Does SDG Literacy Matter? A KAB-ELM Integrated Model of Generation Z Students’ Behavioral Intention Toward Sustainable Agritourism in Vietnam

Sustainable agritourism holds significant promise for rural development and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) advancement, yet little is known about how Generation Z (Gen Z) forms the intention to participate. By merging the Knowledge–Attitude–Behavior (KAB) model with the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), this paper explores how SDG Literacy and Social Media Influence jointly shape Gen Z students’ behavioral intention toward sustainable agritourism in Vietnam. Survey data from 293 university students in Hanoi were processed through a three-stage analytical sequence combining PLS-SEM, IPMA, and an Artificial Neural Network (ANN). The results indicate that both SDG Literacy (operationalized as the central route) and Social Media Influence (operationalized as the peripheral route) exhibit significant associations with attitude toward sustainable agritourism, yet neither shows a significant direct link to behavioral intention. Within the tested model, attitude fully mediates both pathways, suggesting that knowledge and media exposure are associated with intention through attitude. The moderation hypothesis was not supported; the interaction between the two pathways was not statistically significant in this sample. IPMA highlights SDG Literacy as the construct offering the largest margin for improvement, and ANN analysis provides a complementary predictive check on the PLS-SEM results. The study unifies KAB and the ELM within a single framework for agritourism behavioral intention, yielding implications for universities, agritourism operators, and policymakers, scoped to university students in Hanoi.