Understanding Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for Low-Carbon Products

Social norms are informal rules governing group behavior, and they strongly motivate the formation of low-carbon purchasing habits. Drawing on Stimulus-Organism-Response theory (SOR theory), this study surveyed 499 consumers via questionnaires. This study used scales for social norms, future orientation, perceived consumer effectiveness, low-carbon purchasing intention, and collectivist culture to conduct empirical analyses. Specifically, structural equation modeling and hierarchical regression were applied to explore how social norms influence low-carbon purchasing intention and the underlying mechanisms. Additionally, the fsQCA method was used to identify configurations of antecedent variables affecting low-carbon purchasing intention. The findings are as follows: (1) Social norms positively impact low-carbon purchasing intention. (2) Social norms indirectly influence individuals’ low-carbon purchasing intention through future orientation and perceived consumer effectiveness. (3) Collectivist culture positively moderates the effect of social norms on future orientation. However, it only positively moderates the effect of descriptive social norms on perceived consumer effectiveness. (4) When social norms are absent, future orientation and collectivist culture together form sufficient conditions for the formation of low-carbon purchasing behavior.