The role of social influence in green travel behavior in rural China

With the rapid growth of rural cars ownership, the environmental pollution caused by rural traffic has become a new problem restricting the sustainable development of social economy. Therefore, encouraging and supporting rural residents’ green travel has become the focus of government and academic circles. Based on the context of China's local rural social culture, by adopting the secondary data from the China Land Economics Survey included 2600 farmers in 52 Administrative Villages from 13 prefecture-level cities in Jiangsu Province, this paper examines the impacts of social influence metrics and the moderation effects of social circle and similarity on the individual’s green travel behavior in rural areas in China. The results show that the significant and different impacts of social influence metrics. Significant and positive impact exist in the social influence from the neighbors who adopt the green travel behavior, while significant and negative impact also exist in the social influence from the neighbors who adopt the non-green travel behavior. Moreover, we also find the significant moderators including the social circle and similarity between the target family and the neighbors who adopt green or non-green travel behavior. This paper has important theoretical and practical significance for enriching and developing the relevant theories of green travel.