The Rise of Greenfluencers: Micro-Influencer Impact on Sustainable Product Purchase Intentions

At a time when environmental crises are becoming more urgent and consumer distrust of companies’ environmental claims rises, greenfluencers—small-scale influencers who promote eco-conscious living via their social media accounts—represent potentially important agents in the development of pro-sustenance behavior. This research explores the effect of greenfluencer characteristics on consumers’ purchase intentions of sustainable products from the perspectives of the psychological processes in which attitude and trust mediate. A quantitative explanatory research design was applied to the study, and primary data were obtained using a structured survey distributed online to Indonesian social media user aged 18 - 45 years old who actively follow greenf luencers on Instagram, TikTok and Youtube. We examine the relationships between greenfluencer credibility, authenticity, message-product congruence, trust, attitude, and purchase intention using structural equation model. The results of this study indicate greenfluencer attributes significantly affect sustainable purchase intentions mediated by trust and attitude, suggesting the role of perceived authenticity and message congruence in green influencer marketing. Theoretically, the study advances the COR theory to the digital environmental influence context, showing how trust as a psychological resource influences sustainable decision making. This has practical implications for marketers and policy makers in terms of using micro-influencers to engender trust and foster engagement toward sustainable branded content. This study contributes to the knowledge body about how digital communication and influencer effects might be leveraged to stimulate pro-environment behavior among emerging digital markets.