Communication Marketing Capability Through Social Media to Improve Awareness of Climate Change Mediated by Green Knowledge Sharing (A Case Study of Indonesian and Japanese Students)

Abstract

This study proposes a model of social marketing communication through social media to improve awareness of climate change among Generation Z. The comparative analysis between two nationalities on climate change communication so far is under research. This comparative study discussed the issue of two countries’ Generation Z: Indonesia and Japan. We conducted this comparative study between Universitas Dian Nuswantoro and Universitas Katolik De La Salle in Indonesia and the Tokyo University of Technology in Japan; data were collected by distributing questionnaires from January to March 2020, right before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. This research has withdrawn respondents of 200 sophomore students representing Generation Z in both universities with the criteria of frequent engagement in social media to have environmental awareness. This study revealed that hypothesis 1, social media communication marketing capability has a significant impact on climate change awareness, hypothesis 2, that communication marketing capability has a significant effect on green knowledge sharing, and hypothesis 3, that green knowledge sharing has a significant impact on climate change awareness. The research findings revealed that green knowledge sharing was essential in bridging the gap between communication marketing capability and climate change awareness. Therefore, to effectively improve climate change understanding among Generation Z, our research suggests including green knowledge sharing through social media. Students of both countries grabbed green knowledge sharing, and people can consider this study that represented two countries to improve how to communicate climate change awareness among Generation Z.