ANNOUNCEMENTS
The Indian cosmetics industry has been valued at 25.9 billion dollars as of 2020 and is expected to grow at an average rate of 8.1% by 2023 (Ali 2021). This fast -growing industry has put a significant amount of pressure on the environment by contributing to the ever-increasing non-recyclable plastic waste, microplastic waste, air pollution and water pollution. In light of this, it has become crucial to become sustainable in both production and consumption of cosmetics. While sustainable consumption practices in the cosmetics industry have been sufficiently explored in the developing nations, there remains a literature gap in context of the same in developing countries. In an effort to lessen this gap, this study aims to explore the drivers of green purchase behavior (GPB) in the cosmetics market of Delhi. Particularly, this study focuses on women in Delhi age 20-44 years, in an effort to ascertain the significant drivers of GPB, and to estimate the average WTP extra for green cosmetics in this specific case. The study, using the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) by Ajzen (1985) as a theoretical framework, employs a primary survey approach to collect data from 20-44 years old women in Delhi. Using a logit regression model, the significant drivers of GPB are determined. It has been found that average income of the household, awareness, attitude, social pressure from family and friends, perceived self-efficacy, environment consciousness, health consciousness and price are significant drivers of GPB in this case. Subsequently, we estimate the mean WTP for green cosmetics, which comes out to Rs. 21.21. indicating that, on an average, women in Delhi (aged 20-44) are WTP Rs. 21.21 extra for green as opposed to non-green cosmetics.
