The performance of green communication across social media: Evidence from large‐scale retail industry in Italy

Abstract

Social media have surged prominently as communication channels for corporate social responsibility. However, little is still known about the performance of green versus non‐green communication across different social media. We contribute by examining whether the presence of green features in social media communication exerts a beneficial effect on consumer response in terms of likes, comments, and shares. We also investigate how this effect hinges upon the social media platform where the content is posted as well as the richness of the format (text, photos, videos) utilized for the diffusion. To our scopes, we use an ad hoc dataset of posts of two major large‐scale retailers in Italy across three major social media, namely Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Our results show that, while green content generally stimulates larger response than non‐green content, its effect varies across social media, with the highest effect being observed on Instagram (at least for likes) and the lowest on Twitter (at least for comments). Moreover, the extent to which the positive effect of green content increases as media richness increases (i.e., moving from only text to text plus photo, and then to text plus video) is also contingent upon the social media platform. On Facebook, the moderation of media richness is positive and significant, while being insignificant on Instagram. On Twitter, the moderation is even nonmonotonic in the sense that the highest (positive) effect of green content tends to be obtained for either low or high media richness. Our findings offer remarkable implications for firms engaging in environmental sustainability.

How green social network affordances enhance pro‐environmental behaviour?

“…The other significant finding from the analysis is that the indirect effect of green social endorsement on PEB through collective intention is relatively more significant for individuals with high perceived emotional value than for individuals with high perceived informational value (see Table 10). This can be justified by recent research that associates social endorsement cues (e.g., likes) with emotional values (Crapa et al, 2024; Thai & Wang, 2020) and advocates the significance of emotional value in generating real green behaviours.…”

Pouco Instagramável: A Sustentabilidade na Comunicação Digital da Moda Autoral Portuguesa

“…It is important to highlight the social network Instagram for its strong relationship with the fashion business: the most effective channel in brand communication in the sector (Pittman & Reich, 2016;Yoo, 2023). Due to its focus on the creation of images and videos (Crapa et al, 2024), this platform attracts fashion producers when establishing their marketing communication activities, from fast fashion to luxury brands (Yoo, 2023). Guided by a strong visual component and a diminishing reliance on textual descriptions, Instagram seems to be the perfect digital space to promote the industry (Park et al, 2021).…”