Application of the extended VBN theory to understand consumers’ decisions about green hotels

An increasing number of hotels are altering their operations proactively to include more environmentally friendly practices. Despite the greater interest in consumers’ green behaviors, the theoretical application of the value-belief-norm (VBN) theory has been used only rarely to investigate consumers’ intentions to visit a green hotel. The purpose of this study was to expand existing knowledge of hotel consumers’ green behaviors by developing and testing an extended VBN theory used in the hospitality literature. More specifically, this study incorporated subjective norms and green trust into the original VBN model as a theoretical framework to understand comprehensively consumers’ decision-making processes with respect to their intentions to visit a green hotel. A web-based survey was used to collect data from a convenience sample of faculty members working at an institution of higher education in the Midwestern United States who have been lodging consumers. Structural equation modeling was applied to test the hypotheses. The results showed that all but subjective norms were successful in explaining consumers’ decision-making processes regarding their intentions to visit a green hotel. The results can assist hotel managers in the adoption and implementation of hotel operations based on the needs of environmentally conscious consumers.