The influence of social commerce on eco-friendly consumer behavior: Technological and social roles

There is much evidence that consumers' eco-friendly consumption behaviors have changed with the development of the mobile internet economy and social networks. Social commerce, which combines social media and e-commerce, is widely used to promote eco-friendly consumption behavior. However, there has been insufficient empirical research into how technological and social factors affect consumers' eco-friendly behavior in the social commerce context. Taking the "Green Box Area" program based on Alibaba Group's two mobile apps as the research object, this study developed a model that integrated technological and social roles to predict consumers' eco-friendly behavior. Using data from 468 users participating in the "Green Box Area" program, structural equation modeling analysis suggested that technological and social factors are essential predictors of consumers' eco-friendly behavior in both short-term and medium-/long-term models. Furthermore, consumer achievement played a critical mediating role in the causal chain of social factors influencing eco-friendly behavior. Additionally, the findings showed that perceived ease of use and social influence significantly affected short-term but not medium-/long-term eco-friendly behavior. Conversely, social interaction affected eco-friendly behavior only in the medium-/long-term. The results offer implications for policymakers and social commerce practitioners to consider the effective promotion of consumers' eco-friendly behavior.