Roles of Threat and Coping Appraisal in Adoption of Green Information Technology: Ordered Protection Motivation Theory Perspective

While many surveys show very positive attitudes on the part of consumers towards eco-friendly products, the market share actually reflecting green IT purchases remains low in most countries. The motivations behind green IT purchase behavior are still obscure. Several studies have addressed the question of green IT diffusion from economic and normative viewpoints in an attempt to interpret IT adoption behavior. This study comes at the question from a different angle, namely negative frame, examining threat and coping behaviors using the Ordered Protection Motivation (OPM) model and threat appraisal theory. The results show that attitudes toward fairness and positive change, which are precedents of threat appraisal, play an important role in determining threat appraisal. Perceived threats in the green IT arena include habit change and ecological change. Appraisal for coping with these threats directly affects initial adoption behaviors regarding available green IT, and then indirectly encourages the purchase of new green IT products.