bulk packaging methods have an effect on the willingness to pay through the mediation of brand attitude. These results are similar to the results of the study by Dariy et al. (2021), Di Canio et al. (2023), Mahmoud et al. (2022), and Vahid et al. (2018). Green packaging had a greater impact on brand attitude compared to bulk products, meaning that people in the community like products that are environmentally friendly due to environmental concerns. In the present study, most dairy consumers were environmentally conscious and had a certain willingness to pay for green products. It was believed that green packaging has a great impact on improving the environmental environment, and its purchase and use can lead to better social recognition. Dairy companies should try to improve the use of recyclable materials in the production process, the level of information about environmental management for consumers. Factors that influenced consumers' willingness to pay for green packaging were; reusability, ease of use, social support, and advertising. It is suggested that the government and non-profit social organizations should make more efforts to promote environmental protection. On the one hand, social media and the Internet, along with social speeches and advertising, should cooperate to publicize knowledge about green packaging and improve consumers' recognition of green packaging. The government should consider more incentives for dairy companies that use green packaging in the production process, so that these companies can use recyclable and biodegradable raw materials in dairy packaging to enable recycling and reuse.