“Communication Agents Impacting Consumer Green Training and Competencies: Moderating Role of Creativity”

Abstract

Marketing management scholars are examining the extent to which knowledge, skills and competencies in environmental management assist in protecting the environment while gaining economic benefits. However, there are questions as to the communication agents developing the green training and resultant competencies. Thus, this dissertation employs the Ability- Motivation-Opportunity (AMO), Socialisation, and Natural-Resource- Based-View (NRBV) theories that guided the development of a conceptual model to examine the extent to which four socialisation agents (peer, family school, and media) impacted green training and ultimately green competencies. The research also examined the mediating role of green training and the moderating role of green creativity in how much green training drives green competencies.

Quantitative data was collected from 425 students and non-student respondents through online questionnaires. SPSS was used to examine descriptive statistics and SmartPls was used to conduct structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) for the testing of the hypotheses. The results revealed that the socialisation agents (i.e., peer, family, school, and media) significantly impacted green training, which in turn significantly impacted six dimensions of green competencies (i.e., green knowledge, green skills, green awareness, green ability, green attitude, and green behaviour). Green training mediated all the relationships between the socialisation agents and green competencies. Consumer creativity significantly moderated the relationships between green training and the awareness and knowledge dimensions of green competencies even though negative. Environmentalists and consumer interest groups would benefit from this study by identifying the communication agents that can best train consumers to consider the environment in their consumption behaviours and develop competencies in assisting in environmental protection. Marketing practitioners and social marketers can also benefit from the knowledge of which communication agents can be best targeted to educate customers and develop their green competencies, while their green creativity makes its influence.