Impact of Social Media on Young Generation’s Green Consumption Behavior through Subjective Norms and Perceived Green Value

Abstract

In response to the dramatic increase in social media usage among the young generation, the patterns of manufacturing and consumption have changed. Social media has altered the green consumption market and completely changed consumer psychology and attitude. The influence of social media on the younger generation’s behavior regarding green consumption through subjective norms and perceived green value is hardly discussed in the earlier literature with special reference to China. This study has the objective to explore the impact of social media on the green purchase intentions of young people in the presence of subjective norms and perceived green value. A survey of 303 young people in China is conducted and multiple statistical techniques are applied to determine the reliability and validity of the data such as the Fisher F test, White’s test, the Durbin–Watson test, the Shapiro–Wilks test, and confirmatory factor analysis. The mediating impact of the variables are explored through the bootstrap method and multiple regression is applied for finding the relationship among dependent and independent variables. The findings of this study reveal that information shared on social media has a positive relationship with green consumption among the younger generation in China. In addition, perceptions about green environment and “subjective norms” have a strong mediating impact on increasing the intentions of consumers for purchasing of green products. Moreover, the occupation of consumers also has a mediating role in moderating the subjective norms regarding green consumption. The findings of the study have theoretical contributions as well as practical implications. It is found that social media has a stimulus role for green consumption among the younger generation to devise their subjective norms and perceptions. The practical implications of the present findings are helpful for policy makers to understand how social media is effective in combatting environmental deterioration in the context of China’s recent economic expansion. The future research may be extended through a splitting sample considering the location of respondents and in terms of responses’ quartiles.