Willingness to pay for green buildings among urban residents in emerging first-tier cities in China: A multigroup analysis

With the persistent growing trend of building energy consumption in China, the nation has made the decision that has more conducive to carbon emissions reduction and its sustainable developing by launching the measures of developing green buildings. Nevertheless, little is known about the determinants of consumer willingness to pay for green building in the New Tier 1 (NT1) cities of China, as current literature lacks studies targeting this market. The paper attempts to bridge this gap by investigating how the psychological factors that underpin consumers’ willingness to pay for green buildings can be understood in three NT1 cities—Chengdu, Wuhan, and Xi'an—via the extended Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) model. Recognizing these psychological drivers of change is critical to facilitating green building adoption and meeting China’s sustainability commitments. Partial Least Squares—Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) and Multi-Group Analysis (MGA) were applied for model testing. The findings show that for the three cities, the determinants affecting consumers' preferences regarding their willingness to pay for green buildings differ greatly. In Wuhan, consumers are more strongly influenced by their attitudes, while environmental awareness has a weaker impact. Chengdu consumers are more affected by social norms, with moral norms playing a lesser role. Meanwhile, in Xi'an, environmental concern has a weaker impact on attitudes compared to Chengdu and Wuhan. Consequently, to effectively promote green buildings, governments, property developers, and stakeholders should develop tailored approaches specific to each city's unique characteristics.

随着中国建筑能耗持续攀升，国家推出发展绿色建筑（green building）的相关举措，此举更有利于减少碳排放、推动可持续发展。然而，针对中国新一线城市（New Tier 1, NT1）市场的相关研究仍较为匮乏，学界对消费者为绿色建筑支付意愿的影响因素仍知之甚少。本研究借助拓展的计划行为理论（Theory of Planned Behavior, TPB）模型，针对成都、武汉、西安三座新一线城市展开调研，旨在厘清支撑消费者绿色建筑支付意愿的心理动因，以此填补相关研究空白。厘清此类心理驱动因素，对于推动绿色建筑普及、落实中国可持续发展承诺至关重要。本研究采用偏最小二乘结构方程模型（Partial Least Squares—Structural Equation Modeling, PLS-SEM）与多群组分析（Multi-Group Analysis, MGA）开展模型检验。研究结果显示，三座城市的消费者绿色建筑支付意愿偏好影响因素存在显著差异：武汉消费者的支付意愿受自身态度的影响更为显著，而环境认知的影响相对较弱；成都消费者更易受社会规范的影响，道德规范的作用相对有限；与此同时，相较于成都与武汉，西安消费者的环境关切对其态度的影响程度更低。因此，为有效推广绿色建筑，政府、房地产开发商及各利益相关方应针对各城市的独特特征制定差异化策略。