Literature Review 1 Green Brand Positioning
119 Krystallis, 2005, while both personal internal and external values affect behavior Coogan et al.,
2007. Studies have shown that personal values affect willingness to engage in environmental
conservation Winter et al., 2007. Consumers have a high regard for restaurants that show active concern for the environment and believe that restaurants, which implement green practices, are
beneficial to their health and the environment Schubert et al., 2010. Therefore, including personal values in the decision-making model can more accurately predict environmental
attitudes and behaviors of consumers Bodur Sarogöllü, 2005. 2.3 Means-End Chain
The Means-End Chain MEC is a final state model that shows how individuals use a choice of product or service to achieve a desired goal. MEC provides a theoretical basis for a potential
relationship between the consumer decision-making process and cognitive structure. MEC involves analyzing personal values, which reveal the multiple levels of the cognitive choice
structure of decision makers Pitts et al., 1991. “Method” refers to the subjective perception of product attributes held by decision makers, while
“objective” refers to the values held by individuals. The main purpose of this theory is to understand consumer decision making and connect the two nodes of methods and objectives to
explain consumer behavior Olson Reynolds, 1983. Consumers believe that a choice of specific attributes can help individuals realize desired values. That is, in the minds of consumers,
there is a three-way relationship between “attributes,” “consequences,” and “values” Tillmann, 2007.
MEC has had good results in marketing strategies such as product formulation and advertising Reynolds Whitlark, 1995. As consumers in recent years have increasingly focused on leisure
and entertainment consumption decisions, some scholars have begun to use MEC in the field of leisure consumption in order to research consumer decision-making behavior López-Mosquera
Sánchez, 2011.
3. Research Methods 3.1 Data Collection
As this is an exploratory study, we use soft laddering as the primary method for data connection and analysis Hofstede et al., 1998. The interview process is divided into two steps.
Step 1: Elicit which attributes consumers of restaurants consider green. The question items are as follows: “Why do you like to eat in this restaurant? What are the ideal qualities you hope to find
in a green restaurant?” Step 2: Carry out in-depth interviews, exploring the relationship between restaurant attributes,
consequences attained following consumption, and personal values. First, we assess whether the answers provided in the first step refer to restaurant attributes.
Using these attributes as a starting point, we carry out one-on-one in-depth interviews, asking the following questions: “Why do you think that these characteristics are important to you? What
benefits can these characteristics bring you? From these benefits, what values can you realize in your own life?” The LOV Scale can be used for prompts Kalhe, 1985. Interviewers
120 systematically guide respondents from restaurant attributes to consequences, and then from
consequences to personal values until the respondents are unable to continuing answering questions.