Original title: Consumer Social Responsibility and Sustainability-Related Social Media Influence in Generation Z's sustainable purchase intention: the mediating roles of Green Trust and Green Perceived Value
The study looks at how responsibility and sustainability posts on social media relate to young adults’ plans to buy sustainable products. It surveyed 347 people aged 18–29 in three Indian cities. People’s sense of a company’s responsibility was linked to greater trust and perceived value; social media influence was linked to trust, but not perceived value. Trust was linked to stronger purchase intention, while perceived value was linked to weaker intention. These are associations, so the study does not show that one factor caused another.
Imagine choosing a reusable bottle at a shop. A label may make you trust the maker, while the price and features shape how worthwhile the bottle seems. Those judgments do not always point in the same direction: in this study, greater trust went with stronger plans to buy, but greater perceived value went with weaker plans. Here, the label and product judgments stand for influences on young consumers, and the choice stands for their intention to buy sustainably.
Companies and people promoting sustainable products may assume that perceived value always encourages purchase. In this study, the link went the other way, while trust in a product’s green claims was linked to stronger purchase intention.
The study is cross-sectional, uses purposive sampling, and covers 347 Generation Z consumers aged 18–29 in Chennai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad. It establishes associations, not cause and effect. The negative association between perceived value and purchase intention needs further investigation; the abstract does not establish why it appears or whether it applies beyond this group and setting.
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Consumer Social Responsibility and Sustainability-Related Social Media Influence in Generation Z's sustainable purchase intention: the mediating roles of Green Trust and Green Perceived Value — Kodiarasi Muthulingam, E. Nixon Amirtharaj — Frontiers in Sustainability — doi:10.3389/frsus.2026.1973593
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.