The Effect of Product Knowledge, Perceived Behavior Control, And Personal Norm on Purchase Intention of SME s’ Recycled Products

ABSTRACT


Introduction
Consumption is considered one of the main contributors to environmental problems.Increasing consumption is needed by developing countries because it is an indicator of economic growth (Rahman et al., 2023;Šebestová & Sroka, 2020).One form of an environmental problem that requires the most attention in Indonesia is garbage.During COVID-19, mask garbage is wind up in ocean (Q.Yang et al., 2023), and most of the garbage is come from householde garbage (Ikiz et al., 2021;Woodard, 2021).Garbage is defined as all types of solid waste originating from human and animal activities, and is disposed of because it is no longer useful or unwanted.Although various innovations and strategies have been carried out to reduce plastic waste (Romano & Sotis, 2021), Indonesia is the third largest plastic waste-producing country in the world (Tempo, 2021), with 67.8 million tons of plastic waste in 2020.Innovation to reduce garbage is also carried out with an IoTbased Garbage collection model in some countries (Aktay & Yalçın, 2021).A total of 270 million people produce 185,753 tons of waste every day.This means that each resident produces around 0.68 kilograms of waste per day (Ministry of Environment and Forestry 2020).
Based on data obtained from the website of the Minister of Environment and Forestry in 2021, the highest composition of waste is food waste at 40%, followed by wood, twigs, and leaves at 12.9%.There are also types of waste that can be recycled and cannot be recycled.Our data shows that the average waste generation reaches 31.4 million tons per year, there are 11 million tons of unmanaged waste, or equivalent to 35% of the total waste generated.This amount is relatively large when compared to the absorption of waste that can be managed, namely as much as 20.4 million tons of waste per year (Ditjen PSLB3 KLHK 2021).

Figure 1. Waste Composition Based on Type of Waste
Source: website sipsn.menlhk.go.idl Based on Google Trends data, from 2020 to September 2022, there were a number of changes in the lifestyle of the Indonesian people during the pandemic.This condition has affected people's habits and encouraged them to start thinking about a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle.It was recorded that 2 of the provinces had a high interest in tracking recycling which was led by East Java, followed by the Special Region of Yogyakarta, Bali, East Kalimantan, and the Riau Islands.SME plays a significant role in waste recycling projects (Duffett et al., 2018;Foschi et al., 2020;Ghisellini & Ulgiati, 2020).SME can use waste into business opportunities, such as refashioned clothes in Japan (Sugiura, 2019).One of the recycled products that are now widely produced by many entrepreneurs (SMEs) is handicraft products, mainly made from paper and cardboard.In the industrial world, there is a lot of waste such as used paper and cardboard, which in the end is immediately disposed of in the Final Disposal Site (TPA).However, some people found this particular phenomenon as an opportunity to create quality and competitive products.Recycling waste into items worth reusing is something very challenging (Lavuri et al., 2022).The management of paper and cardboard waste that is often encountered today is used to make Art Paper, often also used to make handicrafts such as wastebaskets, flower vases, pencil cases, tables, chairs, and many more.One of the SMEs that produces craft products through processed paper and cardboard is Creabrush (based on survey data that has been conducted).Creabrush is an SME that produces various kinds of crafts made from paper and cardboard, starting from tables, photo frames, chairs, various accessories, and other furniture.This business development is carried out by relying on the owner's capital through simple equipment that is capable of producing high-value products and one of the actions to reduce waste and pollution to the environment is through the empowerment of vagrant kids.
Changes in a healthy lifestyle and the existence of public awareness of the environment are one of the things that affect the success of recycling product businesses (Derkatch & Spoel, 2017;Gadeikienė et al., 2021).More people that are aware and care about the environment means a greater interest of them in buying recycled products.The better the public's knowledge of recycled products also affects the greater intensity of purchases of recycled products.Purchase intensity is someone's estimate to repurchase certain products/services from the same company, based on possible situations and circumstances.According to Assael, purchase intensity is the last stage of a series of consumer buying decision processes.This process begins with the emergence of a need for a product or brand (need arousal), followed by information processing by consumers (consumer information processing).Furthermore, consumers will evaluate the product or brand.The results of this evaluation ultimately lead to intensity or intensity to buy, before consumers actually make a purchase.
The issue of environmental damage has become the concern and priority of various parties, thus making this research essential to be conducted.The consumption behavior of recycled products especially recycled handicraft products has become important because, through this research, we could identify the dominant consumer behavior towards green products in Indonesia.This research was conducted to analyze the effect of product knowledge, perceived behavior control, and personal norm on purchase intention of SME's recycled products in Indonesia.

Planned Theory of Behavior
Theory of Planned Behavior is a Theory of Reasoned Action enhanced by the addition of Perceived Behavior Control.Theory of Planned Behavior has advantages over other behavioral theories, because Theory of Planned Behavior is a behavioral theory that can identify a person's belief in control over something that will happen from the results of behavior (Fenitra et al., 2023), so this distinguishes between the behavior of a person who wills and who will not (Angelakis et al., 2023;Y. Yang & Kim, 2023).Planned Theory of Behavior is applied to research in various field of science, including research on sustainable environmental behavior (Xue & Li, 2023).Planned theory of behavior is not only analyzed from external factors, such as the environment, but can also be analyzed from individual internal factors (Lou et al., 2022).

Hypothesis development a. Purchase Intention
Purchase intention is the tendency to buy a product and is generally based on the suitability between purchase motives and the attributes or characteristics of the product that can be considered (Nekmahmud et al., 2022).Purchase intention can be interpreted as a happy attitude towards an object that makes individuals try to get the object by paying for it with money or sacrifice.Based on the TPB (Theory Planned of Behavior) approach, purchase intention as behavior can be predicted through positive or negative individual evaluations of certain objects, people, institutions, events, behaviors or interests (Ding et al., 2022).Product knowledge and perceived behavior control are factors that influence the purchase intention of recycled products (Sun et al., 2018).There are several factors that influence the intensity of environmentally friendly purchases, including the two factors above and personal norms.Based on previous research exposure, the hypotheses compiled in this study are: H1: Product knowledge, Perceived Behavior Control, and Personal norms simultaneously have a significant effect on Purchase intention of SME recycling products b.Product Knowledge Product knowledge as various types of knowledge, meanings, and beliefs that are recorded in consumer memory.Consumers with higher knowledge will be more realistic in selecting products that match their expectations (Shamsi et al., 2022).The higher the consumer's knowledge in buying a product can increase the consumer's ability to make a more satisfying choice (Ma & Chang, 2022;Nautiyal & Lal, 2022).The product knowledge hypothesis of this research is: H2: Product knowledge has a positive effect on purchase intention of SME recycling products in Medan.

c. Perceived Behavior Control
Perceived Behavioral Control is a perceived controlled behavior that we can interpret as a form of ease or difficulty in carrying out a behavior (Guo et al., 2023;Nekmahmud et al., 2022).Perceived behavioral control is formed from the emergence of perceived barriers and abilities.Percieved behavior can make emerge from the environment to make a person capable of doing something (Moloi et al., 2022).Ability can be related to income or resources owned to obtain the desired product.Perceived Behavioral Control is an important aspect for consumers which refers to the potential for opportunities, obstacles, and available resources (Hua & Dong, 2022).In this study it was found that Perceived Behavior Control has a positive influence on purchase intensity, with the hypothesis: H3: Perceived Behavior Control has a positive effect on purchase intention of SME recycling products d.Personal Norm Personal norms are attached to self-concept and experience as a feeling of moral obligation to perform a behavior.Subjective norms encourage individuals to act following normative rules in a community (Yin et al., 2022).With this sense of obligation, it can encourage individuals to make decisions to behave (Zhao et al., 2023).Personal norms reflect values that are internalized and experienced as a moral obligation to be involved in the decision-making process.The personal norm hypothesis of this research is: H4: Personal Norm has a positive and significant effect on Purchase Intention of SME recycling products

Conceptual Framework
This research model shows the respondent's interest in recycled products based on knowledge, behavioral control, and the respondent's personal norms.The following is the conceptual framework used in this study.at least once, the number of which is unknown.This research uses accidental sampling technique.There were 100 respondents with Malhotra's theory ( 2009), namely at least four or five times the number of questions, with a total of 20 questions in this study.
The questionnaire in this study consisted of 20 items with 5 Likert scale points to measure 4 variables adapted from previous research.Six items of product knowledge (Abbasi et al., 2022b;Wang et al., 2013), 4 items of perceived behavior control (Hein, 2022;Wang et al., 2013), 4 items of personal norm (Hein, 2022;Ibtissem, 2010), and 6 items of purchase intention for recycled products (Hein, 2022;Wang et al., 2013).In addition, respondents were also asked about several demographic variables.
The research hypothesis testing was carried out using a multiple linear regression approach.Multiple linear regression is a regression model that involves more than one independent variable.Multiple linear regression analysis was carried out to find out the direction and how much influence the independent variables have on the dependent variable (Ghozali, 2018).The analysis technique uses SPSS software which consists of classic assumption tests (normality, heteroscedasti, multicollinearity) and hypothesis testing.

Results
Table 2. shows respondents' profile of the research.It shows that the majority of respondents to were women (62%), aged between 18 to 35 years, had graduated from high school, and had more middle to lower incomes.Validity tests, reliability tests, normality tests have been conducted on the data of this study.The validity test was carried out to 30 respondents in Medan outside the research sample.With the number (n) = 30; df = N-2 (30-2) = 28 and a significance level of 5%, then R table = 0.361 is obtained.Variables of Product Knowledge, Perceived Behavior Control, and Purhcase Intention variables have a value of r count > r table (0.361) so that it can be concluded that all statements are valid.
The reliability test in this study uses Cronbach Alpha with the decision-making criteria, that is, if the Cronbach Alpha coefficient is > 0.70, the statement is declared reliable.Based on the test results, all variables were declared reliable because they had a Cronbach's Alpha value > 0.6.Besides, the data has no multicollinearity problem, and Heteroscedasticity problem.

Discussion
Results of the research shows that the independent variables consisting of Product Knowledge, Perceived Behavior Control, and Personal Norms simultaneously have a significant effect on the Purchase Intention variable.This can be seen from the test results, the sig value (0.000) is smaller than alpha (0.05).Therefore, the first hypothesis (H1) "Product knowledge, Perceived Behavior Control, and Personal norms simultaneously have a significant effect on Purchase Intention for SME recycling products in Medan" is declared accepted.
The results of the T-test in this study stated that the Product Knowledge variable had a positive and significant effect on Purchase Intention for SME recycling products in Medan.This is proven based on the significance value for variable X1 of 0.000 with an alpha of 5 percent.Thus, the significance value is (0.004 <0.05), meaning that knowledge of recycled products has a significant influence on Purchase Intention of SME recycling products in Medan.
Based on research that has been done on the Product Knowledge variable, researchers found that more than 50% of respondents answered in agreement with the questions given.This shows that customers have good product knowledge of recycled products which then influences customer purchase intentions for these products.Product knowledge plays a role in the emergence of consumer interest in a product through the transfer of information received by consumers, for example what the product looks like and functions, the benefits that can be obtained, and the value contained.Product knowledge plays an important role in decision making, both subjective and objective decisions (Nautiyal & Lal, 2022).
As an illustration of the value that will be obtained by consumers through sacrifice, product knowledge is very important if consumers do not want to be wrong in choosing products according to their needs.Product knowledge is needed in the process of making decisions by consumers through information on the attractiveness, value and uniqueness of certain products.Product knowledge can shape consumer perception and awareness (Shamsi et al., 2022).Product knowledge is not only limited to how much knowledge consumers have about the product.More than that, product knowledge is also related to consumer experience on similar products and evaluations generated through that experience.If consumers have experienced positive benefits by buying recycled products, consumers tend to have greater intentions towards the product.
Therefore, In this study, based on a partial test regarding the effect of Perceived Behavior Control on Purchase Intention of SME's recycling products in Medan, the significance value for variable X2 is 0.000 with an alpha of 5 percent.Thus, the significance value (0.000 <0.05), means that Perceived Behavior Control has a significant influence on Purchase Intention.
Results show that more than 65% of respondents tend to agree that behavioral control affects the interest and purchase action of recycled products.It can be seen that consumers' perceptions about whether or not they are able to make a decision play an important role in the outcome of the formulation of the action.This relates to the uniqueness of recycled products which are produced from used materials.Used materials used indirectly represent a greater risk of using the product when compared to ordinary products, such as the material is not durable, the pattern fades easily, or maintenance may be difficult.The risks to recycled products require more controls that can regulate consumer concerns about products of interest.Consumers can perceive their ability to buy, use and care for these products so that they bring up purchase intention.Therefore, the third hypothesis (H3) "Perceived Behavior Control partially has a positive and significant effect on Purchase Intention of SME's recycling products in Medan " is declared accepted.
In this study, based on a partial test regarding the effect of Personal Norm on Purchase Intention of SME's recycling products in Medan, the significance value for variable X3 is 0.000 with an alpha of 5 percent.Thus, the significance value is (0.000 <0.05), meaning that Personal Norm has a significant influence on Purchase Intention for SME's recycling products in Medan.
Based on research on the Personal Norm variable, researchers found that consumers of recycled products agree that personal norms influence the perceived interest in the product.The fact that recycled products are specifically environmentally friendly products, personal norms related to environmental concern are directly related to interest and purchase intention of recycled products.Personal norm has a major influence on purchase intention because there is motivation in the form of rewards and punishments that consumers feel when they buy or not buy recycled products.Rewards are perceived as feelings of relief, pleasure, and joy for contributing to saving the environment.Punishment is a feeling of guilt for not being able to participate in programs to reduce waste and allow more waste to be wasted.
Both reward and punishment can encourage consumers to behave better according to the norms they believe.Purchase intention then appears as a result of consumers' efforts to get rewards and avoid punishment for their personal norms and rules.Therefore, the fourth hypothesis (H4) "Personal Norm partially has a positive and significant effect on Purchase Intention of SME's recycling products in Medan" is declared accepted.

Conclusion
In this study find that Product Knowledge, Perceived Behavior Control, and Personal Norms simultaneously have a significant effect on Purchase Intention for SME's recycling products in Medan, so (H1) is accepted.It is also proven that Product Knowledge partially has a positive and significant effect on Purchase Intention for SME's recycling products in Medan, so that (H2) is accepted.Beside that Perceived Behavior Control partially had a positive and significant effect on Purchase Intention for SME's recycling products in Medan, so that (H3) was accepted.Personal Norm partially has a positive and significant effect on Purchase Intention for SME's recycling products in Medan.Personal Norm is the most dominant variable among the three independent variables with the largest coefficient value of 0.987.It implies that the inclusivity of awareness and the informations of product variations must continue to be pursued so that consumers get a more thorough understanding of recycled products.SMEs can take advantage of social media and marketplace platforms to carry out promotions so that more consumers know the value of recycled products.Promotion is realized in the form of posting feeds, stories, storefronts, online catalog creation, and exhibitions of consumer testimonials or reviews on social media profiles.Just because a recycled product is made from waste doesn't mean it deserves to be viewed as inferior.SMEs as producers must be able to provide added value through innovation and standardization in the form of quality control on recycled products, so that consumers are able to view recycled products as valuable and valuable products.SMEs can make product variations, apply eco-friendly technologybased production methods, improve the quality of raw materials in the processing process, and establish product standard classifications starting from Grade A, Grade B, Grade C, and so on.SME recycling products must prioritize and maintain environmentally friendly aspects in their products.SMEs can embed labels, logos or symbols indicating that the product is processed with 100% organic ingredients so that consumers' personal norms can be aroused through visual information.Not all consumers are willing to make repeat purchases and provide recommendations for these recycled products to those closest to them.It is related with the satisfaction felt after buying.Therefore, SMEs are able to provide post-purchase services so that consumers can become more loyal, for example services for product defect complaints, product returns, and product warranties within a certain period of time.Future researchers are expected to add other variables that are not included in this study such as Attitude, Subjective Norm, and Environmental Concern or add other factors that can influence Purchase Intention so that they can obtain more thorough research results related to Purchase Intention.

Figure
Figure 1.Conceptual Framework

Table 3 .
shows the results of the equation coefficient values of Product Knowledge (-0.583),Perceived Behavior Control (0.868), and Personal Norms (0.987).