Collectivism or individualism: the challenge to predict green hotel selection in a developing country

The impact of individualism or egoism on consumers’ pro-environmental behaviour always yields conflicting outcomes in Eastern and Western societies. Meanwhile, prior research largely relied on a single attitudinal dimension to explain how consumers preferred green hotels. This study incorporates two types of attitudes, ecocentric and anthropocentric, to examine whether collectivism or individualism is more appropriate for understanding why consumers in Eastern societies choose green hotels. 296 usable questionnaires were collected in three cities using an online survey with purposive sampling and processed using structural equation modelling. Results revealed that collectivism positively influenced anthropocentric attitude, intention, and willingness to pay more. Individualism negatively influenced ecocentric and anthropocentric attitudes but positively influenced intention and willingness to pay more. Ecocentric and anthropocentric attitudes positively influenced intention and willingness to pay more. Furthermore, ecocentric attitude positively influenced anthropocentric attitude towards green hotel selection. Theoretical and practical implications as well as limitations were discussed accordingly.