J. Theor. Appl. Electron. Commer. Res. 2026, 21(9), 309; https://doi.org/10.3390/jtaer21090309 (registering DOI) - 5 Sep 2026
Abstract
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Within digital green evaluation environments, both social visibility (SV) and experimentally constructed evaluative-feedback conditions (EFCs) may shape green purchase intention (GPI). Prior research has emphasized observability and social signaling, while paying less attention to how the evaluative direction of feedback is translated into
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Within digital green evaluation environments, both social visibility (SV) and experimentally constructed evaluative-feedback conditions (EFCs) may shape green purchase intention (GPI). Prior research has emphasized observability and social signaling, while paying less attention to how the evaluative direction of feedback is translated into self-conscious emotions. Drawing on the stimulus–organism–response framework, this study examines how EFCs and SV relate to GPI in association with shame (SH) and pride (PR). A 2 × 3 between-subjects experiment (N = 270) manipulated SV (public versus private) and EFC (negative, neutral, positive). EFC showed significant differences in SH, PR, and GPI, whereas SV showed no significant main effects and operated conditionally. Multicategorical relative indirect-effect analyses, using neutral feedback as the reference condition and controlling for SV, showed significant PR-related relative indirect effects for both the negative versus neutral and positive versus neutral contrasts; the corresponding SH-related relative indirect effects were not significant. Exploratory EFC × SE interactions were significant for both emotional responses, but SE was measured post-stimulus and differed across EFCs; these results are therefore treated as post-stimulus conditional associations. Under the present experimental operationalization, differences across the bundled EFCs were more consistent than SV effects. Because the EFCs jointly varied product choice, score, evaluative message, and interface cues, the findings do not isolate pure valence effects; the relative indirect effects are interpreted as statistical patterns consistent with possible emotional pathways rather than as a complete causal mechanism.
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