Promoting Consumers’ Sustainable Consumption of Online Retail Cold Chain Logistics Services: Extended Applications of SOR and Cognitive-Affective-Conative Theories

As food safety awareness rises and living standards improve, consumers have increasingly higher expectations for the efficiency and quality of cold chain logistics services. For cold chain logistics service providers, accurately understanding consumer psychology and enhancing their willingness to continue using the service-while guiding them to actively participate in green cold chain logistics practices-are necessary means to maintain competitiveness. Therefore, based on stimulus-organism-response and cognitive-affective-conative theories, this study constructs a three-stage model to explore the factors influencing consumers' continuous consumption of online retail cold chain delivery services. This study substantiates that consumers' intention to continue consuming proceeds through the following three stages: cognitive, affective, and conative. Specifically, the results indicate that consumer- and environment-oriented services significantly enhance consumer value and psychological empowerment, which further promotes their intention to continue using the service and participate in green practices. Moreover, psychological empowerment and perceived value fully and partially mediate the relationship between the two types of services and consumer sustainable consumption, respectively. These findings expand the research on cold chain consumption and deepen our understanding of how various factors influence consumer behavior.