Consumer Behavior Towards Green Products n the UAE (Dissertation Sample)

Consumer Behavior towards Green Products in UAE
Name
Institution
Consumer behavior towards green products in the UAE
Introduction
Green products are generally referred to as environmental friendly products. Green is the term that is used to indicate deep apprehension with the physical environments namely land, air, and water. It is paramount to note that, green products are normally water and energy efficient, non-toxic, and are harmless to the entire environment. Green products are also biodegradable and recyclable. Products that are certified as green only have to satisfy the noble norms of the GEPP (government environmentally preferable products) program, the Energy Star as well as Fair Trade. In addition, green products are natural, fresh, and organic ingredients and they include chairs, tables, and wooden plastics. Plastics are not considered as green products (Al Iannuzi, 2011). This study will expound and extensively comprehend on the consumer behavior towards green products in the UAE (United Arab Emirates). The research question will be; does social class compared to income has a greater influence over the consumption and purchase of green products and consumer behavior in UAE.
Abstract
There has been tremendous increase in awareness on different environmental issues, which has resulted in the manner that customers go about their livelihoods. It is evident that various drastic changes in the customers attitudes have taken place and especially towards attaining a green lifestyle. Research has shown that people are nowadays actively trying to decrease their environmental impact. Businesses and organizations have evidently witnessed these changes in consumer attitudes as the embrace the green products, which have numerous advantages of maintaining a healthy lifestyle as well as conserving the environment (Hoffman & Bateson, 2010).
2.1 Introduction
The UAE (United Arab Emirates) is widely rooted as a Middle-Eastern custom although due to the humongous dynamic changes around the world, the country is quickly becoming more cosmopolitan since it is attracting various people around the world. There is also evident that UAE is adopting a consumer-oriented lifestyle that is being buoyed through the numerous oil revenues, a multinational workforce that is growing at a fast rate as well as massive infrastructure development. Previously, UAE was known to be a conservative country where any foreign culture presence was viewed with a lot of suspicion. However, this is slowing changing and the people of UAE are embracing these foreign cultures through appreciating them. This new culture is also creating valuable and viable export opportunities for many countries that deal with the agri-food and agriculture industry (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 2010).
The UAE is a seven emirates, or states federation that borders the Arabian Gulf. The country is also surround by Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. Together, Ajman, Ra’s al-Khaimah, Fujairah, Umm al-Qaiwain, Sharjah, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi occupy nearly 83,000 square kilometers. The country has a coastline that measures 700 kilometers along the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf. UAE is a paramount distribution hub for some European countries, India, Eastern Africa, and the Middle Esat because of its unique location (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 2010).
UAE is the second economic powerhouse in the region and it was initially dependent on fishing, pearling, nomadic animal husbandry, and subsistence farming. The oil discovery in the 1960s drastically changed the future of UAE due to the revenue that was provided from selling oil and it escalated the fortunes of the federation’s economy to what it is presently. UAE is the second economic powerhouse in the region after Saudi Arabia (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 2010).
UAE experiences harsh climatic conditions, which have affected its efforts of ensuring stable food self-sufficiency since only nearly 16% of the country’s food requirements are locally produced. Some of the products that are locally produced include vegetables, some fruits, seafood, poultry and eggs, and dairy. There are nearly 160 processing facilities in this country and they produce dairy products, confectionery, pasta, snack foods, juices, soft drinks, and vegetable oils. This situation presents viable opportunities through imports in meeting the country’s deficit in food and beverage products requirements. The food service sector in particular, is an area that is growing very fast due to the tourism industry expansion and the noble foreign workforce influence as stated by Reiser (2011).
2.2 Factors affecting consumer behaviors towards green products
UAE largely depends on international trade in order to foster its continuing expansion. It is evident that there is growth in food imports in the country due to the economy demands. The people of UAE are nowadays embracing green products due to the awareness creation of the numerous benefits of the products. The huge foreign workforce influence in UAE has also led to the people of UAE to change some of their preferences and this provides great import opportunities to various investors. The media has also played an integral role in educating the people of UAE on the merits of consuming green products (Neiva de Figueiredo & Guillen, 2011). Advertising has also led to this dramatic consumption of the green products to the people of UAE and they are experiencing what they had been missing before. The tourism industry is another sector that has also led to this emergence of consumption of green products by the people of UAE since they offer menus on the same which is encouraging. These noble factors have been able to influence greatly the consumer behavior of the people of UAE towards consumption of green products (Al Iannuzi, 2011).
UAE has been able to import various green products such as green tea, non-alcoholic beverages, vegetable and fruit juice, wheat flour, and sweet biscuits. In regards to agri-food imports, UAE has also been able to import ice cream, shelled lentils, peas, non-durum wheat, and canola seeds. Seafood has also been significantly imported by UAE and they include live mussles, ambergris, frozen sablefish, and frozen and live lobster. There are other promising areas such as pork products, wild blueberries, beef, and maple syrup (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 2010).
2.3 Price consciousness and purchasing decision towards green products
The UAE (United Arab Emirates) has lately become a paramount natural gas and oil producer and it ranks seventh worldwide for both proven natural gas and proven natural oil reserves. These resources revenues has allowed for significant economic and social development in various areas such as welfare, health, housing, transportation, education, business, and finance. These finances have also empowered significantly the people of UAE and they have the purchasing power for green products. The people of UAE are also adventurous and they want to taste new trends such as green products since they have the knowledge that green products are good for consumption. This has also led to a positive consumer behavior towards green products to the people of UAE (Jansson-Boyd, 2010).
UAE has also been able to establish a series of ‘free zones’ in various centers across the country. These ‘free zones’ have economic incentives that include import/export duties exemption, and corporate taxes exemptions which attract many investors in the country. Such incentives also encourage commercial development and investment in specific sectors and this has led to the country gaining reputation as being a tourist, financial, and trading hub in the region. On the other hand, Abu Dhabi is gradually expanding beyond its noble petrochemical center and it is becoming a hub for defence, aerospace, information technology and green and environmental energy industries. Abu Dhabi and Dubai have also gained media headlines as being the regions hub for the banking, tourism, and petroleum sectors as well as the construction of mega-projects. The UAE is slowly adapting the western culture of working hours, which consists of working between 9 am to 5 pm whereas it follows the Muslim tradition of not working on Friday since it is a resting day. This preference of the western culture is also influencing the people of UAE’s consumer behavior towards green products because they are gradually changing their preference (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 2010).
 2.4. The effects of product attributes on consumer behavior
Political Structure
UAE has for a long period being regarded as the major economic hub in the region and it started to prosper in the 1960s after the end of the agreements that it had with United Kingdom. In addition, the same period saw UAE export its first oil in the 1960s, which evidently fostered its development. By 1971, the new UAE was created with the process of establishing an administrative and political structure that combined both contemporary and traditional values. UAE has a federal system of governance constitutionally that includes the Federal Judiciary, Federal National Council, Council of Ministers, and Supreme Council. The top most federal authority is vested in the Supreme Council and it possess both executive and legislative powers. The Supreme Council consists of each emirate’s rulers where it elects the cabinet of ministers, Vice President, and the President (Reiser, 2011).
It is paramount to note that, the political structure has also influenced consumer behavior of the people of UAE towards green products since initially it had ensured that the people of this country maintained a conservative culture. The political structure has established strict legislation that ensured that the people of UAE did not embrace w...