Fast Carts, Slow Trust: When Sustainability Signals Backfire in Customers’ Cognitive Evaluation of Quick Commerce Platforms?

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@article{1724854,
      author = {Mohana Kumara A V, Prof. C. Mahadeva Murthy},
      title = {Fast Carts, Slow Trust: When Sustainability Signals Backfire in Customers’ Cognitive Evaluation of Quick Commerce Platforms?},
      journal = {Iconic Research And Engineering Journals},
      year = {2026},
      volume = {10},
      number = {5},
      pages = {1376-1386},
      issn = {2456-8880},
      url = {https://www.irejournals.com/formatedpaper/1724854.pdf},
      abstract = {Quick commerce platforms have redrawn urban shopping by delivering daily essentials within minutes, but their packaging-heavy, last-mile-intensive model has placed their sustainability credentials under scrutiny. Drawing on stimulus–organism–response and value-based reasoning, this study examines how customers’ perceptions of a platform’s sustainable finance orientation (SFO) influence their cognitive evaluation of the platform (CCE), whether customer perceived value (CPV) mediates this influence and whether environmental concern (EC) moderates it. Survey data from 390 quick commerce users in Bengaluru, India, were analysed with partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) in SmartPLS 4. SFO increased CPV (β = 0.253, p < .001), but CPV (β = −0.411, p < .001) and SFO (β = −0.090, p = .035) were both negatively associated with CCE. CPV transmitted a significant negative indirect effect (β = −0.104, p < .001), giving a negative total effect of SFO on CCE (β = −0.195, p < .001). EC improved CCE directly (β = 0.158, p < .001) but did not moderate the SFO–CCE link (p = .243). The results reveal a sustainability–value paradox: customers recognise the value of green initiatives yet scrutinise the platforms offering them more critically. Platforms can turn sustainability into favourable evaluations only by making it credible, measurable and personally beneficial to customers.},
      keywords = {Quick commerce; sustainable finance orientation; customer perceived value; cognitive evaluation; environmental concern; stimulus–organism–response; PLS-SEM},
      month = {November},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.64388/ire1724854}
  }