The effects of collectivistic and authority-based green advertising on green purchasing behavior for apparel among gen Z and Y Asian consumers in an emerging market.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of collectivistic and authority-based green advertising on actual green purchasing behavior for apparel among Gen Z and Gen Y consumers in an emerging market. By conceptually uniting the stimulus-organism-response model with the theory of planned behavior, data were collected through a robust two-stage survey from 197 Vietnamese consumers to minimize consistency bias and specifically address the intention-behavior gap prevalent in environmental communication research. Results indicate a significant direct association between culturally adapted green advertising and actual purchasing behavior, while further revealing that this association is successfully mediated by the simultaneous organismic states of perceived behavioral control, subjective norms, and attitude. Conclusively, this study establishes that collectivistic and authority-based green advertising is a highly effective mechanism for promoting sustainable apparel consumption through both direct and internal psychological pathways. Theoretically, this research advances the literature by extending green advertising research into the specific apparel context and validating the novel "collectivistic and authority-based" construct within an underrepresented emerging economy. Furthermore, it clarifies the effectiveness of such advertising on Gen Z and Y cohorts while making a significant methodological contribution by shifting the focus from mere intentions to actual behavior via a multi-phase design. Finally, the study elucidates the complex mediating mechanism by identifying the simultaneous roles of attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control as internal drivers of behavioral response. Practically, the findings offer practitioners valuable strategies to significantly increase campaign effectiveness among younger cohorts in Vietnam.