Social Media Goes Green—The Impact of Social Media on Green Cosmetics Purchase Motivation and Intention

Abstract

In the 21st century, green consumption has risen into a global trend, which inclines cosmetic companies to be more environmental-friendly and to have a larger green product portfolio to satisfy these new consumers’ needs. Social media contributed to this trend, shaping consumers’ attitudes into more environmentally conscious behavior. The present study applied the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to explain the impact of Social Media on consumers’ purchase intention and motivation (altruism and egoism). Based on empirical investigation, an online survey was developed to measure the proposed conceptual model. The reliability and validity of the reflective constructs were tested using partial least squares (PLS) modeling technique. The results indicate the importance of social media on consumers’ attitudes, subjective norms, altruistic and egoistic motivations, and the impact of these variables as the antecedents of green cosmetics purchase intention. These results have important theoretical implications. They revealed that external factors such as social media as an information source, have an important role in consumer motivation formation and green cosmetic purchasing intentions. The findings are relevant for marketers to implement better communication strategies on social media to increase consumers’ motivations and purchase intention toward green cosmetics.