Contextual Determinants Of Green Consumption:The Effects Of Time-of-day And Message Matching

Green consumer behavior has received tremendous attention from the whole society in recent years.It is imperative to better motivate consumers to engage in green consumer behaviors.The prior literature has examined many determinants influencing green consumer behaviors from different theoretical perspectives.However,there still exists two main limitations in previous researches.First,the unique characteristic of green consumer behavior is neglected in prior studies.Views of green consumer behaviors often implys putting aside wants that are relevant to the self and prioritizing and valuing entities that are outside of the self.But the most theoretical background used in previous researches only apply to the consumer behaivors that the trade-off is only about self.Second,most determinants of green consumer behaviors in prior literature are related to endogenetic factors of consumers or products.However,the impacts of important contextual factors remain largely ignored.Thus,how do contextual factors affect green consumer behaviors?What are the underlying mechanisms of these impacts?Based on the research background and research gaps,this dissertation investigates the effects of two contextual factors on green consumer behaivors(time-of-day and message matching).Furthermore,this dissertation examines the underlying mechanisms of these effects.Specifically,first,based on the lens of self-control,research 1 conjectures that people’s self-control strength will become lower over timeof-day due to activities throughout the day.Consequently,consumers will become less likely to engage in green consumer behaviors.In Research 1,three studies,including an econometric analysis using real retailing transaction data,a natural experiment in a supermarket,and a laboratory experiment are designed to examine the impacts of timeof-day on green consumer behaviors and the role of self-control strength.The empirical results of research 1 support the hypotheses and suggest that consumers will become less and less likely to engage in green consumer behaviors over time-of-day,and selfcontrol strength performs mediating effect in the relationship.Second,research 2 investigates the effects of message matching between reference point and message framing in green appeals on green consumer behaviors.Specifically,research 2 proposes that compared to other matching,when the message related to self conbined with negative message,the message ralted to others conbined with positive message,the green marketing messages are more likely to encourage consumer to engage green behaviors.Further,based on the lens of anticipated guilt and perceived efficacy,research 2 conjectures and examines that when the message relate to the self is matching negative message framing and the message related to others is matching positive message framing,the performance of green appeals will be better than other matching methods.This is because the former message matching can increase anticipated guilt of consumers and thus lead to higher willingness of green consumer behaivors.While the latter matching can increase perceived efficacy of consumers and consequentily increase the intentions of green consumer behaviors.Five studies are designed and conducted to examine these hypothese.Overall,the research findings of this dissertation make several contributions.First,the research sheds light on contextual factors of green consumer behaviors,which expands the literature of drivers of green consumer behaviors.Second,the research deepens understanding the underlying mechanism of the effects of contextual factors,contributing the research stream of mechanism study in green consumer behaviors.Finally,these findings have important implications for marketing practice.