HONG KONG,CHINA - Media OutReach - 22 November 2018 - Why do we care about green productsand services? Are we protecting the environment or our face?

As more people are becoming aware of the importance of environmentalprotection, more people are supporting green products and services. This isalso true in tourism where green hotels are becoming popular among travelers.Travelers who are keen to protect the environment will be willing to findeco-friendly hotels to stay in.

We seldomquestion others or ourselves the motive behind our support for green living. We'dlike to think that we're doing it for the good cause -- protecting theenvironment. However, a recent study conducted by Prof. Lisa Wan, AssistantProfessor of School of Hotel and Tourism Management, and Director of Centre forHospitality and Real Estate Research at The Chinese University (CUHK) BusinessSchool, took a deeper look and found that face concern has something to do withour perception of green hotels.

"Face concern is what we think of our social images in front ofothers. Our study aims to extend the hospitality green consumption to a domainof personal value," says Prof. Wan.

The Study

The study invited 200 members (with 55.7 percent of them being female) ofan online apparel shopping community in mainland China to participate. Theparticipants were asked to complete a questionnaire concerning their opinions,perceived quality and purchase behavior toward green hotel brands.

They were all requested to answer the following three items to measuretheir perceptions on green hotel brands on a 7-point scale (1=very poor; 7=verygood):

• I perceive the quality of a green hotel brand is...
• I perceive the quality of a hotel which involves inenergy saving is...
• I perceive the quality of a hotel which hasenvironmentally sound practices is...

At the same time, they were asked to rate six statements measuring theirface concern:

• I care about praise and criticism from others
• I care about others' attitudes toward me
• I hate being taken lightly
• I will be very angry if other are impolite to me
• I will be very happy if I am treated with respect
• I will be very upset if I am criticised in public

In terms ofpurchase intention, they were asked two questions: "Do you agree that youlike to choose a green hotel over a regular hotel?"; "Do you agreethat you like to recommend a green hotel over a regular hotel to your relativesor friends?", and rated them on a scale (1=strongly disagree; 7=stronglyagree).

The Findings

Aspredicted, the results found a face concern effect on perceived quality andpurchase intention toward a green hotel brand. To be specific, face concern canlead to a higher perceived quality toward a green hotel brand, and exerts apositive influence on consumers' purchase intentions.

"Ourfindings indicate that face concern can moderate a customer's view toward agreen hotel brand in terms of perceived quality and purchase intentions,"says Prof. Wan. "The higher the face concern, the greater the positiveeffect of a green hotel brands."

What's moreinteresting is that a person's perceived social status will affect his or herneeds for face concern, the study reveals.

"Peoplewith higher social status are evaluated by others with a higher socialstandard, so they have a greater need to maintain their faces in differentoccasions," she says.

Implication

As such,Prof. Wan suggests that marketers can leverage the link between face concernand the consumption of green brands in their campaigns.

"Forinstance, hotel managers can put more efforts into promoting their greeninitiatives to travelers with a higher face concern, who usually have a higherlevel of income and social status," she says.

Given thatAsian consumers in general are more concerned about face than westerners, Prof.Wan adds that the promotion of green branding initiatives should be moreprominent in Asian markets.

"Marketersmay strategically highlight the relationship between face enhancement and greenbrands in their messages, for example, with messages such as: 'Proud to be asupporter of green initiatives!'"

Given thatface concern would be more pronounced in public than in private settings, shesuggests that "future research can also explore public versus privateconsumption variable that may moderate the positive impact of face concern onconsumer reactions to green brands."

Reference:

Lisa C.Wan, Patrick Poon (2014), "TouristViews on Green Brands: The Role of Face Concern," Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 46, p173-175.

Thisarticle was first published in the China Business Knowledge (CBK) website byCUHK Business School: https://bit.ly/2lv84u1.

About CUHK Business School

CUHKBusiness School comprises two schools -- Accountancy and Hotel and Tourism Management -- and fourdepartments -- Decision Sciences andManagerial Economics, Finance,Management and Marketing. Established in Hong Kong in 1963, it is the firstbusiness school to offer BBA, MBA and Executive MBA programmes in the region.Today, the School offers 8 undergraduate programmes and 20 graduate programmes including MBA, EMBA,Master, MSc, MPhil and Ph.D.

In the FinancialTimes Global MBA Ranking 2018, CUHK MBA is ranked 43^rd. In FT's 2018 EMBA ranking, CUHK EMBA is ranked 29^th in the world. CUHK Business School has the largest numberof business alumni (35,000+)among universities/business schools in Hong Kong-- many of whom are key business leaders. The School currently has about 4,400undergraduate and postgraduate students and Professor Kalok Chan is the Dean ofCUHK Business School.

More information is available at www.bschool.cuhk.edu.hk or byconnecting with CUHK Business School onFacebook: www.facebook.com/cuhkbschooland LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/school/3923680/.