Beyond Good Intentions: How Self-Interest and Civic Duty Shape Green Consumption Through Perceived Barriers and Social Capital

Despite heightened sustainability agendas, green purchase behavior (GPB) remains uneven. This study develops a motive–mechanism account that distinguishes personal (self-regarding) and civic (other-regarding) motivation and specifies how these parallel motives operate through a dual-barrier/relational-enabler layer. Using survey data from urban consumers in China (n = 420) and structural equation modeling with bias-corrected bootstrapped indirect effects, we test a dual-path mediation model in which perceived cost and perceived risk function as inhibitory mechanisms, while social capital operates as a relational amplifier. Results indicate that both motivations positively predict GPB; cost and risk suppress GPB; and social capital facilitates GPB. Indirect effects via all three mediators are significant, yet direct paths from both motivations to GPB remain, indicating partial mediation. Two regularities are noteworthy: a pattern of motivational symmetry, whereby personal and civic motives exhibit comparable direct associations with behavior, and an attenuated risk pathway relative to cost, suggesting affordability—more than uncertainty—constrains adoption in the observed market context. Theoretically, the findings integrate TPB–VBN insights into a dual-motive, dual-barrier, relational-enabler framework that positions social capital as a conversion-efficiency multiplier and clarifies scope conditions under which each pathway dominates. Practically, the results prioritize interventions that lower out-of-pocket costs, reduce the salience of uncertainty, and leverage community trust and peer visibility.