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Article

The Influence of Enterprises’ Green Marketing Behavior on Consumers’ Green Consumption Intention—Mediating Role and Moderating Role

by
Shuli Yang
* and
Junwu Chai
*
School of Management and Economics, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sustainability 2022, 14(22), 15478; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142215478
Submission received: 26 October 2022 / Revised: 16 November 2022 / Accepted: 18 November 2022 / Published: 21 November 2022
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Abstract

:
Given the increasingly strained relationship between humans and the environment, green marketing has become a necessity for the sustainable development of society. In this context, this paper seeks to explore the influence of Chinese enterprises’ green marketing behavior on consumers’ green consumption willingness. The current study uses a survey design to collect data from 225 respondents, to analyze the data using SPSS, and to verify them with regression analysis modeling. Results from the analysis indicate that first, enterprises’ green marketing behavior has a positive impact on consumers’ green consumption intention. Consumer perceived effectiveness plays a partial mediating role in the influence of enterprises’ green marketing behavior on consumers’ green consumption intention. Secondly, consumers’ environmental awareness weakens the mediating role of consumers’ perceived effectiveness. Finally, this paper proves two conclusions through two experiments. Compared with symbolic activities, substantive green marketing activities can better promote the positive impact of enterprises’ green marketing behaviors on consumers’ green consumption intention. Compared with the situation without the presence of others, the presence of others can better promote the positive effect of enterprises’ green marketing behavior on consumers’ green consumption intention. Therefore, enterprises should adopt green marketing strategies and give consumers a better perception of their green contribution in the process of participating in green consumption, including taking CSR in environmental education, implementing substantive green marketing activities as much as possible, and optimizing offline sales scenarios so that enterprises can enhance competitiveness and achieve sustainable development.

1. Introduction

Human progress requires both environmental and social improvement to proceed in tandem. Companies that practice green marketing make environmental protection and sustainable development central tenets of their corporate ethos and work to satisfy customers’ demands for “green” products and services. In light of the increasingly strained interaction between human society and ecosystem, the concept of green marketing has emerged as a necessary option for the sustainable development of the 21st century society. According to Peattie [1], “green marketing” is a management process that can make a company more profitable and contribute to the company’s long-term viability through sustainable practices [1]. The green marketing theory advanced due to the environmental movement, and the public has become more aware of environmental issues thanks to green marketing. Consumer needs, social concerns, and the long-term success of businesses are all factors that need to be taken into account by green marketers. For enterprises, the implementation of green marketing is not only a competitive strategy but also a wise strategy for enterprises to achieve sustainable development. First, the existing research on green marketing and green consumption is mostly single and independent, and the specific analysis is less carried out with Chinese enterprises as samples. According to the theory of consumption decision mechanism, consumption intention comes before consumption behavior, and consumer purchase behavior can be effectively reflected through purchase intention, that is, consumers who implement green purchase behavior in real life generally have strong green consumption intention [2]. Therefore, this paper focuses on the research of consumers’ green consumption intention. The variables of consumers’ green consumption psychological characteristics are selected, including consumer perception effectiveness, environmental awareness, and the presence of others. Secondly, based on the current situation of corporate green marketing activities, corporate green marketing behaviors should be carried out to achieve corporate green marketing strategies. Combined with related research on environmental management and existing maturity scales, this paper selects the variable of the type of green marketing activities. Through empirical research, the paper explores the mechanisms and influence of enterprises’ green marketing behavior on consumers’ green consumption intention.
In this study, there are innovations from a research point of view: green marketing and green consumption are two independent pieces of research, starting from the green product demand side (green consumers) to the reverse analysis of the green products supply side (enterprise green marketing behavior), which explores the influence of enterprise green marketing’s internal factors on consumers’ green consumption intention, supplementing the consumer sample data in China. At present there is little research on the type of green marketing activities, the classification or the measurement in the literature at home and abroad on a similar scale, but because of the environment of conveying cultural differences and translation error, it is more difficult to directly measure consumers’ green consumption in China, so this study fully absorbs domestic and foreign research and has proven the maturity scale. A scale of types of corporate green marketing activities was developed based on the actual situation of this study. The research significance aims: to provide enterprises with practice to carry out green marketing advice and inspiration; to guide enterprises in the planning of green marketing strategy closely with consumers’ green consumption intention; to formulate reasonable expectations of green marketing so as to choose better green marketing activities; to be able to realize environmental protection and sustainable development strategy; and to supplement the related research in the field of sustainable marketing in China.

2. Literature Review

2.1. Enterprises’ Green Marketing Behavior

Green marketing’s theoretical roots can be traced back to the 1970s, when the notion of ecological marketing first emerged [3]. Henion proposed “eco-concerned consumers”, which refers to consumers with a higher education level who support organizational policies and advocate for and are willing to take environmental responsibility in the process of consumption [4]. An environmentally friendly market with the participation of marketers and consumers is gradually taking shape. Green marketing has gradually become linked to corporate strategy. Michael believes that green marketing strategy can help enterprises to win competitive advantages [5]. The research related to green marketing theory has been combined with the research in the field of consumption, which reflects the application value of green marketing theory in practice. Ricky Y.K. Chen explored the influence of consumers’ nature orientation, degree of collectivism, ecological impact and ecological knowledge on their green purchasing attitude [6]. Jill’s research suggests that more and more people are willing to pay a premium for green products [7]. Carman discussed whether college students’ intention and behavior to buy green products would be affected by environmental attitude, severity of environmental problems and environmental responsibility [8]. Giannelloni started with a specific industry (hotel industry) to study the impact of green marketing on customer satisfaction [9]. There is some research related to the green supply chain, such as Azadnia’s study of the risk factors of green marketing applied in the supply chain and proposed corresponding risk mitigation strategies [10]. In the study of supply chain management, Zhang proposed that manufacturers and retailers jointly supporting green marketing strategies can improve the total profit of the supply chain [11]. In the 1990s, Chinese scholars believed that green marketing was a kind of operation and management activity in which the participating subjects of market activities fill the market demand according to the principle of green management. To promote sustainable development, it is necessary to take into account the coordination and unity of consumer demand, enterprise economic interests and ecological environment friendliness.
Overall, consumers’ decisions and actions have a significant impact on the success or failure of businesses. Green marketing in China requires a reevaluation of resource development and exploitation as well as an adaptation to local conditions, collaboration between businesses and the government, and shared responsibility. In terms of the current state of green marketing theories, current domestic and international research has focused mostly on definition and connotation, product promotion strategy design, customer decision-making and consumption behavior, and so on. This paper also focuses on the combination of green marketing and consumer behavior, specifically on the analysis of Chinese consumers’ green consumption intention. This paper contends that green marketing is the incorporation of the green environmental protection concept into corporate culture, product design and production, marketing strategy formulation and implementation, sales and after-sales behavior throughout the entire process, in order to meet business goals, social and environmental development goals, and the demand of green consumers and to achieve the long-term development of enterprise comprehensive management activities.

2.2. Consumers’ Green Consumption Intention

American Marketing Association believes that consumer behavior is a process of interaction between multiple factors, including consumers’ feelings, trends, awareness, and external factors [12]. Luo predicted consumers’ green recycling intention through consumer behavior theory, so as to formulate recycling strategies to reduce pollution and improve resource utilization [13]. The relevant research perspectives of consumer behavior are very diversified, which can not only help enterprises to study consumer needs, but also help enterprises to optimize their own products/services, expand market share and obtain more profits. Some scholars also try to combine the theoretical research of consumer behavior with psychology, sociology, macroeconomics, natural ecological protection, smart city and other fields.
When green environmental protection becomes an important part of sustainable development strategy, the consumption field also presents a new look of development. Green consumption supports various green activities and advocates, guides consumers to pay attention to ecology, and implements green purchase behavior from the perspective of environmental protection [14]. Carlson believes that consumers consider the impact of their own behavior on the environment and purchase, use and waste products, which is the embodiment of green consumption. Consumer green consumption behavior refers to the purchase of products/services that meet environmental protection standards or conform to green characteristics [15]. Zhao Zhigeng believes that green consumption is a general term for various forms of consumption activities to reduce resource consumption and maintain ecological health, and constantly promote scientific and technological research and development and environmental protection development of production subjects [16]. Based on psychological theory, Bai Guanglin believed that the constituent factors of green consumption include three indicators: green consumption cognition, green consumption attitude and green consumption behavior [17]. The Chinese Consumers Association points out that consumers are the main body of green consumption activities and developing environmentally friendly consumption habits will play a sustainable role in ecological protection [18].
Consumers’ green consumption behavior does not completely depend on the characteristics of consumer groups, and many external factors will also affect consumer consumption decisions. Wu Bo believes that the core factors affecting consumers’ green consumption are their own factors, external stimulus factors, information transmission factors and green product/service factors [19]. Consumer factors mainly include consumer values, beliefs, standards, attitudes, social norms and beliefs, etc. The main subjects of external stimulus factors are enterprises and governments, and the common intervention includes economic stimulus, information stimulus and promulgating rules and regulations. Information transmission factors refer to effective information transmission, that is, information content, presentation form and communication situation have an impact on consumers’ green consumption. Product/service factors refer to the degree to which the characteristics of products or services are consistent with consumers’ green needs and the difficulty harmless disposal will have an impact on consumers’ green consumption. Combined with many domestic and foreign studies, it is not difficult to find that most of the existing research focuses on the influencing factors of consumer psychological characteristics and consumer demographic variables. Demographic variables are objective factual variables, such as age, gender, education level, income and marital status. The variables of consumer psychological characteristics mainly include consumer environmental awareness, consumer perceived effectiveness, and consumers’ green consumption intention, etc. Green consumption refers to the behavior of consumers to purchase, use and discard products in consideration of green environmental protection [15]. Consumers’ consumption intention for green products reflects consumers’ demand for green products and consumption desire, which is strongly correlated with consumption behavior and can be used as an important indicator to predict actual green consumption behavior [20]. Consumers’ intentions to spend can well explain consumption behavior [21]. This paper believes that consumers’ green consumption intention is the degree of approval of consumers for the implementation of green consumption behavior, so consumption intention is selected as an important reference factor to measure consumers’ consumption attitude and behavior.

2.3. Consumer Perceived Effectiveness

According to the theory of consumer behavior, consumer perceived effectiveness refers to the ideological perception of individual consumers on the effect of their consumption behavior on ecological protection [22]. Consumers’ attitudes and responses to environmental concerns are directly related to their belief that they can make a positive difference in the results of those concerns [23]. Larsson proposed that consumer perceived effectiveness is a new tool to establish consumers’ purchasing attitude and purchase intention toward green products [24]. Ellen concluded that perceived green effectiveness had a positive impact on green trust and green purchase intention [25]. In general, when consumers believe that their green consumption guild is beneficial to environmental protection, the higher their probability of participating in green consumption, and they are more willing to participate in environmental practices [26]. At the same time, green consumption behavior is regarded as a typical behavior that is close to the society [27].

2.4. Consumer Environmental Awareness

Consumers’ adoption of environmentally friendly purchasing practices requires a heightened sensitivity to environmental issues, and persons who have a strong awareness of these environmental issues are more likely to make environmentally responsible purchases. Environmental consciousness shows the collection of thinking, belief and awareness in the process of getting along with ecological nature. Maloney believes that environmental awareness is reflected in three aspects: cognition, emotion and intention [28]. Roszak believes that environmental awareness regards the environment and individuals as the whole of themselves, and not doing behaviors harmful to the environment means not doing behaviors harmful to themselves [29]. Schlegelmilch proposed that environmental awareness can be summarized and reflected by environmental knowledge, environmental attitude and environmental behavior [30]. Environmental knowledge refers to consumers’ understanding and discrimination ability of environmental knowledge. Environmental attitude refers to the degree of agreement that consumers are willing to pay actions or money for environmental activities. Environmental behavior refers to the green consumption experience in which consumers have participated.

2.5. Types of Green Marketing Activities

Regarding the types of enterprises’ green marketing activities, in the field of environmental management research, Berrone divided enterprises’ green marketing activities into substantive activities and symbolic activities. Substantive activities refer to the enterprise’s focus around how its business activities carry out major change and the enterprise’s actual improvement of environmental behavior at a certain time, such as adopting new environmental protection technology, the introduction of environmental production, research and development of environment-friendly green products to provide environmentally friendly new services, increasing the number of disposal of waste equipment, etc. Symbolic activities refer to the fact that enterprises do not transform around their core business but carry out marketing activities that can quickly sort out their environmental image so as to gain the recognition of consumers. For example, carrying out environmental protection knowledge popularization, environmental protection publicity, designing environmental protection committees, applying for green trademarks, participating in environmental protection activities, etc. [31]. Walker believes that substantive environmental activities are enterprises’ implementation of practical ecological environmental protection behaviors. Symbolic environmental activities refer to the fact that enterprises have made environmental protection plans or commitments instead of implementing concrete environmental protection actions [32]. Substantive activities will require enterprises to increase capital, labor and time costs accordingly, carry out major innovations in production management processes, and correspondingly produce greater ecological improvement effects [33].

2.6. Presence of Others

There is a statement in The Prince that “a king must conquer and rule a country in a way that is recognized as glorious”, indicating that individual behavior will be controlled by others’ strategies or political opinions, which has a profound impact on the relevant research in the field of impression management in the later period. Goffman proposed that impression management is a kind of personal behavior with intention and purpose [34]. Baumeister believes that impression management is to establish, maintain or deepen the self-image in the hearts of others through information interaction with others [35]. Schlenker believes that impression management is the process of intentionally or unintentionally manipulating personal image in interaction [36]. Arkin proposed that impression management refers to the process in which individuals affect their image in the minds of others through some behaviors in social interactions [37]. Leary proposed that impression management includes two key factors: impression motivation and impression construction [38]. Impression motivation refers to the intention of individuals to control others’ impressions of themselves, and impression construction refers to the planning of individuals’ operational behaviors for the impressions they hope to leave on others. Based on the impression management theory, Yang explored the influence of corporate brand image on consumers in different purchase stages [39]. Impression management theory has attracted the attention of more and more scholars in sociology, psychology, and other fields. Especially in the field of consumer behavior, impression management has been endowed with a new connotation, and the research includes communication demand, brand preference, product design, consumption scene, consumption intention and other aspects.
The variable of the presence of others first appeared in the research of social psychology, and some representative views in this research field. Zajonc found that the presence of others would improve the personal efficiency of the subjects in completing the task. Therefore, the presence of others was considered as a variable in the field of psychology with research value [40]. In most purchase situations, consumers are often in the presence of other people, such as family members, relatives, friends, peers, shop assistants, bosses, or other customers, which may have an impact on consumers’ consumption intention or behavior [41]. White believed that in the scenario of non-individual purchase, consumers will show stronger purchase intention and action for environmentally friendly or socially beneficial goods in order to show their positive and positive image [42]. To sum up, the situation of the presence of others refers to the consumption scene in which consumers are not present alone when making purchases, and their purchase decisions will be known by others.

3. Research Hypothesis and Model

Based on the above literature review and theoretical research, combined with the research purpose of this paper, the following hypotheses are put forward:

3.1. The Impact of Enterprises’ Green Marketing Behavior on Consumers’ Green Consumption Intention

Green marketing, also known as environmentally responsible marketing, is a method of business management that aims to both increase revenues and ensure the long-term viability of an organization. From a theoretical standpoint, businesses’ green marketing practices should adhere to the principle of minimizing the use of nonrenewable resources, minimizing the pollution caused by the production process, maximizing the longevity of products and services, and adhering to the principle of ecological and environmental friendliness [1]. The implementation of green marketing strategy, the establishment of environmental image and brand culture will have an impact on the repurchase rate of consumers [43]. At the same time, consumers will have certain loyalty to enterprises due to green marketing [44]. The green marketing behavior of enterprises is not only fulfilling environmental protection obligations but also stimulating and satisfying consumers’ green consumption intention, and consumers’ green consumption intention can reflect their desire and demand for green products. Therefore, the marketing and management behaviors of enterprises based on these principles are conducive to environmental protection and will positively affect consumers’ green consumption intention, so the following hypotheses are put forward:
Hypothesis 1 (H1).
Enterprises’ green marketing behavior has a positive impact on consumers’ green consumption intention.

3.2. Mediating Effect of Consumer Perception Effectiveness

Consumer perceived effectiveness refers to individual consumers’ perception of the effect of their consumption behavior on ecological protection [22]. Consumer perceived effectiveness is a kind of feedback behavior, which requires individuals to be stimulated by specific prior behaviors before feedback can be generated. The green marketing behavior of enterprises is a direct and effective stimulus behavior. The greater the stimulus generated by green marketing behavior, the more obvious the effect perceived by consumers. That is, enterprises’ green marketing behavior has a positive impact on consumers’ perceived effectiveness.
In addition, according to Ellen, consumer perceived effectiveness has a positive impact on green purchase intention [25]. Furthermore, consumer perceived effectiveness is the most important construct affecting green purchase intention [45]. When consumers believe that their green consumption association is beneficial to environmental protection, they are more likely to participate in green consumption, that is, the stronger the consumer perception effect is, the stronger the green purchase intention is, and the greater the probability of purchase behavior [14]. Combined with the theory of consumer behavior, consumption intention is generated by the pre-step of consumption behavior, and consumption intention can well explain consumption behavior [21]. To sum up, enterprises’ green marketing behavior has a positive impact on consumers’ perceived effectiveness, and consumers’ perceived effectiveness has a positive impact on green purchase intention. Therefore, this paper proposes the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 2 (H2).
Consumer perceived effectiveness plays a mediating effect in the positive impact of enterprises’ green marketing behavior on consumers’ green consumption intention.

3.3. Moderating Effect of Consumer Environmental Awareness

Research on consumer behavior and psychology shows that consumers’ environmental awareness will exert an effect on their green consumption behavior and attitude [17]. A more positive attitude toward environmental protection means more practical support for environmental action [46]. Individuals with strong environmental awareness will pay more attention to environmental issues, and they are more likely to protect the environment through green consumption [47]. The variable of consumer environmental awareness selected in this paper represents the degree of individual concern for the environment, including environmental knowledge, environmental attitude, and environmental behavior. Combined with relevant research in the field of motivation, internal motivation refers to the motivation that an individual has or is triggered by its own activities, while external motivation refers to the motivation caused by external stimuli or reasons. To a certain extent, the enhancement of an individual’s external motivation will correspondingly weaken the influence of his internal motivation [48]. The strong external motivation will make individuals lose the autonomy of behavior, and the inhibition of internal motivation will weaken the influence of internal motivation on behavior [49]. On the contrary, the enhancement of an individual’s internal motivation will correspondingly weaken the influence of his external motivation. The strong internal motivation will enable individuals to master more autonomy in behavior, thus reducing the influence of external motivation. In this study, the internal motivation is consumer environmental awareness, and external motivation is consumer perceived effectiveness, namely, the individual themself has established environmental consciousness, and the consumer perceived effectiveness by external stimuli caused enterprise green marketing behavior; rather than the environmental consciousness of the individual being strong, the impact of consumer perceived effectiveness will be suppressed. According to Hypothesis 2, consumers enhance perceived effectiveness through enterprises’ green marketing behaviors, thus promoting their green consumption intention, namely, consumer perceived effectiveness plays an intermediary effect. As an internal motivation, consumer environmental awareness will to some extent weaken the positive impact of enterprise green marketing behavior on consumers’ green consumption intention through consumer perception efficacy, so the following hypothesis is proposed:
Hypothesis 3 (H3).
Consumer environmental awareness plays a negative moderating effect in the process of enterprises’ green marketing behavior affecting consumers’ green consumption intention through consumer perceived effectiveness, that is, consumer environmental awareness weakens the mediating role of consumer perceived effectiveness.

3.4. Moderating Effect of the Type of Green Marketing Activities

The green marketing activities of enterprises can be divided into substantive activities and symbolic activities. Substantive activities refer to the behavior that enterprises carry out major changes around their focus business activities and produce actual improvement on the environmental performance of enterprises within a certain period of time. Symbolic environmental activities refer to the publicity activities of non-focus businesses [13]. When faced with the pressure brought by environmental problems, enterprises will be more inclined to choose to implement some symbolic activities in time to ease the fermentation of public opinion so as to recover the negative image in the minds of consumers [50]. It shows that the types of green marketing activities will have an impact on consumers’ psychology and behavior to a certain extent. Moreover, the real motivation behind corporate activities is the key factor affecting consumer evaluation, and consumers will consider the performance of corporate social responsibility when making decisions [51]. If consumers think that the marketing activities carried out by the enterprise are from the perspective of caring for environmental protection, they will have a better impression of the enterprise. Consumers will also judge the environmental sincerity of enterprises through their investment [52]. Compared with symbolic activities, the investment of enterprises in implementing substantive activities is higher, and the environmental protection results are more practical. Although the implementation of symbolic activities by enterprises will attract the attention of consumers in the short term, consumers also know that this is not a sustainable action that can produce long-term environmental effects. Consumers’ psychological evaluation of different types of green marketing behaviors of enterprises will be directly reflected in their purchase intention [53]. Therefore, this paper puts forward the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis 4 (H4).
Compared with symbolic activities, substantive green marketing activities by enterprises can better promote the positive impact of enterprises’ green marketing behaviors on consumers’ green consumption intention.

3.5. Moderating Effect of the Presence of Others

The most important factors affecting consumers’ purchase decisions are determined by the purpose and context in which they purchase goods. Different contexts in which they purchase and use products will produce different purchase behaviors [54]. The presence of others is a situation that can have an impact on purchase behavior. Based on the impression management theory, in the presence of others, consumers will make specific purchase behaviors to control their image in the eyes of others [55]. That is, consumers tend to make behaviors that are conducive to building a positive image in the eyes of others. Compared with the situation of shopping alone, consumers have stronger motivation for impression management when shopping in public places (such as malls and supermarkets) [56]. In the field of green marketing, consumers buying green products is based on altruist thinking, which is a kind of environmental behavior; the environmental protection act is to set up an active and positive personal image in others’ hearts, so the presence of others situation of green consumption would produce a stronger impression management motive than buying alone. Based on the above theory, enterprises’ green marketing behavior has a stronger impact on consumers’ consumption intention in the presence of others, that is, the following hypothesis is put forward:
Hypothesis 5 (H5).
Compared with the situation without others present, the situation with others present can better promote the positive impact of corporate green marketing behavior on consumers’ green consumption intention.

3.6. Research Model

This paper establishes a model to study the influence of enterprises’ green marketing behavior on consumers’ green consumption behavior, as well as the influence process of each variable, as shown in Figure 1:

4. Research Methods and Data Analysis

4.1. Measurement of Variables

In order to ensure the accuracy of variable measurement, this paper mines a large number of relevant domestic and foreign literature, selects the tested measurement items of the maturity scale, refers to and proofreads the translation of the original items in different versions, and complies with the principle of minimizing semantic loss in translation science. Based on this, the existing measurement items have been adjusted, improved, and supplemented by closely combining the research content of this paper; fully considering the cultural environment and practical factors, the first draft of the scale of this study was formed. After the scale-made questionnaire, within a small-scale test, evaluate the rationality of the questionnaire item sets, the number of clarities, and the multi-item rationality of phrase, then test the scenario and fill in the time; repeat the above steps and then make adjustments and improvements on the questionnaire, and finally the scale of this study adopts the questionnaire. Now, the variables and their measurement items are summarized as shown in Appendix A.
The research model in the current study comprises of six variables, each of which is measured with multiple items. In a bid to improve content validity, the scales used in this study were adapted from previous research and tailored to the context of the current study. The questionnaire was first reviewed by two scholars with expertise in the topic under investigation in order to make it “respondent-friendly” and comprehensible. The questionnaire was then revised to reflect the comments and suggestions from these experts. The completed English questionnaire was given to Chinese language experts to translate into Chinese. The completed Chinese questionnaire was independently translated back to English and compare with the original English version to ensure that the intended meaning was not lost during the translation. Moreover, it was stated in the questionnaire that the data were only for academic research. Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study. The items used to assess hedonic and utilitarian value were adapted from the works of Lin and Lu (2015) and Hwang and Griffiths (2017). Satisfaction was also measured with six items derived from Liang et al., (2018). Trust in driver and trust in the platform were measured using items from Hawlitschek et al., (2016). Finally, continuance intention was measured with three items adopted from the study by Bhattacherjee (2001). All items were measured on a 5-point Likert scale (1-strongly disagree; 2-disagree; 3-neither agree nor disagree; 4-agree; 5-strongly agree)

4.2. Design of Questionnaire

The questionnaire is divided into two parts. The first part is to collect objective information of consumers, including demographic information and personal environmental awareness. The second part investigates consumers’ subjective judgment information, including five modules:
The first is the green marketing behavior of enterprises. According to the definition of Peattie from the perspective of principle [4], 11 questions of 4 principles are set to test the approval degree of consumers to the implementation of green marketing behavior of enterprises. The second is the consumer perception effectiveness. Referring to the study of Ellen and Qiu, three items are set to test the degree of consumers’ perception of the impact of their own behaviors on environmental protection. The third is consumers’ green consumption intention. Referring to Chan’s scale [57], a total of three items are set to comprehensively reflect consumers’ green consumption intention from three aspects: “willingness to buy”, “willingness to spend more”, and “willingness to repurchase.” The fourth is the type of green marketing activities. Using the experimental method, the two groups of subjects read different contents, respectively, and there is no difference in the enterprise strength and product quality reflected in the content, but the difference is only in the type of green marketing activities adopted by the enterprise. In addition to answering the intention items after reading the content, five items are also set up to test whether the manipulation test of consumers is successful. Finally, in the presence of others, the situational arousal method was used to set the premise of no difference between products in the reading content. The “presence of others” group asked the participants to imagine the situation as “you and other people (colleagues, friends, family, etc.) go to the public shopping place of supermarkets to buy tissues together”. “No others present” group asked subjects to imagine the situation as “are you ready to buy tissues from the Internet at home alone“, at the same time increased the two item for effective control, namely told “there are other people present” group of subjects they purchase intention scores will be others know, “no others present” group was informed that “this questionnaire is anonymous and not public, only for research purposes. The participants were asked to answer the intention items after reading the content.

4.3. Reliability, Validity, and Correlation Tests

This study adopts the online questionnaire survey method, and a total of 249 questionnaires are collected of which 225 are valid and complete after screening, and the questionnaire survey efficiency is 90%. Among them, as shown in Figure 2, 43% are male, 57% are female, and 93% are aged 18–40. The correlation analysis is used to test the linear relationship between variables. A coefficient between 0.4 and 0.69 indicates that the degree of association is highly correlated, while a coefficient equal to 1 indicates that the degree of association is perfectly correlated. As shown in Table 1, all the factors studied in this paper are significantly correlated. Among them, “consumers’ green consumption intention (Test 1)” refers to the consumption intention data answered by consumers after the situational experiment of green marketing activities, and “consumers’ green consumption intention (Test 2)” refers to the consumption intention data answered by consumers after the situational experiment in the presence of others. In this paper, Cronbach α coefficient is used to measure the reliability of variable questions. The reliability and validity test results are shown in Table 2: the reliability analysis values of each variable question are all greater than 0.7, indicating good reliability. In terms of the validity test of the questionnaire construction, the KMO test and Bartlett’s test of sphericality are firstly applied to the questionnaire. The data show that the KMO is higher than 0.6, and the Bartlett significance reaches the significance level of 0.000, which proves the validity of the scale for factor analysis. Subsequently, through the principal component analysis method, according to the principle of eigenvalue greater than 1, the factors extracted from each scale are consistent with the dimension design of the scale, and the factor loading value of each item is greater than 0.4, and the cumulative variance contribution rate of factors is greater than 50%, which indicates that the structure validity of the scale is good. The Q-Q plot test is used to test the normal distribution of the samples to determine whether the samples can be representative. The data points are uniformly distributed around the y = x curve and all obey the normal distribution.

4.4. Hypothesis Testing

4.4.1. Hypothesis 1 and Hypothesis 2

This paper first uses the linear regression method to test the main effect, and the results show that enterprises’ green marketing behavior has a significantly positive impact on consumers’ green consumption intention (β = 0.865, p < 0.001), that is, H1 is supported. Therefore, enterprises should adopt green marketing strategies to gain the recognition and support of consumers and to promote the occurrence of green consumption behaviors.
On this basis, further research is carried out; according to the mediation research procedure designed by Zhao [58] and the bootstrap method proposed by Preacher and Hayes, model 4 is chosen [59]. (Model 4 is the mediation effect analysis model, set “Model 4” in the mediation analysis plug-in Process). This paper tests the mediating effect of enterprises’ green marketing behavior affecting consumers’ green consumption intention through consumer perception effectiveness. The bootstrap sample size is set to 5000, the bias correction method is used, and 95% confidence interval is selected. The data results show that consumer perceived effectiveness plays a significant mediating effect in the process of enterprises’ green marketing behavior affecting consumers’ green consumption intention; the effect value is 0.3987 (LLCI = 0.2425, ULCI = 0.5665) and does not contain 0. In addition, the direct effect of enterprises’ green marketing behavior on consumers’ green consumption intention is still significant, and the interval (LLCI = 0.3066, ULCI = 0.5931) does not contain 0. This shows that consumer perceived effectiveness plays a partial mediating effect in the process of enterprises’ green marketing behavior affecting consumers’ green consumption intention, that is, H2 is supported. Enterprises’ green marketing behavior causes consumers to have a greater perception of their green contribution in the process of participating in green consumption.

4.4.2. Hypothesis 3

In order to test the moderating effect of consumer environmental awareness on the relationship between enterprises’ green marketing behavior and consumer perceived effectiveness, reference is made to the moderated mediation analysis model proposed by Preacher and Hayes. Choose model 7 [59]. (Model 7 is the moderated mediation analysis model, set “Model 7” in the mediation analysis plug-in Process), the bootstrap sample size is set to 5000, the bias correction method is adopted, and the 95% confidence interval is selected. The data results show that the interval of the mediating effect of consumer perceived effectiveness (LLCI = 0.3264, ULCI = 0.5815) does not contain 0, and the mediating effect is significant, and the effect value is 0.4539. At the same time, the interaction term between enterprises’ green marketing behavior and consumer environmental awareness on consumer green consumption intention is significant, and the interval is (LLCI = −0.0934, ULCI = −0.0171), which does not contain 0; the moderating effect is significant, and the effect value is −0.0516, that is, the moderating effect is negative. This proves that consumer environmental awareness plays a negative moderating effect in the process of enterprises’ green marketing behavior affecting consumers’ green consumption intention through consumer perceived effectiveness, that is, consumer environmental awareness weakens the mediating role of consumer perceived effectiveness, and Hypothesis H3 is supported. In other words, when the individual environmental awareness of the whole society is improved, it is easier for enterprises to directly obtain the support of consumers through green marketing strategy. Therefore, enterprises should take CSR (corporation social responsibility) by increasing environmental education and popularization.

4.4.3. Hypothesis 4

This paper first conducted a manipulation test to examine whether the stimulus content exhibits different forms of environmental activity as expected. In reference to the existing research, this paper uses relevant statements to let the research participants judge the types of green marketing activities after reading the content. The results of data analysis show that participants who read different content properly differentiate between the types of green marketing activities (F (1223) = 9.501, M substantive = 4.00, M symbolic = 3.50, p < 0.001), which means that the manipulation of the types of enterprises’ green marketing activities in this paper is successful.
This paper uses the hierarchical regression analysis method, and the results show that enterprises’ green marketing behavior has a significantly positive effect on consumers’ green consumption intention (β = 0.865, SE = 0.50, t = 17.458, p < 0.001). On the basis of the above, we further explore whether: this effect is moderated by the type of green marketing activities, the main effect of enterprises’ green marketing behavior is significant (β = 0.710, SE = 0.069, t = 10.240, p < 0.001), the main effect of the type of green marketing activities is significant (β = −1.290, SE = 0.413, T = −3.123, p < 0.01), the interaction term between enterprises’ green marketing behavior and the type of green marketing activities is significant (β = 0.327, SE = 0.103, t = 3.172, p < 0.01). This paper uses the hierarchical regression analysis method, and the results show that enterprises’ green marketing behavior has a significantly positive effect on consumers’ green consumption intention (β = 0.865, SE = 0.50, t = 17.458, p < 0.001). On the basis of the above, further explore whether this effect is moderated by the type of green marketing activities, the main effect of enterprise green marketing behavior is significant (β = 0.710, SE = 0.069, t = 10.240, p < 0.001), the main effect of the type of green marketing activities is significant (β = −1.290, SE = 0.413, T = −3.123, p < 0.01), the interaction term between enterprises’ green marketing behavior and the type of green marketing activities is significant (β = 0.327, SE = 0.103, t = 3.172, p < 0.01). The interaction increases the explanatory power ΔR2 = 0.081, and the interaction effect diagram is shown in Figure 3, showing the existence of the interaction. It shows that the type of green marketing activities will effectively strengthen the positive effect of enterprises’ green marketing behavior on consumers’ green consumption intention. Compared with symbolic activity, when the enterprise conducts substantial activities, it can promote the enterprises’ green marketing behavior more positively, affecting consumers’ green consumption intention, namely, hypothesis H4 is supported. This shows that when planning green marketing activities, enterprises should implement substantive green marketing activities as much as possible according to their own situation or budget.

4.4.4. Hypothesis 5

This paper first conducted a manipulation test to examine whether the stimulus content exhibits different forms of environmental activity as expected. Based on referring to the existing research, this paper uses relevant statements to let the research participants judge the situation in which others are present after reading the content. The results of data analysis show that the participants who read different contents make a good distinction between the situations in which others are present (F (1223) = 3.847, M others are present = 1.89, M no others are present = 4.43, p < 0.001), which means that the manipulation of the situations in which others are present in this paper is successful.
This paper uses the hierarchical regression analysis method, and the results show that enterprises’ green marketing behavior has a significantly positive effect on consumers’ green consumption intention (β = 0.219, SE = 0.108, t = 2.026, p < 0.05). On the basis of the above, the main effect of enterprises’ green marketing behavior is significant (β = 0.278, SE = 0.058, t = 4.793, p < 0.001), and the main effect of the presence of others is significant (β = 1.548, SE = 0.068, t = 22.701, p <0.001); the interaction term between enterprises’ green marketing behavior and the presence of others is significant (β = 0.650, SE = 0.116, t = 5.582, p < 0.001), the interaction increases the explanatory power ΔR2 = 0.736, and the interaction effect diagram is shown in Figure 4. This shows that the presence of others will promote the positive effect of enterprises’ green marketing behavior on consumers’ green consumption intention. That is, hypothesis H5 is supported. Enterprises should reasonably and kindly use the influence of the presence of others on consumers’ green consumption intention, optimize offline sales scenarios, and convey the green concepts and green advantages of products in the marketing process.

5. Conclusions and Discussion

This study mainly draws the following conclusions: First, through literature research and empirical research, it is concluded that enterprises’ green marketing behavior has a positive impact on consumers’ green consumption intention. Consumers’ perceived effectiveness is a feedback behavior, and enterprises’ green marketing behavior can affect consumers’ green consumption intention by stimulating consumers’ perceived effectiveness. Secondly, the empirical results of this paper confirm that consumer environmental awareness weakens the mediating effect of consumers’ perceived effectiveness. Finally, this paper proves two conclusions through two experiments combined with empirical analysis. First, compared with symbolic activities, substantive green marketing activities can better promote the positive impact of enterprises’ green marketing behaviors on consumers’ green consumption intention. Second, when consumers make green consumption in the presence of others, they will have stronger impression management motivation than when they buy alone, that is, the presence of others will promote the positive impact of enterprises’ green marketing behavior on consumers’ green consumption intention.
This paper has the following practical significance of management science. (1) Marketers can bravely take the first step according to the actual greening degree and greening goal of enterprises. It is never too late to start to adopt green marketing strategies. The five degrees of corporate greening include representation greening, product greening, marketing function greening, process and policy greening and organization greening, and the difference between these five degrees lies in the different degree of corporate greening investment. Enterprises should first clarify which greening level they are in, then carry out greening behaviors in combination with progressive greening standards, and finally reach the greening degree of the whole organization. (2) The green marketing behavior of enterprises should be closely combined with the 4P theory, stimulating consumers’ perceived effectiveness to the maximum at all levels of product, price, channel, and promotion, make consumers have more perception of their green contribution, so as to enhance more consumers’ green consumption intention. (3) Enterprises should take CSR (corporation social responsibility) by increasing environmental education and popularization, improving individual environmental awareness of the whole society. It will be easier for enterprises to directly obtain the support of consumers through green marketing strategy. (4) Enterprises should implement substantive green marketing activities as much as possible according to their own situation or budget; the correct implementation of substantive activities will certainly provide advantages for the long-term and sustainable development of enterprises. However, in green marketing strategy, if the green investment plan of the enterprise has not yet been systematized, symbolic green marketing activities can be chosen, including applying for a green brand, participating in environmental protection activities, popularizing environmental protection knowledge in activities, improving citizens’ environmental awareness, and deepening the concept of environmental protection within the enterprise, which are a solid foundation to implement a green marketing strategy in the future. (5) Enterprises should reasonably and kindly use the influence of the presence of others on consumers’ green consumption intention, and constantly improve products to maintain competitive advantages.
Therefore, enterprises can start from optimizing marketing scenarios, optimize offline sales scenarios, enhance employees’ service awareness and business skills, convey green concepts and green advantages of products in the marketing process, and constantly improve product upgrading.

Limitations and Directions for Future Research

There are some limitations in this paper. The research questionnaire is mainly collected through online channels, and the limitation of the collection method leads to the relatively concentrated age structure, educational level, and income status of the collection objects. Green marketing has become an inevitable trend for the sustainable development of enterprises and has received more and more recognition from consumers and support from the government. Future research can further explore the psychological mechanism and external influencing factors of the inconsistency between consumers’ green consumption intention and behavior and can discuss the marketing strategies to promote consumers’ green consumption and reduce the phenomenon of inaction.

Author Contributions

S.Y. and J.C. contributed to the conception and design of the study. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by S.Y. The first draft of the manuscript was written by S.Y., and all authors commented on the previous versions of the manuscript. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China (71872028) and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (ZYGX2019F001).

Institutional Review Board Statement

There is no unethical aspect.

Informed Consent Statement

Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

Data Availability Statement

The processed data required to reproduce these findings cannot be shared at this time as the data also forms part of an ongoing study.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Appendix A

Table
Table A1. Summary table of each variable and its measurement items.
Table A1. Summary table of each variable and its measurement items.
PartVariables/MeasuresItem
Part 1Demographic DataGender, Age, Marital Status, Educational Background, Occupation, Personal Disposable Monthly Income
Consumer environmental awarenessEnvironmental knowledge1. What do you know about green products?
2. Which of the following logos is the basis for you to judge green products? (Multiple choices)
Environment attitude3. I am willing to donate one day’s salary to environmental protection organizations to contribute to the improvement of natural ecology;
4. I am willing to refuse to buy non-environmentally friendly goods even though I know it will bring some inconvenience to my current life;
5. I would like to prepare my own eco-friendly shopping bags to go shopping;
6. I am willing to eat out without using disposable tableware and non-degradable plastic packaging consumables, etc.
7. I get very worried when I see information about people who think their ecology is polluted or damaged;
8. I feel worried and anxious about the environmental problems I see with my own eyes;
Environmental behaviorHave you ever purchased green goods or had green consumption behavior?
Part 2Enterprises’ green marketing behaviorReduce the consumption of non-renewable resources1. Companies should reduce their use of non-renewable resources;
2. Enterprises should reduce unnecessary packaging consumables;
Reduce pollution in the production process3. Enterprises should try to use non-toxic and harmless raw materials in the process of production and processing;
4. The residual waste of the products/services provided by the enterprise shall not cause adverse impact on the environment;
Extend the life cycle of products/
services		5. Enterprises should try their best to provide products/services that can be reused;
6. Enterprises should do a good job in the recovery and disposal of waste products;
7. Enterprises should prefer to develop products/services with long service life;
8. Enterprises should preferentially use renewable resources with sufficient stock when producing, processing and providing services.
Follow the ecological environment friendly9. Enterprises should put an end to the abuse of biology as a tool for experiments;
10. Enterprises should make every effort to avoid the adverse impact of their behavior on the living status of other organisms;
11. Any activities of enterprises should not cause serious damage to the national natural environment;
Consumers’ green consumption intention1. I am willing to purchase products/services produced by enterprises that comply with the above principles of conduct;
2. I am even willing to pay more for the production of products/services by enterprises that conform to the above principles of conduct;
3. In the future, I am more likely to purchase the products/services produced by enterprises that conform to the above behavioral principles for many times;
Consumer perceived effectiveness1. I will pay attention to the impact of my purchase behavior on the natural ecology;
2. I believe that my green consumption behavior will contribute to the protection of the ecological environment.
3. I agree that in the process of continuous green consumption, the perception of environmental protection will be more and more effective;
Types of green marketing activitiesSubstantive activities1. This enterprise activity reduces the adverse environmental impact of the production process;
2. The enterprise activity creates new environmentally friendly products/services or reduces the negative environmental impact of existing products/services;
3. The enterprise activity reduces or eliminates the generation of hazardous substances in all stages of production;
4. This enterprise activity is a technological innovation behavior centering on environmental protection and resource conservation;
Symbolic activities5. The enterprise has carried out activities, such as: joining environmental protection organizations, applying for green trademarks, setting up environmental protection committees, and carrying out social publicity.
The presence of others1. I can make my own purchasing decisions without considering the opinions of others;
2. My purchase decision will not be known to others;

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Figure 1. Research model.
Figure 1. Research model.
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Figure 2. The structure of the respondents.
Figure 2. The structure of the respondents.
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Figure 3. Diagram of interaction effect of the type of green marketing activities.
Figure 3. Diagram of interaction effect of the type of green marketing activities.
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Figure 4. Diagram of interaction effect of the presence of others.
Figure 4. Diagram of interaction effect of the presence of others.
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Table
Table 1. Results of correlation analysis.
Table 1. Results of correlation analysis.
EGMBCPECEACGCITGMACGCI
(Test 1)		POCGCI
(Test 2)		EGMB 1
EGMB1-------
CPE0.780 **1------
CEA0.430 **0.442 **1-----
CGCI0.749 **0.761 **0.412 **1----
TGMA−0.4−0.270.141 *−0.0041---
CGCI
(Test 1)		0.749 **0.761 **0.412 **1.000 **−0.0041--
PO−0.4−0.270.141 *−0.0041.000 **−0.0041-
CGCI
(Test 2)		0.143 *0.150 *0.249 **0.176 **0.812 **0.176 **0.812 ** 21
1 EGMB (Enterprises’ Green Marketing Behavior); CPE (Consumer Perceived Effectiveness); CEA (Consumer Environmental Awareness); TGMA (Types of Green Marketing Activities); CGCI (Consumers’ Green Consumption Intention); PO (Presence of Others). 2 Tables may have a footer. ** The correlation is significant at the 0.01 level and * at the 0.05 level.
Table
Table 2. Results of reliability and validity test.
Table 2. Results of reliability and validity test.
VariableItemsFactor LoadingCronbach’s αCumulative% of VarianceKMOBartlett’s Test of Sphericity
Approx. Chi-Squaredfp Value
Enterprises’ Green Marketing Behavior90.4980.92768.52%0.8941830.786550
100.422
110.484
120.516
130.631
140.609
150.66
160.62
170.756
180.674
190.562
Consumer Environmental Awareness50.4030.75675.12%0.732715.5360
60.463
70.487
8a0.706
8b0.844
8c0.646
8d0.775
8e0.6
8f0.633
Consumer Perceived Effectiveness230.6430.93185.22%0.758462.60130
240.645
250.685
Consumers’ Green Consumption Intention200.5870.83175.30%0.694286.09730
210.752
220.646
Types of Green Marketing Activities290.9310.81971.58%0.851973.819100
300.936
310.943
320.942
330.632
Presence of Others370.8180.90280.72%0.6195.0910
380.947
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Yang, S.; Chai, J. The Influence of Enterprises’ Green Marketing Behavior on Consumers’ Green Consumption Intention—Mediating Role and Moderating Role. Sustainability 2022, 14, 15478. https://doi.org/10.3390/su142215478

AMA Style

Yang S, Chai J. The Influence of Enterprises’ Green Marketing Behavior on Consumers’ Green Consumption Intention—Mediating Role and Moderating Role. Sustainability. 2022; 14(22):15478. https://doi.org/10.3390/su142215478

Chicago/Turabian Style

Yang, Shuli, and Junwu Chai. 2022. "The Influence of Enterprises’ Green Marketing Behavior on Consumers’ Green Consumption Intention—Mediating Role and Moderating Role" Sustainability 14, no. 22: 15478. https://doi.org/10.3390/su142215478

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