Social Media and Impact of Altruistic Motivation, Egoistic Motivation, Subjective Norms, and EWOM toward Green Consumption Behavior: An Empirical Investigation

Abstract

Nowadays, green consumerism is a global trend in the era of the 21st century, prompting businesses to become more environmentally conscious and to build a robust green product range to meet the demands of new customers. This tendency has been aided by social media, which has influenced customers’ buying intentions to be more ecologically responsible. The current study investigates the effects of web-based media on motivation, i.e., egotism and altruism and, subsequently, its effect on the intention of green buying. This paper also attempts to assess the impact of subjective norms on the intention of green buying and, subsequently, its effect on green purchase behavior by incorporating the construct EWOM. Administering the structured questionnaire, 362 young Indian customers’ responses were collected. The Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) approach was applied to test the suggested conceptual model based on empirical research. The findings point to the significance of social media in terms of altruistic motivation, egoistic motivation, and subjective norms, s well as the job of these components as predecessors of green purchasing intention and, subsequently, purchase behavior. The findings also demonstrate the impact of EWOM in influencing buying decisions. The findings of this paper demonstrates that social media, as a well spring of information, contribute pivotal ingredients in the establishment of consumer motivation. These consumer motivations with subjective norms play an essential role in positive green purchase intention. Green buying intention and EWOM had a favorable influence on buying behavior, according to the findings. The findings are important for marketers who would like to improve their social media communication tactics in order to raise customer motivation and buying intention, as well as buying behavior, for green products.