Turizam Volume 24, Issue 1-3
THE EFFECT OF GREEN PRACTICES ON EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENT AND GREEN LOYALTY OF COFFEE SHOP CONSUMERS (TURKEY)
Authors: Aydan Bekar, Şükran Durmaz, Nisan Yozukmaz
Abstract: As individuals have recently become more sensitive towards environmental issues, green marketing
has emerged as an important strategic tool in order to gain competitive advantage for
hospitality and food and beverage enterprises. This study is aimed at determining the effect
of green marketing practices on coffee shop customers’ loyalty and emotional attachment. For
this aim, the customers of 3 Starbucks (coffee shop) operating in Mugla province (Turkey) and
having Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Certificate (n=404) were
included in the scope of this study. The hypotheses determined for this aim were tested via path
analysis with latent variables which was one of the structural equation modellings. According
to test results, it was concluded that green practices had a positive significant effect on attachment
to green businesses; customer attachment to green businesses had a positive significant
effect on green loyalty to both green businesses and green products and also loyalty towards
green businesses had a negative impact on loyalty towards green products. These results show
that it is important for food and beverage businesses to adopt green practices both for raising
awareness towards environmental protection and also for creating customer loyalty and emotional
attachment. In this way, environmentally friendly practices provide competitive advantage
as well as an increase in the number of environmentally friendly customers for businesses.
Keywords: Green practices, LEED, emotional attachment to green business, green loyalty
Article info: 33-45
Received: October 2019 | Accepted: January 2020