›› 2019, Vol. 31 ›› Issue (11): 139-146.

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Face Consciousness and Green Buying Intention: The Moderating Effect of Consumption Context and Mediating Effect of Price

Yu Chunling1, Zhu Xiaodong2, Wang Xia3, Zhang Yifei1   

  1. 1 School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084;
    2 Department of Students Affairs, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084;
    3 School of Business, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872
  • Received:2017-01-23 Online:2019-11-28 Published:2019-11-30

Abstract:

To better understand how face consciousness influences green buying intention under the collectivism culture, this study builds a theoretical model including face consciousness, perceived social value and relative prices, and tests it through 3 studies. The results show that in the public context, customers with high face awareness display a preference toward green products over the same functional non-green products. In the private context, such preference is not observed. The study finds that perceived social value of high face awareness customers affects their green buying intentions. When green products have higher price over the ordinary products, compared to low face awareness groups, customers with high face awareness prefer green products. When green products have slightly lower price over the ordinary products, there is no significant difference between the two groups in preference for green products.

Key words: face consciousness, green products, public and private context, price, perceived social value