Bridging the gap: The nexus of green trust mediating role, green innovation, environmental knowledge, and consumer purchase intentions from an educational perspective

Abstract

This paper examines the influence of environmental knowledge and green innovation on their intention to purchase green products, and the mediating role of green trust. Grounded in the Knowledge-Attitude-Behavior (KAB) model, this research explores how cognitive (environmental knowledge), contextual (green innovation), and psychological (green trust) factors interplay to shape sustainable consumption decisions. Data were collected from 369 undergraduate students at the University of Punjab via an online survey and analyzed using SEM-AMOS. The results indicate that environmental knowledge, as well as green innovation, has a direct positive and significant impact on consumer purchase intentions. In addition, green trust mediated the connection between environmental knowledge and purchase intentions, and it also mediated the connection between green innovation and purchase intentions in a partial manner. The effect of knowledge and innovation on consumer behavior partly flows through the trust that consumers put on the validity of the green claims and practices. Such findings are intended to emphasize the serious role of consumer-trust establishment and the increment of environmental awareness and creation of innovation in order to achieve practical green marketing approaches. The paper adds to the theoretical knowledge of what green consumer behaviors entail and provides practical insight on what businesses, educators and policymakers can do to support green behavior.