The Role of Self-Construal Level in the Relationship between Norms and Pro-environmental Consumer Behavior: A Cross-Country Comparison: An Abstract

Abstract

The relationship between social norms and pro-environmental consumer behavior is well established, but what moderates this norm-sustainability relationship is much less clear. Previous studies reported inconclusive results regarding the effects of self-construal. We propose that these discrepancies in research findings on the role of self-construal in norm-sustainability result from differences in their cultural settings and research foci. As social norms originate from culture and the dominance of the activated self-construal level (i.e., independent vs. interdependent) differs between individualistic and collectivistic cultures, we believe that more attention should be given to cultural differences when utilizing normative appeals to motivate pro-environmental behavioral intentions of consumers. Hence, to clarify the discrepancies in previous research, we test and compare the effect of independent and interdependent self-construal on the norm-sustainability relationship in two countries, the United States and China. The findings of this paper provide insights into the importance of descriptive and injunctive normative appeals in relation to the activated self-construal level. The quantitative results demonstrate that descriptive normative appeals are a stronger motivator of pro-environmental behavioral intentions of more independent consumers in both countries. Moreover, our findings reveal that the importance of injunctive appeals in combination with the activated level of the self differ between the two countries in our study. More precisely, while injunctive normative appeals motivate pro-environmental behavioral intentions of independent consumers in the United States, we only find significant effect of injunctive norms in combination with the activation of interdependent self-construal in China. Our results are important from a theoretical perspective in that they improve the understanding of the effects of social norms on pro-environmental behavior. From a managerial perspective, we demonstrate how to best utilize injunctive and descriptive normative appeals to motivate pro-environmental behavioral intentions of more independent compared to more interdependent consumers in different cultures. Finally, the study also identifies some promising new research avenues.