The Influence of Environmental Community Influencers on Green Consumption Behavior Among College Students
Keywords:
Environmental Influencers, Green Consumption Behavior, Sustainability, Social Media, College StudentsAbstract
This study investigates the influence of environmental community influencers on green consumption behavior among college students. With the increasing importance of sustainability and digital engagement, social media influencers have become powerful agents in shaping environmental awareness and consumer choices. Guided by the Theory of Planned Behavior, Social Influence Theory, Social Learning Theory, and the Source Credibility Model, this research examines how influencer attributes such as credibility, authenticity, and content engagement affect students’ environmental attitudes and behaviors. Using a quantitative method with survey data collected from college students across selected universities, the findings reveal that environmental influencers significantly shape students’ green attitudes and sustainable purchasing behavior. Credibility and authenticity are found to be stronger predictors of influence than popularity, emphasizing the importance of trust-based communication. Furthermore, environmental awareness leads to behavioral change only when reinforced by social identity and perceived behavioral control. The study contributes to understanding how digital environmental advocacy promotes sustainability among youth and offers implications for policymakers, educators, and social media practitioners aiming to enhance pro-environmental engagement in the digital era.
References
A. Celestine, N., Leighton, C., & Perryer, C. (2020). A multifocal and integrative view of the influencers of ethical attitudes using qualitative configurational analysis. Journal of Business Ethics, 162(1), 103–122.
Abell, N., Springer, D. W., & Kamata, A. (2009). Developing and validating rapid assessment instruments. Oxford University Press.
Audrezet, A., De Kerviler, G., & Moulard, J. G. (2020). Authenticity under threat: When social media influencers need to go beyond self-presentation. Journal of Business Research, 117, 557–569.
Bicchieri, C. (2014). Norms, conventions, and the power of expectations. Philosophy of Social Science: A New Introduction, 208.
Bolton, R. N., Parasuraman, A., Hoefnagels, A., Migchels, N., Kabadayi, S., Gruber, T., Komarova Loureiro, Y., & Solnet, D. (2013). Understanding Generation Y and their use of social media: a review and research agenda. Journal of Service Management, 24(3), 245–267.
Chwialkowska, A. (2019). How sustainability influencers drive green lifestyle adoption on social media: The process of green lifestyle adoption explained through the lenses of the minority influence model and social learning theory. Management of Sustainable Development, 11(1), 33–42.
Clayton, S., Devine-Wright, P., Swim, J., Bonnes, M., Steg, L., Whitmarsh, L., & Carrico, A. (2016). Expanding the role for psychology in addressing environmental challenges. American Psychologist, 71(3), 199.
Gillin, P. (2007). The new influencers: A marketer’s guide to the new social media. Linden Publishing.
Kim, J.-H., & Song, H. (2020). The influence of perceived credibility on purchase intention via competence and authenticity. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 90, 102617.
Kyriakides, L., Creemers, B., Antoniou, P., & Demetriou, D. (2010). A synthesis of studies searching for school factors: Implications for theory and research. British Educational Research Journal, 36(5), 807–830.
Marshall, P. A., Adebamowo, C. A., Adeyemo, A. A., Ogundiran, T. O., Vekich, M., Strenski, T., Zhou, J., Prewitt, T. E., Cooper, R. S., & Rotimi, C. N. (2006). Voluntary participation and informed consent to international genetic research. American Journal of Public Health, 96(11), 1989–1995.
Marshall, S. J. (2018). Shaping the University of the Future. Springer, 10, 978–981.
Mbodila, M., Marongwe, N., & Kwahene, F. (2020). The use of social media as a knowledge sharing platform during Covid-19 among students in a rural university: A comparison of email and WhatsApp. ICERI2020 Proceedings, 1001–1010.
McCombs, M., & Valenzuela, S. (2020). Setting the agenda: Mass media and public opinion. John Wiley & Sons.
McGuire, N. M. (2015). Environmental education and behavioral change: An identity-based environmental education model. International Journal of Environmental and Science Education, 10(5), 695–715.
Okuah, O., Scholtz, B. M., & Snow, B. (2019). A grounded theory analysis of the techniques used by social media influencers and their potential for influencing the public regarding environmental awareness. In Proceedings of the South African institute of computer scientists and information technologists 2019 (pp. 1–10).
Pukdeemai, C. (2020). The moderation effect of environmental awareness on the relationship between customer’s engagement and value-creation to the company in social media: An empirical study based on Thai undergraduate student. University of Warwick.
Roxas, B., & Lindsay, V. (2012). Social desirability bias in survey research on sustainable development in small firms: An exploratory analysis of survey mode effect. Business Strategy and the Environment, 21(4), 223–235.
Sharma, N., Saha, R., Sreedharan, V. R., & Paul, J. (2020). Relating the role of green self‐concepts and identity on green purchasing behaviour: An empirical analysis. Business Strategy and the Environment, 29(8), 3203–3219.
Smart, B. (2010). Consumer society: Critical issues & environmental consequences.
Statistics, L. (2013). Descriptive and inferential statistics. Retrieved From.
White, K., Habib, R., & Dahl, D. W. (2020). A review and framework for thinking about the drivers of prosocial consumer behavior. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 5(1), 2–18.
Wijayaningtyas, M., Handoko, F., & Hidayat, S. (2019). The millennials’ perceived behavioural control on an eco-friendly house purchase intention. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 1375(1), 12060.
Yong, J. Y., Yusliza, M.-Y., Jabbour, C. J. C., & Ahmad, N. H. (2020). Exploratory cases on the interplay between green human resource management and advanced green manufacturing in light of the Ability-Motivation-Opportunity theory. Journal of Management Development, 39(1), 31–49.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Affanaji Nugroho, Dewi Mustikawati, Arifien Arifien

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

