The impact of environmental knowledge on green purchasing intention: a higher-order model

Currently, environmental problems are becoming increasingly prominent, and global warming is intensifying. The promotion of green product purchases is of great significance to social sustainability. Based on this, this study constructs a higher-order model to analyze in depth how environmental knowledge influences the green purchasing intention of undergraduate students. A total of 343 data samples were collected for quantitative research. Smart partial least squares (Smart PLS) was used for data analysis to measure the relationship between variables. The results of this study show that students’ green purchase intention is positively and significantly correlated with their environmental knowledge. Additionally, the relationship between environmental knowledge and students’ green purchase intention is significantly mediated by green product attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. This study provides a theoretical foundation for enterprises to accurately define their product positioning and develop targeted marketing strategies, thereby enhancing the sales of their green products in the Chinese market. Moreover, it offers empirical evidence for governments and educational institutions to attach importance to the popularization of environmental knowledge and the deepening of green education.