A new perspective on extra consumer costs for green parcel packaging — An exploration of signal theory and green values.

Focusing on the price sensitivity of consumers, this study explores the factors influencing their willingness to pay a premium for green express packaging. Drawing on signal theory, this study analyses the influence of signals from packaging and society on consumers, and verifies the hypotheses based on the quantitative method of the partial least squares structural equation model. It was found that the second-hand or recyclable nature of express packaging, green information attached to packaging, policy guidance, and participation from other consumers significantly affect consumers' willingness to pay a premium. This study further evaluated the effectiveness of consumers' green values as a mediator and found that green values moderated two of the four aforementioned influencing factors, which contributes new insights to the existing research. This study addresses the lack of existing studies from the perspective of individual will and puts forward a multi-link solution path of "government, enterprises, and consumers" based on consumers' own green values. Furthermore, the study points out that in the future, sustained attention should be paid to the signal environment of green express packaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]