SUStainabLE MarKEting and SOCiaL MEdia A Cross-Country Analysis of Motives for Sustainable Behaviors

Increased spending and demand for sustainable advertising necessitates research to understand better how to encourage sustainable thought and behavior effectively, especially in the understudied areas of social media and cross-cultural research. This study, which includes respondents from the United States, Germany, and South Korea (total n = 1,018) who completed an online survey about usage of Facebook and Twitter, examines motives for sustainable behaviors. Kelman’s (1958) functional motives, which correspond to the three major philosophies of psychology, were used as the theoretical foundation for this study. For all countries, involvement motives lead to recycling behaviors and green transportation use, but only for the United States and Germany do involvement motives lead to antimaterialistic views and organic food purchase. Collectivist South Korea has the highest level of social media involvement and of sustainable behaviors except in recycling, where Germany leads. Motives are complex, demanding careful analysis from advertisers who plan to deliver green advertisements over social media. 70 The Journal of Advertising used. Specifically with social media, large variations between countries exist with the length of time spent on social media. In Russia, for example, the average time spent on social media per month is 10.3 hours (ComScore 2011). In comparison, in the United States, the average time spent on social media per month is just 5.2 hours (ComScore 2011). Even Indonesia, a less developed country, has an average time spent on social media per month of 4.6 hours (ComScore 2011). These figures indicate that around the globe, social media are frequently used, but cross-cultural differences in usage are present. These cross-cultural differences in social media usage suggest a need to consider advertising media (specifically new media, such as social media, which have been understudied) along with cross-cultural differences in research on green advertising. Therefore, the purposes of this paper are to observe consumer commitment to sustainability in social media while incorporating cross-cultural differences in this commitment and to relate this information to consumer motives and advertising practices. COnCEptUaL dEvELOpMEnt

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