Consumer Switching Behaviour towards Smart, Green, and Sustainable Building Materials: A UTAUT2-PPM-VBN Triad-Framework

Transition to smart, green, and sustainable building materials (SGSBM) is essential for low-carbon buildings. This study develops and tests a hybrid model integrating UTAUT2, Push–Pull–Mooring (PPM), and Value–Belief–Norm (VBN) to understand and explain consumer switching behavior for SGSBM. Survey data from 193 homeowners in Bangalore, India, were analyzed with PLS-SEM (5,000 bootstraps). Goodness of fit was appropriate as per standard threshold (SRMR = 0.044; NFI = 0.937), and the explanatory power was high (R² of BI = ~79%; R² of SWB = ~79%). Performance Expectancy (PE), Effort Expectancy (EE), Hedonic Motivation (HM), Social Influence (SI), Facilitating Conditions (FC), Perceived Value (PV), and Environmental Beliefs (EB) all significantly and positively predicted Behavioral Intention (BI). BI, Perceived Behavioral Control (PBC), and PV were significant predictors of Switching Behavior (SWB) (β = 0.502, p < 0.001; β = 0.281, p < 0.001; and β = 0.216, p < 0.001, respectively). The direct effects of PE, EE, and HM on SWB were non-significant, and bias-corrected bootstraps confirmed significant indirect paths via BI (e.g., PE → BI → SWB β = 0.135, 95% CI [0.090, 0.201]), consistent with indirect-only or complementary mediation with the UTAUT2/TPB logic. The findings confirm the essential role of intention as the focal mechanism for the transmission of cognitive, moral, and normative drivers of switching into action, while PBC was also a significant enabler of action as hypothesized, consistent with TPB/UMT tenets. The integrated tri-framework offers theoretical advances by providing a unified understanding of utilitarian, normative, and control pathways of high-involvement sustainable consumption. Communication that raises performance and value, normative approval, and the provision of enabling infrastructure can be leveraged to accelerate SGSBM adoption.