IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v184y2024ics0148296324004016.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Good people good planet: Investigating the interconnection between social and environmental sustainability

Author

Listed:
  • Waites, Stacie F.
  • Farmer, Adam
  • Collier, Joel

Abstract

Research investigating consumers’ responsiveness to sustainability from a corporate social responsibility perspective has traditionally focused on either the environmental or social dimensions while overlooking the possible link between the two. This manuscript explores consumers’ perception of the interconnection between these dimensions of sustainability. Four experiments demonstrate that the social and environmental dimensions of sustainability are interconnected in consumers’ minds, where a promise to be sustainable in one dimension enhances perceptions of the other dimension. Companies making social or environmental promises are evaluated differently depending on whether the company later delivers a sustainability success along the same dimension (paired success) or a separate dimension (complementary success). Positive attitudes towards the company were only heightened in the case of complementary successes. The underlying psychological mechanism of perceived ethical principles is also identified. Finally, the results are shown to not only impact consumer attitudes, but also their actual choice behavior.

Suggested Citation

  • Waites, Stacie F. & Farmer, Adam & Collier, Joel, 2024. "Good people good planet: Investigating the interconnection between social and environmental sustainability," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:184:y:2024:i:c:s0148296324004016
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2024.114897
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296324004016
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2024.114897?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Olson, Erik L., 2022. "‘Sustainable’ marketing mixes and the paradoxical consequences of good intentions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 389-398.
    2. Nathalie Spielmann, 2021. "Green is the New White: How Virtue Motivates Green Product Purchase," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 173(4), pages 759-776, November.
    3. Kumar, Anil & Prakash, Gyan & Kumar, Gaurav, 2021. "Does environmentally responsible purchase intention matter for consumers? A predictive sustainable model developed through an empirical study," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    4. John G. Lynch Jr., 2006. "Accessibility-Diagnosticity and the Multiple Pathway Anchoring and Adjustment Model," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 33(1), pages 25-27, June.
    5. Katja H. Brunk & Cara Boer, 2020. "Correction to: How do Consumers Reconcile Positive and Negative CSR-Related Information to Form an Ethical Brand Perception? A Mixed Method Inquiry," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 162(3), pages 733-733, March.
    6. Joel B. Cohen & Americus Reed II, 2006. "A Multiple Pathway Anchoring and Adjustment (MPAA) Model of Attitude Generation and Recruitment," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 33(1), pages 1-15, June.
    7. Jesse R. Catlin & Michael Gerhard Luchs & Marcus Phipps, 2017. "Consumer Perceptions of the Social Vs. Environmental Dimensions of Sustainability," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 40(3), pages 245-277, September.
    8. Olabode I.A. & Akinwumi G.S. & Layade A.A. & Adegbite O.O., 2015. "Consumer preferences for pawpaw in Ibadan metropolis," Russian Journal of Agricultural and Socio-Economic Sciences, CyberLeninka;Редакция журнала Russian Journal of Agricultural and Socio-Economic Sciences, vol. 40(4), pages 46-51.
    9. Muncy, James A. & Vitell, Scott J., 1992. "Consumer ethics: An investigation of the ethical beliefs of the final consumer," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 297-311, June.
    10. Sungchul Choi & Alex Ng, 2011. "Environmental and Economic Dimensions of Sustainability and Price Effects on Consumer Responses," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 104(2), pages 269-282, December.
    11. Shehawy, Yasser Moustafa, 2023. "In green consumption, why consumers do not walk their talk: A cross cultural examination from Saudi Arabia and UK," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    12. Isabell Lenz & Hauke A. Wetzel & Maik Hammerschmidt, 2017. "Can doing good lead to doing poorly? Firm value implications of CSR in the face of CSI," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 45(5), pages 677-697, September.
    13. Rajagopal, 2015. "Consumer Value Management," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: The Butterfly Effect in Competitive Markets, chapter 5, pages 119-143, Palgrave Macmillan.
    14. Nicole Koschate-Fischer & Isabel V. Huber (née Stefan) & Wayne D. Hoyer, 2016. "When will price increases associated with company donations to charity be perceived as fair?," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 44(5), pages 608-626, September.
    15. Simona Romani & Silvia Grappi & Richard P. Bagozzi, 2016. "Corporate Socially Responsible Initiatives and Their Effects on Consumption of Green Products," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 135(2), pages 253-264, May.
    16. Arne Nygaard & Harald Biong & Ragnhild Silkoset & Roland E. Kidwell, 2017. "Leading by Example: Values-Based Strategy to Instill Ethical Conduct," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 145(1), pages 133-139, September.
    17. Grappi, Silvia & Bergianti, Francesca & Gabrielli, Veronica & Baghi, Ilaria, 2024. "The effect of message framing on young adult consumers’ sustainable fashion consumption: The role of anticipated emotions and perceived ethicality," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    18. Katja H. Brunk & Cara Boer, 2020. "How do Consumers Reconcile Positive and Negative CSR-Related Information to Form an Ethical Brand Perception? A Mixed Method Inquiry," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 161(2), pages 443-458, January.
    19. Simona Romani & Silvia Grappi & Richard P. Bagozzi, 2016. "Erratum to: Corporate Socially Responsible Initiatives and Their Effects on Consumption of Green Products," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 135(2), pages 399-399, May.
    20. Pfajfar, Gregor & Shoham, Aviv & Małecka, Agnieszka & Zalaznik, Maja, 2022. "Value of corporate social responsibility for multiple stakeholders and social impact – Relationship marketing perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 46-61.
    21. Karaosmanoglu, Elif & Altinigne, Nesenur & Isiksal, Didem Gamze, 2016. "CSR motivation and customer extra-role behavior: Moderation of ethical corporate identity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(10), pages 4161-4167.
    22. Puntiroli, Michael & Moussaoui, Lisa S. & Bezençon, Valéry, 2022. "Are consumers consistent in their sustainable behaviours? A longitudinal study on consistency and spillover," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 322-335.
    23. Lee, Eung Jin & Bae, Joonheui & Kim, Kyung Hoon, 2020. "The effect of environmental cues on the purchase intention of sustainable products," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 425-433.
    24. Szerena Szabo & Jane Webster, 2021. "Perceived Greenwashing: The Effects of Green Marketing on Environmental and Product Perceptions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 171(4), pages 719-739, July.
    25. Alexander Chernev & Sean Blair, 2015. "Doing Well by Doing Good: The Benevolent Halo of Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 41(6), pages 1412-1425.
    26. Colin Peter Green & Bruce Philip Hollingsworth & Maria Navarro Paniagua, 2015. "Longer opening hours, alcohol consumption and health," Working Papers 100181794, Lancaster University Management School, Economics Department.
    27. Wing Chow & Yang Chen, 2012. "Corporate Sustainable Development: Testing a New Scale Based on the Mainland Chinese Context," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 105(4), pages 519-533, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ryoo, Yuhosua & Kim, WooJin, 2023. "Price-ethicality association: When price discounts inhibit ethical purchasing," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    2. Mustafa Ozkan & Kemal Cek & Serife Z. Eyupoglu, 2022. "Sustainable Development and Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty in North Cyprus: The Mediating Effect of Customer Identification," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-13, April.
    3. Julia Hartmann & Sebastian Forkmann & Sabine Benoit & Stephan C. Henneberg, 2022. "A consumer perspective on managing the consequences of chain liability," Journal of Supply Chain Management, Institute for Supply Management, vol. 58(4), pages 58-89, October.
    4. Sánchez Fernández, Raquel & Iniesta-Bonillo, M. Ángeles & Cervera-Taulet, Amparo, 2019. "Exploring the concept of perceived sustainability at tourist destinations: a market segmentation approach," MPRA Paper 123151, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Diletta Acuti & Marta Pizzetti & Sara Dolnicar, 2022. "When sustainability backfires : A review on the unintended negative side-effects of product and service sustainability on consumer behavior," Post-Print hal-04381310, HAL.
    6. Dirk C. Moosmayer & Yanyan Chen & Susannah M. Davis, 2019. "Deeds Not Words: A Cosmopolitan Perspective on the Influences of Corporate Sustainability and NGO Engagement on the Adoption of Sustainable Products in China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 158(1), pages 135-154, August.
    7. Nick Lin-Hi & Marlene Reimer & Katharina Schäfer & Johanna Böttcher, 2023. "Consumer acceptance of cultured meat: an empirical analysis of the role of organizational factors," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 93(4), pages 707-746, May.
    8. Li Yan & Hean Tat Keh & Xiaoyu Wang, 2021. "Powering Sustainable Consumption: The Roles of Green Consumption Values and Power Distance Belief," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 169(3), pages 499-516, March.
    9. Robert G. Magee, 2022. "Understanding worldview beliefs to allay skepticism toward CSR advertising," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 29(6), pages 538-555, November.
    10. Sri Widyastuti & Muhammad Said & Safitri Siswono & Dian Andi Firmansyah, 2019. "Customer Trust through Green Corporate Image, Green Marketing Staretgy and Social Responsibility: A Case Study," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(3), pages 343-359.
    11. Sri Widyastuti & Muhammad Said & Safitri Siswono & Dian Andi Firmansyah, 2019. "Customer Trust through Green Corporate Image, Green Marketing Strategy, and Social Responsibility: A Case Study," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(2), pages 83-99.
    12. G. Pino & M. Nieto Garcia & A. Peluso & G. Viglia & R. Filieri, 2023. "Understanding how virtuous lenders encourage support for peer-to-peer platforms’ prosocial initiatives," Post-Print hal-04248928, HAL.
    13. Gwarlann Kerviler & Nico Heuvinck & Elodie Gentina, 2022. "“Make an Effort and Show Me the Love!” Effects of Indexical and Iconic Authenticity on Perceived Brand Ethicality," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 179(1), pages 89-110, August.
    14. Tamara Vlastelica & Milica Kostić-Stanković & Tamara Rajić & Jelena Krstić & Tijana Obradović, 2023. "Determinants of Young Adult Consumers’ Environmentally and Socially Responsible Apparel Consumption," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-18, January.
    15. Saeed Janani & Ranjit M. Christopher & Atanas Nik Nikolov & Michael A. Wiles, 2022. "Marketing experience of CEOs and corporate social performance," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 50(3), pages 460-481, May.
    16. Jintao Lu & Licheng Ren & Siqin Yao & Jiayuan Qiao & Wadim Strielkowski & Justas Streimikis, 2019. "Comparative Review of Corporate Social Responsibility of Energy Utilities and Sustainable Energy Development Trends in the Baltic States," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-21, September.
    17. Mendini, Monica & Peter, Paula C. & Gibbert, Michael, 2018. "The dual-process model of similarity in cause-related marketing: How taxonomic versus thematic partnerships reduce skepticism and increase purchase willingness," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 195-204.
    18. Chatterjee, Swagato & Goyal, Divesh & Prakash, Atul & Sharma, Jiwan, 2021. "Exploring healthcare/health-product ecommerce satisfaction: A text mining and machine learning application," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 815-825.
    19. Kumar, Vikas & Kaushal, Vikrant & Shashi,, 2023. "Role of customer perceived brand ethicality in inducing engagement in online brand communities," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    20. Santhiya Ramasamy & Karpal S. Dara Singh & Azlan Amran & Mehran Nejati, 2020. "Linking human values to consumer CSR perception: The moderating role of consumer skepticism," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(4), pages 1958-1971, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:184:y:2024:i:c:s0148296324004016. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.