A Study on the Purchase Intention of Eco-Friendly Vehicles ... · A Study on the Purchase Intention of Eco-Friendly Vehicles by Korean and Japanese Ki-Heung Yim1 and Min-Young Chong2

A Study on the Purchase Intention ofEco-Friendly Vehicles by Korean and

Japanese

Ki-Heung Yim∗1 and Min-Young Chong2

∗1Department of Service Management,Kwang-ju Women’s University,201, Yeodae-gil, Gwangsan-gu,

Gwangju, 62396, Republic of [email protected]

2Department of Food and Nutrition,Kwang-ju Women’s University,201, Yeodae-gil, Gwangsan-gu,

Gwangju, 62396, Republic of [email protected]

Abstract

As a result of this study, Korean and Japanese con-sumers who intend to buy eco-friendly vehicles showed sim-ilar patterns in most items, but some items showed differ-ences. For example, Korean consumers were rejected forthe hypothesis that consumers’ income-specific character-istics would affect eco-car buying behavior, but Japaneseconsumers were adopted. The hypothesis that the safetyof eco-vehicles affects consumers’ purchasing behavior ofeco-vehicles has also been rejected by Korean consumers,but adopted by Japanese consumers. However, consumerfactors showed a certain impact on the purchase of eco-friendly vehicles in both countries. It is noteworthy thatJapanese consumers tend to be more conservative in pur-chasing eco-friendly vehicles than Korean consumers, and

International Journal of Pure and Applied MathematicsVolume 120 No. 6 2018, 5875-5901ISSN: 1314-3395 (on-line version)url: http://www.acadpubl.eu/hub/Special Issue http://www.acadpubl.eu/hub/

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that the value-oriented aspects of consumers are affectingthe purchase of eco-friendly vehicles in both countries. Andthe government policy factors by consumer type showedthat both countries have a positive effect on purchasing eco-friendly automobile in any item, suggesting that the systemdesign of eco-friendly vehicles supply policy is an importantfactor for future dissemination.

Key Words : Next-generation eco-friendly vehicles,Consumer Characteristics, Consumer Type, Consumer Pur-chasing Behavior, Government Support Policy.

1 Introduction

Following the conclusion of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 and theestablishment of the Paris Agreement in 2015, the world is accel-erating toward a low-carbon society facing climate change. As cli-mate change, air pollution and instability of fossil fuel supply haveemerged as global issues, the paradigm of the global automobilemarket has started to be transformed into a next-generation greencar in which the emission of carbon dioxide is significantly reducedor does not emerge from internal combustion engines. Major auto-mobile companies in the world are actively developing automobiletechnology based on de-internal combustion engines such as electric-ity and hydrogen energy in the existing high-emission low-emissionvehicles.

These next-generation eco-friendly vehicles are believed to leadthe future automobile market, but they still face a lot of challengesin expanding their supply, such as higher prices and less infrastruc-ture than existing internal combustion engine cars. Under these cir-cumstances, consumers are not yet fully informed about when andhow they would like to buy next-generation green cars. This studyis to investigate how purchasing behaviors are changed accordingto the price, performance, related infrastructures, and policy con-ditions of the next generation eco-friendly vehicles to consumersliving in metropolitan areas in Japan and Korea, We will make acomparison based on the web survey. The results of this studyare intended to provide implications for academic and related in-dustries and policies on the future direction of the next-generation

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eco-friendly vehicles in both countries.

2 Theoretical Background and Hypoth-

esis

2.1 Status of eco-friendly cars both at homeand aboard

In this study, eco-friendly cars are defined as non-polluting vehicleswhich are the vehicles that are the market’s current vehicles asshown in Table 1, such as hydrogen-fueled automobiles, which willbe the ultimate direction of future cars[1].

Currently, most of the world’s environmentally friendly vehi-cles are occupied by hybrid vehicles (HEV). Japan and the UnitedStates account for 75% and 23% respectively in 2016. In recentyears, the proportion of the total vehicles has been gradually de-clining.

On the other hand, the number of PHVs and EVs is graduallyincreasing, and the number of distributions by country is 219,000 inChina, 111,700 in the US, 111,700 in Europe, and 37,000 in Japan,etc.

With the recent aggressive subsidy policy, In Asia, China isnext, but Korea is still in its infancy [2].

In 2015, the share of eco-friendly vehicles in the total numberof vehicles in Japan (based on passenger cars) is 9.1%. (Automo-bile Inspection & Registration Information Association (2017)), inwhich 97.9% of plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) account for themajority. However, according to the Ministry of Economy, Tradeand Industry (2016), it is currently below 1%. The ratio of plug-inhybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) to electric vehicle (EV) is expectedto increase to 20-30% by 2030.


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Therefore, Japan has recently launched a new subsidy schemefor environmentally friendly vehicles (2016-2020). For example, di-rect subsidies and subsidies for the maintenance of the charginginfrastructure are implemented at the time of purchasing preferen-tial treatment at the time of purchase and retention. In the case ofdirect subsidies, the subsidy amount for EV and PHV is the batterycapacity 1.1 10,000 yen (up to 600,000 yen). The largest auxiliaryvehicle model of EV marketed in Japan is paid by Tesler Model-Sfor a total of 600,000 yen.

In addition, Nissan e-NV200 Ban is 264,000 yen, Honda FitEVis 220,000 yen, and Mitsubisi i-MiEV X is 176,000 yen. In thecase of FCV, there is no limit, but Toyota Mirai currently sold is2,20,000 yen[3].

Despite the Korean government’s policy to promote eco-friendlyvehicles, the spread of eco-friendly cars is still low. The Koreangovernment set the target number of eco-friendly vehicles includingHEVs at 292,000 HEV at 152,000 units, PHEV at 44,000 units,EV at 26,000 units and FCEV at 1.0 million units in 2015. How-ever, at the end of 2016 currently, it has remained in the spreadof about 230,000 units. Recently, however, the Korean governmenthas set a target to supply 1.5 million eco-friendly cars by 2020, andis actively pursuing policy shifts to expand the supply of electric ve-hicles, especially for next-generation strategic vehicles. In 2016, theKorean government announced the policy to promote eco-friendlycars as follows. The Korean government plans to support a totalof 7.7 million won for the PHEV, including a subsidy of 5 millionwon and a tax advantage of 2.7 million won, purchase subsidies of14 million won and the slow speed sharger Installation cost of 4million won for EV, and purchase subsidies of 27.5 million won andindividual consumption tax reductions of up to 4 million won forthe FCEV. These subsidy policies are all over Japan[2].

2.2 Consumer Types

In a previous study on consumer types, Karen Horney, a neo-liberalscholar of the German-born American female psychoanalyst, classi-fied consumers into three types: adaptive, offensive, and alienatedaccording to their interpersonal style[4].

Consumers can be categorized according to their economic value.


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Dr. Robert Settle categorizes consumers in the “why they buy” ofhis best-seller consumer into six types according to value criteria,as shown in Table 2 below.

2.3 Eco-Friendly Product Properties

The characteristics of environment friendly automobile productsare as follows.

Aaker(1992) categorized brand associations related to brandimage into 11 categories such as user and consumer, reputationand person, intangibility, product attribute, relative price, con-sumer convenience, use and operation, product type, competitor,lifestyle and individuality, and country and geographical range.Haubl (1996) investigated the effect of country of origin and brandname on new vehicle evaluation. In his research, four items wereused to evaluate the image of a car: passenger safety, reliability,completeness, and quality. Also, three items such as attractive-ness, visibility, and smoothness of the car were used for appearanceevaluation. The characteristics of the car were coveted, excellent,pleasurable, and favorable.

Keller (1993) explained that brand image is reflected in variousaspects of brand image depending on the reflection and strength ofimage in consumer memory, type of association, likelihood of asso-ciation, and uniqueness of image[8]. Kotler (2009) defines imagesas a collection of ideas, beliefs, and impressions that humans haveabout speific objects[9].


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2.4 Intention of Purchasing Environment FriendlyVehicles

In a previous study on the purchase intention of eco-friendly cars,Clark (1990) found that the country’s culture, economy, national-ity, and politics had a great influence on the purchase intentionof foreign products[10]. Ozaki et al. (2010) found that the effectof economic benefits on consumers’ motivation to buy eco-friendlycars has a significant effect on purchasing eco-friendly cars[11].

2.5 Support Policy of Environment Friendly Au-tomobile Government

Beresteanu (2009) analyzed the impact of gasoline prices and gov-ernment support policies on the purchase of hybrid cars in 22 largecities in the United States. Research shows that gasoline prices andgovernment subsidies, which have increased steadily from 1999 to2006, have affected 14% -17% of hybrids purchases and 27% -32%of hybrid car purchases[12].

Diamond (2009) investigated the effect of government policiesand gasoline prices on hybrid car purchases using monthly US Hy-brid car registration data. The results of the study show that thepurchase of hybrid cars is highly related to the price of gasoline,but the support policy of the government is relatively low and thesupport policy to provide advance payment has a very significanteffect[13] .

Tsuyoshi (2010) used the Cournot oligopoly model to give thegovernment subsidies and benefits for purchasing eco-friendly prod-ucts. Studies have shown that governments have improved thequality of the environment. The government’s best policy affectsthe marginal social value of environmental pollution, and if themarginal social value of environmental pollution is greater thanany value, the subsidy policy based on the consumer’s environmentwill be one of the most desirable policies[14].

2.6 Research Model and Research Hypothesis

The purpose of this study is to investigate the characteristics of con-sumers, the characteristics of next-generation eco-friendly vehicles,


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and the effects of policy measures on next-generation eco-friendlyvehicles. The research model based on existing literature studies isshown in Figure 1. Based on the consideration of the existing lit-erature, the type of consumer has recently been divided into threetypes from the viewpoint of value consumption trend and diversi-fied. On the basis of this, we divided consumer type into price valuepursuit type, social environment value pursuit type, and individualvalue pursuit type in the research model of this paper. The pricevalue pursuit type pursues the best satisfaction with the least cost.The social environment value pursuit type cares about the socialissues and the environment, and seeks the benefits and shared val-ues of society as a whole through consumption and participation.The personal value pursuit type does not spare a bold investmentin products that express their value or are willing to spend it ifnecessary.

As an intervening variable, environment-friendly automobile se-lection attribute factors are classified into economics, safety, func-tionality and service convenience, and brand image. Dependentvariables were set as purchase intention, time investment intention,and recommendation intention to neighboring friend, intention torepurchase.

Figure 1: Research Model


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3 Operational Definition of research Hy-

potheses and Measurement items

3.1 Research Hypothesis

In this study, the following hypotheses were set up considering thecharacteristics of consumers, the characteristics of environment-friendly vehicles, and the government’s policy support through con-sumer researches.

Hypothesis 1 (H1): Consumer characteristics (by gender, age,income) and consumer types (price value pursuit type, individualvalue pursuit type, socio-environmental value pursuit type) have aneffect on eco-friendly car purchase behavior.

Hypothesis 2 (H2): The characteristics of the eco-friendly car(economy, stability, functionality, service convenience, image) willhave a positive effect on eco-friendly car purchase behavior.

Hypothesis 3 (H3): The government’s policy support for eco-friendly vehicles will have a positive impact on eco-friendly carpurchase behavior.

3.2 Operational Definition of measurement Items

(1) Consumer type

Rober B. Settle (2014) argues that consumers are classified intoeconomic, intellectual, social, aesthetic, political, and spiritualconsumers according to value standards [5].

Based on these prior studies, the questionnaire of this paperwas composed of 18 questions in order to examine the effectof consumer characteristics (by gender, age, income) and con-sumer type(price value seeking type, individual value seekingtype, and social environment value seeking type) on consumerpurchase behaviors of eco-friendly car.

(2) Characteristics of environment-friendly vehicles

Jeong Ki Ho(1991) and Jang Won-geun (1997) measured theautomobile evaluation factors in terms of service, economic effi-ciency, comfort, external style, performance, and stability[15].


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Based on these previous researches, the characteristics of eco-friendly automobile (economic efficiency, stability, functional-ity, service convenience, image)

Policy support will have a positive impact on eco-friendly carbuying behavior

(3) Government policy support

Diamond (2009) et al. [13] studied the effects of governmentpolicies and government subsidies on the purchase of hybridcars.

Based on these previous researches, the government’s policysupport by consumer type has a total of 5 questions abouthow it affects eco - friendly car purchase behavior.

(4) Intention of purchase

The purchase intention of the eco-friendly car used in previousresearches such as Clark (1990) and Ozaki (2010) was mea-sured using five items[10.11].

4 Method and Empirical Analysis

4.1 General Characteristics of the Sample

This study conducted an online web survey. Although online websurveys are widely regarded as an alternative method to interviewsurveys and telephone surveys, they prefer to use self-enrollmentmethods without an interviewer. Researchers have been able toblock inadequate respondents through questionnaire response time[16]. In order to cope with this, respondents who responded unfairlyto the online panel were surveyed. When the online web surveywas conducted, the samples were surveyed more than the actualnumber of samples, and the survey was conducted by excludingthe groups whose response time was too short. We conducted anonline web survey of 200 residents living in Seoul and residents inTokyo, Japan, and conducted a frequency analysis to identify thegeneral characteristics of the respondents. Finally, Table 3 showsthe results. For this study, 200 valid questionnaires were collectedand analyzed in Korea and Japan, respectively.


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In this study, reliability was measured by using Cronbach’s Al-pha coefficient using several measurement items to measure the ac-curacy and reliability of measurement tools. If the Kronepha alphacoefficient is 0.7 or more, the reliability of the measurement itemscan be said to be reliable[17]. The concept of construction can bejudged as the internal consistency between the measurement items.

As shown in Table 4, the Kronbach alpha value is greater than0.7 for Korea and Japan as a whole, so the internal consistency ofthe items is high.

4.2 Feasibility Analysis

In this study, factor analysis was performed on independent vari-ables and intervening variables, and factor analysis was conductedbased on factors with an eigenvalue of 1.0 or more. In addition,KMO (kaiser Mayer Olkin) and Bartlett test were performed to de-termine whether the collected data were suitable for factor analysis.

If the value of KMO is 0.5 or more, the sample data is suitablefor factor analysis.

The Bartlett’s sphere formation test is a test to determine whetherthe correlation matrix between variables is a unit matrix. If the sig-nificance level is less than 0.05, the null hypothesis that the inter-variable matrix is a unit matrix is rejected.

In general, the KMO statistic is more than 0.6 and the resultof the test is considered to be suitable for the factor analysis. Asshown in Table 5, the KMO statistic is statistically significant at0.809 for Korea and 0.798 for Japan, and the Bartlet’s sphere testscore is 857.911 for Korea, (P <0.000), which was suitable for factoranalysis.

As shown in Table 6, the KMO statistic is statistically signif-icant at 0.941 in Korea and 0.912 in Japan, and Bartlet’s sphereformation test is 3449.155 (P <0.000) in Korea, 3317.780 in Japan(P <0.000), and were suitable for factor analysis. Therefore, it isclassified into four factors such as economy, stability, image, func-tionality, and service convenience.


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4.3 Hypothesis Testing

4.3.1 Relationship between ownership of eco-friendly carpurchase intention according consumer characteris-tics

In order to verify the hypothesis 1, whether consumers’ ownershipof eco-friendly cars depends on the consumers’ characteristics and


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whether they influence the purchase intention, we conducted theX2 test. The results of the analysis are resented in Table 7. Specif-ically, in the case of Korea, there is no significant difference in thepresence of eco-friendly cars by gender, age, monthly income, andconsumer type. Also, there is no significant difference in gender,age, and monthly income for the eco-friendly car purchase inten-tion. However, the purchase intention of the eco-friendly car issignificant differences according to the consumer type (price valuepursuit type, personal value pursuit type).

In the case of Japan, there is no significant difference in the pres-ence of eco-friendly cars by gender, age, and monthly income, butthere were significant differences in the presence of eco-friendly carsby consumer type. There was no significant difference in the pur-chase intentions of eco-friendly cars by gender and age, but therewas a significant difference in purchase intentions of eco-friendlycars according to monthly average income level. In particular, theDuncan test showed that there was a significant difference betweenmonthly average earnings less than 100,000 yen and over 500,000yen. Also, there was a significant difference in purchase inten-tion according to consumer type (price value pursuit type, personalvalue pursuit type, socio-environmental value pursuit type).


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4.3.2 Relationship between characteristics and Purchas-ing Intention Next Generation Eco-friendly Vehicle

Table 8 shows the results of multiple regression analysis to test hy-pothesis 2 that the characteristics of next-generation eco-friendly


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vehicles (economic efficiency, stability, functionality and servicesupport, image) have a positive effect on consumer purchasing be-havior.

In Table 8, the F-value of the predictive model of the linear re-


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gression analysis in Korea is 3.612 (p <.05), which is the correlationbetween the characteristics of the next generation environmentallyfriendly automobile (economic efficiency, stability, functionality andservice convenience and image) and purchase intention, but the re-gression coefficient was not significant.

In the case of Japan, the F value of the predictive model oflinear regression analysis is 6.341 (p <.001) as shown in Table 8.Multiple regression model is significant, but regression coefficient isnot significant.

Thus, according to Table 9, the regression model of dependentvariable purchasing intention was significant when the image was


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the independent variable and the other three variables were re-moved. In addition, the regression model of dependent variablepurchase intention was significant when image and stability wereindependent variables and the other two variables were removed.

Table 10 shows the results of multiple regression analysis to testHypothesis 3 that the government’s policy support for eco-friendlycars will have a positive impact on eco-friendly car purchasing be-havior.

<Table 10> shows that the F value of the predictive model oflinear regression is 29.176 (p <.0000) in Korea, and the multipleregression model is significant. However, the regression coefficientsfor price value and individual value pursuit were not significant.On the other hand, the regression coefficient of socio-environmentalvalue pursuit was significant.

In the case of Japan, the F value of the predictive model of thelinear regression analysis is 19.482 (p <.000), the multiple regres-sion model is significant, and the value of the socioeconomic valueseeking regression coefficient is significant but the individual valueregression coefficient is not significant.

In the case of Korea in Table 11, it is found that the socialenvironment value seeking type has a significant relationship withpurchase intention. In the relationship between social environmentvalue seeking type and purchase intention, government support pol-icy (5,000 won and 10,000 won per ton of carbon dioxide tax, directsupport of the national and local government vehicle prices, andreduction of fuel related taxation such as gasoline tax, gas tax, car-bon tax) has a positive effect(change in R2 value) as a controllingvariable.


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In the case of Japan, it is found that the price value seekingtype and the social environment value seeking type has a significantrelationship with purchase intention. In the relationship betweenprice value seeking type and purchasing intention, and social en-vironment value seeking type and purchase intention, governmentsupport policy(5,000 won and 10,000 won per ton of carbon diox-ide tax, direct support of the national and local government vehicleprices, and reduction of fuel related taxation such as gasoline tax,gas tax, carbon tax) has a positive effect(change in R2 value) as acontrolling variable.

4.4 Hypothesis Verification Results

In this study, we compared Korean and Japanese consumers throughstepwise regression analysis of how consumers’ characteristics (gen-


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der, age, monthly average income), consumer types (price value pur-suit type, individual value pursuit type, social environment valuepursuit type), characteristics from the government(economics, sta-bility, functionality and serviceability, image) of environment-friendlycars, and administrative support (subsidies, tax breaks, etc.) affectconsumers’ purchasing behavior on eco-friendly cars.

First, in the case of Korea, as a result of examining the pos-session of eco-friendly cars according to the characteristics of theconsumers and the consumer types, there was no significant differ-ence by gender, age, monthly income, and consumer type. How-ever, as a result of examining purchase intention according to thecharacteristics of the consumers and the consumer types, there wasno significant difference in purchase intention by gender, age, andmonthly income, but there was a significant difference in purchaseintention according to consumer type.

In the case of Japan, as a result of examining the possession ofeco-friendly cars according to the characteristics of the consumersand the consumer type, there was no significant difference by gen-der, age, monthly income, but there was a significant differencein the possession of eco-friendly cars according to consumer type.However, as a result of examining purchase intention according tothe characteristics of the consumers and the consumer types, therewas no significant difference in purchase intentions of eco-friendlyvehicles by gender and age, but there was a significant difference inpurchase intention of eco-friendly cars according to monthly averageincome. As a result of post-test, there was a significant differencebetween less than 100,000 yen and over 500,000 yen. Especially, thepurchase intention of eco-friendly cars with low income of less than100,000 yen is expected to be due to the expectation that vehicleprices of electric cars and hydrogen cars will be supplied at consid-erably lower prices due to technological development. In addition,there was a significant difference in purchase intention accordingto consumer type. This hypothesis has been partially adopted byboth Korea and Japan that ’the characteristics of consumers andtypes of consumers will influence consumers’ purchasing behavior’.

Second, as a result of verifying that the characteristics of eco-friendly cars have a positive effect on consumer purchase behavior,the image of brand, color and design in the case of Korea has apositive effect on eco-friendly cars.


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In the case of Japan, image and stability have a positive effect onconsumers’ purchasing behavior. When Japanese consumers pur-chase eco-friendly cars, they are concerned not only with images,but also with safety, such as the strength of the body, the possibilityof accidents, and safety factors.

Therefore, Hypothesis 2 was adopted in both Korea and Japanthat ’the characteristics of eco-friendly cars will have a positiveimpact on purchase behavior of eco-friendly cars’.

Third, as a result of verifying that the characteristics of eco-friendly cars have a positive effect on consumer purchase behav-ior, the social environment value pursuit type among the consumertypes has a significant relationship with purchase intention. Thegovernment’s support policy such as carbon dioxide taxes(5,000won per ton, 10000 won per ton), direct support from the gov-ernment and local governments, and fuel-related tax(gasoline tax,diesel tax, and carbon tax) relief have a positive effect on socialenvironment value pursuit type.

In the case of Japan, price value pursuit type and social en-vironment value pursuit type among the consumer types have asignificant relationship with purchase intention. carbon dioxidetaxes(5,000 won per ton, 10000 won per ton), direct support fromthe government and local governments, and fuel-related tax(gasolinetax, diesel tax, and carbon tax) relief have a positive effect on pricevalue pursuit type and social environment value pursuit type.

Therefore, Hypothesis 3 was adopted by both Korea and Japanthat ’government policy support for consumers of eco-friendly carswill have a positive impact on eco-friendly car purchasing behavior’.

The results of hypothesis testing are summarized in Table 12.


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5 Summary of Research Results and Di-

rection of Future Research

5.1 Summary and Implications of Research Re-sults

In this study, we analyzed the effect of consumer type on the fac-tors of eco-friendly car choice and consumer purchase behavior andthe effect of government’s policy support on purchase behavior forKorean and Japanese consumers. In other words, we divide theconsumer type into three types (price value pursuit type, individualvalue pursuit type, and social environment value pursuit type) fromthe value-oriented viewpoint, and investigate the effect of consumertype on demographic characteristics of consumers, the influence ofeco-friendly car ownership and eco-friendly car purchase intention.

In order to accomplish the purpose of this study, first of all,the precedent study was carried out with the theoretical study. Inthe review process, there are not many studies that directly or in-directly relate the effects of the selection attributes of eco-friendlyautomobiles and the government’s policy support to purchase in-tention according to consumer characteristics, consumer type andconsumer type, and empirical analysis was conducted.

In particular, there have been no studies on the difference inthe purchase behavior of eco-friendly cars between Korean andJapanese consumers.

For the purpose of empirical analysis, we conducted a web sur-vey of consumers in Korea and Japan, and collected 200 copies ofthe questionnaire respondents from both Korean and Japanese con-sumers. However, we conducted a web survey on Koreans in Seouland Japan in Tokyo.

For the analysis method used in this study, frequency analysiswas conducted to identify the demographic characteristics. Relia-bility analysis and factor analysis were conducted to confirm the va-lidity of the questionnaire items. In order to test the hypothesis onthe relationship between consumer characteristics and consumers’purchase behavior, characteristics of eco-friendly car and purchas-ing behavior, government policy support by consumers, and eco-friendly car purchase behavior at the stage of hypothesis testing,(T test, F test), and multiple regression analysis were used. The


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multiple regression model was significant, but hierarchical regres-sion analysis was performed to test hypotheses about the detailedeffect of each item.

The results of this study are as follows: 1) Consumer char-acteristics (by sex, age, monthly average income), consumer type(price value pursuit type, individual value pursuit type, There wasno significant difference in the purchase intention according to age,monthly average income, and consumer type, but there was nosignificant difference in purchase intention by gender, age, andmonthly average income.

In the case of Japan, there was no significant difference by gen-der, age, monthly income, and consumer type. There was no sig-nificant difference in purchase intentions of eco-friendly vehicles bygender and age, but there was a significant difference in the pur-chase intention of eco-friendly vehicles according to monthly aver-age income level. As a result of post-test, it was less than 100,000yen and more than 500,000 yen, and the intention to purchase eco-friendly cars with low income earners of less than 100,000 yen is dueto the expectation that vehicle prices for electric cars and hydrogencars will be supplied at considerably lower prices due to technolog-ical development do. In addition, there was a significant differencein purchase intention according to consumer type. This hypothe-sis has been partially adopted by both Korea and Japan that ’thecharacteristics of consumers and types of consumers will influenceconsumers’ purchasing behavior’.

In addition, it was found that the characteristics of eco - friendlyautomobile have a positive effect on consumer purchase behavior.As a result, in Korea, images such as brand, color and design havea positive effect on eco - friendly automobile. In the case of Japan,image and stability have a positive effect on consumers’ purchasingbehavior. Therefore, it is important for Japanese consumers toconsider not only the image of purchasing an eco-friendly car, butalso the safety of the car body, Therefore, both Korea and Japanshowed that ’the characteristics of eco - friendly automobile have apositive effect on the purchase behavior of eco - friendly car’.

As a result, it was found that the government-sponsored policysupport for eco-friendly vehicles positively affects the purchasingbehavior of eco-friendly cars. As a result, (5,000 won / ton, 10,000won / ton), direct support from the government or local govern-


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ments, and gasoline tax, fuel tax, and carbon tax. In the case ofJapan, the price-seeking type and the socio-environmental value-seeking type were found to have a significant relationship with pur-chase intentions. Both the price value-seeking type and the socio-environmental value-seeking type showed that the carbon dioxidetax (5,000 won per ton, Direct support from the state or local gov-ernments, and gasoline taxes, fuel surcharges, and carbon taxes.Therefore, both in Korea and Japan, the government’s policy sup-port for eco - friendly vehicles has a positive impact on eco - friendlyvehicles purchase behavior.

The implication of this study is that the development and mar-ket participation of the next generation eco - friendly vehicles is ac-celerating and the consumer’s attention is increasing, and the char-acteristics of consumers, characteristics of environment - friendlycars, and how the government’s policy support for next-generationeco-friendly cars affects consumers’ purchasing behavior throughweb surveys of consumers in Seoul and Tokyo, Japan. In this study,it is possible to analyze whether Korean and Japanese consumerswill be the ultimate next-generation eco-friendly automobile, andwhether plug-in hybrid cars will be positioned as next-generationeco-friendly vehicles with electric cars and hydrogen cars.

It is also possible to consider how these policy factors, techni-cal factors, and the infrastructure elements of eco-friendly vehicles,such as electric cars and hydrogen cars, affect purchasing behav-ior. Therefore, it can provide implications for related industriesand policies in the future diffusion of next-generation eco-friendlyautomobiles in Korea and Japan.

5.2 Limitations and Future Direction of Research

The limitations of this study are as follows.First, the population is not surveyed by consumers of eco-friendly

vehicles in Korea and Japan, but it is limited to those residing inSeoul and residents in Tokyo of Japan.

Second, it is a fundamental problem in defining variables. Inthis study, we classified only three types of consumers as indepen-dent variables. In this study, we classified them into three typesfrom the viewpoint of value-based perspective. However, there arelimitations to the analysis, which are limited to three sub-factors.


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And to provide implications for related industries and policies inthe spread of vehicles.

Third, it is the limit of parameter selection. The results of thisstudy are summarized as follows. Firstly, the results of this studyare as follows. First, the results of this study are as follows. First,It also has the limitation that it can fall.

In the future research, based on the results of this study, if anextension study is conducted to examine the relationship betweenconsumer attributes and consumer buying behavior, and the rela-tionship between government support and purchase behavior, Wecan more systematically identify the relationship between consumerattitudes, subjective norms, and purchase intentions of Japaneseconsumers’ eco-friendly vehicles.

In addition, if verifying the moderating effects of cultural andpsychological variables of Korean and Japanese consumers in thefuture, practical information will be provided.

In this study, the development and market participation of thenext generation eco - friendly automobile is accelerated, and con-sumers’ interest is increasing. Consumer characteristics, character-istics of the next generation eco - friendly automobile and policymeasures for the next generation eco - And how it affects con-sumers’ purchasing behavior through web surveys of Korean andJapanese consumers. In this study, we will determine which Ko-rean and Japanese consumers will be the ultimate next-generationeco-friendly automobile, and whether the plug-in hybrid car willbe positioned as a next-generation eco-friendly car equivalent toelectric cars and hydrogen cars, And whether or not to do so.

The study also examines how the strengthening of low-carbonpolicy (such as subsidy-supported carbon tax) affects consumers’purchasing patterns, and how such policy factors, technological fac-tors, electricity and hydrogen stations affect the purchasing behav-ior. In the future, I have suggested some implications on the relatedindustries and policies in the spread of next generation green vehi-cles in Korea and Japan.


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