Face consciousness, personal norms, and environmentally responsible behavior of Chinese tourists: Evidence from a lake tourism site

Abstract

This study explores the role of face consciousness in tourists’ environmentally responsible behavior (ERB). It expands the norm activation theory, integrates the concept of face consciousness and examines how personal norms (PN) on environmentally responsible behavior is moderated by face consciousness. Data was collected from 415 mainland Chinese tourists in West Lake, China. Structural equation modeling was employed to test the proposed theoretical framework. The results show that ascribed responsibility positively influences personal norms, while awareness of consequences plays a decisive role in activating personal norms. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that the fear of losing face moderates the relationship between personal norms and environmentally responsible behavior. The study also investigates the moderating role of age difference between personal norms and environmetnally responsible behavior. The effect of personal norms on environmentally responsible behavior is stronger in younger tourists. Our findings make important theoretical contributions to the literature of ERB in tourism and offer practical implications for tourism managers to encourage responsible behavior among tourists.