The Impacts of Pro-environmental Values and Knowledge on Aviation Voluntary Carbon Offsetting: A Mainland China Study

Abstract

ABSTRACT Voluntary Carbon Offsetting (VCO) scheme is an imperative part of airlines’ practice to mitigate carbon emission problems. While previous studies have explored numerous factors influencing air travelers’ participation, the mechanism of how general value systems impact specific VCO behaviors still remains unclear. Meanwhile, the VCO research and practice are still scant in mainland China which carries the world’s second-largest air passengers. Thereby, this study sets out to investigate how Chinese air passengers’ pro-environmental values affect their VCO participation willingness and proposes the aviation and VCO knowledge to be a mediating factor in this process. By exploring the structural equation model, the relationships among the pro-environmental values, aviation, and VCO knowledge, and VCO participation intention are confirmed. Then, the indirect effect of aviation and VCO knowledge from non-egoistic value orientations to the VCO participation is verified. This research expands extant studies into the mainland China context and suggests one’s value system as an initial factor influencing the VCO participation behaviors. Based on the findings, some practical suggestions are also presented.