Journal of Cleaner Production 267 (2020) 122053

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Cleaner Production

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jclepro

Green purchase intention: Effects of electronic service quality and

customer green psychology
Wasim Ahmad 1, Qingyu Zhang 1, *
College of Management, Research Institute of Business Analytics and Supply Chain Management, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Based on the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) framework, this study investigated the antecedents of
Received 16 July 2019 green online purchase intention by focusing on the impact of electronic service quality (i.e., firm char-
Received in revised form acteristics) and customer green psychologydgreen word-of-mouth (WOM), green trust, greenwashing,
22 April 2020
consumer social responsibility, green perceived value, and green involvement (i.e., customer character-
Accepted 2 May 2020
istics). Non-probability samples of 1002 respondents from different Chinese provinces were collected via
Available online 11 May 2020
a questionnaire and the data were analyzed using smart partial least squares (SmartPLS). Results show
Handling editor: Charbel Jose Chiappetta that e-service quality, consumer social responsibility, green trust, and green perceived value have sig-
Jabbour nificant positive impacts, while greenwashing has a negative influence on green purchase intention.
Moreover, consumer social responsibility, green WOM, green trust, and green perceived value positively
Keywords: moderated the relationship between e-service quality and green purchase intention, while greenwashing
Electronic service quality and green involvement negatively moderated these relationships. The findings can enhance the un-
Consumer social responsibility derstanding of Chinese customers’ green purchasing behaviors from both firm characteristics (i.e., e-
Green psychological variables
service quality) and customer characteristics (i.e., green psychological variables) and provide guidelines
Green purchase intention
to firms to promote their green products without indulging in greenwashing.
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction corresponding policies (Ramayah et al., 2010). The promotion of

Opportunities for online shopping have been increasing as the
Internet’s user base grows (Kabir and Musibau, 2018). Improved
online technologies encourage companies to offer their products
and services online. Web-based shopping has become the new
channel for the relationship between companies and customers. E-
commerce is growing rapidly in China, and online trading com-
panies compete to attract and retain consumers as online sales
continue to grow (Bardasco San Jose
, 2016). Online platforms have
enhanced the price awareness of modern consumers, and busi-
nesses are becoming more consumer focused and are using con-
sumer insights to influence purchase intention and maintain
market profitability.
In the last decade, an increase in global consumption has
contributed toward the depletion of natural resources, and caused
serious environmental damage (Chen, 2010). Developed nations
have long been considering the adverse effects of consumption on
the environment and the resulting economic impacts and
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: q.yu.zhang@gmail.com (Q. Zhang).
1
Both authors contributed equally.
green purchasing behavior has become a critical step in the green
campaign of these nations. Green consumption offers consumers
an opportunity to guard against the calamitous crises of global
warming (Suki and Suki, 2019), thereby increasing their con-
sciousness toward the environment (Zhang et al., 2018). Today,
many consumers prefer green products and see it as an efficient
way of protecting nature (Juvan and Dolnicar, 2017). The green
product trend is evolving into a subculture. Previously considered
as simple and economical organic goods, green products have
become a sign of both prestige and luxury today. This consumer
preference has compelled companies to develop and adopt green
strategies to produce goods and services that can promote them as
socially and environmentally responsible organizations.
Owing to its popularity, green consumption has emerged as one
of the leading trends in academic and policy discussions on the
environmental impacts of consumption (Souri et al., 2018). Joshi
and Rahman (2016) reveal that while the green buying behavior
of consumers in developed markets has been exhaustively studied,
it has not been well explored for emerging Asian economies where
the awareness about green products is low among consumers.
Consumers’ understanding of the concept of green products and
the environmental factors influencing its production has still not
matured, and this is reflected in their buying behaviors. As one of

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.122053
0959-6526/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
2 W. Ahmad, Q. Zhang / Journal of Cleaner Production 267 (2020) 122053
the fastest growing economies in Asia, China faces this challenge.
Therefore, requisite strategies have been tested and implemented
to counter this problem.
The extent to which customers buy green products depends on
both firm characteristics (e.g., service quality) and customers’
psychological characteristics. First, we examine the initiatives that
can be implemented by firms to advance green purchasing. Previ-
ously, manufacturing firms focused only on producing good quality
products, and all other things (e.g., whether customers buy them or
not) depended on the market. The service factory concept was
introduced when Chase and Garvin posited that “the service tasks
of the business can no longer be separated neatly and sequentially
from the work of the factory” (1989, p. 69). In order to seize pro-
ductive opportunities involving the production of technical com-
ponents, manufacturing firms consider transitioning to a service
model. Currently, manufacturers focus on service quality as a
strategic component and a part of extended producer re-
sponsibility. Customers make tough demands regarding products
and services and engage in price and product- and service-quality
comparisons when making purchase decisions. Against the back-
drop of changing production scenarios, the frequent consumer
demand for personalizing service quality increases complexities for
producers.
Service quality has assumed an integrative roledit is contrib-
uting toward the coexistence of production and marketing func-
tions on the premise of what is demanded by the customer and
how the firm achieves it (Christopher et al., 1991). To gain a better
understanding of the emerging service requirements, firms should
constantly interact with clients, increase service customization, and
increase the involvement of clients in the sourcing and procure-
ment processes. Consumers are deemed as critical co-producers
(Chase and Garvin, 1989). Practices that contribute toward the
successful accomplishment of co-production activities have been
evolving in the online domain, with an emphasis on electronic
service (e-service) quality. E-service quality is an integral part of
manufacturing in the Internet age since it is closely associated with
the notion of eco-efficiency where consumers’ consumption is not
green products per se, but the utility, function, and services that
both those products and the website deliver (Zarei et al., 2019). E-
service is inherently clean and a value-added layer dwelling upon
material-intensive activities. Online services rely on Internet and
information technologies to dematerialize or supplant products, in
some ways, by reducing travel and transport of physical products
with accurate information (Chang et al., 2009). E-service
improvement can cause less environmental problems than
manufacturing (Hussain, 2014). Khan et al. (2018) considers e-ser-
vice quality an important driver for success, and Zeithaml (2000)
finds it more essential than low prices.
Concerning green purchasing behavior, customer’s psychologi-
cal characteristics might significantly contribute toward green
purchasing. As per Chen and Chang (2012), green perceived value is
consumers’ evaluation of a product and service based on their eco-
friendly aspirations, green needs, and sustainable expectations. In
this context, companies are becoming increasingly concerned with
maintaining consumers’ green trust due to stricter environmental
policies and environmentalism. Developing green trust is also
becoming important in a scenario wherein certain companies are
engaging in greenwashing through their extravagant claims
regarding the ecological performance of their products (Delmas
and Burbano, 2011). Customers may also take green marketing
campaigns as greenwashing if they find a firm’s promise to suggest
more of an ecological advantage than they actually deliver (Dahl,
2010). In such scenarios, firms can resort to word-of-mouth
(WOM) as it facilitates oral communication among customers and
different parties, people, channels, producers, professionals,
friends, or families. However, the way consumers respond to these
messages depends on their green involvement. Green involvement
is referred to as the degree to which a consumer attaches relevance
to an attitude object. People with different involvement levels
process arguments about the attitude object differently; this
involvement determines the impact of the arguments on the con-
sumers and, in turn, their behavioral intent (Cornelis et al., 2014).
In the previous studies on green purchase intention, most re-
searches focus on the product attributes (e.g., healthy features) or
customer attributes, and no research focuses on the firm attributes
(e.g., e-service quality) (Zarei et al., 2019). This investigation aims to
analyze the direct impact of e-service quality and the direct and
moderating effects of green WOM, green trust, green perceived
value, greenwashing, consumer social responsibility, and green
involvement on green purchase intention on the online platform.
This investigation adopted the stimulus-organism-response (SOR)
framework to examine the above relationships. The SOR is
frequently used to understand the relationships between the
stimuli received by the people (S) and their inner assessments (O)
and reactions (R) (Mehrabian and Russell, 1974). This framework
has been employed to examine the website stimuli of experience
(Mollen and Wilson, 2010), advertising (Olney et al., 1991), and
different areas of customer behavior (Rose et al., 2012). The appli-
cation of SOR in this study will furnish a better comprehension of
the impact of both firm and customer characteristics on green
purchase intention. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first
study investigating the direct effect of firm characteristics (i.e., e-
service quality) and direct and moderating effects of customer
characteristics (i.e., green psychological variables) on green pur-
chase intention.
2. Literature review and theoretical framework
2.1. SOR framework
The theoretical model (Fig. 1) draws upon the SOR framework by
Mehrabian and Russell (1974), wherein stimuli influences a cus-
tomer’s emotional state and determines their behavior. The stimuli
were categorized by a series of features that influence consumers’
perceptions (Zhang and Benyoucef, 2016). The inner procedure
between the stimuli and the consumers’ response is referred to as
the prevailing organism and comprises of perceptual, physical,
emotional, and philosophical activities (Bagozzi, 1986). The reac-
tion comprises of the ultimate result required by the company. The
framework suggests that people respond to the climate in three
phasesdwhen they are exposed to an ecological stimulus (S), when
inner assessments (O) are constructed, and when these evaluations
trigger responses (R). The relationship between the stimuli and the
reactions is mediated by internal evaluations (Su and Swanson,
2017).
Concerning online green purchases, the stimulus represents the
e-service quality environment as it influences consumers’ internal
evaluations. Gupta et al. (2019) applied trust as an internal state
variable to explore the relationship between e-service and behav-
ioral intention. Liu et al. (2012) used involvement as an internal
state variable, and Wu and Li (2018) selected green perceived value
as an internal state element. This study uses green WOM, green
trust, consumer social responsibility, greenwashing, green
perceived value, and green involvement as internal evaluation
variables. Briefly, the e-service quality of the company (stimuli)
provokes the customers’ intrinsic assessments of green WOM,
green trust, consumer social responsibility, greenwashing, green
perceived value, and green involvement (organisms), which, in
turn, affects green purchase intention (responses).
 W. Ahmad, Q. Zhang / Journal of Cleaner Production 267 (2020) 122053
Fig. 1. The conceptual model of the research.
2.2. Green purchase intention
Scholars, by navigating the purchasing process, found one of the
pillars that make the whole process of buying to be purchase
intention (Prentice et al., 2019). Several variables containing beliefs,
values, needs, knowledge, motivation, demographic characteristics,
and attitudes have been identified as essential when examining a
consumer’s green purchase intention (Bui, 2005). It is hypothesized
as the likelihood and desire of an individual to prioritize green
products over other non-green products when making a purchas-
ing decision (Newton et al., 2015). During the assessment phase,
customers identify their need for a product, which determines their
purchase decisions (Kotler et al., 2006). Purchase intention is crit-
ical to forecasting customer behavior (Newberry et al., 2003). It is
customary to use the measure of purchase intention as a proxy for
actual purchase behavior (Carrington et al., 2010). Although pur-
chase intention has been studied in different contexts, no research
has been done on green purchasing intention (Zhang et al., 2018).
Therefore, our research fills this gap.
2.3. Electronic service quality
E-service quality refers to consumers’ assessment and judge-
ment of the quality of e-service provided in the virtual environ-
ment (Santos, 2003). Since the expansion of the Internet,
numerous companies have adopted multichannel policies for
operations and marketing. These companies have added online
services and stores to their channels of operations (Hung, 2017). In
this regard, it must be noted that service quality plays a crucial
role in e-commerce; it is defined as customers’ long-term evalu-
ation of a service provider’s performance (Wu and Li, 2018).
Evaluating service quality is more problematic than evaluating
product quality. The perception of service quality is obtained by
comparing customers’ expectations with the performance of
existing services and subsequently by assessing the quality of
service outcomes and the process of service provision (Roses et al.,
2009). Hence, firms offering green products online rely on
providing high quality services to their web customers to ensure a
3
consistent and satisfactory experience in their green e-retail
outlets.
Based on the new definition, e-service quality depends on the
consumers’ perception of the quality of services delivered, the
service quality in the face of difficulties, and the degree of con-
sumer satisfaction (Zarei et al., 2019). Chang et al. (2009) used
fulfillment, privacy, efficiency, and system availability to measure e-
service quality. Hussain (2014) reported that e-service quality in-
cludes the following dimensions: Achievement, attractiveness,
trust, attributes, structure, accountability, reliability, popularity,
probability of saving information, customization, integration and
system safety, empathy, distinction of product/service, information,
and web store strategies. Unlike traditional offline trade channels,
the Internet allows a comparison between multiple product fea-
tures such as price, technical features, and quality, and thereby
helps consumers differentiate between products. Hence, customers
prefer online services (Santos, 2003).
By incorporating different conceptualizations, this study in-
cludes the following dimensions of e-service quality of green
products: Fulfillment, efficiency, reliability, privacy, information
quality, environmental sustainability features, and user friendli-
ness. Fulfillment refers to delivering the promised services, having
products in stock, and timely delivery of products (Chang et al.,
2009). Efficiency is the ability of customers to get to the website,
finding their desired product and information associated with it,
and checking out with minimal effort (Hussain, 2014). Reliability
represents the ability of the web site to fulfill orders correctly,
deliver promptly, and keep personal information secure (Kim and
Lee, 2002). Privacy refers to the assurance that shopping behavior
data are not open and that credit card information is secured
(Chang et al., 2009). Information quality is defined as the worth or
ultimate value embedded in the information content on green
goods (Xu et al., 2013). It assesses the level of utility of the infor-
mation content is instrumental in achieving a specific objective
such as conciseness, relevancy, completeness, and currency. Envi-
ronmental sustainability features are often determined through the
carbon footprint of a certain service. It is also interesting to note
that individual customers lack formal mechanisms to verify claims
4 W. Ahmad, Q. Zhang / Journal of Cleaner Production 267 (2020) 122053

of environmental friendliness made by the producers, besides found that an increase in the total number of ratings and online
relying on eco-label programs (Li and van’t Veld, 2015). Eco-label reviews on products provided extra support for consumer purchase
programs increase e-service quality, thereby increasing green intention. When customers are unfamiliar about the ingenuity of
buying intent. E-service quality can be seen as the informational the green products, companies with a worthy green WOM are ex-
content embodied in the product (e.g., eco-label) and website (e.g., pected to win customer trust and increase their green purchase
friendly, reliable, high-quality information, efficient). These seven intention (Zhang et al., 2018).
dimensions in concert enables customers to easily find relevant,
Hypothesis 2. Green WOM is positively related to green purchasing
trustful, and reliable information (e.g., eco-label), compare green
intention.
vs. non-green products efficiently, fulfill orders effortlessly, and
thus customers are more likely to buy the green products. The
friendliness and richness of the digital resource on the website
2.5. Green trust
ensures the fulfillment of various needs, intensifying the cus-
tomers’ green buying intentions. Better e-service leads to a positive
Consumer trust is recommended as a dominant and significant
behavioral intention and increases the frequency of customers’
factor in the manufacturing of green products (Dutta and Bhat, 2016).
visiting to the store website (Mummalaneni et al., 2016).
The end users of these products will buy them only if they perceive the
Hypothesis 1. E-service quality is positively related to green operations performed by producers and all the stakeholders of the
purchasing intention. supply chain as credibledconsistent with all the sustainable attri-
butes of their products (Chard et al., 2013). As defined by Chen (2010),
green trust is the extent of consumers’ reliance on a certain object;
2.4. Green WOM
this trust is grounded in the belief developed from benevolence,
credibility, and environmental functioning. Perceptions of consumers
WOM refers to oral communication among customers and
determine the trust levels; it forms the very basis that leads the
different parties, people, channels, producers, friends, or families. It
consumers to examine the producers’ declaration about being envi-
is likely that other peoples’ recommendations will affect a con-
ronmentally sustainable. It is conceived that if the users have a strong
sumer’s decision-making and alter their consumption preferences
belief in companies claiming the eco-friendliness of products, they
(Huete-Alcocer, 2017). The WOM theory assumes that WOM in-
will definitely rate green products higher and show a strong positive
formation is an indispensable experienced source created by in-
attitude toward those products (Lee et al., 2011). On the contrary, it is
dividuals, and then diffused by consumers to other consumers
also assumed that a negative consumer perception of green products
(Engel, 1969). WOM information aims to help consumers fully un-
is generated with a low trust level of consumers toward green prod-
derstand a service or a product before its consumption and thus
ucts. Research also showed that this trust level also lowers if the
shape their expectations (Bansal and Voyer, 2000). In this sense,
company overstates the environmental performance of their prod-
green WOM may prove beneficial in spurring a brand switch, and
ucts (Akbar et al., 2014).
thereby assist a firm in gaining new customers. Numerous com-
E-service platforms bring customers into contact with e-ven-
panies use WOM to communicate their production and marketing
dors and provide the facilities for the value exchange. Customers
policies. Katz and Lazarsfeld (1955) found positive word of mouth
encounter advertisements, pictures/videos/news, recommenda-
seven times more effective than newspaper and magazine adver-
tions and Likes related to the e-service website. According to
tising, four times more effective than personal selling and twice as
McKnight and Chervany (2001), customers develop trust based on
effective as radio advertising in influencing consumers.
1) the competence of the site to fulfill a successful exchange or the
Consumer decision-making is directly influenced by WOM;
provision of recovery if the failure occurs from the website; 2) the
consumers evaluate the information conveyed through WOM,
benevolence and goodwill of the website in doing good deeds to
which decreases their insecurity at the time of decision-making
users, aside from an egocentric profit motive; 3) the integrity
(Wang et al., 2018). Generally, researchers introduce WOM as a
originated from the site’s ethical actions and fulfillment of prom-
discernible tendency of human behavior to deliberate and talk with
ises; and 4) the predictability and consistency of the site actions,
others about different products/services in regard to features
enabling users to forecast future exchanges. These trusting beliefs
(Mowen et al., 2007). Concerning China, the information is not
enhance customer’s reliance on the user-generated contents on
transparent on the market, although the country is experiencing a
green futures, reduce the uncertainty of exchange outcomes, and
rapid social change. This will unavoidably lead to further behavior
thus increase their green purchase intentions (Suh and Han, 2003).
and value transformations, and bear the consequence of severe
Consumers decide if they will transact with an e-vendor on the
asymmetric information. At this moment, a WOM message will be a
platform by evaluating its benevolence and credibility. Credibility
very important reference for consumers to establish their pur-
encompasses integrity and ability of the platform in providing the
chasing intention process. Therefore, it is likely that many Chinese
expected outcomes, which increases intentions to buy on the
consumers will make their decisions based on their evaluation of
platform (Kaiser and Müller-Seitz, 2008). Kim and Park (2013)
the seller’s reputation. As reported by Hajli (2015), positive WOM
indicated that users who trust online sites are more likely to pur-
signals a high level of reliability; it conveys positive information
chase on these platforms. Chen and Chang (2012) also showed that
that consumers process to make their purchase decisions. Some
green intention to purchase is significantly influenced by green
related studies have also indicated that WOM messages are an
trust.
important means whereby consumers can obtain information
about product or service quality (Chevalier and Mayzlin, 2006). Hypothesis 3. Green trust is positively related to green purchasing
Moreover, this kind of message can effectively reduce the risk and intention.
uncertainty recognized by consumers when purchasing products or
services, so that their purchase intention and decision-making can
be further influenced (Hajli, 2015). According to studies on green 2.6. Consumer social responsibility
products, consumer exposure to information about green products
not only contributes to the environment but also increases their Consumer social responsibility (CnSR), as a concept originated in
purchase intention (Tseng and Hung, 2013). Cheung et al. (2014) the 1970s, has been connected with green, fair, and ethical
 W. Ahmad, Q. Zhang / Journal of Cleaner Production 267 (2020) 122053
consumptions (Peattie, 2010). Corporate social responsibility (CSR)
has attracted significant attention in management literature;
however, relatively less attention has been paid to the concept of
CnSR (Schlaile et al., 2018). This may be attributed to the supremacy
of customer sovereignty which depicts customers’ independence to
choose their preferences (Brinkmann and Peattle, 2008). As re-
ported by Roberts (1995), a socially responsible customer is defined
as “one who purchases products and services which he or she
perceives to have a positive (or less negative) impact on the envi-
ronment or uses his/her purchasing power to express current social
concerns”. CnSR denotes the obligatory responsibility of end users
to ensure that their activities do not adversely affect fellow beings
and the environment itself (Auhagen and Bierhoff, 2001). On the
measure for CnSR, Fazal (2011) suggests “to act, to care for fellow
humans, to make peace with the environment, and to get together
and achieve solidarity.” Vitell (2015) defined CnSR as the common
duty of all participants toward society. This study is based on an
approach aimed at defining CnSR in a comprehensive fashion.
This study conceptualizes CnSR as the personal and joint obli-
gations and activities that are truthfully actionable during a con-
sumer’s interaction with various stakeholders, namely, producers
and sellers (Schlaile et al., 2018). As opposed to CSR, our pre-
sumption about CnSR mirrors the same obligatory responsibilities
for consumers. They ought to reveal the same commitment and
support in the broadest financial, environmental, social, and ethical
terms as a reciprocating mechanism to the communal re-
sponsibilities demonstrated by firms for the safety, sanctity, and the
welfare of the users and community (Dabija and Bejan, 2018). This
explanation implies that consumers have a commitment toward
contributing actively to ensure the implementation of CSR pro-
grams and they are expected to take dexterous and efficient de-
cisions while interacting with service providers. We posit that the
implementation of corporate actions remains incomplete without
the active involvement of end-users in their execution of
communal responsibilities; this has also been suggested by many
researchers who observed notable aspects of favoring this
comprehensive description of CnSR and inviting more in-depth
empirical evaluations (Vitell, 2015; Quazi et al., 2016).
Using these concepts, we posit two critically important re-
sponsibilities of consumers. First, consumers ought to respond in a
responsible way to mitigate the effect that their behavior might
exert on their fellow beings and on society, given that they are
obliged to monitor individual buying decisions and consumption
patterns because they will influence other members of societyd-
from the other users to the retailers, distributors, and major pro-
ducers. Purchasers need to support every socially viable and
responsible business firm, and avoid any conflict of personal in-
terests with them (Caruana and Chatzidakis, 2014). If two similar
products are sold in the market, for example, users should advocate
and buy the locally manufactured product because this will pro-
mote local market as well as employment opportunities for society
itself. A similar research involving a U.S.-based survey observed
that more than 90% of consumers were committed to social causes
within society (Siperstein et al., 2006).
Second, consumers ought to ensure that their choices do not
harm the environment; essentially, they should prioritize the pur-
chase of eco-friendly goods and services. For instance, premium
payment for eco-friendly products will support the manufacturing
concern and encourage it to offer diverse, sophisticated, and su-
perior eco-friendly products (Caruana and Chatzidakis, 2014).
Research reveals the willingness of the public to bear premium
prices for benign eco-friendly products (Laroche et al., 2001).
Thomas (1989) showed that consumers were prepared to purchase
the products at a 10% price premium, while Ozanne and Vlosky
(1997) observed that people were even willing to pay as high as
5
an 18.7% price premium for products labelled as eco-friendly. In this
context, it seems sensible to consider environmental conservation
as a shared responsibility of customers and companies. People must
be aware of their role in reducing ecological issues and respond
appropriately (Lee, 2008). The intent to accept individual obligation
can be discerned through their purchase decisions for green
products, which advocates users’ acceptability to expend more
money (Verma and Chandra, 2018).
Hypothesis 4. Consumer social responsibility is positively related
to green purchasing intention.
2.7. Greenwashing
Greenwashing is an intentionally deceptive tactic used by a firm
to make misleading statements about its actions in support of the
environment in order to create a favorable public image (Marquis
et al., 2016). It shows that the products of a firm are considered
as green and sustainable, even if they are not. Greenwashing makes
false claims about the eco-friendly aspect to hide its harmful ma-
terial for the environment (Topal et al., 2019). As stated by Lyon and
Maxwell (2011), most consumers view green disclosure as a mar-
keting policy, and do not believe environmental claims. In recent
years, the literature on greenwashing has broadened through its
focus on the types and outcomes of greenwashing (Seele and Gatti,
2017). Greenwashing not only negatively affects the financial per-
formance and reputation of companies (Leonidou and Skarmeas,
2017), but also negatively influences customers, financiers, stake-
holders, regulators, and the community at large (Szabo and
Webster, 2020). Likewise, it is assumed that greenwashing prac-
tices might negatively affect the confidence of consumers in an
information-thirsty environment. Consumers do not purchase from
greenwashing firms, as they perceive such firms to be engaged in
unfair practices (Nyilasy et al., 2014). On the one hand, most
companies in the green products industry are strongly polluting but
regularly advertise their eco-friendly images. On the other hand,
retailers that advertise green products but do not explain how such
products contribute to the quality of the environment are likely
looked upon with skepticism (Nguyen et al., 2019). Mostly, the
consumers in China are surrounded by inferior quality products
and have limited funds to pay for their goods; hence, they consider
both the price and quality of products. Additionally, awareness of
environmental issues and corporate greenwashing drives them to
not buy goods from firms that they consider as being guilty of
greenwashing.
The present research aims to investigate important variables
that encourage the green purchase intent of customers. It refers to
the prospect of purchasing a certain product or service based on
consumers’ environmental views, and represents the level of per-
sonal determination to buy goods and services from environmental
friendly producers (Newton et al., 2015). However, users change
their views about a firm’s products after they are convinced about a
firm’s greenwashing practices (Goh and Balaji, 2016). Such negative
opinions give way to more doubts about a firm’s hidden motives
and disrupts the attitude formation process, thereby disturbing the
green purchasing intent (Nyilasy et al., 2014). Exposure of green-
washing in companies creates distrust among their existing con-
sumers and eventually affects their intention to purchase as the
latter cease to be loyal to the formers’ products (Chen and Deng,
2016). Additionally, the false information in green claims confuses
the potential buyers of a green product (Maichum et al., 2016) and
makes them cautious of greenwashing when making decisions in
future. Sometimes, consumers can be easily manipulated about
“being green” because green products elicit positive emotions and
some consumers feel better when they think they are using green
6 W. Ahmad, Q. Zhang / Journal of Cleaner Production 267 (2020) 122053
products (Hartmann et al., 2005). However, perceived deception
and green skepticism from greenwashing impacts consumers’
perceptions and behaviors negatively (Nyilasy et al., 2014). Thus,
greenwashing would harm consumer attitudes towards green
purchasing (Parguel et al., 2011). This has a real and detrimental
effect on green purchase intentions, even though occasionally,
customers are unable to identify the truth and the misleading ac-
tion (Nguyen et al., 2019).
Hypothesis 5. Greenwashing is negatively related to green pur-
chasing intention.
2.8. Green perceived value
Perceived value is established on the theory of equity where
consumers take into account the relationship between their pur-
chase outcome and the input of their service provider (Oliver and
DeSarbo, 1988). As defined by Hutt and Speh (2007), perceived
value is the perspicacity and insight of a customer about an ex-
change with the supplier and the relative advantages received and
costs borne. Further, perceived benefits are a combination of
physical attributes, service attributes and technical support avail-
able in relation to a particular use situation (Oriade and Schofield,
2019). As the importance of perceived value increases, businesses
can reinforce consumers’ purchasing intentions by offering a su-
perior product. As reported by Chen and Chang (2012), green
perceived value is a general evaluation of a consumer’s actual profit
of a product and the service of what is given and what is received,
depending on the eco-friendly aspirations, green desires, and
ecological expectations of consumers. Green perceived value is
considered one of the prominent factors among green consumers
as observed by Koller et al. (2011). This can be evidenced through
the significant role played by green value in the ecological era.
Green products offer a higher quality and performance than non-
green products which reinforces the green value and drives sales.
Customers buy a green product if they perceive to receive a higher
green value from the product (Chang et al., 2009). Customer
perceived value serves as a bridge between customer valuation of
green products and purchase behavior, thereby linking the con-
sumer’s attitudes to purchasing and psychological behavior during
decision-making. Since customer-centric environmentalism is
prevalent, researcher posit that the perceived green value of a
customer plays a primary role in shaping consumers’ buying
behavior (Suki and Suki, 2019).
Hypothesis 6. Green perceived value is positively related to green
purchasing intention.
2.9. Green involvement
Tarkiainen and Sundqvist (2009) introduce green involvement
as a motivational condition that influences the extent and con-
centration on consumers’ attention and conception processes as
well as evident behaviors. According to Rahman (2018), users are
said to be involved in a product if that product has enough
important value for them, or fulfils the fundamental needs of their
lives. As the elaboration-likelihood model suggests, highly involved
individuals are motivated to process information that leads to
message elaboration. In contrast, less involved consumers may rely
on heuristic cues such as emotions or feelings to form their opin-
ions (Wang and Yu, 2017). Moreover, involvement degrees change
how consumers react toward the communication messages
(Akturan, 2018). As reported by Strazzieri (1994), the degree of
green participation (high involvement versus low involvement)
with the product under discussion is dependent on a user’s
decision-making process. Other research has found that consumers
with a favorable attitude towards the environment are more likely
than those with a less favorable attitude to engage in certain
environmental behaviors such as recycling and donating money to
green charities (Bhate, 2002). Similarly, Tarkiainen and Sundqvist
(2009) expressed that if the consumer is more concerned about
personal health and the surrounding environment, the consumer
will be more inclined toward choosing green products. Green
involvement has been recognized as an important element effect-
ing purchase behavior (Laaksonen, 1994). In the case of a sustain-
able personal priority, green involvement will exert a constructive
effect on purchasing intentions (Strazzieri, 1994; Rahman, 2018).
Hypothesis 7. Green involvement is positively related to green
purchasing intention.
2.10. Moderating effects
Baron and Kenny (1986) stated that the influence of a moderator
affects the direction or the strength of the association between
independent (IV) and dependent (DV) variables. Thus, the rela-
tionship between IVs and DVs is altered because of the moderating
action. Concerning the moderator, WOM is recognized as one of the
most effective ways of communicating and elucidating consumer
behavior in extant research (Yang et al., 2012). WOM refers to SNSs
in which users make connections by creating personal profiles,
inviting colleagues and friends to access those profiles, and sending
instant messages or e-mails among the participants in these net-
works (Chang et al., 2019).
Service quality has the potential to boost purchasing intentions
(Dehghani and Tumer, 2015), and it assumes more relevance due to
its association with WOM and readiness (Choudhury, 2014).
Alexandris et al. (2002) also advocate the idea that service quality
will not only influence the purchase intent of customers, but also
that of their reference groups. A high level of WOM increases the
number of the reference groups’ consumers willing to buy green
products based on their good service quality. Given that consumers
are skeptical about commercial advertising, perhaps WOM should
be the key method used to strengthen customers’ buying behavior
instead of relying on mass media communication, which offers
limited capacity for the comparison of features important to cus-
tomers. Furthermore, positive WOM about service quality often
helps neutralize consumers’ doubts about complex service features
and value exchange expectations (Chawdhary and Dall’Olmo Riley,
2015). As a result, WOM has a moderating effect on the influence of
service quality on purchase intention.
Hypothesis 8. Green WOM positively moderates the relationship
between e-service quality and green purchasing intention.
Trust refers to the willingness to accept a risk by exposing
oneself to some external element or somebody else (Svensson,
2005). Green trust denotes the inclination of consumers to be
sure of the goods/services of which they already have confidence
due to their established ecological performance (Wang et al., 2018).
Additionally, green trust also accounts for the personal expectancy,
views, or assumptions of all actions to be eco-friendly; it must also
align with personal and environmental interests without any
harmful consequences. As put forth by Gro € nroos (2001), credibility
or trust in an existing system, on the one hand, is contingent on
laws and regulations and, on the other hand, is also influenced by
the competence/professional skill of the service agents who
communicate with the customers. Consumers hope that electronic
sellers will also act in a dependable, socially acceptable, and moral
 W. Ahmad, Q. Zhang / Journal of Cleaner Production 267 (2020) 122053
way (Hosmer, 1995). Thus, a higher degree of green trust among
customers indicates a greater prospect of buying and using green
goods associated with good service quality. The reverse is also true.
Green trust is considered as one of the action triggers that guide
customers’ green purchase in anticipation of good e-services and
long-term relationships (Bonn et al., 2016). Green trust is regarded
as an important variable due to its potential effect on the perceived
consumer risk embedded in the consumer behaviordit permits the
users to estimate the impact of certain decisions and the relative
gains or benefits incurred (Galli and Nardin, 2003). Hence trust can
affect consumers’ purchase intention (Chen, 2010).
Hypothesis 9. Green trust positively moderates the relationship
between e-service quality and green purchasing intention.
Broadly speaking, CnSR may be defined as making a mindful
selection, out of a set of various consumption choices, in the light of
individual ethical and moral beliefs. Muncy and Vitell (1992) regard
CnSR as the moral ideologies and standards that induce individual
behaviors while obtaining, using, and disposing of goods and ser-
vices. In fact, consumers with a high degree of green concern are
more likely to have a strong sense of environmental responsibility
and environment-friendly behaviors, such as saving energy, recy-
cling, and buying environment-friendly products (Biswas and Roy,
2015). Mohr et al. (2001) termed a socially responsible consumer
as an individual whose habit of disposition and acquisition of a
certain product is backed by the innate wish to avoid detrimental
and hazardous environmental effects, and exerts a healthy and
positive impact on the surrounding atmosphere. This socially
responsible behavior assumes a vital role right from the start of the
communication between the service providers and end users, up to
the final acquisition of the product. A high level of CnSR motivates
people to purchase green products associated with good service
quality, even if a premium price is to be paid for the products
(Quelch and Jocz, 2009). However, in the absence of CnSR, cus-
tomers will remain indifferent to green products.
Hypothesis 10. CnSR positively moderates the relationship be-
tween e-service quality and green purchasing intention.
Jay Westervelt first used the term “greenwashing” in 1986 when
referring to the hotel industry’s general practice of using placards in
rooms to promote the reuse of towels with an apparent cause of
environmental concern (Romero, 2008). Similarly, all such seem-
ingly eco-friendly actions aimed at increasing profits were ulti-
mately pronounced as greenwashing practices. The term
greenwashing is taken from the phrase “environmental white-
wash.” It carries a negative connotation and implies corporate
deception (Karliner, 1997). Companies often engage in such claims
to attract customers interested in buying green products. These
declarations are seemingly eco-friendly, but shallow in nature.
Presently, such practices are rampant and are worsening customer
perceptions of green products and services to such an extent that
users are regarding all green advertisements as false and
misleading. They believe that firms’ declarations fail to reach the
actual level of eco-friendliness and misguide public perception
(Ramus and Montiel, 2005). Consumers that fall prey to green-
washing claims become suspicious and withdraw from green
product movements; firms that create such mistrust eventually
lose their green buyers (Self et al., 2010). The exposure of a com-
pany’s greenwashing practice makes them unwilling to buy green
products, irrespective of good e-service quality. Greenwashing in-
corporates two communal behavior: poor environmental perfor-
mance and optimistic communication related to green or pro-
environmental performance. Consumers who are facing green-
wash would feel pessimistic about the service quality and thus
7
result in reducing the purchases. However, in the absence of
greenwash perception, a consumer would feel positive about ser-
vice quality and remain optimistic (Delmas and Burbano, 2011).
Hypothesis 11. Greenwashing negatively moderates the rela-
tionship between e-service quality and green purchasing intention.
Perceived value is a characteristic that rests on different con-
texts that evaluate distinguishing qualities of diverse products
(Sanchez et al., 2006). It is the fundamental basis for all exchange
activities and can drive buying choice (Fang et al., 2016). Across
multiple industrial sectors, perceived value mainly echoes con-
sumer views about product quality features such as performance,
quality, reliability, and price (Gan and Wang, 2017). The subject of
the relationship between perceived green value and green purchase
intention has been relatively less explored; however, the moder-
ating influence of perceived value has gone largely unnoticed, even
in the case of quality system studies (Ismail et al., 2009). Green
perceived value triggers the buying intent on online platforms by
keeping the individual focused on eco-friendly products to such an
extent that the need to explore alternative products declines.
However, if the perceived green value is comparatively lower,
consumers will look for alternative solutions and the intention to
buy green products will remain at a bottom level. If the value for
money is not retrieved by the customers, it will affect their loyalty
and they will not own those products/services, irrespective of their
current satisfaction levels. In future, they will switch to other sellers
to find the best value for their money (Chang et al., 2009). The
connection between e-service quality and green purchase intention
may strengthen if the service satisfaction provided by the e-service
firm exceeds that of its competitors.
Hypothesis 12. Green perceived value positively moderates the
relationship between e-service quality and green purchasing intention.
Involvement is the apparent importance that consumers attach
to a product class depending on their basic needs and interests
(Zaichkowsky, 1985). Social perception theory posits that in-
dividuals use cues to make inferences about others (Baron and
Byrne, 1994), and suggests that situational and perceiver charac-
teristics may moderate the effects on customer perceptions (Davis
and Lennon, 1988). Involvement is a situational characteristic that
has been found to affect the amount and type of information a
customer uses in a purchase situation (Zaichkowsky, 1985). People
with different degrees of involvement tend to treat information
differently, which affects their intentional behavior (Cornelis et al.,
2014). Higher customer involvement follows a more cognitive
processing of the information pertaining to the topics of personal
interest, while lower involvement guide this information process-
ing in simple cues (Sohn and Lee, 2017). The higher a consumer’s
level of involvement, the more rigorous is the processing of infor-
mation. Research shows that the environmental concerns of
involved green consumers is very high (D’souza and Taghian, 2005).
Ecological concerns have an influential role in green purchase de-
cisions (Schwartz and Miller, 1991). It is expected that, due to their
higher ecological concerns, consumers with a higher level of green
involvement will seek relevant market information with respect to
environmental aspects, which is provided by firms with good e-
service quality. Consumers evaluate this information in line with
the consequences of their consumption and decide in favor of
products having a minimal environmental impact. On the contrary,
consumers with a low level of green involvement will be more
interested in non-environmental features such as price (Hartmann
et al., 2005).
Hypothesis 13. Green involvement positively moderates the rela-
tionship between e-service quality and green purchasing intention.
8 W. Ahmad, Q. Zhang / Journal of Cleaner Production 267 (2020) 122053
3. Research methodology
3.1. Participants and sampling design
The environmental problem in these days is the spotlight
around the world. China is a big developing country with increasing
consciousness of green products, and people in China considered
the environmental problem seriously, thus we chose to collect data
in China via a paper questionnaire survey targeting Chinese shop-
pers who recently purchased products online. Since there were no
available access to sampling frames, databases or records to select
individuals randomly, a convenience sampling method in different
cities was used to ensure better representation. Although many
researchers question about the generalizability of findings of con-
venience sampling, there are evidences that suggest the usage of
educated and urban population is reliable for such studies (Kautish
et al., 2019). The target population of the study were educated
consumers of the urban areas since they can easily respond to the
survey owing to the better knowledge and acceptance of green
products (Prakash and Pathak, 2017; Taufique and Vaithianathan,
2018). We collected data from 12 large Chinese cities: 140, 125,
180, 90, 150, 110, 75, 145, 120, 130 155, and 80 copies of the ques-
tionnaire were distributed in Beijing, Nanjing, Shenzhen, Wuhan,
Guangzhou, Harbin, Suzhou, Kunming, Changsha, Fuzhou,
Shanghai, and Hangzhou, respectively.
The questionnaire was divided into two parts. The first part
considered demographic variables, including gender, age, educa-
tion, and income (Table 1) while the second part includes all the
constructs (Appendix A). The questionnaire asked the participants
to recall their recent online purchases on a certain website (e.g.,
food, clothes, and home appliances), and their intentions to pur-
chase green products. The research team decided to get help from
friends (mostly Pakistani PhD students, who are studying in China,
with their Chinese friends) to collect data. These students across
different Chinese cities randomly visit people from different col-
leges and universities, shopping malls, government offices, super-
markets, media channels, hospitals, restaurants, hotels, and IT and
telecommunication companies. In carrying out the study, an 8G
USB flash drive (20 RMB) was provided as gifts and incentives to the
participants to increase the response rate. The data were collected
from January to February 2019. A total of 1500 surveys were
circulated, and 1257 responses were received. Data cleansing
resulted in 1002 useable surveys as 211 responses were incomplete
and 44 did not follow the instructions.
Demographically, there were 488 male respondents and 514
female; most of the respondents were aged between 21 and 40
years (Table 1). People holding bachelor’s and master’s degrees
participated with the highest frequency. The survey had 58 items
measured on a five-point Likert scale ranging from completely
disagree (¼ 1) to completely agree (¼ 5). The survey questions were
formulated based on previous research, and presented in both
English and Chinese. The English to Chinese translation was done
by three research experts proficient in both languages. A Chi-square
test was performed to check for differences between the sample
data obtained from different cities. The results revealed no signif-
icant difference. Meanwhile, to test for potential non-response bias,
we ran a t-test for comparing the early (received within two weeks
of dispatch) and late responses (returned in the last two weeks of
data collection) (Armstrong and Overton, 1977). Substantial dif-
ferences were not reported for different measures such as green
trust, WOM, e-service quality, greenwashing, CnSR, and green
purchase intent of consumers, indicating no visible signs of non-
response bias. Hence, it can be concluded that non-response bias
was not a main concern in this study. SmartPLS was employed to
test the measurements and structural models.
3.2. Measures
We adopted multi-item scales used in previous studies for
measuring the constructs. We also used a five-point Likert scale to
measure all constructs. The 24 items for e-service quality were
measured through a construct developed by Parasuraman and
Grewal (2000), Souri et al. (2018), and Sa
et al. (2016). For
measuring green WOM, four items were modified from Molinari
et al. (2008); four items for green trust were adapted from
Cheung et al. (2015); four items were modified from Suki and Suki
(2019) for CnSR; six items were adapted from Leonidou and
Skarmeas (2017) for greenwashing; three items from Patterson
and Spreng (1997) for green perceived value; three items from
D’souza and Taghian (2005) for green involvement; and six items
from Zhang et al. (2018) and Wang and Yu (2017) for green pur-
chase intention. Seven items were eliminated because of low factor
loadings <0.5, recommended by (Kline, 2005). The deleted items
are as follows: RB2 (I get what I order from this website), GW1
(Green companies are those with real ethics), GW2 (I’m sure that
green products are green just in advertising), GW3 (I’m sure that
green products, mostly, are only green on the labels), GM5 (I
encourage my friends and relatives to buy green products), GPV2 (I
would purchase green product if offered with promotional in-
centives), and GPV3 (Purchasing green product would help me to
feel accepted by others). This is in line with past studies which
eliminated items because of factor loading <0.5 (Hew et al., 2015).
Appendix A lists the measurement items.
4. Results
We used partial least square structural equation modelling
(SmartPLS-v3) to test the theoretical model. PLS is a second-
generation technique that has several advantages over the covari-
ance based structural equation model. The advantages include less
restrictive assumptions about non-normal distribution of the data,
capability of handling complex relationships among the constructs,
and efficient in predicting the key driver constructs for the outcome
construct (Hair et al., 2012).
4.1. Measurement model
Although most measurement scales are adopted from relevant
previous research, the test of validity and reliability of the
measuring instruments are essential to ensure rigor and quality of
the survey instruments. Convergent and discriminant validities
were used to examine the measurement model. Four measures
were used for assessing convergent validity (Chin, 1998) of (1) in-
dicator factor loadings with values more than 0.7; (2) composite
reliability (CR) with values exceeding 0.7; (3) Cronbach’s alpha
values; and (4) average variance extracted (AVE) estimates with
values exceeding 0.5. The model showed enough convergent val-
idity based on the three measures (Table 2). To evaluate the DV, we
calculated whether the root of the AVE of each construct exceeded
the correlations of all other constructs and the specific construct
(Chin, 1998). Table 3 represents the correlation matrix of the con-
structs, which demonstrates the satisfactory discriminant validity
of the measurement.
The findings of the measurement model showed that the model
had good reliability, convergence validity, and discriminant validity
and confirmed that the constructs were statistically diverse.
4.2. Structural model results
Fig. 2 shows the results of the structural model test, with overall
illustrative power and significant path coefficients. We also
 W. Ahmad, Q. Zhang / Journal of Cleaner Production 267 (2020) 122053 9

Table 1
Respondents’ demographic profile for green products.

Total numbers of respondents (N ¼ 1002) Frequency Percentage

Gender Male 488 48.7

Female 514 51.3

Age, years 20e30 449 44.8

31e40 492 49.1
41e50 42 4.2
Above 50 19 1.9

Education Primary 20 2.0

Elementary 98 9.8
High school 164 16.4
Diploma/certification 212 21.2
Bachelor 279 27.8
Postgraduate 229 22.3

Occupation Professional 61 6.9

Manager 49 4.9
Civil servant 33 3.3
Company employee 359 35.8
Self-employee 94 9.4
Labor 30 3
Farmer 64 6.4
Student 96 9.6
Sales/services 122 12.2
Unemployed 20 2
Homemaker 29 2.9
Retired 26 2.6
Others 19 1.9

Monthly Income (RMB) 1000 or Under 14 1.4

1001e3000 34 3.4
3001e4000 220 22.0
4001e8000 561 56.0
8001e12000 163 16.3
Above than 12000 10 1.0

How long have you been used the internet? Less than one year 106 10.6
One to five years 627 62.6
More than five years 269 26.8

Have you ever purchased green products online? Yes 1500 70.1
No 199 29.9

Online green products shopping in a month (on average)? One to Four times 497 49.6
Five to Eight times 286 28.5
Nine to Twelve times 219 21.9

Does you check e-service quality before purchasing green products? Yes 1386 71.8
No 114 28.2

performed a bootstrapping facility to test the statistical significance
of path coefficients (Hair et al., 2012). The hypothesized relation-
ships were estimated using 1000 bootstraps in SmartPLS. The re-
sults explain the 68.7% of variance in the green intention to
purchase。
4.2.1. Direct effects
The results in Table 4 demonstrate that e-service quality has a
significantly positive direct influence on green purchase intention
(b ¼ 0.389, p < 0.05): H1 is supported. Green WOM does not have a
significant direct impact on green purchase intention (b ¼ 0.004,
p > 0.05): H2 is not supported. Green trust has a significantly positive
direct impact on green purchase intention (b ¼ 0.320, p < 0.05): H3 is
supported. The results demonstrate that CnSR has a significantly
positive direct influence on green purchase intention (b ¼ 0.105,
p < 0.05): H4 is supported. Greenwashing has a significantly negative
direct effect on green purchase intention (b ¼ 0.210, p < 0.05): H5 is
accepted. Green perceived value has a significantly positive direct
influence on green purchase intention (b ¼ 0.193, p < 0.05): H6 is
accepted. The results demonstrate that green involvement does not
have a significant direct influence on green intention to purchase
(b ¼ 0.014, p > 0.05): H7 is not supported.
4.2.2. Moderating effects
The findings of this research reveal that green WOM signifi-
cantly moderates the relationship between e-service quality and
green purchase intention (b ¼ 0.169, p < 0.05): H8 is supported. The
moderating effect of green trust on the relationship between e-
service quality and green intention to purchase was significantly
positive (b ¼ 0.142, p < 0.05): H9 is supported. The moderating
influence of CnSR on the relationship between e-service quality and
green purchase intention was significantly positive (b ¼ 0.257,
p < 0.05): H10 is accepted. The moderating effect of greenwashing
is negatively significant between e-service quality and green pur-
chase intention (b ¼ 0.095, p < 0.05): H11 is accepted. The results
demonstrate the significantly positive moderating effect of the
green perceived value (b ¼ 0.038, p < 0.05): H12 is accepted. Green
involvement has a negative but insignificant moderating effect
(b ¼ 0.019, p > 0.05): H13 is not accepted.
5. Discussion
The present study aims to increase knowledge and under-
standing of pro-environmental behavior of consumers regarding
eco-friendly purchasing. Although previous researches have
10 W. Ahmad, Q. Zhang / Journal of Cleaner Production 267 (2020) 122053

Table 2
Construct reliability and validity.

Constructs Items Loadings CA Rho_A CR AVE

Efficiency EC1 0.748 0.807 0.813 0.873 0.633

EC2 0.814
EC3 0.831
EC4 0.788
Fulfillment FM1 0.748 0.774 0.780 0.855 0.596
FM2 0.740
FM3 0.789
FM4 0.810
Reliability RB1 0.849 0.859 0.896 0.912 0.775
RB2 0.884
RB3 0.907
Privacy PC1 0.683 0.746 0.810 0.849 0.655
PC2 0.884
PC3 0.847
Information quality of green products IQ1 0.885 0.791 0.803 0.877 0.704
IQ2 0.801
IQ3 0.830
Environmental sustainability ES1 0.813 0.860 0.879 0.904 0.703
ES2 0.890
ES3 0.806
ES4 0.842
User-friendliness UF1 0.850 0.775 0.807 0.868 0.687
UF2 0.760
UF3 0.871
Green WOM GM1 0.888 0.851 0.860 0.899 0.692
GM2 0.865
GM3 0.797
GM4 0.771
Green trust GT1 0.814 0.854 0.862 0.901 0.696
GT2 0.886
GT3 0.828
GT4 0.806
Consumer social responsibility CSR1 0.762 0.771 0.770 0.854 0.595
CSR2 0.782
CSR3 0.843
CSR4 0.689
Green wash GW1 0.787 0.885 0.886 0.913 0.636
GW2 0.747
GW3 0.769
GW4 0.867
GW5 0.804
GW6 0.805
Green perceived value GPV1 0.845 0.783 0.790 0.874 0.698
GPV2 0.881
GPV3 0.778
Green involvement GI1 0.885 0.804 0.820 0.884 0.717
GI2 0.796
GI3 0.857
Green purchase intention GPI1 0.756 0.871 0.874 0.903 0.609
GPI2 0.857
GPI3 0.760
GPI4 0.772
GPI5 0.781
GPI6 0.753

scrutinized the factors of eco-design and eco-cues affecting pur-
chase intentions for green products (Lai and Cheng, 2016), no such
similar studies were found that evaluated the impact of factors
from both firm characteristics and customer green psychology on
green purchase intention in the Chinese context.
This study helped to understand the influence of customers’
attitude on green purchasing intent by integrating eight critical
variablesde-service quality, green WOM, green trust, CnSR,
greenwashing, green perceived value, green involvement, and
green intention to purchase. General awareness of environmental
safety is growing, hence the business case for producing and mar-
keting green products is becoming stronger and mandatory for all
business concerns globally. Meanwhile, green consumption is
expanding in China; individuals are turning their focus toward eco-
friendly products and services due to their beneficial impact on
their surroundings (Leonidou and Skarmeas, 2017). This study
found that e-service quality has a positively significant effect on
green purchase intention with the path coefficient value of
b ¼ 0.389 (H1), which is high. This indicates that e-service quality
and green intention to purchase have a strong relationship. Un-
derstanding customer needs and providing them with speedy,
trustworthy, and personalized services will naturally help in
establishing customers’ green intention to purchase. Therefore, it is
appropriate to evaluate the linkages between service quality and
purchasing intentions, particularly by focusing on green products
and services, in order to provide guidelines to green manufacturers
regarding important elements of service quality. These guidelines
will demonstrate that the achievement of a substantial service
quality will lead to a higher purchasing intention among
consumers.
 W. Ahmad, Q. Zhang / Journal of Cleaner Production 267 (2020) 122053 11

Table 3
Correlations between constructs.

EC ES ESQ FM GI GPI GM GT GPV GW IQ UF PC RB CSR

EC 0.796
ES 0.302 0.838
ESQ 0.343 0.162 0.807
FM 0.270 0.349 0.318 0.772
GI 0.326 0.213 0.196 0.313 0.847
GPI 0.378 0.183 0.528 0.348 0.218 0.781
GM 0.274 0.354 0.312 0.815 0.326 0.365 0.832
GT 0.826 0.297 0.313 0.216 0.326 0.350 0.250 0.834
GPV 0.365 0.224 0.229 0.322 0.779 0.251 0.335 0.335 0.836
GW 0.245 0.153 0.309 0.224 0.102 0.301 0.210 0.236 0.107 0.797
IQ 0.293 0.449 0.106 0.334 0.182 0.168 0.361 0.299 0.184 0.119 0.839
UF 0.283 0.525 0.143 0.346 0.161 0.193 0.341 0.270 0.210 0.142 0.460 0.829
PC 0.281 0.422 0.118 0.311 0.157 0.177 0.338 0.295 0.162 0.137 0.796 0.438 0.809
RB 0.249 0.339 0.295 0.728 0.341 0.339 0.748 0.222 0.346 0.197 0.325 0.345 0.301 0.880
CSR 0.377 0.216 0.228 0.353 0.673 0.251 0.346 0.357 0.656 0.071 0.206 0.194 0.187 0.355 0.771

Note 1: EC ¼ efficiency; FM ¼ fulfillment; RB ¼ reliability; PC ¼ privacy; IQ¼ Information quality; ES ¼ environmental-sustainability; UF¼ User-friendliness; GT ¼ green trust;
GW ¼ green wash; GM ¼ green WOM; GI ¼ green involvement; GPV ¼ green perceived value; CSR ¼ consumer social responsibility; GPI ¼ green purchase intention.

Fig. 2. Structural model results (**p < 0.05; ***p < 0.01).

Green WOM has a positive, but not significant, influence on
green intention to purchase (H2, b ¼ 0.004), while the relationship
between e-service quality and green intention to purchase is sig-
nificant and positively moderated by green WOM, with the value of
path coefficient being b ¼ 0.169 (H8). Green WOM does not affect
green purchase intention directly, but it moderates the relationship
between e-service quality and green purchase intention. Generally,
whether customers want to buy green products does not merely
depend on green WOM, but on other factors as well. However, in-
formation procured through green WOM is considered as being
more trustworthy than company-commenced communications
and therefore strongly influences the degree of association be-
tween customers’ perceptions about electronic service provided by
the firm and purchase intention (Allsop et al., 2007). When cus-
tomers perceive that a firm controls the website, they share their
concerns with friends on existing networks to withdraw from such
firms (Leonidou and Skarmeas, 2017). The consumers will be
involved in such actions as recommending a certain product if they
are satisfied with the product’s quality. This finding is in line with
the previous research (Huete-Alcocer, 2017).
12 W. Ahmad, Q. Zhang / Journal of Cleaner Production 267 (2020) 122053

Table 4
Path coefficients and confidence interval.

b Sample Mean (M) Standard Deviation (STDEV) T-Statistics (O/STDEV) p-Values Confidence Results
Interval

2.5% 97.5%

EC- > ESQ 0.343 0.346 0.025 13.527*** 0.000 0.288 0.384 Supported
FM - > ESQ 0.318 0.321 0.028 11.197*** 0.000 0.259 0.370 Supported
RB - > ESQ 0.295 0.299 0.027 11.111*** 0.000 0.234 0.337 Supported
PC - > ESQ 0.118 0.124 0.029 4.038*** 0.000 0.049 0.166 Supported
IQ - > ESQ 0.106 0.110 0.029 3.611*** 0.000 0.046 0.161 Supported
ES - > ESQ 0.162 0.166 0.030 5.390*** 0.000 0.098 0.221 Supported
UF - > ESQ 0.143 0.146 0.029 4.930*** 0.000 0.083 0.195 Supported
ESQ - > GPI 0.389 0.389 0.028 14.116*** 0.000 0.340 0.441 Supported
GM- > GPI 0.004 0.004 0.006 0.653*** 0.514 0.003 0.008 Not Supported
GT- > GPI 0.320 0.322 0.025 12.600*** 0.000 0.281 0.362 Supported
CSR- > GPI 0.105 0.109 0.028 3.511*** 0.000 0.045 0.160 Supported
GW- > GPI 0.210 0.211 0.034 6.217*** 0.000 0.276 0.144 Supported
GPV- > GPI 0.193 0.191 0.046 4.165*** 0.000 0.098 0.281 Supported
GI- > GPI 0.014 0.012 0.014 0.942*** 0.346 0.011 0.036 Not Supported
GM £ ESQ - > GPI 0.169 0.170 0.029 5.878*** 0.000 0.111 0.228 Supported
GT £ ESQ - > GPI 0.142 0.142 0.028 5.130*** 0.000 0.092 0.194 Supported
CSR £ ESQ - > GPI 0.257 0.256 0.056 4.573*** 0.000 0.144 0.360 Supported
GW £ ESQ - > GPI 0.095 0.096 0.028 3.381*** 0.001 0.147 0.042 Supported
GPV £ ESQ - > GPI 0.038 0.040 0.041 0.931*** 0.001 0.020 0.112 Supported
GI £ ESQ - > GPI 0.019 0.018 0.042 0.453*** 0.651 0.108 0.061 Not Supported

***p < 0.05.

Green trust has a significantly positive direct influence on green
purchase intention (H3, b ¼ 0.320), and it plays a moderating role
between e-service quality and green intention to purchase with the
path coefficient value of b ¼ 0.142 (H9). Customer green trust is a
critical determinant of green intention to purchase. A substantial
degree of trusting beliefs in sellers’ traits of integrity, benevolence
and competence is needed for online buyers before making pur-
chase decisions. This is in line with past studies which reveal that
trust is a major motivational factor in the process of decision-
making (Fang et al., 2014). Although this finding is consistent
with previous literatures (Kim and Park, 2013; Hajli, 2015), it
further show that trust still plays an important role in promoting
green purchase intention in the online context. The moderating
role of green trust reveals an interesting outcome in this study,
lending an implication for the green producers. It is evident that
trust spearheads all endeavors aimed at promoting the sustain-
ability of the producing firms. It also shows manufacturers the
importance of choosing a trustworthy website; making a rational
selection of retailing partners who are also regarded as trustworthy
from the green perspective will be crucial for firms attempting to
promote their green products as better market alternatives. Results
also revealed that trust perception developed through these stra-
tegic and tactical moves of providers strongly influences customer
behavior, which is also validated from the observed SOR patterns
(Yim et al., 2008). As reported by Yadav et al. (2019), green trust
strengthens intentions to purchase. However, consumers would
not want to sacrifice better quality products for green products,
hence firms should improve their product and service qualities.
CnSR has a significantly positive direct effect on green purchase
intention (H4, b ¼ 0.105), and the moderating effect has the path
coefficient value of b ¼ 0.257 (H10). Investigation on the emerging
aspect of CnSR has been limited and thereby prompts the demand
for an in-depth analysis (Denegri-Knott et al., 2006). The concep-
tualization and the findings of the current study help to systemize
and integrate previous research. When compared to manufac-
turers, consumers have the upper hand due to their higher buying
power (Kotler et al., 2006), which has further gained momentum
with the rise of global consumerism. The movements aimed at
testing the consumer side of responsibility are presumed to facili-
tate an even playing field of social values and green buying
intentions. The general public is expected to participate in eco-
friendly activities in addition to the initiatives of organizations to
manage sustainability problems effectively. This outcome de-
termines that all members of society share a responsibility toward
environmental protection. Our findings are comparable to Buerke
et al. (2017), who showed that the purchase of green products
will increase consumer concern toward the eco-friendliness of
goods and services.
Green perceived value is an important determinant which en-
hances the green intention to purchase. The findings confirm that
green perceived value has a significantly positive direct influence
on green purchase intention (H6, b ¼ 0.193) and a moderating effect
with the path coefficient value of b ¼ 0.038 (H12). Therefore, an
innovative product that fails to generate green perceived value may
fail to generate a high level of green intention to purchase. This
finding in line with the previous studies (Salehzadeh and Pool,
2017). In this regard, firms may be able to target their respective
customers with a generous flow of green information about their
offerings, which in turn will educate consumers and trigger their
green purchase intentions. Green perceived value will also guide
customers to seek useful green information, influencing the asso-
ciation between e-service quality and green purchase intentions.
All the above variables have significantly positive direct and
moderating effects, while green WOM and green involvement do
not have a significant direct influence on green purchase intention.
Among the moderating variables of green WOM, green trust, CnSR,
and green perceived value, CnSR is the most important with the
highest moderating path coefficient. While firms should consider
all these moderating variables when implementing a green strat-
egy, they should strongly focus on CnSR education for amassing
green intention to purchase.
Greenwashing has a significantly negative direct impact on
green purchase intention (H5, b ¼ 0.210), as well as a negative
moderating effect, with the path coefficient value of b ¼ 0.095
(H11). In the face of growing environmental issues and an increased
awareness of environmental safety in China, customers are more
focused on the consumption of eco-friendly products and services
(Leonidou and Skarmeas, 2017). Companies should concentrate
more on improving their product’s actual green performance rather
than being involved in greenwashing practices. A firm will be
 W. Ahmad, Q. Zhang / Journal of Cleaner Production 267 (2020) 122053
exposed by its consumers when they find any information about its
greenwashing practices (Leonidou and Skarmeas, 2017). This might
reduce their purchase intentions, and their information on the
practice might refrain others from buying such greenwashed
products (Lim et al., 2013). While almost all researchers agree that
green business strategies have made a significant contribution to
enhance corporate image, consumers’ information and knowledge
on green products are relatively more important for consumers in
making eco-friendly purchasing decisions (Nguyen et al., 2019).
Green involvement does not have a significant direct influence
on green purchase intention (H7) and does have a negative
moderating effect, with the path coefficient value of b ¼ 0.019
(H13). This may be attributed to the fact that when consumers
acquire more green information about the products yet the firm did
not do well on green features, they may refrain from buying such
products. It may also be attributed to the measurement problems
associated with the green involvement construct.
6. Conclusions and implications
The strong need for green products on the market is changing
the world, and thus companies are eager to adopt green strategies
to compete for green opportunities. The urgency to manage the
environmental issue is well known and discussed. Although sub-
stantial research has been done in the fields of environmental
management and consumer consumption behaviors in recent
years, stakeholders and policy makers still need to utilize the
derived insights to inform consumers and the public more inten-
sively about sustainable solutions.
In this study, we found evidence for the important role of e-
service quality and green psychological variables in customers’
intention to buy green products. The findings of this research
extend the literature in three directions. This is the first study to
explore the direct effects of e-service quality and customer psy-
chological variables on green purchasing intention. This is also the
first research to investigate the moderating effects of customer
green psychology on the relationship between e-service quality and
green purchase intention. The third concerns environmental
problems. The volume of green produce has increased by more than
70% (Choice, 2010). The need for green products is changing the
world, and firms are ready to adopt the green production model in
order to compete. Deeply ingrained norms and social values may
influence customers’ perceptions of service quality. As a result,
firms should pay more attention to green problems and their effects
on the quality of service and customer selection behaviors.
6.1. Theoretical implications
From a theoretical perspective, the study identifies key ante-
cedents from both firm and customer characteristics that are likely
to affect green purchase intention in China’s online shopping en-
vironments. This study also presents a novel and robust framework
to test and establish the interrelationship between e-service quality
and green purchase intention under the influence of various
moderators pertaining to green psychology. The results widen the
existing literature on green psychological variables as moderators
and on consumer’s green buying intent in the settings of a devel-
oping country.
Service quality integrates the production and marketing func-
tions of an organization and aligns them with consumer needs. This
concept implies that mass production has become less important
than flexibility and excellence in service design. Competitiveness
can be based on service rather than cost. The quality of a service
depends on establishing a close relationship between the giver and
the receiver. In order to achieve the goal of the service factory, firms
13
must start by identifying a focused set of customer needs and try to
satisfy them with deliberate services (Chase and Garvin, 1989).
In a more sophisticated environment of online shopping,
product websites should serve as efficient and prestigious infor-
mation channels between customers and producers to improve e-
service quality, green WOM, green trust, CnSR, and green perceived
value to increase green intention to purchase. This study has
highlighted that e-service quality (e.g., convenience, information,
friendliness, and efficiency) is critical to the future success of the
green industry. This research confirms the notion that, in addition
to the e-service quality assurance, the way it is being offered is also
important. Consumers take a firm’s claims seriously by investi-
gating their authenticity and possible greenwashing behavior. If
consumers perceive that a company’s product offering is accom-
panied by better service quality, customers are more likely to buy
the green product and the company will eventually gain a higher
profitability.
Likewise, the firm will also succeed in achieving its targets by
setting higher prices for its green products and services. This is
because customers with a green consciousness pay a higher price
for premium green products. Consumers do not compromise be-
tween the quality features and the green characteristics of the
product. It is evident that if a trade-off situation exists between
product quality and greenness, consumers will opt for service
quality over green products. Hence, consumers’ preference for eco-
friendly green products is based on the green value of the product.
This study has essential implications for e-commerce businesses
in China. Green production can now become a means of differen-
tiation and positioning. Hence, firms should integrate the eco-
friendly mission into the corporate strategy instead of merely
promoting their green products. Green consumption in China is still
at a lower level when compared to Western countries. Therefore,
policymakers and producing firms must devise strategies that will
promote green consumption with the help of effective communi-
cation (Jaiswal and Kant, 2018). Moreover, measures comprising of
environmental education and strict quality assurance through
certifications, such as ISO certified products/services, will also
promote the cause of green consumption among the purchasers in
China (Lai and Cheng, 2016).
6.2. Managerial implications
From a managerial perspective, this study provides guidelines
for managers to develop more effective strategies that will not only
help firms to reap green benefits but also benefit the environment
as well as society. The rationale of this study was to determine the
major predictors and thus offer new levers of action that motivate
customers’ purchase intention of green products.
First, in current digital age, a firm needs to complement product
offerings with e-service such as providing more online green in-
formation about the product to educate customers about how to
use the product to reduce cost, how much carbon emission can be
reduced by consuming green products, and so on. In addition, the
firm can improve the appeal and perceived value of green products
by offering intangible services (e.g., convenience, information,
friendliness, and efficiency), which leads to an increased service
contribution to green manufacturing firms to avoid the trap of
decreasing product margins. By bundling intangible e-services with
products, a firm increases causal ambiguity, which is difficult to be
imitated and thus engenders competitive advantage. Thus, a firm
should actively integrate environmental concerns in its strategic
planning and actions of e-services.
Second is for manufacturers of green products to remain
strongly committed toward environmental responsibility. They
must lead aggressive and active promotional campaigns to support
14 W. Ahmad, Q. Zhang / Journal of Cleaner Production 267 (2020) 122053

eco-friendly products. Message and slogans such as “together we
can make a difference to the environment” on official websites,
Facebook, and Twitter accounts will help promote the cause of
greenness and generate more awareness about green products.
Producers should also promote green supply chain management by
bringing all stakeholders to the same platform regarding practices
that may otherwise harm the environment and their surroundings.
This will maintain the market competitiveness and market share of
producers.
Third, findings endorse that firms should engage in developing
eco-friendly products. In addition to flying the flag for green busi-
ness, companies should take active measures toward environ-
mental conservation and protection. Substantive actions and
activities that reflect green business will help alleviate the
impression of greenwashing and ensure consumer loyalty. Special
care should be exercised by firms operating in areas with relatively
higher pollution; they may be required to react aggressively while
addressing environmental conservation issues. They may also be
required to publicize all their campaigns and activities aimed at
raising the environmental concerns and measures to counter the
negative effects of pollution. They should engage in a “walk the
talk” strategy to reduce public criticism as well as to improve their
image; these strategies will enhance their market performance as
well as their environmental sustainability (Park et al., 2016).
Fourth, the results demonstrate the crucial role of electronic
media in the production process. They can help firm managers
estimate the exact demand of their product before production and
in turn help them control the production process according to
customer demand. In the absence of electronic media, firm man-
agers may find it difficult to determine the demand of their goods
and control the production quantity. In this way, firms can regulate
the excess production of goods and thereby reduce production
costs.
6.3. Limitations and future research
This research focused only on Chinese customers and adopted a
questionnaire with a small sample in a deliberately simplified
research model. Further studies can be carried out in other coun-
tries to allow for further comparisons. This survey is limited to the
SOR framework without considering other backgrounds, conse-
quences, and moderators. Other factors such as knowledge and
price sensitivity may also influence the intention to endorse green
products. In addition, an analysis with control variables such as
income and online experiences will make the results more robust.
Therefore, further studies should investigate above-mentioned
variables.
Author contribution statement
Dr. Wasim Ahmad’s Contribution: Conceptualization; Data
curation; Formal analysis; Investigation; Methodology; Project
administration; Resources; Software; Validation; Visualization;
Roles/Writing -original draft.
Dr. Qingyu Zhang’s Contribution:Conceptualization; Funding
acquisition; Investigation; Methodology; Project administration;
Resources; Software; Supervision; Validation; Visualization; Roles/
Writing -original draft; Writing -review & editing.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing
financial interests or personal relationships that could have
appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgment
This work is partially supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (# 71572115); Major Program of Social Science
Foundation of Guangdong (# 2016WZDXM005); High-Level
Research Fund of SZU (#860-0000020714).
Appendix A. Measurement items

Constructs Items Source

Efficiency EC1 This site adds to the ease of product search.
et al. (2016)
Souri et al. (2018) and Sa
EC2 It makes it easy to get anywhere on this website. and Parasuraman and Grewal (2000) and Gue
rout
EC3 It permits me to accomplish a product transaction speedily. et al. (2014)
EC4 The site provides systematic product information.
Fulfillment FM1 The supplier promptly delivers products.
FM2 This site is truthful about its product offerings.
FM3 It speedily delivers what I demand.
FM4 It makes genuine promises about the delivery of products.
Reliability RB1 The supplier delivers products by a definite time.
RB3 This site demonstrates an honest interest in resolving client issues.
RB4 Transactions of products with this online store are error free.
Privacy PC1 This site protects my credit card information.
PC2 It does not share my personal information with other sites.
PC3 The security features of this website are satisfactory.
Information quality IQ1 The information content of this site about its products meets my needs.
IQ2 This site’s information about products is completely error free.
IQ3 This site never provides outdated information.
Environmental sustainability ES1 This site employs “green purchasing” policies.
features ES2 This site promotes environmental awareness among consumers through
advertisement and advice.
ES3 This site quantifies environmental costs and savings.
ES4 This site provides products that reduce environmental issues.
User-friendliness UF1 This site is easy to operate. Molinari et al. (2008)
UF2 It is easy to become skilled at using this site. Cheung et al. (2015)
UF3 Interactions with this site are flexible. Suki and Suki (2019)
Green WOM GM1 Leonidou and Skarmeas (2017)
 W. Ahmad, Q. Zhang / Journal of Cleaner Production 267 (2020) 122053 15

(continued )

Constructs Items Source

Due to its environmental image, this green product is highly recommended by Patterson and Spreng (1997)
others. D’souza and Taghian (2005)
GM2 Due to its environmental functionality, this green product is positively Zhang et al. (2018) and Wang and Yu (2017)
recommended by others.
GM3 Due to its eco-friendliness, this green product has a good reputation.
GM4 Due to its environmental performance, this green product has received positive
feedback.
Green trust GT1 This product’s eco-friendly claims are commonly reliable.
GT2 This product fulfills commitments and promises environmental safety.
GT3 The eco-friendly reputation of green products is commonly trustworthy.
GT4 This product’s eco-friendly concern meets my expectations.
Consumer social CnSR1 I should be answerable for defending our environment.
responsibility CnSR2 Environmental protection starts with me.
CnSR3 Environmental protection is the responsibility of all customers.
CnSR4 I am ready to take up responsibility to protect the environment.
Greenwashing GW4 The website publishes misleading messages about the eco-friendly attributes of
its products.
GW5 The website misleads with graphics or visuals about the eco-friendly attributes
of its products.
GW6 The website provides unclear or seemingly unverifiable eco-friendly claims for
its products.
GW7 The website gives false statement about its green products.
GW8 The website exaggerates or overstates the eco-friendly features of its products.
GW9 The website hides significant information about the actual attributes of its
products.
Green perceived value GPV1 This product’s eco-friendly functions deliver good value.
GPV4 The eco-friendly performance of this product meets one’s expectations and
green needs.
GPV5 I purchased this product because it has more ecological value than other
products.
Green involvement GI1 I am concerned about ecological matters.
Green purchase intention GI2 I pay keen attention to the information of green products.
GI3 I keep a watchful eye on popular and new green products.
GPI1 Due to its environmental concerns, I will try to purchase the green product.
GPI2 I plan to purchase this product because of its eco-friendly performance.
GPI3 I intend to purchase this product because of its environmental performance.
GPI4 I am happy to purchase these products because of their eco-friendliness.
GPI5 I will collect and comprehend information about eco-friendly products.
GPI6 I will purchase eco-friendly products when I need to buy a green product.

Note: Seven items RB2, GW1, GW2, GW3, GM5, GPV2 and GPV3 were eliminated because of low factor loadings <0.5.

References organic wine suppliers affect consumers’ behavioral intentions? The moder-
ating role of trust. Cornell Hospit. Quarter, 57, 21e37.
Brinkmann, J., Peattle, K., 2008. Consumer ethics research: reframing the debate
Akbar, W., Hassan, S., Khurshid, S., Niaz, M., Rizwan, M., 2014. Antecedents affecting
about consumption for good. EJBO-Electr. J. Bus. Ethics Organ. Stud. 13 (1),
customer’s purchase intentions towards green products. J. Socio Res. 5,
22e31.
273e289.
Buerke, A., Straatmann, T., Lin-Hi, N., Müller, K., 2017. Consumer awareness and
Akturan, U., 2018. How does greenwashing affect green branding equity and pur-
sustainability-focused value orientation as motivating factors of responsible
chase intention? An empirical research. Market. Intell. Plann. 36, 809e824.
consumer behavior. Rev. Manag. Sci. 11, 959e991.
Alexandris, K., Dimitriadis, N., Markata, D., 2002. Can perceptions of service quality
Bui, M.H., 2005. Environmental marketing: a model of consumer behavior. Proc.
predict behavioral intentions? An exploratory study in the hotel sector in
Annu. Meet. Assoc. Colleg. Market. Educat.. Citeseer 24e26.
Greece. Manag. Serv. Qual.: Int. J. 12, 224e231.
Carrington, M.J., Neville, B.A., Whitwell, G.J., 2010. Why ethical consumers don’t
Allsop, D.T., Bassett, B.R., Hoskins, J.A., 2007. Word-of-mouth research: principles
walk their talk: towards a framework for understanding the gap between the
and applications. J. Advert. Res. 47, 398e411.
ethical purchase intentions and actual buying behaviour of ethically minded
Armstrong, J.S., Overton, T.S., 1977. Estimating nonresponse bias in mail surveys.
consumers. J. Bus. Ethics 97, 139e158.
J. Market. Res. 14, 396e402.
Caruana, R., Chatzidakis, A., 2014. Consumer social responsibility (CnSR): toward a
Auhagen, A.E., Bierhoff, H.-W., 2001. 14 Responsibility at the beginning of the third
multi-level, multi-agent conceptualization of the “other CSR”. J. Bus. Ethics 121,
millennium. Responsibility: Many Faces Soc. Phenom. 3, 179.
577e592.
Bagozzi, R.P., 1986. Principles of Marketing Management. Science Research
Chang, K.-C., Hsu, Y.-T., Hsu, C.-L., Sung, Y.-K., 2019. Effect of tangibilization cues on
Associates.
consumer purchase intention in the social media context: regulatory focus
Bansal, H.S., Voyer, P.A., 2000. Word-of-mouth processes within a services purchase
perspective and the moderating role of perceived trust. Telematics Inf. 44,
decision context. J. Serv. Res. 3, 166e177.

, D., 2016. Analysis of Crowdsourcing Logistics in B2C E-Com- 101265.
Bardasco San Jose
Chang, H.H., Wang, Y.H., Yang, W.Y., 2009. The impact of e-service quality, customer
merce: Costs and Environmental Perspective. Industrial and Information En-
cnica de catalunya, Spain, p. 116. satisfaction and loyalty on e-marketing: moderating effect of perceived value.
gineering. Universitat polite
Total Qual. Manag. 20, 423e443.
Baron, R., Byrne, D., 1994. Social Psychology: Understanding Human Interaction,
Chard, C., Mallen, C., Bradish, C., 2013. Marketing and environmental sustainability
edition, vol. 7. Allyn and Bacon, Boston. MA.
in the sport sector: developing a research agenda for action. J. Mgmt. Sustain. 3,
Baron, R.M., Kenny, D.A., 1986. The moderatoremediator variable distinction in
45e62.
social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical consider-
Chase, R.B., Garvin, D.A., 1989. The service factory. Harv. Bus. Rev. 67 (4), 61e70.
ations. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 51, 1173e1182.
Chawdhary, R., Dall’Olmo Riley, F., 2015. Investigating the consequences of word of
Bhate, S., 2002. One world, one environment, one vision: are we close to achieving
mouth from a WOM sender’s perspective in the services context. J. Market.
this? An exploratory study of consumer environmental behaviour across three
Manag. 31, 1018e1039.
countries. J. Consum. Behav.: Int. Res. Rev. 2, 169e184.
Chen, Y.-S., 2010. The drivers of green brand equity: green brand image, green
Biswas, A., Roy, M., 2015. Green products: an exploratory study on the consumer
satisfaction, and green trust. J. Bus. Ethics 93, 307e319.
behaviour in emerging economies of the East. J. Clean. Prod. 87, 463e468.
Chen, Y.-S., Chang, C.-H., 2012. Enhance green purchase intentions: the roles of
Bonn, M.A., Cronin Jr., J.J., Cho, M., 2016. Do environmental sustainable practices of
16 W. Ahmad, Q. Zhang / Journal of Cleaner Production 267 (2020) 122053
green perceived value, green perceived risk, and green trust. Manag. Decis. 50,
502e520.
Chen, K., Deng, T., 2016. Research on the green purchase intentions from the
perspective of product knowledge. Sustainability 8, 943e958.
Cheung, R., Lam, A.Y., Lau, M.M., 2015. Drivers of green product adoption: the role of
green perceived value, green trust and perceived quality. J. Global Sch. Market.
Sci. 25, 232e245.
Cheung, C.M., Xiao, B.S., Liu, I.L., 2014. Do actions speak louder than voices? The
signaling role of social information cues in influencing consumer purchase
decisions. Decis. Support Syst. 65, 50e58.
Chevalier, J.A., Mayzlin, D., 2006. The effect of word of mouth on sales: online book
reviews. J. Market. Res. 43, 345e354.
Chin, W.W., 1998. The partial least squares approach to structural equation
modeling. Mod. Meth. Bus. Res. 295, 295e336.
Choice, T., 2010. The Sins of Greenwashing: Home and Family Edition. TerraChoice
Group, Inc., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Choudhury, K., 2014. Service quality and word of mouth: a study of the banking
sector. Int. J. Bank Market. 32, 612e627.
Christopher, M., Payne, A., Ballantyne, D., 1991. Relationship Marketing: Bringing
Quality Customer Service and Marketing Together. Heinemann, London,
pp. 1e25.
Cornelis, E., Cauberghe, V., De Pelsmacker, P., 2014. The inoculating effect of mes-
sage sidedness on adolescents’ binge drinking intentions: the moderating role
of issue involvement. J. Drug Issues 44, 254e268.
Dabija, D.-C., Bejan, B.M., 2018. Green DIY store choice among socially responsible
consumer generations. Int. J. Corp. Soc. Res. 3, 13.
Dahl, R., 2010. Green Washing: Do You Know what You’re Buying? National Insti-
tute of Environmental Health Sciences, pp. 246e252.
Davis, L.L., Lennon, S.J., 1988. Social cognition and the study of clothing and human
behavior. Soc. Behav. Pers.: Int. J. 16, 61e85.
Dehghani, M., Tumer, M., 2015. A research on effectiveness of Facebook advertising
on enhancing purchase intention of consumers. Comput. Hum. Behav. 49,
597e600.
Delmas, M.A., Burbano, V.C., 2011. The drivers of greenwashing. Calif. Manag. Rev.
54, 64e87.
Denegri-Knott, J., Zwick, D., Schroeder, J.E., 2006. Mapping consumer power: an
integrative framework for marketing and consumer research. Eur. J. Market. 40,
950e971.
D’souza, C., Taghian, M., 2005. Green advertising effects on attitude and choice of
advertising themes. Asia Pac. J. Market. Logist. 17, 51e66.
Dutta, N., Bhat, A., 2016. Exploring the effect of store characteristics and interper-
sonal trust on purchase intention in the context of online social media mar-
keting. J. Internet Commer. 15, 239e273.
Engel, J.F., 1969. How information is used to adopt and innovation. J. Advert. Res. 9,
3e8.
Fang, J., George, B., Shao, Y., Wen, C., 2016. Affective and cognitive factors influ-
encing repeat buying in e-commerce. Electron. Commer. Res. Appl. 19, 44e55.
Fang, Y., Qureshi, I., Sun, H., McCole, P., Ramsey, E., Lim, K.H., 2014. Trust, satisfac-
tion, and online repurchase intention. MIS Q. 38, 407e427.
Fazal, A., 2011. Consumer power: anywhere, anytime, anyone. Neo Sentuhan, Pulau
Pinang. ISBN: 9789834384159.
Galli, G., Nardin, G., 2003. Choice under uncertainty: the role of trust. In: IMP 19th
Annual International Conference Lugano, Switzerland.
Gan, C., Wang, W., 2017. The influence of perceived value on purchase intention in
social commerce context. Internet Res. 27, 772e785.
Goh, S.K., Balaji, M., 2016. Linking green skepticism to green purchase behavior.
J. Clean. Prod. 131, 629e638.
€nroos, C., 2001. The perceived service quality conceptea mistake? Manag. Serv.
Gro
Qual.: Int. J. 11, 150e152.
Gue
rout, T., Medjiah, S., Da Costa, G., Monteil, T., 2014. Quality of service modeling
for green scheduling in clouds. Sustain. Comput.: Informat. Syst. 4, 225e240.
Gupta, A., Dash, S., Mishra, A., 2019. All that glitters is not green: creating trust-
worthy ecofriendly services at green hotels. Tourism Manag. 70, 155e169.
Hair, J.F., Sarstedt, M., Ringle, C.M., Mena, J.A., 2012. An assessment of the use of
partial least squares structural equation modeling in marketing research.
J. Acad. Market. Sci. 40, 414e433.
Hajli, N., 2015. Social commerce constructs and consumer’s intention to buy. Int. J.
Inf. Manag. 35, 183e191.
Hartmann, P., Apaolaza Ib
~ ez, V., Forcada Sainz, F.J., 2005. Green branding effects
an
on attitude: functional versus emotional positioning strategies. Market. Intell.
Plann. 23, 9e29.
Hew, J.-J., Lee, V.-H., Ooi, K.-B., Wei, J., 2015. What catalyses mobile apps usage
intention: an empirical analysis. Ind. Manag. Data Syst. 115, 1269e1291.
Hosmer, L.T., 1995. Trust: the connecting link between organizational theory and
philosophical ethics. Acad. Manag. Rev. 20, 379e403.
Huete-Alcocer, N., 2017. A literature review of word of mouth and electronic word
of mouth: implications for consumer behavior. Front. Psychol. 8, 1256.
Hung, C.-L., 2017. Online positioning through website service quality: a case of star-
rated hotels in Taiwan. J. Hospit. Tourism Manag. 31, 181e188.
Hussain, S.M., 2014. Measuring quality of electronic service (e-service) in banking.
Int. J. Eng. Res. Afr. 4, 350e359.
Hutt, M.D., Speh, T.W., 2007. A reply to commentaries by gul T. Butaney and carlos
M. Rodriguezethe business marketing course: a cornerstone in the under-
graduate curriculum. J. Bus. Bus. Market. 14, 111e114.
Ismail, A., Alli, N., Abdullah, M.M., Parasuraman, B., 2009. Perceive value as a
moderator on the relationship between service quality features and customer
satisfaction. Int. J. Bus. Manag. 4, 71e79.
Jaiswal, D., Kant, R., 2018. Green purchasing behaviour: a conceptual framework and
empirical investigation of Indian consumers. J. Retailing Consum. Serv. 41,
60e69.
Joshi, Y., Rahman, Z., 2016. Predictors of young consumer’s green purchase behav-
iour. Manag. Environ. Qual. Int. J. 27, 452e472.
Juvan, E., Dolnicar, S., 2017. Drivers of pro-environmental tourist behaviours are not
universal. J. Clean. Prod. 166, 879e890.
Kabir, A.A., Musibau, A.A., 2018. Adoption of Electronic Commerce Technology in
Emerging Nations: A Conceptual Review of the Literature, vol. 6, pp. 455e472.
Kaiser, S., Müller-Seitz, G., 2008. Leveraging lead user knowledge in software
developmentdthe case of weblog technology. Ind. Innovat. 15, 199e221.
Karliner, J., 1997. The Corporate Planet: Ecology and Politics in the Age of Global-
ization. Univ of California Press.
Katz, E., Lazarsfeld, P.F., 1955. Personal Influence (Glencoe, Illinois. Free Press, p. 180.
Kautish, P., Paul, J., Sharma, R., 2019. The moderating influence of environmental
consciousness and recycling intentions on green purchase behavior. J. Clean.
Prod. 228, 1425e1436.
Khan, H.U., Awan, M.A., Ho, H.C., 2018. How do Chinese and Saudi customers
perceive online service quality? A comparative study. J. Bus. Inq. 13, 146e161.
Kim, J., Lee, J., 2002. Critical design factors for successful e-commerce systems.
Behav. Inf. Technol. 21, 185e199.
Kim, S., Park, H., 2013. Effects of various characteristics of social commerce (s-
commerce) on consumers’ trust and trust performance. Int. J. Inf. Manag. 33,
318e332.
Kline, R.B., 2005. Methodology in the social sciences. A “green” perspective. Psychol.
Market. 28, 1154e1176.
Koller, M., Floh, A., Zauner, A., 2011. Further insights into perceived value and
consumer loyalty: a “green” perspective. Psychol. Market. 28, 1154e1176.
Kotler, P., Armstrong, G., Brown, L., Adam, S., 2006. Marketing.–Pearson Education
Australia.
Laaksonen, P., 1994. Consumer Involvement: Concepts and Research. Routledge,
London.
Lai, C.K., Cheng, E.W., 2016. Green purchase behavior of undergraduate students in
Hong Kong. Soc. Sci. J. 53, 67e76.
Laroche, M., Bergeron, J., Barbaro-Forleo, G., 2001. Targeting consumers who are
willing to pay more for environmentally friendly products. J. Consum. Market.
18, 503e520.
Lee, K., 2008. Opportunities for green marketing: young consumers. Market. Intell.
Plann. 26, 573e586.
Lee, J., Park, D.-H., Han, I., 2011. The different effects of online consumer reviews on
consumers’ purchase intentions depending on trust in online shopping malls:
an advertising perspective. Internet Res. 21, 187e206.
Leonidou, C.N., Skarmeas, D., 2017. Gray shades of green: causes and consequences
of green skepticism. J. Bus. Ethics 144, 401e415.
Li, Y., van’t Veld, K., 2015. Green, greener, greenest: eco-label gradation and
competition. J. Environ. Econ. Manag. Environ. Qual.: Int. J. 72, 164e176.
Lim, W.M., Ting, D.H., Bonaventure, V.S., Sendiawan, A.P., Tanusina, P.P., 2013. What
happens when consumers realise about green washing? A qualitative investi-
gation. Int. J. Global Environ. Issues 13, 14e24.
Liu, X., Wang, C., Shishime, T., Fujitsuka, T., 2012. Sustainable consumption: green
purchasing behaviours of urban residents in China. Sustain. Dev. 20, 293e308.
Lyon, T.P., Maxwell, J.W., 2011. Greenwash: corporate environmental disclosure
under threat of audit. J. Econ. Manag. Strat. 20, 3e41.
Maichum, K., Parichatnon, S., Peng, K.-C., 2016. Application of the extended theory
of planned behavior model to investigate purchase intention of green products
among Thai consumers. Sustainability 8, 1077e1096.
Marquis, C., Toffel, M.W., Zhou, Y., 2016. Scrutiny, norms, and selective disclosure: a
global study of greenwashing. Organ. Sci. 27, 483e504.
McKnight, D.H., Chervany, N.L., 2001. What trust means in e-commerce customer
relationships: an interdisciplinary conceptual typology. Int. J. Electron. Commer.
6, 35e59.
Mehrabian, A., Russell, J.A., 1974. An Approach to Environmental Psychology. the
MIT Press.
Mohr, L.A., Webb, D.J., Harris, K.E., 2001. Do consumers expect companies to be
socially responsible? The impact of corporate social responsibility on buying
behavior. J. Consum. Aff. 35, 45e72.
Molinari, L.K., Abratt, R., Dion, P., 2008. Satisfaction, quality and value and effects on
repurchase and positive word-of-mouth behavioral intentions in a B2B services
context. J. Serv. Market. 22, 363e373.
Mollen, A., Wilson, H., 2010. Engagement, telepresence and interactivity in online
consumer experience: reconciling scholastic and managerial perspectives.
J. Bus. Res. 63, 919e925.
Mowen, J.C., Park, S., Zablah, A., 2007. Toward a theory of motivation and person-
ality with application to word-of-mouth communications. J. Bus. Res. 60,
590e596.
Mummalaneni, V., Meng, J., Elliott, K.M., 2016. Consumer technology readiness and
e-service quality in e-tailing: what is the impact on predicting online pur-
chasing? J. Internet Commer. 15, 311e331.
Muncy, J.A., Vitell, S.J., 1992. Consumer ethics: an investigation of the ethical beliefs
of the final consumer. J. Bus. Res. 297e311.
Newberry, C.R., Klemz, B.R., Boshoff, C., 2003. Managerial implications of predicting
purchase behavior from purchase intentions: a retail patronage case study.
J. Serv. Market. 17, 609e620.
 W. Ahmad, Q. Zhang / Journal of Cleaner Production 267 (2020) 122053
Newton, J.D., Tsarenko, Y., Ferraro, C., Sands, S., 2015. Environmental concern and
environmental purchase intentions: the mediating role of learning strategy.
J. Bus. Res. 68, 1974e1981.
Nguyen, T.T.H., Yang, Z., Nguyen, N., Johnson, L.W., Cao, T.K., 2019. Greenwash and
green purchase intention: the mediating role of green skepticism. Sustainability
11, 2653.
Nyilasy, G., Gangadharbatla, H., Paladino, A., 2014. Perceived greenwashing: the
interactive effects of green advertising and corporate environmental perfor-
mance on consumer reactions. J. Bus. Ethics 125, 693e707.
Oliver, R.L., DeSarbo, W.S., 1988. Response determinants in satisfaction judgments.
J. Consum. Res. 14, 495e507.
Olney, T.J., Holbrook, M.B., Batra, R., 1991. Consumer responses to advertising: the
effects of ad content, emotions, and attitude toward the ad on viewing time.
J. Consum. Res. 17, 440e453.
Oriade, A., Schofield, P., 2019. An examination of the role of service quality and
perceived value in visitor attraction experience. J. Destin. Market. Manag. 11,
1e9.
Ozanne, L.K., Vlosky, R.P., 1997. Willingness to pay for environmentally certified
wood products: a consumer perspective. For. Prod. J. 47, 39.
Parasuraman, A., Grewal, D., 2000. The impact of technology on the quality-value-
loyalty chain: a research agenda. J. Acad. Market. Sci. 28, 168e174.
Parguel, B., Benoît-Moreau, F., Larceneux, F., 2011. How sustainability ratings might
deter ‘greenwashing’: a closer look at ethical corporate communication. J. Bus.
Ethics 102, 15e28.
Park, E., Kwon, S.J., Kim, K.J., 2016. Assessing the effects of corporate sustainable
management on customer satisfaction. Sustain. Dev. 24, 41e52.
Patterson, P.G., Spreng, R.A., 1997. Modelling the relationship between perceived
value, satisfaction and repurchase intentions in a business-to-business, services
context: an empirical examination. Int. J. Serv. Ind. Manag. 8, 414e434.
Peattie, K., 2010. Green consumption: behavior and norms. Annu. Rev. Environ.
Resour. 35, 195e228.
Prakash, G., Pathak, P., 2017. Intention to buy eco-friendly packaged products among
young consumers of India: a study on developing nation. J. Clean. Prod. 141,
385e393.
Prentice, C., Han, X.Y., Hua, L.-L., Hu, L., 2019. The influence of identity-driven
customer engagement on purchase intention. J. Retailing Consum. Serv. 47,
339e347.
Quazi, A., Amran, A., Nejati, M., 2016. Conceptualizing and measuring consumer
social responsibility: a neglected aspect of consumer research. Int. J. Consum.
Stud. 40, 48e56.
Quelch, J.A., Jocz, K.E., 2009. Can corporate social responsibility survive recession?
Leader Leader 37e43, 2009.
Rahman, I., 2018. The interplay of product involvement and sustainable consump-
tion: an empirical analysis of behavioral intentions related to green hotels,
organic wines and green cars. Sustain. Dev. 26, 399e414.
Ramayah, T., Lee, J.W.C., Mohamad, O., 2010. Green product purchase intention:
some insights from a developing country. Resour. Conserv. Recycl. 54,
1419e1427.
Ramus, C.A., Montiel, I., 2005. When are corporate environmental policies a form of
greenwashing? Bus. Soc. 44, 377e414.
Roberts, J.A., 1995. Profiling levels of socially responsible consumer behavior: a
cluster analytic approach and its implications for marketing. J. Market. Ther.
Pract. 3, 97e117.
Romero, P., 2008. Beware of green marketing, warns Greenpeace exec. Recuperado
el 18.
Rose, S., Clark, M., Samouel, P., Hair, N., 2012. Online customer experience in e-
retailing: an empirical model of antecedents and outcomes. J. Retailing 88,
308e322.
Roses, L.K., Hoppen, N., Henrique, J.L., 2009. Management of perceptions of infor-
mation technology service quality. J. Bus. Res. 62, 876e882.
S

Cota, M.P., 2016. From the quality of traditional services to the
a, F., Rocha, A.,
quality of local e-Government online services: a literature review. Govern. Inf.
Q. 33, 149e160.
Salehzadeh, R., Pool, J.K., 2017. Brand attitude and perceived value and purchase
intention toward global luxury brands. J. Int. Consum. Market. 29, 74e82.
Sanchez, J., Callarisa, L., Rodriguez, R.M., Moliner, M.A., 2006. Perceived value of the
purchase of a tourism product. Tourism Manag. 27, 394e409.
Santos, J., 2003. E-service quality: a model of virtual service quality dimensions.
Manag. Serv. Qual.: Int. J. 13, 233e246.
Schlaile, M.P., Klein, K., Bo€ck, W., 2018. From bounded morality to consumer social
responsibility: a transdisciplinary approach to socially responsible consumption
and its obstacles. J. Bus. Ethics 149, 561e588.
Schwartz, J., Miller, T., 1991. The earth’s best friends. Am. Demogr. 13, 26e35.
Seele, P., Gatti, L., 2017. Greenwashing revisited: in search of a typology and accu-
sation-based definition incorporating legitimacy strategies. Bus. Strat. Environ.
26, 239e252.
Self, R.M., Self, D.R., Bell-Haynes, J., 2010. Marketing tourism in the galapagos
17
islands: ecotourism or greenwashing? Int. Bus. Econ. Res. J. 9, 111e126.
Siperstein, G.N., Romano, N., Mohler, A., Parker, R., 2006. A national survey of
consumer attitudes towards companies that hire people with disabilities.
J. Vocat. Rehabil. 24, 3e9.
Sohn, H.-K., Lee, T., 2017. Tourists’ impulse buying behavior at duty-free shops: the
moderating effects of time pressure and shopping involvement. J. Trav. Tourism
Market. 34, 341e356.
Souri, M.E., Sajjadian, F., Sheikh, R., Sana, S.S., 2018. Grey SERVQUAL method to
measure consumers’ attitudes towards green products-A case study of Iranian
consumers of LED bulbs. J. Clean. Prod. 177, 187e196.
Strazzieri, A., 1994. Mesurer l’implication durable vis-a -vis d’un produit
inde
pendamment du risque perçu. Rech. Appl. Market. 9, 73e91.
Su, L., Swanson, S.R., 2017. The effect of destination social responsibility on tourist
environmentally responsible behavior: compared analysis of first-time and
repeat tourists. Tourism Manag. 60, 308e321.
Suh, B., Han, I., 2003. The impact of customer trust and perception of security
control on the acceptance of electronic commerce. Int. J. Electron. Commer. 7,
135e161.
Suki, N.M., Suki, N.M., 2019. Examination of peer influence as a moderator and
predictor in explaining green purchase behaviour in a developing country.
J. Clean. Prod. 228, 833e844.
Svensson, G., 2005. Mutual and interactive trust in business dyads: condition and
process. Eur. Bus. Rev. 17, 411e427.
Szabo, S., Webster, J., 2020. Perceived greenwashing: the effects of green marketing
on environmental and product perceptions. J. Bus. Ethics 1e21.
Tarkiainen, A., Sundqvist, S., 2009. Product involvement in organic food con-
sumption: does ideology meet practice? Psychol. Market. 26, 844e863.
Taufique, K.M.R., Vaithianathan, S., 2018. A fresh look at understanding Green
consumer behavior among young urban Indian consumers through the lens of
Theory of Planned Behavior. J. Clean. Prod. 183, 46e55.
Thomas, H., 1989. By appointment to the green consumer. Account. Sept. 104,
116e117.
_ Nart, S., Akar, C., Erkollar, A., 2019. The Effect of Greenwashing on Online
Topal, I.,
Consumer Engagement: A Comparative Study in France, Germany, Turkey, and
the United Kingdom. Business Strategy and the Environment, pp. 1e16.
Tseng, S.-C., Hung, S.-W., 2013. A framework identifying the gaps between cus-
tomers’ expectations and their perceptions in green products. J. Clean. Prod. 59,
174e184.
Verma, V.K., Chandra, B., 2018. An application of theory of planned behavior to
predict young Indian consumers’ green hotel visit intention. J. Clean. Prod. 172,
1152e1162.
Vitell, S.J., 2015. A case for consumer social responsibility (CnSR): including a
selected review of consumer ethics/social responsibility research. J. Bus. Ethics
130, 767e774.
Wang, J., Wang, S., Xue, H., Wang, Y., Li, J., 2018. Green image and consumers’ word-
of-mouth intention in the green hotel industry: the moderating effect of Mil-
lennials. J. Clean. Prod. 181, 426e436.
Wang, Y., Yu, C., 2017. Social interaction-based consumer decision-making model in
social commerce: the role of word of mouth and observational learning. Int. J.
Inf. Manag. 37, 179e189.
Wu, Y.-L., Li, E.Y., 2018. Marketing mix, customer value, and customer loyalty in
social commerce: a stimulus-organism-response perspective. Internet Res. 28,
74e104.
Xu, J., Benbasat, I., Cenfetelli, R.T., 2013. Integrating service quality with system and
information quality: an empirical test in the e-service context. MIS Q. 777e794.
Yadav, R., Balaji, M., Jebarajakirthy, C., 2019. How psychological and contextual
factors contribute to travelers’ propensity to choose green hotels? Int. J. Hospit.
Manag. 77, 385e395.
Yang, S., Hu, M., Winer, R.S., Assael, H., Chen, X., 2012. An empirical study of word-
of-mouth generation and consumption. Market. Sci. 31, 952e963.
Yim, C.K., Tse, D.K., Chan, K.W., 2008. Strengthening customer loyalty through in-
timacy and passion: roles of customerefirm affection and customerestaff re-
lationships in services. J. Market. Res. 45, 741e756.
Zaichkowsky, J.L., 1985. Measuring the involvement construct. J. Consum. Res. 12,
341e352.
Zarei, G., Asgarnezhad Nuri, B., Noroozi, N., 2019. The effect of Internet service
quality on consumers’ purchase behavior: the role of satisfaction, attitude, and
purchase intention. J. Internet Commer. 18, 197e220.
Zeithaml, V.A., 2000. Service quality, profitability, and the economic worth of
customers: what we know and what we need to learn. J. Acad. Market. Sci. 28,
67e85.
Zhang, K.Z., Benyoucef, M., 2016. Consumer behavior in social commerce: a litera-
ture review. Decis. Support Syst. 86, 95e108.
Zhang, L., Li, D., Cao, C., Huang, S., 2018. The influence of greenwashing perception
on green purchasing intentions: the mediating role of green word-of-mouth
and moderating role of green concern. J. Clean. Prod. 187, 740e750.