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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Environmental Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1429454
This article is part of the Research Topic Green Lifestyle Transformation in the Digital Era View all articles

How do perceptions of information usefulness and green trust influence intentions toward eco-friendly purchases in a social media context?

Provisionally accepted
Meifen Wu Meifen Wu 1,2Ruyin Long Ruyin Long 3*
  • 1 China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, China
  • 2 Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
  • 3 Jiangnan University, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Drawing upon the stimulus-organism-response framework and incorporating green trust and perceptions of information usefulness, we formulated a model to explore how marketing on social media impacts consumers' intentions towards eco-friendly purchases, using eastern Chinese cities as a case study. The findings indicate that: (1) Marketing on social media significantly boosts intentions for eco-friendly purchases, and green trust positively affects the perceptions of information usefulness. (2) Green trust and perceptions of information usefulness jointly act as mediators between social media marketing and eco-friendly purchase intentions, with green trust exhibiting a stronger effect (0.306>0.122). The multi-group analysis findings indicate significant disparities in several potential pathways as a result of moderating factors such as educational attainment, etc. The benefits are especially apparent in women, people with middle to high incomes, people with intermediate to high levels of education, and people who engage with social media for over three hours per day. Through the effect analysis between marketing on social media, green trust, and perceptions of information usefulness on consumers' intentions towards eco-friendly purchases, this study offers insights to social media platforms, businesses, and policymakers, enabling them to enhance strategies for fostering eco-friendly consumer behavior through social media channels.

    Keywords: Marketing on social media, Green trust, Perceptions of information usefulness, Eco-friendly purchase intention, SOR theory

    Received: 08 May 2024; Accepted: 22 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Wu and Long. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Ruyin Long, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, 214122, Jiangsu Province, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.