Green influencers and consumers’ decoupling behaviors for parasocial relationships and sustainability. A comparative study between Korea and Vietnam

Hoang Tran Phuoc Mai Le, Phuong Van Nguyen and Peter Stokes

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 2025, vol. 84, issue C

Abstract: This study develops a comprehensive model of green social media influencers (GSMIs) to examine their role in shaping consumer green behaviors through parasocial relationships (PSRs). Particularly, it investigates the interrelationships between trust in GSMIs, perceived risk, and PSRs, as well as the connections among PSRs, perceived guilt, environmental decoupling, and consumer green behaviors. It also aims to identify the key determinants of retail consumer green behavior and explore the moderating effects of perceived greenwashing and follower density. Addressing the limited exploration of these dynamics in the Asian context, the research compares conceptual models of developed and emerging GSMI markets through cross-country surveys conducted in South Korea (n = 306) and Vietnam (n = 309), focusing on national retail consumers. The findings largely confirm the proposed relationships, except for the links between PSRs, environmental decoupling, and perceived guilt, which showed significant variations between the two countries. Furthermore, perceived greenwashing and follower density emerged as critical moderators, significantly shaping the relationships within the model. This study enhances the theoretical understanding of consumer decoupling and influencer marketing while providing practical insights for designing effective green marketing strategies that utilize GSMIs to promote sustainable consumer behavior.

Keywords: Green influencers; Social media marketing; Content marketing; Decoupling; Value-belief-norm theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969698925000359
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:joreco:v:84:y:2025:i:c:s0969698925000359

DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104256

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services is currently edited by Harry Timmermans

More articles in Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().