Effects of prosocial norms on consumers’ social value perceptions, attitudes, and repurchase intentions toward green products

Abstract

Social value of green products have received considerable attention. Because few scholars have investigated the effects of prosocial norms on the formation of social value perceptions, this article explores whether prosocial descriptive and injunctive norms affect people’s perceived social value of green products, which affects their attitudes and purchase intentions toward green products. The research sample comprised consumers who possessed purchased green products previously 3 months, and 400 questionnaires were collected. The gathered data were assessed through structural equation modeling. The results state that consumer-perceived social value possesses a positive impact on attitude toward green products, which in turn positively influences repurchase intentions. Furthermore, both descriptive norms and injunctive norms positively impact consumer-perceived social value, whereas only descriptive norms positively have an effect on attitude toward green products. Depending on the aforementioned results, this research suggests that governments and green marketers adopt the social norms perspective to encourage consumers to continuously buy green products by generating consumer perceptions of social value and positive attitudes toward green products.

Keywords

• green products
• descriptive norms
• injunctive norms
• perceived social value
• green product attitudes
• repurchase intentions