An Investigation of Passengers' Psychological Benefits from Green Brands in an Environmentally Friendly Airline Context: The Moderating Role of Gender

In recent years, as natural environmental problems have become more serious, environmentally friendly airlines have been attracting attention from many practitioners and scholars. The purpose of this study was to apply the concept of psychological benefits of green brands in an environmentally friendly airline context. Based on the theoretical relationships between the conceptual constructs, a model was developed and then evaluated using data collected from 322 airline passengers in Korea. The results indicated that the three sub-dimensions of psychological benefits of green brands (i.e. warm glow, self-expressive benefits and nature experiences) help to enhance the overall image of an environmentally friendly airline. Furthermore, the overall image plays an important role in the formation of three outcome variables: intentions to use, word-of-mouth intentions and willingness to pay more. Lastly, gender moderates the relationship between overall image and intentions to use.