A Segmentation Analysis of Willingness-to-Pay for Green Products in Emerging Economies

This paper examines who pays for sustainable products in an emerging economy context by applying a three-segment willingness-to-pay (WTP) framework to a primary survey of 70 respondents drawn from India. Sustainability importance averages 4.39 out of 5, yet only 28.6% offer unconditional WTP — a gap that income, age, and gender fail to explain. The sole statistically significant result links sustainability attitude to green product search frequency (Spearman ρ = .506, p < .001). Greenwashing scepticism defines the sample: 71.4% avoided a product over false environmental claims, and mean trust sits at 2.99 out of 5. Despite low awareness of government incentives (42.9%), 77.2% would buy more if such incentives existed, with 41.4% preferring direct cash discounts at point of purchase. The Conditional Payer segment (64.3%) is the most actionable policy and marketing target.