Can digital green marketing work without green literacy? The moderating role of consumer environmental knowledge in Uzbekistan

Abstract

With the advancement of digital technologies, the application of green marketing has evolved from traditional environmental communication to digital promotion strategies and subsequently to data-driven sustainable marketing approaches. The interaction between digital green marketing and consumer environmental knowledge constitutes an important strategy for shaping consumer awareness towards the effective adoption of sustainable products offered by green enterprises. This study examines the role and impact of digital green marketing using several methods, including SEM and correlation analysis. Accordingly, the paper analyses the identification of consumer environmental knowledge through digital green marketing activities and the assessment of its potential for developing sustainable consumption behaviour. Specifically, correlation-based structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied to determine the relationships between digital green marketing intensity (DGM), consumer environmental knowledge (CEK), green purchase intention (GPI) and sustainable consumption behaviour (SCB) in developing green consumption practices. Subsequently, the relationships extending from digital green marketing to consumer environmental knowledge and to these variables were examined, and a moderation model representing the moderating effect of environmental knowledge was developed. The effect of digital green marketing was shown to exert a significant, though to a certain extent positive, influence on sustainable consumer behaviour in the conditions of the Uzbekistan market. The results indicate that green literacy has an effective and positive influence on consumer responses. This result was also confirmed through SEM moderation analysis conducted to determine the contribution of the level of consumer environmental knowledge to variations in green consumption behaviour. This relationship was confirmed; however, it was revealed that even at high levels of environmental literacy, digital green marketing retains the potential to engage sustainable consumers.