Title: WHEN INTERACTING ONLINE LEADS TO TAKING ACTION OFFLINE: EXAMINING THE EFFECTS OF ONLINE PERSUASION ON IS USERS’ PRO-ENVIRONMENTAL BEHAVIOURS
Authors: Zou, YI
Abstract: With the increasing attention towards the role of information systems (IS) as a
vehicle to address environmental issues, IS researchers and practitioners have strived to
leverage advanced Green IS innovations to persuade people to engage in environmentally
responsible practices and support pro-environmental initiatives. Yet, existing research
reveals that the persuasion effects of Green IS designs remain equivocal. In particular,
many design characteristics advocated in Green IS research can produce bi-directional
changes in IS users’ attitudes and behaviours. To address this issue, this thesis drew upon
the circumplex model of social values (S.H. Schwartz, 1992) to explain when and how
online persuasion designs come to affect people’s judgements on resource conservation
and environmental protection. Three sets of working propositions and specific hypotheses
were developed. Specifically, this research suggests that the use of an IS application can
elicit different value primes and draw IS users’ attentions to different motivational
functions of engaging in suggested behavioural changes. It is expected that matching
online persuasion appeals with IS users’ personal value priorities can increase users’
acceptance of online behavioural suggestions. Second, it is hypothesized that the
persuasion effect tends to be weakened, as the system users become aware of the valuematching design in a given IS application. Third, it is proposed that different value
primes presented in an IS application can result in different unintended effects on IS
users’ global pro-environmental attitudes and motivations. The hypotheses were tested in
the two pilot studies and two full-scale online experiments. The study findings generally
support the main predictions of the hypotheses. On the one hand, this thesis providesiii
empirical evidence that IS design for online persuasion can be instrumental in influencing
IS users’ judgements on a range of resource conservation practices. On the other hand,
this work explains why the effectiveness of IS-enabled online persuasion attempts needs
to be measured not only in terms of the intended changes in a target behavioural domain
but also in terms of unintended changes in people’s general environmental orientations.
Findings in this research may bring a different perspective on understanding and
assessing the influence of Green IS applications on IS users’ judgements and behaviou
Description: Thesis (Ph.D, Management) -- Queen's University, 2016-08-05 19:17:06.121
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