Abstract: Individual low-carbon behaviors serve as a pivotal point in promoting carbon emission reduction at the consumption end and driving green transformation at the production end. Achieving the integration of “cognition-participation-diffusion” in urban residents’ low-carbon behaviors is crucial for ensuring the effectiveness of this pivotal point. Drawing on the involvement theory, this paper defines the concept of low-carbon involvement from the perspective of the whole process from cognition to behavior. Taking urban residents as the research object, this paper explores the dimensions of low-carbon involvement by using the qualitative research of the grounded theory, constructs a model of the influencing factors of urban residents’ low-carbon involvement. Furthermore, through empirical research, it analyses the influencing factors and underlying mechanisms of urban residents’ low-carbon involvement. The results show that low-carbon involvement includes four dimensions: low-carbon cognitive involvement, low-carbon information involvement, low-carbon behavior involvement, and low-carbon involvement in influencing others. The degree of low-carbon involvement of urban residents is at a medium level, among which, the mean of low-carbon behavior involvement is the highest, and the mean of involvement in influencing others is the lowest. In terms of influencing factors of low-carbon involvement, the perception of low-carbon utility is the main factor affecting low-carbon involvement, which directly affects the four dimensions of low-carbon involvement. Individual and social factors have different degrees of significant influence on the perception of low-carbon utility, and some factors affect low-carbon involvement through the perception of low-carbon utility. The findings provide important insights for understanding and promoting low-carbon behaviors among urban residents.

Key words: low-carbon involvement, perception of low-carbon utility, grounded theory, structural equation modeling