Green purchase intention: Effects of electronic service quality and customer green psychology

Abstract

Based on the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) framework, this study investigated the antecedents of green online purchase intention by focusing on the impact of electronic service quality (i.e., firm characteristics) and customer green psychology—green word-of-mouth (WOM), green trust, greenwashing, consumer social responsibility, green perceived value, and green involvement (i.e., customer characteristics). Non-probability samples of 1002 respondents from different Chinese provinces were collected via a questionnaire and the data were analyzed using smart partial least squares (SmartPLS). Results show that e-service quality, consumer social responsibility, green trust, and green perceived value have significant positive impacts, while greenwashing has a negative influence on green purchase intention. Moreover, consumer social responsibility, green WOM, green trust, and green perceived value positively moderated the relationship between e-service quality and green purchase intention, while greenwashing and green involvement negatively moderated these relationships. The findings can enhance the understanding of Chinese customers’ green purchasing behaviors from both firm characteristics (i.e., e-service quality) and customer characteristics (i.e., green psychological variables) and provide guidelines to firms to promote their green products without indulging in greenwashing.