ChatGPT-powered chatbot as a green evangelist: an innovative path toward sustainable consumerism in E-commerce

The purpose of the current article is to propose the construction of ChatGPT as a green evangelist (CGGE) and to develop and validate the CGGE scale using two independent studies. Study 1 mainly adopted exploratory factor analysis to test whether the twenty items of the CGGE construct and the eight items of consumer equilibrium can represent these constructs statistically via exploratory factor analysis. Furthermore, through Study 2, this study primarily tested the convergent and discriminant validity of CGGE and consumer equilibrium. Finally, further analysis explains the relationship between CGGE and consumer equilibrium through green purchase intentions at different levels of brand credibility, including high and low levels, using structural equational modeling. Study 1 showed that the initial twenty items of CGGE are appropriately loaded on four factors and the eight items of consumer equilibrium are appropriately loaded on single factors. Study 2 demonstrated that CGGE could significantly predict consumer equilibrium through green purchase intentions at different brand credibility levels. This article contributes to the advancement of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) and research and provides a valuable tool for future empirical research on ChatGPT.