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.