Abstract
Plastic consumption is an important aspect of contemporary living, and studies that systematically examine consumers’ plastic waste recycling intentions from an ethical perspective are scarce. Considering the severity of plastic waste recycling problems globally based on the stimulus-organism-response paradigm, this study analyses how the information publicity influences consumers’ plastic waste recycling intentions from an ethical perspective in an emerging market economy. We investigate this link by focusing on the indirect effect of perceived social pressure and the moderating role of media disposition (i.e., media richness and content trustworthiness). Data from a three-wave field survey of 469 household consumers from China showed that social pressure mediated the positive relationship between information publicity and ethical recycling intentions. Additionally, media richness and content trustworthiness moderate the link between information publicity and consumers’ perceptions of social pressure. These findings provide encouraging evidence for applying the SOR paradigm to explain the ethical recycling intention of consumers. The findings may assist policymakers in motivating consumers to think ethically about plastic waste recycling.
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Data Availability
Data generated or analyzed during the study are available from the corresponding author by request.
Notes
To follow the established terminology in the area of business and consumer ethics the term ethics and morality are used as synonyms (Culiberg 2014) in this study.
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Acknowledgements
We sincerely thank the Editor and the anonymous reviewers for their insightful evaluation of this manuscript during the revision process. Their constructive feedback and thoughtful suggestions significantly improved the quality and clarity of this paper.This study was funded by the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant Number: 2020M671236) and the Open Project of Micro & Small Enterprise Development Research Center in Hubei Province (Grant Number XWZD202205). All authors contributed equally to this manuscript.
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Mehmood, K., Iftikhar, Y., Jabeen, F. et al. Energizing Ethical Recycling Intention Through Information Publicity: Insights from an Emerging Market Economy. J Bus Ethics (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-024-05671-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-024-05671-6