Exploring the perception, knowledge, and behavioral tendency to use eco-friendly products of Generation Z in Tangerang Selatan

The awareness of the use/consumption of eco-friendly products needs to be increased. The study is interested in focusing on how far Generation Z knows, perceives, and intends to use eco-friendly products as they are identified as people who are highly concerned about the environment. The purposes of the study are twofold. Firstly, the study aims to analyze to what extent the perception and knowledge of Generation Z towards eco-friendly products. Secondly, it is to examine the behavioral tendency of Generation Z to use/consume eco-friendly products using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). The study adopts a mixed-method approach. The qualitative study was conducted by distributing an open-ended questionnaire to 41 participants. Concurrently, a quantitative study was conducted by distributing a questionnaire in a survey to 163 university students (Generation Z) in Tangerang Selatan. The qualitative result shows that the participants are well-known in the campaign to reduce plastic waste. They identified that eco-friendly products are plastic-free, have natural colors, and do not contain chemicals. The quantitative study shows positive results on the influence of attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control on behavior intention to use eco-friendly products. Additionally, there are positive correlations among the variables in the TPB model.


Introduction
Awareness of the importance of using or consuming eco-friendly products must be raised [1].The knowledge of the target audience and variables motivating them to use or consume eco-friendly products are found to have essential implications [2].Eco-friendly consumption behavior refers to consumer behavior that strives to protect the environment and minimize the negative impact of consumption [3].Among those consumptions, for example, is purchasing energy-saving products, organic products, biodegradable or pollution-free products, and more [4].
Generation Z, born between 1997 -2012, is a highly eco-conscious generation [5].They also value money more than generations before them.The generation has become very conscientious in their consumption [6].It becomes necessary to understand Generation Z because of the following reasons: More companies are producing more green products; customer demand has also increased for ecofriendly products; and government agencies are encouraging green products through regulations and incentives [7], [8], [9].Understanding their perception, attitude, and behavioral tendency in using or consuming eco-friendly products will give insightful feedback to the companies to build a loyal customer base for their business activities.1324 (2024) 012087 IOP Publishing doi:10.1088/1755-1315/1324/1/012087 2 Much research has been conducted to understand the nature of green consumers in different contexts [10], [11], [12], [13].The study aims to fill the gap in understanding Generation Z's point of view on eco-friendly products.A qualitative study aims to understand how far they have known the characteristics of eco-friendly products and what motivates them to use or consume the products.The study also aims to understand their behavioral tendency to use eco-friendly products.A quantitative study will examine the behavior intention of Generation Z in using eco-friendly products according to the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB model).The study is designed using a mixed-method approach to fulfill the research objectives.The method is also an effort to fill the gap in researching this issue by combining the qualitative and quantitative data to enrich the results and achieve the objectives of the study.The following are the research questions of the study: RQ1: To what extent is the perception and knowledge of Generation Z towards using eco-friendly products?
RQ2: To what extent does the behavioral intention of Generation Z in using eco-friendly products using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB Model)?

Literature review
According to the Cambridge dictionary, an eco-product is "a product that is designed to protect the environment" [14].Eco-friendly products have a lesser environmental impact throughout their life cycle.For instance, regarding the raw materials, design, transportation to consumer/end-user, the length of use, and the recycling capabilities [2].The European Consumer Centre France (2022) states some criteria for defining eco-friendly products are: (1) The products are made from natural materials and ingredients; they are not manufactured using plastics, synthetic materials, chemicals, or dangerous substances; (2) The products contain less CO2 emissions and less water and energy to produce; (3) The products are durable which shows the products' length of time used before they reach the end of their life cycle.They can also be re-used, mended, and recycled; (4) The products are locally produced.To reduce the climate footprint, buying products or appliances from local places is best to reduce the transportation that causes gas emissions; (5) It is ethical and fair-trade products.They are produced in a significantly shorter time and within a more transparent supply and trade chain.It also considers ethical working conditions in which the products were designed and distributed [15].

Knowledge and perception of Generation Z on eco-friendly products
Generation Z is the youngest generation of the consumer range.The importance of studying this generation is that they are the ones who will be more impacted by severe ecological damage.Thus, Generation Z favors a more sustainable world [16].
Understanding the perception and knowledge of Generation Z and their behavioral intention to use/consume eco-friendly products is necessary to better promote these products, especially for companies and decision-makers (e.g., government).Consumers are more concerned about sustainability issues which has resulted in increasing green or eco-friendly products [7], [17].Consequently, spending on these products is also growing [18].Thus, to meet the customers' need for eco-friendly products and their value, companies need to understand how far Generation Z perceives and intends to use/consume the products.

Analyzing behavioral intention on eco-friendly products using the Theory of Planned Behavior
The theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) has been employed numerous times in studying green behavior [19], [20], [21], [22].The theory argues that behaviors result from individual intention and perceived behavioral control (PBC), as shown in Figure 1 [23].Intentions are the indicators of how people attempt to do specific behaviors.The intention in TPB is determined by attitude, subjective norm, and PBC.Ajzen (1991) defines attitude as an individual's favorable or unfavorable evaluation of their actions.Meanwhile, the subjective norm is the perceived social pressure of the behavior.PBC is a personal judgment of whether executing behavior in a specific context is possible [24].
Figure 1 depicts a part of the TPB model that serves as the framework of the study.It analyzes the impact of attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control on behavioral intention.In this context, intention refers to the behavioral tendency of people from Generation Z to use or re-use ecofriendly products.
Based on the framework in Figure 1, the following are the hypotheses in this study: H1 = Attitude has a significant and positive effect on behavioral intention to use eco-friendly products H2 = Subjective norm has a significant and positive effect on behavioral intention to use eco-friendly products H3 = Perceived behavioral control (PBC) has a significant and positive effect on behavioral intention to use eco-friendly products H4 = Attitude has a positive correlation with the Subjective norm to use eco-friendly products H5 = Subjective norm has a positive correlation with PBC to use of eco-friendly products H6 = Attitude has a positive correlation with PBC to use of eco-friendly products

Methodology
The study adopts a mixed methods approach.Two separate studies have been conducted, which are qualitative and quantitative.Both studies have been conducted concurrently using convergent design [25] to obtain a complete understanding of the two databases.
The qualitative study was conducted by delivering an open-ended questionnaire to the participants.Participants are those who are from Generation Z (aged between 18 -21 years).There are 41 participants filled in the questionnaire.They are 56% male and 44% female.They were asked four questions regarding eco-friendly products.As the first question, it asked the participants to mention any eco-friendly product that they know.The second question asked them to name any characteristics that identify eco-friendly products.The third question asked the participants how eco-friendly products can be better recognized (to attract more attention).Lastly, as the fourth question, the researcher asked the participants what can motivate people to use or buy eco-friendly products.
The data was analyzed using content analysis.NVivo version 12 was used to support the data analysis.It aims to generate insights from the participants regarding their knowledge and perception of eco-friendly products.It is also to generate data-rich suggestions on how to motivate the products to this target audience.
In parallel, a quantitative study was conducted by distributing an online questionnaire.A survey was conducted to collect the data and test the hypotheses.By employing purposive sampling, the study reached 163 respondents (45% female and 55% male) who are college students (which include Generation Z) in Tangerang Selatan.The data was analyzed with SmartPLS-4 by running SEMPLS.The objective was to examine whether attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control (PBC) influence Generation Z's behavioral intention to consume eco-friendly products.Additionally, it is to examine the relationship between each variable in the TPB model.

Findings
The analysis of the two datasets was conducted separately.Both results are used in parallel.They complement each other to enrich the overall findings and interpretation.

The knowledge of eco-friendly products
Table 1 shows the first top three products that the participants noticed as examples of eco-friendly products: straws (sedotan) (5.35%).They are aware that plastic (4.81%) has been gradually replaced by alternative materials related to papers (3.21%) as the replacement.Shopping (belanja) (1.6%) is noticed as one of the activities related to eco-friendly products.In this activity, participants are aware of no more plastic bags/totes used and 'bring your shopping bag'.This answer is related to the response of 'menggantikan' (1.6%) or 'replacing'.Regarding the word 'replacing', besides shopping bags, participants also noticed other products, such as beras (rice) for 1.6%, stainless materials (1.6%), singkong (cassava) for 1.07%, and papers (3.21%) at the highest response.The participants also identified that eco-friendly products are organic (1.07%) and can be recycled (1.07%).

Characteristics of eco-friendly products
Table 2 shows the results of participants' answers to question number two on the characteristics of ecofriendly products.The participants knew eco-friendly products could be noticed from the raw materials (bahan & berbahan) (4.53% and 1.22%) used in the production.The products can be used repeatedly or recycled (2.09%).Plastic (plastik) has been mentioned repeatedly (3.49%) to show that they are aware that there is a movement to reduce the use of plastic.In this context, plastic is used in straws (sedotan) (1.57%), shopping bags (0.70%), and packaging (0.87%).Paper (kertas) (1.74%) is one of the replacement materials for plastic that was mentioned by the participants as characteristic of eco products, as well as stainless steel (0.35%).

Suggested efforts to make eco-friendly products better recognized
Figure 2 shows the important clues in participants' answers to question number three on making ecofriendly products better recognized.The participants reported that materials (1.63%) are essential for eco-friendly products.Affordable price (2.03%), attractive design (2.64%), environmentally friendly materials (1.02%), excellent packaging (0.81%), and impact (0.41%) are among the factors that need to be taken into account in this context.Focusing on the community (1.42%) or consumers (1.02%) is also crucial.Providing educative programs (0.61%) and conducting campaigns to raise awareness (1.82%) can also be initiated.

Figure 2.
The results in word-cloud on efforts suggested to make eco-friendly products better recognized (in Bahasa Indonesia)

Motivation to buy eco-friendly products
According to the participants, the motivation of people who buy or consume eco-friendly products is the following (refer to Figure 3).Firstly, people buy or consume eco-friendly products because they care about the environment and are aware of the environmental damage that has occurred (8.39%).They want to help reduce (4.77%) pollution, waste, and damage to the Earth.They want to protect the environment as well.People also buy eco-friendly products because of their quality (0.91%), durability, and can be used many times (1.13%); thus, they support the go-green programs (0.68%).People buy eco-friendly products because they have been influenced by the current situation (1.13%).For example, to avoid any extra charge for shopping bags, people bought durable bags to be used repeatedly in their shopping activities.3 shows the results of the outer loadings to analyze the validity.One of the items in Subjective Norms (SN) was eliminated as it was invalid.Thus, SN only has two items.Meanwhile, other variables (Attitude, PBC, and Behavioral intention) consist of three items.All have sufficient validity coefficients as the results of outer loadings > 0.70 [26].4 shows the discriminant validity through the cross-loadings of each variable in the study.The coefficient of cross-loadings higher than 0.70 to their variable than others can be considered valid [26].

Inner model
Table 6 shows the R-square coefficient for 0.52.From this result, it can be concluded that attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control (PBC) affect the behavioral intention of 52% of Generation Z to use eco-friendly products.Other factors outside the scope of the study explain the remaining 48%.

Hypotheses testing
Referring to Table 7 on Path coefficients, it can be concluded that H1, H2, and H3 are accepted, as all p-values < 0.05.It means that people's attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control (PBC) significantly and positively influence the behavioral intention of Generation Z to use eco-friendly products.
For the testing of H4, H5, and H6, the results can be seen in Table 8 on the correlation tests.All of the hypotheses are accepted.Table 8 shows that attitude positively correlates with the subjective norm, even though it is at a moderate level (0.445).The subjective norm has a positive correlation with PBC for 0.561 (moderate correlation).Lastly, the attitude positively correlates with PBC of 0.618, which is a fairly strong correlation.

Discussion and recommendation
The study addresses a research gap by exploring Generation Z's perception and knowledge regarding the use/consumption of eco-friendly products.The qualitative study shows that the participants have mentioned plastic many times in many situations.It shows that education programs, promotions, and other regulations regarding plastic, including the damaging impacts of plastic waste, have been nicely positioned in the participants' minds.Implementing the program to reduce plastic can be considered quite a success.For example, the participants are mostly aware of the stop-using of plastic bags in supermarkets/shopping places, replacement or stopping plastic straw usage, etcetera.The regulation has been gradually normalized in the community.Generation Z has been aware and well known regarding those issues in the community [3].
As the replacement of plastics, the participants can identify alternative materials, such as paper and stainless steel, including Cassava, as alternative materials.According to the participants, those materials are more environmentally friendly.It can be used repeatedly or can be recycled.They also identified that eco-friendly products usually have natural colors (such as green, brown, or brown-ish).Eco-friendly products should not contain any chemicals as well.
The participants mentioned that eco-friendly products should be attractive in price.The products should have been offered at affordable prices [28].It is something that has challenged the marketing of eco-friendly products so far.Attractive design, excellent packaging, and impact are also something that would be considered by the users.The result supports previous research by Nguyen et al. (2019) [29].
Regarding the marketing strategy, eco-friendly products can be promoted by participating in or contributing to environmental protection.Durability and product quality are also something that people will consider [28].Continuous programs and strategies to educate and influence people's behavior by adopting behavior change theories or information and communication technologies may be applied to nudge the desired behavior [3].
The quantitative study found that Attitude, Subjective norm, and Perceived behavioral control (PBC) significantly and positively affect people's behavioral intention to use eco-friendly products.The results support previous research [13], [30].People's positive attitude towards eco-friendly products shows their expected consequences from using/consuming those products.Thus, it will drive their effort to try and conduct particular behavior, which in this case is using eco-friendly products [24].How people perceive social pressure also influences their efforts to use eco-friendly products.Lastly, when people IOP Publishing doi:10.1088/1755-1315/1324/1/0120879 believe that they have the resources to buy and use eco-friendly products and can overcome the barriers, it will lead them to perform it.
The association between Attitude and Subjective norm shows a fair correlation.It shows that there is still a gap between these two variables.A positive attitude towards eco-friendly products relates moderately to the perceived social pressure of the behavior in using eco-friendly products.Similarly, Subjective norms also show a moderate correlation with PBC.It means that the perceived social pressure relates moderately with PBC in using eco-friendly products.Meanwhile, Attitude also shows a fairly strong correlation with PBC than other association models.It shows that the more positive people's attitudes towards using eco-friendly products, the more they perceive they can overcome the barriers when performing the behavior.
The results of the study contribute to the knowledge in providing insights on the perception and knowledge, as well as the attitude and behavioral intention of Generation Z in using eco-friendly products.As the implication for practice, the managers can improve their marketing strategies.By knowing this insightful information, they can improve the implementation of marketing activities to produce and communicate eco-friendly products.All the knowledge that consumers have already had about eco-friendly products should be maintained.The marketer already has a good start and opportunity to market these products to Generation Z.They already have positive attitudes and behavioral control over choosing and using eco-friendly products.
As a suggestion for further research, a study can be conducted using an expanded framework of the Theory of Planned Behavior by adding other variables.For example, variables such as Word-ofmouth and Trust can also be included to enrich the study [31].It also shows the importance of product familiarity, product quality, and activities in marketing campaigns, as mentioned in previous research [28], [32], [33].Those strategies must be implemented to influence Generation Z's adoption of ecofriendly products.
As the conclusions, understanding the participants' knowledge thus far can be a hint of the program's success in reducing waste (such as plastics).The results also communicate suitable value propositions to Generation Z, as it informs their attitude and intention to use/consume eco-friendly products.Thus, companies, NGOs, or governments can continuously campaign various programs with suitable value propositions.
The study has a significant relationship with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG no. 12 -Sustainable consumption and production patterns [34].The results of the study can contribute to achieving several points in this SDG sector.By understanding the knowledge and perception of Generation Z, decision makers can produce and promote more eco-friendly products so that Generation Z can be mindful when choosing and using/consuming the products they need or want (target of SDG point 12.2, 12.3, 12.4, and 12.5).The continuous campaign to promote eco-friendly products is also necessary to ensure more people are aware, people's behavior change can be maintained, and normalization can be shaped (point 12.8).

Figure 3 .
Figure 3. Results on motivation to use eco-friendly products (in Bahasa Indonesia) 4.2.Quantitative study 4.2.1.Outer model An outer model is conducted to test the reliability and validity of all variables in this study.Table3shows the results of the outer loadings to analyze the validity.One of the items in Subjective Norms (SN) was eliminated as it was invalid.Thus, SN only has two items.Meanwhile, other variables (Attitude, PBC, and Behavioral intention) consist of three items.All have sufficient validity coefficients as the results of outer loadings > 0.70[26].

Table 1 .
Ten frequent words on eco-friendly products

Table 2 .
Ten frequent words on characteristics of eco-friendly products

Table 5 .
Reliability test

Table 5
shows all AVE (Average value extracted) are > 0.50.It means that all variables fulfill the convergent validity.The same table also shows the results for reliability.In the Composite Reliability column, all the coefficients show > 0.70.It means that all variables have sufficient reliability in this study[27].