Message involvement and attitude towards green advertisements

Purpose Previous green research shows conflicting results regarding the relationship between environmental concern and persuasion. It has also largely overlooked the role of situational involvement. The purpose of this paper is to aim to show that message involvement influences attitude towards green advertisements. Design/methodology/approach To test the proposed model, an experimental study based on a sample of young adults in an emerging economy was used to investigate if situational involvement can produce favourable attitudes towards green advertisements. Findings Using PLS, it was found that fear and response efficacy increased message involvement which in turn was a significant predictor of attitude towards the advertisement. The findings show that advertisers can use these variables to increase message involvement. Originality/value This research extends previous studies on message involvement and expands current knowledge by showing that situational involvement predicts attitude towards green advertising.