The era of self-quantification in green consumption has dawned, encompassing everything from monitoring electricity usage to tracking carbon emissions. By leveraging technological tools to track self-related data pertaining to green behavioral activities, individuals develop self-knowledge and engage in reflection, which in turn influence their participation and even behavioral decisions regarding green activities. Nevertheless, sustainability in consumers’ green behavior is paramount, hinging not merely on participation outcomes but also on behavioral innovation within green activities. Distinct from prior research, this study delves into behavioral preferences transcending mere participation outcomes. It examines the influence of self-quantification on consumers’ green behavioral innovation from the lens of sustainability, elucidating the underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions that govern self-quantification’s effect on the diversity and novelty of consumers’ green behaviors. Drawing on findings from multiple situational experiments, we demonstrate that, in contrast to non-self-quantification, a promotional (defensive) goal orientation tends to diminish (intensify) the innovation of consumers’ behavioral choices. Additionally, consumers’ cognitive flexibility acts as a mediator in the relationship between self-quantification and behavioral innovation, contingent upon their goal orientation. Furthermore, the level of goal concreteness in behavioral activities serves as a moderator, influencing the impact of self-quantification on consumers’ cognitive flexibility under different goal orientations. By investigating the mechanisms through which self-quantification shapes consumers’ green behavioral innovation under varying conditions, this study offers valuable insights for enterprises seeking to guide consumers toward innovative and sustainable green consumption practices.

Consumers are increasingly engaging in green consumption practices through the lens of self-quantification. Both the pursuit of positive green data outcomes at the individual level and the comparison and even competition among green data at the community level may lead to insincere green behaviors such as “performative green engagement” beyond the positive outcomes of tracking and measuring one’s green consumption. Compared to outcome-oriented studies exploring the impact of self-quantification on the outcomes of consumers’ green behaviors, this research focuses on the deeper sincerity of behaviors beyond outcomes, comprehensively analyzing the influence of self-quantification on the sincerity of consumers’ green behaviors and their sustained willingness for green consumption. The scenario-based experimental results confirmed that under low situational involvement, in promoting goal-oriented green consumption, self-quantification leads consumers to participate less in substantive environmental activities, with weaker internal motivation, lower sincerity, and weaker sustained willingness for green behaviors. In defensive goal-oriented green consumption, self-quantification encourages consumers to engage more in necessary energy-consuming activities, with stronger internal motivation, higher sincerity, and stronger sustained willingness for green behaviors. Under high situational involvement, consumers with mechanisms for self-quantification and those without exhibit similar levels of green behavior sincerity, with no significant difference in sustained willingness. The findings provide guidance for stakeholders in green consumption to more scientifically quantify the self, promoting proactive and sincere approaches to achieve the sustainable and healthy development of green consumption.

With the deep integration of network information technology and social platforms, the quantified data sharing of consumers’ green behaviors is reshaping the participation logic of individual and group green consumption. Using a pilot experiment and two scenario-based experiments, this study investigates how self-quantification influences consumers’ green behavioral autonomy and sustained willingness under different contextual conditions from a community network perspective. The results indicate that, in promoting goal-oriented green consumption, self-quantification significantly reduces consumers’ green behavioral autonomy by enhancing group identity but does not influence their sustained participation willingness. However, consumers under egoistic goal appeals demonstrate higher behavioral autonomy and sustained participation willingness compared to those under altruistic goal appeals. In defensive goal-oriented green consumption, self-quantification effectively enhances consumers’ green behavioral autonomy by weakening group identity and positively promotes their sustained participation willingness. Nevertheless, consumers under egoistic goal appeals outperform those under altruistic goal appeals in both behavioral autonomy and sustained willingness. This study makes three key contributions: it extends the application boundaries of self-quantification theory, reveals the differential effect mechanisms of self-quantification in community environments, and provides new theoretical perspectives and practical guidance for the sustainable development of green consumption.