Is green product purchasing an innovative or conspicuous behavior?

We investigated the influence of consumer innovativeness and public self-consciousness on green product purchasing behaviors (e.g., decision to purchase and pay a premium price). We conducted 2 experiments on 2 green products (mineral water and a car) with undergraduate students (N = 303) in Korea. The results revealed that consumer innovativeness played a generally marginal role in green product purchasing decisions, whereas public self-consciousness figured importantly in such decisions. However, public self-consciousness had no influence when products did not have logos identifying them as being green. In addition, the influence of the 2 variables on the purchasing behaviors was found to be contingent on the type of product. On the basis of these findings, we concluded that green product purchasing behaviors more closely reflect conspicuousness, rather than innovativeness.