Psychological drivers of customer citizenship buying behaviour in green cosmetics: Evidence from a mixed-methods approach

Over the past decade, the cosmetic industry has increasingly adopted green practices in response to customers' growing environmental concerns and the need to support environmental sustainability. Although there is extensive literature on green cosmetics buying behaviour, understanding how customers' extra-role behaviours respond to these green practices is still a challenging and understudied topic. This study, based on social exchange theory, investigates how perceptions of green cosmetic product attributes influence customer citizenship behaviour intention (Green CBBi) (Hassan et al., 2025). It explicitly investigates whether green product values and green credibility stimulated by green cosmetic product attributes bolster green brand connection, which in turn fosters Green CBBi and the moderating mechanism of brand neophobia in this association. The hypothesised propositions were tested using a mixed-methods approach. The present study employed a grounded theory approach to identify themes and variables using in-depth interviews. The conceptual framework was then empirically tested using Hayes' PROCESS macro with Model 80 to test hypothesised mediation effects and Model 15 for moderated mediation association with the outcome. The findings demonstrate that green cosmetic product attributes significantly affect intentions related to GCCBi, green perceived value, and green credibility. However, green perceived value does not mediate brand connection, whereas green credibility shows a negative indirect influence on brand connection, indicating a non-linear cognitive-affective process. These findings suggest that green branding strategies should achieve a balance between credibility-driven sustainability assertions and emotionally engaging, value-aligned engagement to effectively stimulate consumer behaviour.