The Green Frontier of Mobile Applications in Improving Recycling Consumers’ Behavior

Abstract

In this article, we provide a new insight into overcoming resistance to emerging green technologies through mobile app users' environmental engagement. The use of a mobile recycling application is evaluated with regard to its media richness with a sample of 12 539 users in Italy. The research is developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, at a time when users have become more environmentally conscious and aware of plastic pollution. This time period has also seen an increase in the use of mobile applications, which provide social engagement and other benefits. Although it has encouraged new research on recycling behavior and how environmental messages are spread, as far as we know, no research has included a specific technology, such as mobile applications. Through the lens of consumer social media engagement behavior, it has emerged that media richness has a positive correlation with user engagement and recycling behavior. Theoretically, the research offers a novel technological tool worthy of further exploration in the fields of management and engineering. New practical insights are offered in terms of best practices for strengthening the relationships between companies and their clients. As users become more accustomed to social technologies, those technologies may help to establish responsible consumption patterns.