The Impact of Environmental Awareness on Sustainable Consumption: The Mediating Role of Personal Norm and the Moderating Effects of Government’s Role and Brand Sustainability

The increasing environmental crisis highlights a significant problem: the disparity between caring for the environment and purchasing sustainable products. Current research explores how environmental awareness influences the intention to make green purchases. This study examines how personal norm plays a critical role and how government’s role and brand sustainability affect the relationship between environmental awareness and purchase intention. Based on the principles of the Value-Belief-Norm(VBN) theory and the Norm Activation Model(NAM), this research used Hayes’ PROCESS Model 21 to study a complex model involving moderation and mediation. Data was collected from MZ generation consumers in South Korea. The results indicated that the personal norm significantly and positively mediates the relationship between environmental awareness and purchase intention. This mediation is even stronger when there is high government support. Thus, this research improves our understanding of the psychological factors that drive consumers toward more sustainable purchasing behaviors, offering important insights for policymakers and businesses focused on creating a more sustainable marketplace. These findings suggest that the integration of supportive government policies and clearly communicated brand sustainability efforts can significantly enhance the impact of individual environmental awareness. Practitioners should consider fostering personal norms through education and awareness campaigns. Future research could expand this model across different cultural contexts to validate its generalizability and further inform global sustainable consumption strategies.