Do Attitude and Subjective Norm Mediate the Relationship Between Social Media e-WOM and Green Purchase Intention? An Empirical Investigation Using PLS-SEM
Authors: Parveen Afsa , Chaudhary Rashmi 
Published: January 2025

Executive Summary

Social media has enabled a diverse change in communication methods across the globe. Numerous people seem to think electronic word of mouth (e-WOM) on social media is a reliable source of product knowledge, and users also share information about green products on this platform. Due to the upsurge of environmental issues, researchers have specifically focused on examining the purchase intention of green cosmetics. The primary purpose of current research is to investigate the impact of social media e-WOM adoption on green purchase intention. To accomplish this purpose, the impact of perceived e-WOM usefulness, trust and perceived e-WOM credibility is examined on e-WOM adoption by consumers. Afterwards, the influence of e-WOM adoption is examined on green purchase attitude and subjective norms. Then, the impact of attitude, subjective norm and e-WOM adoption on green purchase intention is investigated. With this, green purchase attitude and subjective norm are investigated as the mediating variables between e-WOM adoption and green purchase intention. Lastly, the effect of age and gender are investigated as control variables on purchase intention. To accomplish the existing study, the theory of reasoned action (TRA) for green purchase and the information adoption model (IAM) for e-WOM adoption are combined. The questionnaire method is used. Statements of all constructs are adapted from previous literature in which statements of perceived e-WOM usefulness and perceived e-WOM credibility are adapted from Tien et al. (2019) and those of trust are adapted from Farzin and Fattahi (2018) . Statements of e-WOM adoption are adapted from Kala and Chaubey (2018) ; green purchase attitude and subjective norm are from Paul et al. (2016) ; and green purchase intention is adapted from Erkan and Evans (2016) . The data have been collected from 228 respondents from Northern India. Partial least square–structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) is used to analyse data. After applying PLS-SEM, results revealed that perceived e-WOM usefulness and trust have a significant positive influence on e-WOM adoption, whereas e-WOM credibility has no significant impact on e-WOM adoption. Results also show that e-WOM adoption has a significant positive influence on green purchase attitudes and subjective norms. Green purchase attitude, e-WOM adoption and subjective norms have a significant positive influence on green purchase intention. Outcomes also revealed that partial mediation of green purchase attitude and subjective norm exist between e-WOM adoption and green purchase intention. Control variables (age and gender) have no significant influence on green purchase intention. Consumers are undoubtedly technology-oriented today, so they use social media to share information about green cosmetics. Since the study is related to environmental preservation (focusing on the purchase intention of green cosmetic products), it therefore has implications for the environment as well as for marketers of green cosmetic products.