THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING ACTIVITIES ON GREEN CONSUMPTION INTENTION: EVIDENCE FROM EMERGING COUNTRIES

. The study investigated the impact of social media marketing activities on green consumption intention. The study used the survey method to describe this impact in five countries (Brazil, Egypt, India, South Africa


Introduction
Incremental growth in internet users led many enterprises to experiment with more ways of managing their cyberspace existence.They tested new business models that could provide them more opportunities than the Internet (Wielki, 2010).Many kinds of research on social media have been conducted in the last two decades that show their importance for enterprises (Kapoor et al., 2018), especially from direct marketing perspective (Unold, 2003).Nowadays, social media acts as a base for marketing strategy in enterprises.As consumers can communicate about products, enterprises, or brands, the influence of consumer engagement has increased (Liu et al., 2018).Therefore, managers rely on social media users and algorithms (using platforms) to plan their marketing content (Kanuri, Chen, and Sridhar, 2018).
Enterprises should understand users' needs and organise marketing activities according to this.They should organise events that have a lasting impression (Kim and Perdue, 2013).For example, Louis Vuitton (fashion brand) provides live fashion shows via Facebook (Kim and Ko, 2012).Ralph Lauren, Gucci, Chanel, and others have created iPhone applications (apps), while other brands created Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, or Instagram accounts.This allows the communication between brand and customer to have no time, location, and media restrictions.
Facebook (FB) is considered one of the most popular platforms for promoting products, managing relationships, and communicating with customers (Chodak and Suchacka, 2017;Myers West, 2018).Any firm can use different posts or content on FB to notify customers about goods, services, and offers.FB enables a firm to get feedback from recent and prospective customers (Abeza, O'Reilly, and Reid, 2013).This helps enterprises understand customers' needs and opinions about products or services.In addition, FB fan pages are used to promote discount coupons, spread information about promotions, and manage competitions for customers (Radzi, Harun, Ramayah, Kassim, and Lily, 2018).
Through social media, consumers may create, develop, or distribute content which affects their behavioural intentions (Lee and Cranage, 2014).Social media allows consumers to communicate and search for information (Nezakati et al., 2015).Social media networks (i.e.Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube) allow consumers to be more integrated into the online environment.It also offers alternative chances for enterprises to market their products and services and to know consumer demand.
An increased concern has emerged in many countries about green consumption, as pollution destroys natural resources.It is related to unpredictable economic development (Lee, 2008).Because of this, it is essential to reshape enterprises' consumption strategies to have sustainable development and environmental protection (Martinsons et al., 1997).This study measures the impact of social media marketing activities on green consumption for electric car brands on Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

Literature Review
The deterioration of ecological systems and consumers' heightened expectations about the role of enterprises in society have dramatically raised enterprise awareness of the significance of environmental concerns.Although sustainability has become a prominent trend in modern society, the unsustainable purchasing habits of individual consumers remain a significant impediment to sustainable development.Simultaneously, a rising number of customers have grown increasingly receptive to the concept of sustainable consumption.People's knowledge of the lasting effects of their consumption on environment and society is related to sustainable consumption.Modern enterprises should educate and enlighten their customers since a high level of knowledge substantially influences consumer purchasing behaviour and the adoption of sustainable consumption habits.Using modern technology, enterprises may determine what encourages customers to act more sustainably and promote sustainable consumption.Recently, social networking has emerged as a viable solution for managing consumer information (Radziszewska, 2021).
With the advent of the mobile internet economy and social networks, there is substantial evidence that consumers' eco-friendly purchase patterns have shifted.Social commerce, which blends social networking and e-commerce, is frequently used to encourage eco-friendly purchase patterns (Gao et al., 2022).Currently understudied is the function of social media in creating sustainable attitudes (Zafar et al., 2021).Therefore, the study reviews the intellectual framework through three main dimensions, including: "Social media marketing", "Purchasing intention", and "Green consumption intention".

Social Media Marketing
The term "social media" consists of "social" and "media".Social refers to the interactions between individuals or groups who have similar interests.Media refers to channels or platforms allowing individuals or groups to create, develop, and share content (Icha and Agwu, 2015).Social media reflected consumers' need for interpersonal interactions through virtual worlds.For example, real-time texting is used in information sharing and social contact between people.This motivates enterprises to include social media in their online marketing strategies.Social media marketing (SMM) could be defined as influencing.
Social-based SMM uses direct communication between users (e.g., WeChat).It expanded recently as a shopping channel.For example, about 12.57 million users uses WeChat (Internet Society of China (ISC), 2016).Social media became a part of everyday life.The interactions through virtual platforms, e.g., Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and others, reflect the behaviour towards all social media technologies (Alalwan et al., 2017).Social media has proved helpful in social, commercial, and educational life.It is becoming more popular in consumers' information searches and purchasing decisions (Kim et al., 2018).For customers, it became one of the most appropriate tools for gaining knowledge and developing relationships (Ladhari and Michaud, 2015).These days, customers use blogs, social media, online communities, or consumer review systems to collect product information (Yoo et al., 2018;Nam et al., 2020).Social media and social networking are different, although both convey information.Social media permits individuals and enterprises to broadcast, influence others and share user-generated content (Alalwan et al., 2017).For that Internet, platforms are used, which allow the exchange of interests, experiences, goods, and services, for example, Forums, blogs, online communities, social networks, and YouTube (Ladhari and Michaud, 2015).Social networks are platforms, programs, or electronic sites, used by individuals with similar interests (Alalwan et al., 2017).Social networking uses social media is directly connecting people.
Social media marketing communicates customers and enterprises; service-driven dialogue promotes information, which enables the use of the experience of the parties involved (Alalwan et al., 2017).User content describes the opinions placed on social media.As it is easy to share comments and know the impressions of others, this has influenced users to seek information, and it has also affected their purchasing decisions (Ladhari and Michaud, 2015).Customers' use of social media to seek information about products is increasing, without the need for enterprises to promote or post information on their official accounts or websites (Erkan and Evans, 2016).
Social media has been integrated into marketing strategies and considered one way to deal with consumers' needs through the different available platforms.It's a powerful tool for increasing the global existence of the company, promoting products and services, and growing brand reputation (Dolega et al., 2021).
Social media allows customers to share their positive or negative experiences.They tell their opinions about enterprises, goods, and services they have tried.Much research has proved that word-of-mouth influences consumer interaction.(Alalwan et al., 2017).This has motivated much research to pay attention to its relation to behaviour (Septiani et al., 2017;Huynh et al., 2020).Or to purchasing intention (Erkan and Evans, 2016;Wu and Lin, 2017;Wang et al., 2018;Filieri et al., 2018;Zhao, et al., 2020;Shankar et al., 2020;Lee and Wong, 2021).In addition, many researchers examined its relation to loyalty (Yoo et al., 2013;Nguyen-Phuoc et al., 2020;Lee and Wong, 2021).Their findings proved the effect of word-of-mouth on trust and customer engagement.
Electronic word of mouth is a positive or a negative statement by potential, existing, or former customers.It represents his opinion about a product or a company.In social media, this is done through the Internet: social network websites, e-retail stores, blogs, forums (Shankar et al., 2020).The opinion of consumers represented in electronic word of mouth on social media is usually considered unbiased, reliable, and can be easily accessed.So, it means a source for information other than the company official website or any other traditional way of having the data (Ladhari and Michaud, 2015).
In addition to providing a way for communication between customers, enterprises can promote their products and services.They also can share comments via text, images, applications, links, or videos on social platforms or websites.Customers can also share their thoughts by posting or forwarding posts.This makes a consumer need to analyse critically and comprehend information before adopting it, which affects his purchasing intention (Erkan and Evans, 2016).These days' social media is considered a primary source of information, as it influences consumers' purchasing decisions (Alalwan et al., 2017).Researchers used the information posted by consumers after purchasing on social platforms.The researchers tried to explore consumer behaviour, information adoption (Kim et al., 2021), customer review (Hussain et al., 2018), and intentions (Septiani et al., 2017).The information on social media websites affects consumer expectations; it influences consumers' preferences, attitudes, and purchase decisions.It also represents post-use evaluations (Ladhari and Michaud, 2015).Consumers post and share their opinion before and after purchasing on social media using technology services.This implies a relation between online communication channels and technology adoption behaviour (Shankar et al., 2020).
The increase in these virtual community websites encouraged many enterprises to think about relying on such sites to deepen their relationship with consumers (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010;Chen et al., 2014).Alternative forms of media and programs has been developed through the Internet.This changed past traditional human interactions and created new ways of communication.Reliance on online social media, sharing of consumer experiences, and the sharing of brand information became new topics in brand marketing.
The traditional one-way information transmission has become interactive, two-way communication (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010).As a result, this encouraged more enterprises to profit from social media.
Social media marketing (SMM) attracted the attention of scholars in past years.Many researchers have investigated the effect of social media on consumers' behaviour (Mangold and Faulds, 2009;Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010;Chan and Guillet, 2011;Wang, Yu, and Wei, 2012;Wang and Chang, 2013;Zeng and Wei, 2013;Goh et al., 2013;Vinerean et al., 2013;Alves et al., 2016).However, the investigation of social media on green consumption intention under demographic characteristics of consumers is lacking.

Purchasing Intention
Purchase intention can measure the possibility that a consumer will buy a product.The higher the purchasing intention is, the higher a consumer's willingness to buy a product (Dodds et al., 1991).Using intentions to forecast purchasing depends on the assumption that intentions are good indicators of purchasing behaviours (Armstrong et al., 2000).Buying intention indicates that customers will follow their experience, preference, and external environment to gather information, evaluate alternative options, and make a purchasing decision (Zeithaml, 1988;Dodds et al., 1991).
Purchasing intention can be classified as one of the factors of consumer cognitive behaviour, as how an individual intends to buy a specific brand or product.Laroche Kim and Zhou (1996) argue that certain variables as customers' consideration in purchasing a product and expectation to buy a product, can be used in measuring a consumer's purchasing intention.These factors may include customer's interest, attending, information, and assessment as parts of the overall process of determining intention.Many marketing researchers use continuance intention to measure whether consumers will continue to use a product or a service (Thong et al., 2006).Consumers' willingness to continue using a product or service is crucial for a firm success.
A customer's willingness to purchase a good or service is represented by his purchasing intention (Dodds et al., 1991).Morwitz and Schmittlein (1992) showed that willingness to buy is usually used as an indicator of customers' future purchasing behaviour.Blackwell et al. (2001) found that willingness to purchase can be seen as customers' preference for selecting a good or service.In addition, Boyd and Mason (1999) proved that willingness to purchase reflects customers' degree of appreciation for a particular product.
In practical investigations it is more difficult to track whether an action has been taken (a purchase or a recommendation).Usually, when customers purchase a product, they search for information on their experiences and external environment.After gathering enough information, customers evaluate, compare, and finally make a purchase.Purchasing intention can be seen as consumers' subjective preference for a specific good or service.Therefore, purchasing intention is usually used in measuring customers' behavioural intention (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1977).Schiffman and Kanuk (2009) argue that willingness to purchase reflects a consumer's probability of buying a particular product; the higher the desire to acquire, the higher the chance.Previous studies have found that purchase intention might be a critical predictor of a consumer's behaviour and tendency to purchase (Verhagen and Van Dolen, 2009;Huang et al., 2010;Lu et al., 2010;Kim and Chung, 2011).
Finding the main reasons for users' participation in social networking sites and attracting users to the site is mainly essential for social networking site operators.Predicting human behaviour has been a central interest in social sciences (e.g.marketing: purchase behaviour; political science: voting behaviour).Thus, predicting behaviour from attitude and intention is considered one of the essential issues for researchers (Morris et al., 2002).This study measures the effects of social media marketing activities on purchasing intention.

Green Consumption Intention
Environmental pollution reflected in air, water, ozone layer problem, global warming, and waste disposal (Dagher and Itani, 2014) is growing due to the increase in consumption, which drives us to adopt sustainability alternatives (Uddin and Khan, 2016).Joshi and Rahman (2016) clarify that green consumption behaviour is an ethical decision-making behaviour for consumers.It's considered a socially responsible behaviour type.Examples of green consumption activities for consumers are: purchasing goods made of recycled materials and participating in recycling waste (Fakunle and Ajani, 2021).As for enterprises: adopting marketing practices that consider environmental dimensions such as packaging, green advertising, product design, and marketing strategies (Lu et al., 2015).Green consumption behaviour gives a chance for customers to participate in environmental protection (Sun et al., 2019).
Cleaner production can be defined as improving industrial processes to prevent polluting air, water, and land and decreasing the risk for humans and environment (Lee, 2001).The scope, methods, and application areas for cleaner production have been changing recently (Hens et al., 2018).
Consumers' communication has increased through social media platforms, which is affecting consumers' buying intentions (Jain et al., 2020).For example, customers' accessibility to information about goods, services, and traditional shopping ways has evolved rapidly (Devereux et al., 2020).A study by Carmela and Fiorillo (2017) proved that exposure to media increases environmental concerns and awareness among targeted consumers.Media exposure refers to the opportunity of a viewer, reader, or listener to hear or see an advertising message in a particular medium (e.g.Internet, TV, radio).In the green product context, media exposure means the appealing and persuasive messages published through certain mediums about consuming green goods (Jan et al., 2019).Joshi and Rahman (2016) claim that young educated consumers' green behaviour can be predicted by their exposure to environmental messages in India's media.Rashid (2009) declares that consumers' willingness to buy eco-friendly products rather than traditional products reflects green consumption intention.Other research about green consumption (i.e., Paul et al., 2016;Sharma and Dayal, 2016;Biswas and Roy, 2015) proved a positive relationship between consumers' willingness to learn about eco-friendly products and their intention to use green products.The study can conclude that green consumption intention refers to an individual's desire to buy green products.
According to Nassar and Strielkowski (2022) there is a link between green consumption and green competitiveness of companies.Green consumption is crucial for building green strategies of companies.
According to Nguyen, Do, and Le (2022), exposure to environmental problems affects pro-environmental personal norms (PNs), influencing individual behaviour.More importantly, the effects of action-related and effectiveness-related information on PNs were moderated differently by egoistic values held by consumers.Sarkar, Sarkar, and Sreejesh (2022) that systematic and heuristic analysis of message cues regarding sustainable enterprises practises transmitted by the brand via online social networks influence consumers' views of the brand's warmth and competence.These impressions guide customers' responsible consumption practices and promote brand relationships.The influence of these cues is mitigated by how customers perceive the brand's motivations for engaging in sustainable enterprise practices.

Study Design
The study used the survey method to describe the impact of social media marketing activities on green consumption in five countries (Brazil, Egypt, India, South Africa, and Turkey) for electric car brands (see Appendix A) on Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram under five control variables (Age, Gender, Education, Income, and Citizenship).Accordingly, Kim and Ko (2012), Bedard and Tolmie (2018) and Zollo et al. (2020) Measurement Social Media Marketing Strategies, on the one hand, Lao and Wu (2013), Li et al. (2016) and Gao et al. (2016) to Measurement Green consumption intention (see Appendix B).The study used Hierarchical Multiple Regression to determine this impact within five control variables (Age, Gender, Education, Income, and Citizenship) to determine the additional contribution of control variables in interpreting Green Consumption.

Data Collection
A questionnaire from the end-user based on Google forms with sponsored ads via social media (Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook as leading platforms) to attract the potential buyers of the electric cars were from Brazil, Egypt, India, South Africa, and Turkey.They were contacted by Google form between October 2021 and January 2022.A total of 393 questionnaires were received.Table 1 summarises the number of participants in the survey.The study's limitation was the lack of diversity of participants from only five countries.The study justified this by relying on an English-language survey.This matter caused a bias when reaching the individuals participating in the investigation.Only conducted a study with 50 participants on Brazilian consumers' perceptions towards green consumption intentions.Individuals from Burkina, Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Congo, East Timor, Guinea Bissau, Macau, and Mozambique did not participate for the same reason.

Examining the impact of Social Media Marketing Activities on Green Consumption intention
Reliability statistics .Cronbach's alpha was used to validate the adequacy of the sample.The study verified hypotheses through confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling.The Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the received questionnaires was 0.8645.Thus, the study found stability indicators of the statistical tests' results.
After processing the data, the following outputs appear within Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).That is based on Hierarchical Multiple Regression from two blocks; first for Social Media Marketing Activities only; second within five control variables (Age, Gender, Education, Income, and Citizenship).Through Table 2, the study found the importance of a model at the level of (1%), where it recorded (F) was 3504.551 in the first block, compared to 1221.3 in the second block.Table 3 shows the interpretation.Through the statistical outputs, there is the interpretation of social media marketing activities on green consumption intention by (89.9%) based on adjusted R Square, and the control variables contributed to raising the performance to (94.9%) of the change in green consumption intention; based on adjusted R Square.As for the significance of the model variables, whether in the first or second block, the study found the significance of all variables at the level of (1%) for "social media marketing activities ", "Citizenship", "Education", and "Gender" vs "Age" and "Income" at the level of (5%), as shown in Table 4.According to Table 4, there is a positive impact of social media marketing activities on green consumption intention; under the demographic characteristics of consumers, the demographic variable that is more important for green consumption intention was the level of education.There is a strong positive effect of the level of education.Gender ranked second, with females being more emotional than males for green consumption intentions.But age and income level were the weak impact factors on green consumption intentions for the individuals in the sample under investigation.In this manner, the current study is new and offers valuable insight into the function of social media on green consumption intention under the demographic characteristics of consumers.

Conclusions and Recommendations
The human lifestyle has witnessed many stages of development since it appeared on this planet (Earth).Products in information and communication technology have had significant repercussions on the human lifestyle, which was called the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Tohanean and Toma, 2018).
Despite the emergence of the Internet in the last quarter of the previous loan, many marketing practices have differed from the emergence of social media such as Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.Now enterprises have a marketing strategy on social media derived from the company's marketing strategy, as many components of the marketing mix have become associated with social media.Social media mirrored the need of consumers for human relationships in the virtual realm.This motivates enterprises to incorporate social media into their internet marketing efforts.
The study investigated five countries (Brazil, Egypt, India, South Africa, and Turkey) for electric car brands on Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram under five control variables (Age, Gender, Education, Income, and Citizenship).The population of the study is individual consumers.Accordingly, the received questionnaire was 393 in the first quarter of 2022.Finally, based on Hierarchical Multiple Regression, the study found the impact of social media marketing activities on green consumption intention.The interpretation of social media marketing activities on green consumption intention by (89.9%) based on adjusted R Square, and the control variables contributed to raising the performance to (94.9.1%) of the change in green consumption intention; based on adjusted R Square.As for the significance of the model variables, whether in the first or second block, the study found the importance of all variables at the level of (1%) for "social media marketing activities ", "Citizenship", "Education", and "Gender" but "Age" and "Income" was at the level of (5%), in this

Coefficients a
Dependent Variable: GCI a.
manner, the current study is new and offers valuable insight into the function of social media on green consumption intention under demographic characteristics of consumers.
Thus, the study finds more extensive results from Chi (2021), where the study does not believe that motivation influenced the association between social mediaas an independent variable -and green consumption intentionas a dependent variable, which was mediated by motivation.Therefore, the study recommends that professionals consider the control variables, which include Age, Gender, Education, Income and Citizenship, while designing marketing strategies on social media.The study believes that taking these variables as a basis for planning and developing marketing campaigns improves the efficiency and effectiveness of marketing activities on social media.
The study's limitation was that a qualitative approach was adopted due to the lack of quantitative data and the lack of diversity of participants from just five countries.The study justified this by relying on an English-language survey.This matter caused a bias when reaching the individuals participating in the investigation.Finally, the type of social media platform used influenced the study results.Therefore, the study recommends expanding the future studies of other platforms such as WhatsApp, WeChat, Sina Weibo, QQ, Telegram, Snapchat, Kuaishou, and Qzone, not being limited to Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.
It is essential to point out the role of the ethical factor in supporting brands that belong to green products, of which electric cars are one example.In addition, adopting environmental issues helps enterprises achieve leadership if this represents direct and indirect benefits to consumers (Wagdi and Hasaneen, 2019) according to green marketing or green entrepreneurial orientation (GEO).Emerging economies create "green" economies based on factors and patterns that are fundamentally distinct from most established nations.Emerging economies have vast, mostly untapped potential for "green" development.
On the other hand, the study recommended more ground-breaking research on green consumption and social media, which is very important for developing marketing theories and models related to attracting customers to the green brand through comparative testing between emerging and international markets.

Table 1 .
Survey participants

Table 2 .
ANOVA test outputsSource: Statistical Package for Social Sciences outputs

Table 3 .
Study Model SummarySource: Statistical Package for Social Sciences outputs

Table 4 . Significance of the model variables Source:
Statistical Package for Social Sciences outputs