Article
From Digital Engagement to Sustainable Consumption: Examining the Role of Digital Literacy among Rural and Urban Consumers
Digital platforms have become a pervasive part of everyday consumer life, extending far beyond marketing exposure into how people research, discuss, share, and ultimately act on information relevant to sustainable living. This study examines the relationship between digital engagement the frequency, depth, and interactivity of consumers' use of digital platforms and sustainable consumption behaviour among rural and urban consumers in Tiruchirappalli district, Tamil Nadu, India, and tests digital literacy as a moderator of this relationship, alongside a direct rural-urban comparison on all study constructs. Primary data were collected from 342 usable responses (178 urban, 164 rural, from 365 originally collected) using a structured questionnaire administered across one urban and one rural zone of the district. Measurement reliability and validity were confirmed via Cronbach's alpha, composite reliability, and average variance extracted, all exceeding recommended thresholds. Independent-samples t-tests showed urban consumers reported significantly higher digital engagement (t = 5.96, p < .001, d = 0.64), digital literacy (t = 5.76, p < .001, d = 0.62), and sustainable consumption (t = 2.72, p = .007, d = 0.29) than rural consumers. Hierarchical regression showed digital engagement (β = .382, p < .001) and digital literacy (β = .270, p < .001) together explained 28.1% of additional variance in sustainable consumption beyond demographic controls. Contrary to expectation, digital literacy did not significantly moderate the digital engagement–sustainable consumption relationship (β = .012, p = .841), and this null moderation pattern held consistently across both urban and rural subgroups (three-way interaction p = .801). The findings indicate that digital engagement and digital literacy each independently and substantially predict sustainable consumption, but do not interact as hypothesised, suggesting the two operate as parallel rather than conditional drivers of sustainable behaviour in this setting, with clear implications for digital-inclusion and sustainability policy in rural and urban India.