Framing Australian consumers' green energy buying behaviour: A review and theoretical foundation for research

Consumption of green energy is an important step toward meeting societal demand for reducing the carbon emissions that can help mitigate climate change. Despite the growing ecological awareness and articulated preferences for green adoption, consumption of green energy into a special category face slow rates of diffusion in the consumer market compared to any other green products. Given the need to encourage more green energy choices by consumers, research is needed to understand the psychological factors affecting consumers’ green energy choice behaviour. The study attempted to elucidate the key psychological factors affecting consumers’ green energy buying behaviour (GEB) where the theory of planned behaviour served as a framework for identifying the major determinants of green energy buying behaviour and for determining their relative importance. The study sheds light on the conceptual dimensions of green energy consumerism can be viewed as a starting point incorporates a set of research propositions to be tested in the future research in the context of a developed nation Australia; adopting the theoretical framework of the TPB. This study provided value for GEBs that prompting people to exhibit green behaviour pertaining and commitment to GEBs as well as ensuring environmentally sustainable development of GEBs. The implications for theory, practice and scope for the future research discussed at the end.