Green Race! A Conjoint Analysis in High Involvement Purchase Decision Process ­­­- In Context of Green Cars in Sweden

Abstract: Environment and its conservation is one of the key issues across the globe these days. It is even more important in the Scandinavian region.Swedenis one of the leading pro-environment nations in the world when it comes to environment-friendly or green automobiles. Introducing emissions tax, green car rebate, and congestion tax exemption for green cars on large cities have resulted in a surge of green car sales inSwedenover the past few years. The preferences of the Swedish green car consumers are examined in this study.   Consumer decision process and preferences related theories have been used for the theoretical understanding of this study and based on these understandings, the Adaptive Choice Based Conjoint Analysis has been selected to measure and understand the consumer preferences towards green cars. The Swedish green car market has been explained and understood as a prerequisite to conduct this study. Examinations of previous related studies, a small scale pre-screening survey, and expert interviews were carried out prior to formulating the conjoint experiment to ensure the inclusion of significant components into the study. The collected data were analyzed using advanced analysis software such as, SSI Web, SMRT, and SPSS, to understand and measure consumer preferences. The findings provide answers to the importance of different attributes in the purchase decision-making for green cars, the effect of each attribute to the decision-making process, the effect of prior purchase experience on the formation of preference, and the relationship between consumer’s green consciousness level and green decision-making process.   This study contributes to the theoretical field of green consumer behavior and to the practical field of marketing of green cars. The study also identifies and recommends key areas of interest that warrant further research.   Key Words: High Involvement Purchase, Green Consumer Behavior, Conjoint Analysis, Adaptive Choice Based Conjoint Analysis (ACBC), Green Preference, Green Car.