Title: Linking consumers' anticipated guilt to green consumption intention: testing the role of perceived consumer effectiveness and green involvement

Authors: Yingying Li; Dongmei Quan; Hairu Zhang

Addresses: Department of Marketing, School of Business, Qingdao University, Qingdao, Shandong, 266000, China ' Department of Marketing, School of Business, Qingdao University, Qingdao, Shandong, 266000, China ' School of Business, University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (UCASS), Beijing, 100000, China

Abstract: Green consumer behaviour has received increasing attention in recent years, but research offers only limited explanations for the links between consumers' positive attitudes and their behaviour. Drawing from the consumer psychology literature and the theory of cognitive dissonance, we start by the anticipated guilt and highlight the role of perceived consumer effectiveness in the relationship between anticipated guilt and green consumer intention. Based on the hypotheses, we propose a conceptual model of anticipated guilt-green consumer intention link under different green involvement. We test our arguments with the survey data of 435 questionnaires and a structural equation model via Amos software. The results show that consumers' anticipated guilt is positively associated with their perceived effectiveness, and increases green consumption intention through the mediating mechanism of perceived consumer effectiveness. Green involvement negatively moderates the relationship between anticipated guilt and green consumption intention.

Keywords: cognitive dissonance; anticipated guilt; perceived consumer effectiveness; green involvement; green consumption intention.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEP.2020.120175

International Journal of Environment and Pollution, 2020 Vol.68 No.3/4, pp.145 - 161

Received: 22 Oct 2020
Accepted: 23 Feb 2021

Published online: 10 Jan 2022 *

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