ISSN: 2222-6990
Open access
Nowadays, more environmentalists are using social media platforms to raise awareness on environmental issues such as persuading followers to undertake pro-environmental behaviours. However, to date, studies on the role of social media and social influencers in disseminating pro-environmental behaviours are very limited. Therefore, the aims of the present study are to investigate students’ pro-environmental behaviours, their levels of advertising literacy and the leadership qualities of social influencers. Data were collected using an online questionnaire consisting of four sections: demographic information, pro-environmental behaviours, levels of advertising literacy and leadership qualities of the social influencers. Respondents were 128 university students who were active social media users at the largest comprehensive university in Malaysia. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics. Our findings highlighted that university students exhibit pro-environmental behaviours in their daily lives. In addition, these students who were active social media users understood the impact of social media advertising on their lives. Moreover, findings showed that university students trust the leadership of social media influencers due to their qualities. The paper concludes by suggesting university management and policymakers to harness the role of social media and social influencers to promote pro-environmental behaviours to citizens especially the younger generation. Moving forward, more studies on the role of social media influencers in disseminating pro-environmental behaviours to followers should be conducted to understand environmental leaderships through social media platforms.
Akhtar, S., Khan, K. U., Atlas, F., & Irfan, M. (2022). Stimulating student’s pro-environmental behavior in higher education institutions: An ability–motivation–opportunity perspective. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 24(3), 4128–4149.
Aran-Ramspott, S., Fedele, M., & Tarragó, A. (2018). YouTubers' social functions and their influence on pre-adolescence. Comunicar: Media Education Research Journal, 26(57), 71-80.
Audrezet, A., de Kerviler, G., & Moulard, J. G. (2017). Authenticity under threat: when social media influencers need to go beyond passion. Paper presented at the 2017 Global Fashion Management Conference at Vienna.
Awang, S. F. L. Q., Annur, S. N. S., & Gisip, I. A. (2021). The effect of social media in-fluencer attributes towards pro-environmental intention. Romanian Journal of Information Technology and Automatic Control, 31(1), 111–124.
Awang, S. F. L. Q., Annuar, S. N., & Gisip, I. A. (2019). The effect of social media influencers towards pro-environmental intention. The Business and Management Review, 10(3), 63-68. 9th International Conference on Restructuring of the Global Economy, University of Oxford, UK,8-9th July 2019.
Bennett, G., & Williams, F. (2011). Mainstream Green: Moving sustainability from niche to normal. The Red Papers, 1(4), 6–120.
Boerman, S. C. (2020). The effects of the standardized instagram disclosure for micro- and meso-influencers. Computers in Human Behavior, 103(September 2019), 199–207. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2019.09.015
Bureau, U. S. C. (2015). Millennials outnumber baby boomers and are far more diverse, Census Bureau reports. Author Washington, DC. https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2015/cb15-113.html
Byrne, E., Kearney, J, & MacEvilly, C. (2017) The role of influencer marketing and social influencers in public health. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society. 76, E103-E103.
Casaló, L. V., Flavián, C. and Ibáñez-Sánchez, S. (2018). Influencers on Instagram: Antecedents and consequences of opinion leadership. Journal of Business Research. 10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.07.005
Chekima, B., Chekima, F. Z., & Adis, A. A. A. (2020), Social Media Influencer in Advertising: The Role of Attractiveness, Expertise and Trustworthiness. In: Journal of Economics and Business. 3(4), 1507-1515.
Cocker, H. L., & Cronin, J. (2017) Charismatic authority and the YouTuber: Unpacking the new cults of personality. Marketing Theory 17: 455–472.
Cornelio, S. G., Ardèvol, E., & Martorell, S. (2021). Environmental influencers on Instagram: Connections and frictions between activism, lifestyles and consumption. https://doi.org/10.5210/spir.v2021i0.12238
Cuadrado, E., Macias-Zambrano, L. H., Carpio, A. J., & Tabernero, C. (2022). The moderating effect of collective efficacy on the relationship between environmental values and ecological behaviors. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 24(3), 4175–4202.
De Jans, S., & Hudders, L. (2020). Disclosure of vlog advertising targeted to children. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 52, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intmar.2020.03.003
De Pauw, P., De Wolf, R., Hudders, L., & Cauberghe, V. (2018). From persuasive messages to tactics: Exploring children’s knowledge and judgement of new advertising formats. New Media & Society, 20(7), 2604–2628.
De Veirman, M., Hudders, L., & Nelson, M. R. (2019). What is influencer marketing and how does it target children? A review and direction for future research. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 2685.
Djafarova, E., & Rushworth, C. (2017). Exploring the credibility of online celebrities' Instagram profiles in influencing the purchase decisions of young female users. Computers in human behaviour, 68, 1-7.
Evans, N. J., Phua, J., Lim, J., & Jun, H. (2017). Disclosing Instagram influencer advertising: The effects of disclosure language on advertising recognition, attitudes, and behavioral intent. Journal of Interactive Advertising, 17(2), 138–149.
Ezenwafor, E. C., Olise, C. M. & Ebizie, P. I. (2021). Social media influencer and purchase intention amongst social media users in developing African economy. Quest Journal of Management and Social Sciences, 3(2), pp. 217-228.
Fakhreddin, F., & Foroudi, P. (2021). Instagram influencers: the role of opinion leadership in consumers’ purchase behavior. Journal of Promotion Management, 1-31.
Harms, B., Hoekstra, J. C., & Bijmolt, T. H. A. (2022). Sponsored Influencer Vlogs and Young Viewers: When Sponsorship Disclosure Does not Enhance Advertising Literacy, and Parental Mediation Backfires. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 57(1), 35–53. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/10949968221075834
Hassan, S. H., Teo, S. Z., Ramayah, T., & Al-Kumaim, N. H. (2021). The credibility of social media beauty gurus in young millennials’ cosmetic product choice. PLoS ONE 16(3): e0249286. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249286
Hearn, A., & Schoenhoff, S., (2016). From celebrity to influencer: tracing the diffusion of celebrity value across the data stream. In: P. David Marshall and S. Redmond, eds. A companion to celebrity. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, 194–212.
Huang, R.-T., & Yu, C.-L. (2022). Exploring online green behavior among college students in Taiwan: A moderated mediation model of perceived compatibility. Multimedia Tools and Applications, 81(1), 421–436.
Iakovidou, O., Koutsou, S., Vlahou, H. (2005). Mediterranean tourism beyond the shores: New trends in tourism and social organization of landscape (In Greek). Thessaloniki: Ziti Editions
Influencer Marketing Hub. (2020). 80 influencer marketing statistics for 2020. https://influencermarketinghub.com/ influencer-marketing-statistics/
Jalali, S. S., & Khalid, H. (2022). The Influence of Instagram Influencers’ Activity on Green Consumption Behavior, 12(1), 78-90.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348940616_The_Influence_of_Instagram_Influencers'_Activity_on_Green_Consumption_Behavior
Junior, R. C. G. (2020). Instanarratives: Stories of foreign language learning on Instagram. System, 94, 102330.
Lee, A. R., Hon, L., Won, J., You, L., Oloke, T., & Kong, S. (2020). The Role of Psychological Proximity and Social Ties Influence in Promoting a Social Media Recycling Campaign. Environmental Communication, 14(4), 431–449.
https://doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2019.1677737
Lim, X. J., Radzol, A. F., Cheah, J., & Wong, M. W. (2017). The impact of social media influencers on purchase intention and the mediation. Asian Journal of Business Research, 7(2), 19-36.
Lokithasan, K., Simon, S., Jasmin, N. Z., & Othman, N. A. (2019). Male and Female Social Media Influencers: The Impact of Gender on Emerging Adults. International Journal of Modern Trends in Social Sciences, 2(9), 21-30. DOI: 10.35631/IJMTSS.29003
Lou, C. (2021). Social Media Influencers and Followers: Theorization of a Trans-Parasocial Relation and Explication of Its Implications for Influencer Advertising. Journal of Advertising, 0(0), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/00913367.2021.1880345
Mohamed, S. (2020). New Media, Cultural Imperialism and the Malay Muslim Society in Malaysia. Journal of Islamic, Social, Economics and Development (JISED), 5(29), 19 - 33.
Muralidharan, S., Rejón-Guardia, F., & Xue, F. (2016). Understanding the green buying behavior of younger Millennials from India and the United States: A structural equation modeling approach. Journal of International Consumer Marketing, 28(1), 54–72.
Naderi, I., & Van Steenburg, E. (2018). Me first, then the environment: young Millennials as green consumers. Young Consumers, 19(3), 280–295. https://doi.org/10.1108/YC-08-2017-00722
Nguyen, T. H., & Zhang, H. (2020). Green lifestyle, where to go?: How social media in-fluencers moderate the intention–behavior gap within the ecological lifestyle context. Master thesis. Jonkoping University, Sweden.
https://www.divaportal.org/smash/get/diva2:1430761/FULLTEXT01.pdf
Okuah, O., Scholtz, B. M., & Snow, B. (2019). Grounded theory analysis of the techniques used by social media influencers and their potential for influencing the public regarding environmental awareness. In Proceedings of the South African Institute of Computer Scientists and Information Technologists 2019 (pp. 1–10)
Patel, N. (2017). The science of social timing. Kissmetrics PewResearch (2016). Social media use by age group over time. Retrieved 29 September from: http://www.pewinternet.org/data-trend/social-media/social-media-use-by-agegroup/
Rubin, H. J., & Rubin, I. S. (2005). Qualitative Interviewing: The Art of Hearing Data (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Sofio, I. (2020). Thesis: How Does Climate Change Content on Social Media Influence Individual Pro-environmental Behaviors? Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling, 53(9), 1689–1699.
Sogari, G., Pucci, T., Aquilani, B., & Zanni, L. (2017). Millennial generation and environmental sustainability: The role of social media in the consumer purchasing behavior for wine. Sustainability (Switzerland), 9(10). https://doi.org/10.3390/su9101911
Solis, B., & Webber, A. (2012). The rise of digital influence. In Altimeter Group.
Sweeney, E., Lawlor, M.-A., & Brady, M. (2021). Teenagers’ moral advertising literacy in an influencer marketing context. International Journal of Advertising, 41(1), 1–24. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/02650487.2021.1964227
Szczurski, M. M. (2017). Social media influencer- A Lifestyle or a profession of the XXIst century? International Journal of Management and Applied Science (IJMAS), 3(10), 4- 7.
Tajfel, H., and Turner, J.C. (1986). The social identity theory of intergroup behaviour. In: S. Worchel and W.G. Austin, ed., Psychology of intergroup relations, 2nd ed. Nelson-Hall, Chicago. pp.7-24.
Thompson, T. L., Parrott, R., & Nussbaum, J. F. (2011). The Routledge handbook of health communication. New York: Routledge.
Van Dam, S., & Van Reijmersdal, E. A. (2019). Insights in adolescents’ advertising literacy, perceptions and responses regarding sponsored influencer videos and disclosures. Cyberpsychology, 13(2). https://doi.org/10.5817/CP2019-2-2
Van Reijmersdal, E. A., & Van Dam, S. (2020). How age and disclosures of sponsored influencer videos affect adolescents’ knowledge of persuasion and persuasion. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 49(7), 1531–1544.
Xu, J. & Han, R. (2019). The Influence of Place Attachment on Pro-Environmental Behaviors: ,The Moderating Effect of Social Media. doi: 10.3390/ijerph16245100
Yang, M. X., Tang, X., Cheung, M. L., & Zhang, Y. (2021). An institutional perspective on consumers’ environmental awareness and pro?environmental behavioral intention: Evidence from 39 countries. Business Strategy and the Environment, 30(1), 566–575.
Wang, S. W., Kao, G. H. Y., and Ngamsiriudom, W., (2017). Consumers’ attitude of endorser credibility, brand and intention with respect to celebrity endorsement of the airline sector. Journal of Air Transport Management, 60, 10-17.
In-Text Citation: (Shafie et al., 2022)
To Cite this Article: Shafie, L. A., Akil, K. A. K., Radzi, N. A. M., Ling, L. Y., Razali, R., & Rosaidi, N. A. (2022). Pro-Environmental Behaviours, Advertising Literacy and Social Influencers’ Leadership Qualities among Malaysian University Students. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences. 12(7), 601 – 613.
Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s)
Published by Human Resource Management Academic Research Society (www.hrmars.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non0-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode