Do Snow-Based Sport Participants Intend to Purchase Products from Environmentally Friendly Companies?

To extend the literature on consumer pro-environmentalism, this study explores the relationships between individuals’ participation in outdoor, snow-based sport; their pro-environmental behavioral intentions (PBIs); and their intentions to purchase from environmentally friendly companies (PI-EFCs). Participants were recruited from an international ski resort in Japan (N = 286). The results indicate that snow-based sport involvement influences PI-EFCs through PBIs when associated actions were perceived to be directly relevant to the outdoor sports environment (i.e. PBI to reduce CO₂ emission). Conversely, the relationship was not mediated by PBIs when environmental issues were less relevant to a snow-based sport environment (i.e. air pollution, water pollution). The findings imply that pro-environmental marketing efforts can be an effective approach to increase PI-EFCs when corporations focus on sport-specific environmental issues germane to snow-based sport participants such as global warming.