The impact of context cues on college students' purchase behavior for low-carbon products in CBEC

Chen Wang; Xiaolong Zhou; Ran Zhang; Yexin Liu

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1287235

The impact of context cues on college students' purchase behavior for low-carbon products in CBEC

Front Psychol. 2023 Dec 22:14:1287235. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1287235. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Chen Wang¹, Xiaolong Zhou², Ran Zhang³, Yexin Liu¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Economics and Management, Harbin Institute of Technology (Weihai), Weihai, China.
² International Education School, Shandong Polytechnic College, Jining, China.
³ Department of Public Course, Shandong Polytechnic College, Jining, China.

Abstract

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of online shopping context cues (price discount, carbon label, and social commentary) on college students' trust/perceived risk and cross-border purchase intention (CBPI) for low-carbon products and compare the study between South Korean and Chinese college students. The theoretical framework is established by integrating the S-O-R model and valence framework. The variable of stimuli (S) is the driving force in the purchase behavior that influences the individual organism (O) and its subsequent response (R). Based on this logic, this study draws on the valence framework to hypothesize the effects of online shopping context cues (price discount, carbon label, and social commentary) on college students' trust/perceived risk and cross-border purchase intention (CBPI) for low-carbon products.

Methods: This study conducted two online experiment-questionnaire studies and one between-subject lab experiment to test the hypotheses.

Results: We found that all three context cues have significant positive effects on trust and negative effects on perceived risk. College students' trust positively and perceived risk negatively impact college students' CBPI for low-carbon products. In addition, based on different cultures, languages, and education, this study investigates the moderating effect of college students' nationality on their significantly different cue processing modes for low-carbon products.

Discussion: The findings provide new insights into better understanding the factors affecting college students' low-carbon consumption behavior in a CBEC setting and have some practical implications.

Keywords: S-O-R model; college student; context cue; cross-border purchase intention; low-carbon product.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This study was supported by the Key Subject for Education Sciences “14th Five Year” Planning Research Project in Shandong Province (Grant No. 2021ZD029), Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation, China (Grant No. ZR2023QG049 and ZR2023QG010), Social Science Planning Project of Shandong Province (Grant No. 22CSDJ03), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. HIT.HSS.202322), Shandong Provincial Culture and Tourism Research Project (Grant No.23WL(Y)147), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 72072047).