There is much evidence that consumers' eco-friendly consumption behaviors have changed with the development of the mobile internet economy and social networks.Social commerce, which combines social media and e-commerce, is widely used to promote eco-friendly consumption behavior. However, there has been insufficient empirical research into how technological and social factors affect consumers' ecofriendly behavior in the social commerce context. Taking the "Green Box Area" program based on Alibaba Group's two mobile apps as the research object, this study developed a model that integrated technological and social roles to predict consumers' eco-friendly behavior. Using data from 468 users participating in the "Green Box Area" program, structural equation modeling analysis suggested that technological and social factors are essential predictors of consumers' eco-friendly behavior in both short-term and medium-/long-term models. Furthermore, consumer achievement played a critical mediating role in the causal chain of social factors influencing eco-friendly behavior. Additionally, the findings showed that perceived ease of use and social influence significantly affected short-term but not medium-/long-term eco-friendly behavior. Conversely, social interaction affected eco-friendly behavior only in the medium-/long-term. The results offer implications for policymakers and social commerce practitioners to consider the effective promotion of consumers' eco-friendly behavior.
Despite the broad interest and rapid increase in studying green consumer behaviour (GCB) from a social perspective, related articles have been presented in a piecemeal fashion and have lacked a review of social roles in GCB. Additionally, the research focus may differ from the influence of digital technology. Therefore, this study draws on a review of 439 GCB articles that focus on social roles and utilizes both quantitative and qualitative analyses to provide a general picture of theories, social factors, research topics and topic trends with a specific emphasis on the research differences between the traditional and digital contexts. The findings indicate that the GCB field has experienced exponential growth since 2014. Subjective norms, social influence, culture, marketing influence and social media influence are the main drivers of GCB. Eight research topics are identified, among which topics on the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and the theory of consumption values (TCV) maintained high popularity. Furthermore, the TPB is more prevalent in the traditional context in which scholars prefer to predict GCB using macrosocial factors, such as policy and culture. In comparison, signal theory and commitment‐trust theory have received more attention in the digital context in which trust is vital. Research interests in online platforms and green hotels have recently increased in the digital context. Gaps and suggested directions for future studies are further identified.
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