Merging the Social Influence Theory and the Goal-Framing Theory to Understand Consumers' Green Purchasing Behavior: Does the Level of Sensitivity to Climate Change Really Matter?

Xianchuan Yang,Yafen Tseng,Beyfen Lee

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.766754

Abstract

This study explored the formation of consumers’ green purchasing behavior (GPB) and investigated the moderating effect of sensitivity to climate change (SCC) to address this current knowledge gap. An integrated model merging the Social Influence Theory and the Goal-framing Theory was developed with the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) paradigm. An empirical study was conducted, surveying 583 respondents and analyzing the questionnaire results using structural equation modeling. The results show that media, family, and peer influence (PEI) can effectively activate the consumers’ goal frames. Hedonic and normative goals had significant positive influences on GPB, while gain goals had no significant effect. SCC was found to significantly moderate social influence on GPB through the consumers’ goal frames. This research provided strong empirical support on understanding the relationship between social influence and GPB through three goal frames. In addition, the potential differences of the GPB formation process in two subgroups (high SCC and low SCC) are also investigated. The results of this study can help green practitioners develop more effective marketing strategies and incentives targeted to consumers with varying levels of environmental consciousness or sensitivity.

Highlights

Given mounting environmental challenges, people have increasingly become more mindful of environmental concerns (Liu et al, 2016; Wang Y. et al, 2019) and the importance of prioritizing sustainable development (Hosta and Zabkar, 2021)
The results suggest that the influence of family influence (FAI) on hedonic goal frames (HGFs) and normative goal frames (NGFs), peer influence (PEI) on NGF, and gain goal frames (GGFs), HGF, and NGF on green purchasing behavior (GPB) varied significantly for the upper and lower sensitivity to climate change (SCC) groups
This research is one of the few studies integrating Social Influence Theory with the Goal-framing Theory based on the S-O-R model

Summary

Introduction

People have increasingly become more mindful of environmental concerns (Liu et al, 2016; Wang Y. et al, 2019) and the importance of prioritizing sustainable development (Hosta and Zabkar, 2021). Green consumption has become an important issue for governments, businesses, and consumers (Ge et al, 2020), as about 40% of environmental deterioration can be traced directly from residential non-green consumption (Moon et al, 2019). Many still do not practice green purchasing behaviors (GPBs), especially among apathetic consumers. While most governments are dedicated to green market development, Consumers’ Green Purchasing Behavior environmental governance efficiency in the green market is significantly mired by numerous barriers (Carrington et al, 2010; Tu et al, 2020). Green consumption barriers are making green marketing strategies come to nothing (Chen et al, 2020). Dealing with barriers to GPB is crucial to achieving environmental consumption and long-term sustainable development (Yang and Zhang, 2020)

Methods

Results

Conclusion