Research report: Influencer marketing and consumer engagement in shaping the relationship between pro-environmental behavior and sustainable consumption

A questionnaire study of 489 consumers in Pakistan found a significant positive association between pro-environmental behavior and sustainable consumption. The relationship was also indirectly associated with cognitive, emotional and behavioral engagement, indicating three possible psychological pathways connecting environmental conduct to consumption choices. Influencer marketing had a marginal moderating influence on the relationship between pro-environmental behavior and cognitive engagement, but it did not significantly moderate the emotional or behavioral engagement pathways.

The researchers tested a model based on the Stimulus-Organism-Response framework, which treats pro-environmental behavior and influencer marketing as stimuli, consumer engagement as the organism, and sustainable consumption as the response. Under this arrangement, cognitive, emotional and behavioral engagement were examined as mechanisms through which environmental conduct might be connected to sustainable consumption. The analysis also assessed whether the strength of these relationships varied with influencer marketing.

Participants completed a structured questionnaire, and respondents were recruited through purposive sampling. The required sample size was calculated with G*Power, while the questionnaire data were analyzed using SPSS and SmartPLS 4. The statistical analysis identified both a direct positive relationship between pro-environmental behavior and sustainable consumption and significant indirect relationships through each of the three forms of engagement.

The authors reported that the relative strength of the engagement pathways differed across the cognitive, emotional and behavioral components, with influencer marketing most effectively shifting cognitive engagement in the model. Its influence was described as marginal in supporting the relationship between pro-environmental behavior and cognitive engagement, while moderation of the emotional and behavioral engagement pathways was not statistically significant. The result therefore supports a narrower conclusion than a general claim that influencer marketing changes every form of consumer engagement: the reported moderating effect was limited and marginal for the cognitive pathway, with no statistically significant moderation found for the other two pathways.

The study provides a focused account of how pro-environmental behavior, consumer engagement and marketing conditions may jointly relate to sustainable consumption in Pakistan. Its evidence is based on self-reported responses from 489 respondents in one country, and the questionnaire and statistical model cannot establish whether the observed relationships are causal. The findings do not show that influencer marketing causes a measurable change in sustainable consumption.

Within the study’s limits, the clearest result is that cognitive, emotional and behavioral engagement were associated with the link between pro-environmental behavior and sustainable consumption, while influencer marketing had a marginal moderating influence on only the cognitive engagement pathway.

Subject of Research: Survey analysis of pro-environmental behavior, consumer engagement, influencer marketing and sustainable consumption in Pakistan

Article Title: Influencer marketing and consumer engagement in shaping the relationship between pro-environmental behavior and sustainable consumption

Article References: Aman-Ullah, A., Rahman, M. N., Saraih, U. N., Bose, I., Jahangir, J., & Zulfikar, U. (2026). Influencer marketing and consumer engagement in shaping the relationship between pro-environmental behavior and sustainable consumption. Discover Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43621-026-04503-z

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s43621-026-04503-z

Keywords: sustainable consumption, pro-environmental behavior, consumer engagement, influencer marketing, Pakistan, questionnaire study, Stimulus-Organism-Response model, environmental psychology, Influencer, marketing, consumer, engagement