Greening the path: The three-way interactive effects of psychological ownership, green knowledge sharing, and social media

Abstract

This study develops an integrated framework grounded in service-dominant logic theory to examine green destination psychological ownership, customer engagement, knowledge sharing, and social media usage as drivers of green electronic word of mouth. A multi-wave survey analysis conducted among 507 Vietnamese travelers supported the hypothesized direct effect, mediation, and three-way interaction between the factors. The results revealed that green customer engagement mediates the relationship between green destination psychological ownership and word of mouth. Additionally, companies’ green knowledge sharing and travelers’ social network proneness strengthen the positive influence of ownership feelings on engagement, subsequently enhancing word of mouth. The findings contribute novel insights into integrated green marketing effects, with implications for leveraging customer psychology and behaviors to promote green word of mouth. By fostering ownership feelings, actively sharing sustainability knowledge, and understanding social media habits, tourism organizations can enhance participation in green initiatives and recommendations. This study advances the theoretical and practical understanding of strategies for nurturing green behaviors and outcomes in the digital age through an integrated framework grounded in service-dominant logic theory. Further research should investigate additional variables and contexts to deepen knowledge on enabling collaborative value creation for sustainability.