The influence of celebrity endorsement, individual and social factors on township residents’ pro-environmental behaviour.

Abstract

Although a popular strategy, the efficacy of celebrity endorsement in promoting proenvironmental behaviour is ambiguous. Additionally, literature has also been ungenerous on the psychosocial mechanisms through which people are persuaded to adopt pro-environmental behaviour. Applying the source credibility model, consumer decision model and the theory of reasoned action, this study investigated the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement as well as the impact of individual and social factors in influencing the intentions of residents of Alexandra township in Johannesburg, South Africa to adopt pro-environmental behaviour. In doing so, the study also compared the effectiveness of two celebrity types: a sport celebrity and an entertainment celebrity. Structured questionnaires through a survey were used to collect data from 300 residents of Alexandra township. A two-stage approach of confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling was used in analysing the data. The findings show that source expertise has a positive influence on the resident’s degree of problem recognition for the sport celebrity but not the entertainment celebrity. However, the current study has no evidence that source attractiveness has a positive influence on problem recognition for both celebrity types. Personal involvement and normative influences were found to have a positive influence on problem recognition. The study found an inverse relationship between perceived knowledge and problem recognition. And finally, problem recognition does have a positive influence on residents’ intentions to search for information about pro-environmental practices. As its primary contribution, the study has expanded celebrity endorsement theory beyond commercial western setting to a social call for behaviour change in the South African context. It has also added to theory development by offering of a more comprehensive model for understating the efficacy of celebrity endorsements within pro-environmental literature. For marketers, this study has placed the use celebrity endorsement within the ambit of scientific knowledge, providing the empirical basis for future decision making. The main recommendation of this study is that decisions to embark on a celebrity endorsement strategy to convert communities into pro-environmental citizens should be combined with a good understanding of the target audience, their motivations and the contextual factors that drive their actions.