How Can the Government Effectively Promote Consumers’ Green Purchasing Behavior?—Based on the Diffusion Study of New Energy Vehicles in China

This article aims to reveal the internal mechanism of the government’s leading role in influencing consumers’ green purchasing behavior. This study is based on the Stimulus Organism Response theory and innovation diffusion theory, uniquely combining individual and social levels to deeply explore the mechanism and internal mechanisms of government-led actions, providing a more comprehensive theoretical contribution to this field. This study adopts a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, introducing perceived costs and perceived risks as individual level factors influencing consumers’ purchasing intentions through qualitative research, and introducing social confidence as a factor influencing consumers’ purchasing intentions through social level government subsidies. This study adds a new dimension to how government subsidies affect consumers’ green purchasing behavior. In addition, statistical analysis was used to explore the mediating effects of perceived cost, perceived risk, and social confidence, as well as the moderating effect of the level of supporting facilities. Survey data collected from consumers shows that government subsidies further affect consumers’ willingness to purchase new energy vehicles by influencing their perceived costs, perceived risks, and social confidence, with a particularly strong mediating effect of social confidence. The research results reveal the positive role of government leadership in sustainable development, which contributes to the diffusion of emerging green products and the achievement of sustainable development by the country.