IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i7p4305-d786623.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How Symbols and Social Interaction Influence the Experienced Utility of Sustainable Lifestyle Guiding Policies: Evidence from Eastern China

Author

Listed:
  • Xiu Cheng

    (College of Economics and Management, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China)

  • Ruyin Long

    (School of Business, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China)

  • Fan Wu

    (College of Economics and Management, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China)

Abstract

As the key to mitigating climate change, a sustainable lifestyle has become a focus of environment policy. Past studies have largely neglected the symbols of sustainable lifestyle guiding policies and failed to capture its effect on the experienced utility of sustainable lifestyle guiding policies ( EUSLGP ). To address this drawback, symbolic value was incorporated into a model consisting of social interaction and the EUSLGP . With data collected from 3257 respondents in Eastern China, ordinary least squares were applied to examine hypotheses and two-stage least squares based on the instrumental variable to verify the results. Results show that symbolic value combines self-expression value, relationship consolidation value, group identification value, and status-showing value, and is positively associated with EUSLGP . Social interaction plays a moderating role in the association between symbolic value and EUSLGP . Moreover, significant regional differences are discovered in the identified relationships. Consequently, policy suggestions, covering symbolic value, social interaction, and regional conditions, are proposed to enhance the EUSLGP for other countries and regions.

Suggested Citation

  • Xiu Cheng & Ruyin Long & Fan Wu, 2022. "How Symbols and Social Interaction Influence the Experienced Utility of Sustainable Lifestyle Guiding Policies: Evidence from Eastern China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(7), pages 1-22, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:7:p:4305-:d:786623
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/7/4305/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/7/4305/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cheng, Xiu & Wu, Fan & Long, Ruyin & Li, Wenbo, 2021. "Uncovering the effects of learning capacity and social interaction on the experienced utility of low-carbon lifestyle guiding policies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    2. Rebecca N. Kiwanuka-Lubinda & John N. Ng’ombe & Charles Machethe, 2021. "Impacts of interlocked contractual arrangements on dairy farmers’ welfare in Zambia: a robust Bayesian instrumental variable analysis," Agrekon, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 60(1), pages 10-30, January.
    3. Ryane Straus, 2011. "Citizens’ use of policy symbols and frames," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 44(1), pages 13-34, March.
    4. Song, Malin & Xie, Qianjiao & Wang, Shuhong & Zhou, Li, 2021. "Intensity of environmental regulation and environmentally biased technology in the employment market," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    5. Yawen Gao & Jibao Gu & Hefu Liu, 2019. "Interactive effects of various institutional pressures on corporate environmental responsibility: Institutional theory and multilevel analysis," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(5), pages 724-736, July.
    6. Kim, Jeeyeon & Kim, Mingyung & Choi, Jeonghye & Trivedi, Minakshi, 2019. "Offline social interactions and online shopping demand: Does the degree of social interactions matter?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 373-381.
    7. Shahid Rasool & Roberto Cerchione & Jari Salo, 2020. "Assessing ethical consumer behavior for sustainable development: The mediating role of brand attachment," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(6), pages 1620-1631, November.
    8. Elisabeth Unterfrauner & Jing Shao & Margit Hofer & Claudia M. Fabian, 2019. "The environmental value and impact of the Maker movement—Insights from a cross‐case analysis of European maker initiatives," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(8), pages 1518-1533, December.
    9. Grubb, Michael & Crawford-Brown, Doug & Neuhoff, Karsten & Schanes, Karin & Hawkins, Sonja & Poncia, Alexandra, 2020. "Consumption-oriented policy instruments for fostering greenhouse gas mitigation," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 20(sup1), pages 58-73.
    10. Handgraaf, Michel J.J. & Van Lidth de Jeude, Margriet A. & Appelt, Kirstin C., 2013. "Public praise vs. private pay: Effects of rewards on energy conservation in the workplace," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 86-92.
    11. van den Berg, Pauline & Sharmeen, Fariya & Weijs-Perrée, Minou, 2017. "On the subjective quality of social Interactions: Influence of neighborhood walkability, social cohesion and mobility choices," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 309-319.
    12. Chakraborty, Debapriya & Bunch, David S. & Brownstone, David & Xu, Bingzheng & Tal, Gil, 2022. "Plug-in electric vehicle diffusion in California: Role of exposure to new technology at home and work," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 133-151.
    13. Wilfred Amaldoss & Sanjay Jain, 2010. "Reference Groups and Product Line Decisions: An Experimental Investigation of Limited Editions and Product Proliferation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(4), pages 621-644, April.
    14. Bettels, Jannick & Wiedmann, Klaus-Peter, 2019. "Brand logo symmetry and product design: The spillover effects on consumer inferences," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 1-9.
    15. Kuenzel, Johanna & Musters, Pieter, 2007. "Social interaction and low involvement products," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 60(8), pages 876-883, August.
    16. Mondou, Matthieu & Skogstad, Grace & Houle, David, 2014. "Policy image resilience, multidimensionality, and policy image management: a study of US biofuel policy," Journal of Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 34(1), pages 155-180, April.
    17. Mandler, Timo & Won, Sungbin & Kim, Kyungae, 2017. "Consumers' cognitive and affective responses to brand origin misclassifications: Does confidence in brand origin identification matter?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 197-209.
    18. Steg, Linda, 2005. "Car use: lust and must. Instrumental, symbolic and affective motives for car use," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 39(2-3), pages 147-162.
    19. Wolter, Jeremy S. & Brach, Simon & Cronin, J. Joseph & Bonn, Mark, 2016. "Symbolic drivers of consumer–brand identification and disidentification," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 785-793.
    20. Haustein, Sonja & Jensen, Anders Fjendbo & Cherchi, Elisabetta, 2021. "Battery electric vehicle adoption in Denmark and Sweden: Recent changes, related factors and policy implications," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    21. Johanna Hornung & Nils C. Bandelow & Colette S. Vogeler, 2019. "Social identities in the policy process," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 52(2), pages 211-231, June.
    22. Nguyen, Tuyet-Mai & Viet Ngo, Liem & Paramita, Widya, 2022. "Turning lurkers into innovation agents: An interactionist perspective of self-determinant theory," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 822-835.
    23. Miniard, Paul W. & Alvarez, Cecilia M.O. & Mohammed, Shazad M., 2020. "Consumer acceptance of brand extensions: Is parental fit preeminent?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 335-345.
    24. Herberz, Mario & Hahnel, Ulf J.J. & Brosch, Tobias, 2020. "The importance of consumer motives for green mobility: A multi-modal perspective," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 102-118.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Liang Liu & Mengyue Li & Xiujuan Gong & Pan Jiang & Ruifeng Jin & Yuhan Zhang, 2022. "Influence Mechanism of Different Environmental Regulations on Carbon Emission Efficiency," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(20), pages 1-19, October.
    2. Xiu Cheng & Jiameng Yang & Yumei Jiang & Wenbin Liu & Yang Zhang, 2022. "Determinants of Proactive Low-Carbon Consumption Behaviors: Insights from Urban Residents in Eastern China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(10), pages 1-15, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xiu Cheng & Jiameng Yang & Yumei Jiang & Wenbin Liu & Yang Zhang, 2022. "Determinants of Proactive Low-Carbon Consumption Behaviors: Insights from Urban Residents in Eastern China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(10), pages 1-15, May.
    2. Cheng, Xiu & Wu, Fan & Li, Wenbo & Yang, Jiameng & Long, Ruyin, 2024. "What maintains low-carbon consumption behaviors: Evidence from China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 189(PB).
    3. Cheng, Xiu & Wu, Fan & Long, Ruyin & Li, Wenbo, 2021. "Uncovering the effects of learning capacity and social interaction on the experienced utility of low-carbon lifestyle guiding policies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    4. Khatua, Apalak & Ranjan Kumar, Rajeev & Kumar De, Supriya, 2023. "Institutional enablers of electric vehicle market: Evidence from 30 countries," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    5. Gerrath, Maximilian H.E.E. & Biraglia, Alessandro, 2021. "How less congruent new products drive brand engagement: The role of curiosity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 13-24.
    6. Cheng, Xiu & Long, Ruyin & Wu, Fan & Geng, Jichao & Yang, Jiameng, 2023. "How social interaction shapes habitual and occasional low-carbon consumption behaviors: Evidence from ten cities in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    7. Timmer, Sebastian & Merfeld, Katrin & Henkel, Sven, 2023. "Exploring motivations for multimodal commuting: A hierarchical means-end chain analysis," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    8. Zhang, Linling & Yuan, Jinjian & Gao, Xinyu & Jiang, Dawei, 2021. "Public transportation development decision-making under public participation: A large-scale group decision-making method based on fuzzy preference relations," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    9. Yahong Jiang & Qunqi Wu & Min Li & Yulei Gu & Jun Yang, 2023. "What Is Affecting the Popularity of New Energy Vehicles? A Systematic Review Based on the Public Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-29, September.
    10. Brückmann, Gracia, 2022. "The effects of policies providing information and trialling on the knowledge about and the intention to adopt new energy technologies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    11. Timmer, Sebastian & Bösehans, Gustav & Henkel, Sven, 2023. "Behavioural norms or personal gains? – An empirical analysis of commuters‘ intention to switch to multimodal mobility behaviour," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    12. Brückmann, Gracia, 2022. "Test-drives & information might not boost actual battery electric vehicle uptake?," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 204-218.
    13. Torres, Pedro & Augusto, Mário & Godinho, Pedro, 2017. "Predicting high consumer-brand identification and high repurchase: Necessary and sufficient conditions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 52-65.
    14. Rambabu Lavuri & Abhinav Jindal & Umair Akram & Bhukya Koteswara Rao Naik & Alrence Santiago Halibas, 2023. "Exploring the antecedents of sustainable consumers' purchase intentions: Evidence from emerging countries," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(1), pages 280-291, February.
    15. Schwanen, Tim, 2020. "Towards decolonial human subjects in research on transport," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    16. Chenran Jia & Can Ding & Wenhui Chen, 2023. "Research on the Diffusion Model of Electric Vehicle Quantity Considering Individual Choice," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(14), pages 1-15, July.
    17. Zhenjiao Chen & Yaqing Liu, 2020. "The Effects of Leadership and Reward Policy on Employees’ Electricity Saving Behaviors: An Empirical Study in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(6), pages 1-15, March.
    18. Toşa, Cristian & Sato, Hitomi & Morikawa, Takayuki & Miwa, Tomio, 2018. "Commuting behavior in emerging urban areas: Findings of a revealed-preferences and stated-intentions survey in Cluj-Napoca, Romania," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 78-93.
    19. Mattauch, Linus & Hepburn, Cameron & Stern, Nicholas, 2018. "Pigou pushes preferences: decarbonisation and endogenous values," INET Oxford Working Papers 2018-16, Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford.
    20. Lois, David & López-Sáez, Mercedes, 2009. "The relationship between instrumental, symbolic and affective factors as predictors of car use: A structural equation modeling approach," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 43(9-10), pages 790-799, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:7:p:4305-:d:786623. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.