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Abstract
The lack of attention to sustainability, as a concept with multiple dimensions, has presented a developmental gap in green
marketing literature, sustainability, and marketing literature for decades. Based on the established premise of customer–corporate
(C–C) identification, in which consumers respond favorably to companies with corporate social responsibility initiatives that
they identify with, we propose that consumers would respond similarly to companies with sustainability initiatives. We postulate
that consumers care about protecting and preserving favorable economic environments (an economic dimension of sustainability)
as much as they care about natural environments. Thus, we investigate how two sustainability dimensions (i.e., environmental
and economic) and price can influence consumer responses. Using an experimental method, we demonstrate that consumers favor
sustainability in both dimensions by giving positive evaluations of the company and purchase intent. In addition, consumers
respond more negatively to poor company sustainability than to high company sustainability. In comparison, consumers respond
more negatively to the company’s poor commitment to caring for the environment than to the company’s poor commitment to economic
sustainability. We also find that consumers do not respond favorably to low prices when they have information about the firm’s
poor environmental sustainability. Finally, we find support for an interaction effect between consumer support for sustainability
and corporate sustainability; that is, consumers evaluate a company more favorably if the company shares the consumers’ social
causes. Overall, we conclude, from our empirical study, support for the idea that consumers do respond to multiple dimensions
of sustainability.
- Content Type Journal Article
- Pages 1-14
- DOI 10.1007/s10551-011-0908-8
- Authors
- Sungchul Choi, School of Business, University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, BC V2N 4Z9, Canada
- Alex Ng, School of Business, University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, BC V2N 4Z9, Canada
- Journal Journal of Business Ethics
- Online ISSN 1573-0697
- Print ISSN 0167-4544