Managing stakeholder expectations in corporate sustainability has become increasingly challenging as consumers grow skeptical of greenwashing, yet existing research offers limited insight into how message specificity can alleviate these concerns. Prior studies on corporate environmental communication often treat sustainability claims as homogeneous, overlooking how varying levels of informational detail influence perceptions of credibility and legitimacy. To address this gap, this study applies signaling and legitimacy theory to examine how varying levels of carbon label specificity shape consumer evaluations. Using a between-subjects experiment with 400 participants from New York State, four levels of carbon information specificity were examined. Results indicate that detailed carbon labels reduce perceptions of greenwashing and improve brand evaluations, with information specificity exerting a significant direct effect on both outcomes. The mediating role of carbon awareness was partial in that while carbon awareness did not significantly mediate the relationship between information specificity and greenwashing perceptions, it did mediate the relationship between information specificity and brand evaluations. Practical recommendations suggest that detailed, verifiable carbon labels should be prioritized over vague claims to mitigate perceptions of greenwashing and enhance brand evaluations.
Drawing on the Stimulus-Organism-Response framework, the study examines 55 male-led Instagram reels on food waste and 945 user comments to explore the relationships among message appeals (stimulus), affective reactions expressed in comments (organism), and platform-level symbolic engagement (response). Combining thematic analysis, sentiment scoring, hashtag analysis, and exploratory statistical analysis, the study reveals that stronger positive sentiment is generated by affective and inspiring appeals than by humorous or rational appeals. Further, an “appreciation-intention” gap was revealed, where, despite widespread appreciation for the content, expressed behavioral intention was limited. Statistical analysis indicated a modest association between engagement metrics and positive sentiment, but positive emotion does not consistently translate into expressed intention within the platform context. The study refines the application of the S-O-R framework to short-form video content contexts, highlighting structural limits of digital sustainability advocacy. Rather than demonstrating direct behavioral engagement, findings point to symbolic engagement in social media environments produced by sustainability messaging, offering insights for researchers and practitioners seeking to design sustainable communication that focuses on participation and engagement, beyond mere affective approval
In recent years, the fashion industry has increasingly integrated environmental sustainability strategies into its operations. Beyond reducing their environmental footprint, many brands have introduced initiatives such as clothing recycling programs and eco-friendly delivery options. At the same time, social sustainability has expanded to include not only supply chain issues, such as child labor and working conditions but also LGBTQ+ representation, body diversity, and inclusivity. This study adopts an exploratory, empirical approach guided by Grounded Theory to examine how fashion brands implement and communicate sustainability through their websites and mobile applications. A content analysis of 50 fashion brand websites and mobile applications was conducted, supported by a literature review and exploratory analysis. User reviews were also analyzed to assess consumer perceptions of these practices. Findings show that many brands still lack comprehensive sustainability strategies, particularly in the social dimension. The study proposes indicators to assess these practices and identifies patterns in how brands use digital touchpoints to operationalize sustainability. These results provide a foundation for future research, highlighting avenues for extending frameworks such as the Triple Bottom Line, Stakeholder Theory, Theory of Planned Behavior, and Contingency Theory, and offering practical insights for managers seeking to enhance environmental and social sustainability.
This study aims to analyse scientific production on organic product consumption, identifying trends, gaps, and emerging themes through a bibliometric approach. This topic is relevant given the growing interest in health, sustainability, and ethical concerns in agriculture. Following PRISMA 2020 guidelines, the study relied on Scopus and Web of Science databases. Results show a cubic polynomial growth in publications, with 2023 and 2024 as peak years. This rise reflects societal concern for sustainability and health, alongside research funding and policy initiatives that foster organic food adoption. Relevant contributions come from authors such as Chekima and Lairon, from journals such as the British Food Journal, and from countries including France and Malaysia. The field has evolved under the influence of the Theory of Planned Behavior and sustainable consumption, with research clusters highlighting organic food consumption and obesity. Emerging keywords reveal strong attention to diet, perceived value, and sustainability. Theoretical implications reinforce the understanding of consumer behaviour and sustainable practices. From a managerial perspective, the findings suggest opportunities to design marketing strategies aligned with conscious consumer motivations. Overall, the study provides insights for managers and policymakers to strengthen consumer trust and improve the competitive positioning of organic products.
This study examines how upstream institutional rigidity in EU-funded waste-management interventions shapes downstream municipal outcomes through macro-social marketing dynamics. Using a mixed-methods design, the study combines propensity score matching across 100 Croatian municipalities, within-treatment heterogeneity analysis, and in-depth interviews with project managers. The findings show that while interventions generate short-term improvements in waste sorting, these gains diminish over time. Within-treatment heterogeneity analysis further indicates that recommended (non-mandatory) interventions are more closely associated with improved waste-sorting outcomes than mandatory measures. Qualitative evidence traces this pattern to institutional rigidity at the upstream level, which increases misalignment between policy design and local implementation by constraining co-design, market segmentation, and adaptation to heterogeneous municipal infrastructures. This misalignment weakens both the level and persistence of downstream waste-management outcomes. By integrating institutional theory with macro-social marketing, the study advances understanding of how upstream rigidity undermines long-term policy effectiveness and offers implications for the design of more sustainable marketing-oriented public interventions. Policymakers and practitioners are encouraged to adopt more holistic, user-centered approaches that enhance institutional flexibility, cross-level collaboration, and contextual responsiveness to improve intervention performance.
How can marketers encourage consumers to choose sustainable apparel products? As consumer skepticism toward firms' sustainability efforts increases, it becomes increasingly important to understand the conditions under which consumers are more likely to purchase sustainable apparel products. Our research suggests that employing a simple, low-cost, and subtle nostalgia marketing intervention can offer a promising approach. A field study conducted with a genuinely sustainable activewear brand on social media platforms demonstrates that triggering nostalgic feelings can increase consumers' click-through rates. Four follow-up studies across various product categories, including jeans, running shoes, and activewear, show that nostalgia increases participants' purchase intention for sustainable apparel. Our findings also indicate that this nostalgia-evoked approach is especially effective among consumers with low levels of environmental consciousness, offering valuable insights for marketers seeking to deliver genuinely sustainable apparel products to the market.
Sustainable branding increasingly depends on whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) is operationalized through digital infrastructures, not merely communicated. The right-to-repair (R2R) movement makes this shift visible by framing repairability as both a consumer right and an environmental responsibility. This manuscript contends that repairability attains legitimacy as a credible CSR initiative when embedded in infrastructures that facilitate practical repair, rather than advanced merely as a communicative assertion. Artificial intelligence reconfigures this capability by mediating diagnostics and guided repair while introducing tensions around opacity and dependence on proprietary data infrastructures. Self-service repair programs, platform partnerships, and predictive maintenance illustrate how ecosystem design enacts responsibility in practice. Yet these same infrastructures redistribute accountability, introduce gatekeeping through software locks and parts pairing, and expose brands to public contestation. Drawing on a composite vignette as a theory-building device, this conceptual manuscript develops a layered framework, a commitment–openness typology, and testable propositions for credible repairability-based sustainable branding. The framework reveals that brand legitimacy strengthens when access, intelligence, governance, and community layers align with responsibility claims and erodes when auditable inconsistencies trigger accusation dynamics in digital publics. For managers, repairability claims must be substantiated by repair infrastructures capable of withstanding public verification.
Sustainable tourism has emerged as a key factor of the global tourism industry, driven by the need to balance environmental, social, and economic goals. The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into this domain presents revolutionary opportunities, yet it requires a thorough understanding of its potential and challenges. This study aims to provide a state-of-the-art overview of the literature on sustainable tourism and AI, offering significant contributions to advancing this field. Through a bibliometric analysis and a comprehensive review of 76 articles retrieved from the Web of Science and Scopus databases, we identify current trends, opportunities, challenges, and strategies for AI adoption in sustainable tourism and hospitality. The results show a growing scholarly interest in AI applications for sustainable tourism since 2020, though research remains predominantly exploratory and underdeveloped. Existing studies primarily conceptualize AI as a methodological tool for addressing sustainability challenges, with limited attention to its practical implementation within the tourism sector. This study contributes to the existing literature by offering an in-depth discussion of the progress of technology adoption in tourism and hospitality, along with strategies and practical implications for various stakeholders.
Advertising has the power to create shifts in human behavior. Storytelling is a powerful, primal skill that humans have used for thousands of years. Storytelling and advertising share the same goal of persuasion, but this action is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve due to constant changes in the dynamic human environment. Advertising experts need to develop new approaches to engage, motivate, and inspire the desired actions. The climate change crisis and the need to promote ideas for climate neutrality require urgent strategies for moving forward. Storytelling's power to persuade is undeniable, but more practical, ready-to-use models are needed to help various experts reach and convince society to act. A systematic literature review was conducted, following the PRISMA checklist and organizing information using a combination of TCM and ADO frameworks. There is a lack of specificity and clarity about how stories should be presented and created. This knowledge is crucial in the context of the climate change crisis, which needs urgent, united, and mission-oriented actions from society. Further research should focus on specific story elements and other important strategic aspects of storytelling. Unity between storytelling and advertising can become a bridge between scientists and society.
This study examines how exposure to sustainability-related messages shapes university students’ stated job preferences using a randomized information treatment followed by a choice-based conjoint experiment (N = 506). Three frames—economic–functional (business-case sustainability; “shared value”), accountability–transparency (credibility scrutiny; anti–greenwashing), and crisis–urgency (imminent global risk; collective action)—precede job choices that vary in traditional job attributes and sustainability attributes aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Across conditions, traditional job factors (job enjoyment, work–life balance, salary) remain the strongest predictors of job choice. Sustainability attributes exert smaller effects: employer-level SDG efforts (the organization’s stated SDG-aligned initiatives) are modestly positive on average, and role-level opportunities to contribute to SDGs through one’s own work become more influential for some respondents under the accountability–transparency frame. Interpreted cautiously, these patterns suggest that credibility concerns may shape when accountability-oriented sustainability messaging translates into employer attractiveness in this context.
This commentary addresses the urgent need for marketing educators to integrate climate change education (CCE) into their curricula through transformative pedagogical approaches. Marketing's traditional growth-oriented focus perpetuates overconsumption and environmental degradation, positioning the discipline as both complicit in and potentially instrumental to addressing the climate crisis. The paper introduces "climate-conscious pedagogy"—an educational framework that transcends deficit-based climate discourse through ethics of care and pedagogies of hope. The proposed three-fold framework encompasses: (1) fostering awareness by making climate connections visible in marketing contexts, (2) centering students by addressing climate-related emotions through supportive pedagogies of care, and (3) building resilience by empowering students through hope-centered action and agency development. Pedagogies of care emphasize relationality and challenge dominant capitalist logics, while pedagogies of hope focus on future visioning, solution-oriented thinking, and community building. The commentary provides practical guidance for marketing educators, including course-specific integration strategies and learning outcomes for climate-conscious pedagogy. By positioning marketing educators as systems change agents, this work offers a pathway for transforming marketing education to prepare practitioners who can address environmental externalities while fostering human and planetary flourishing.
The Sonali Bag, a 100% plastic-free biodegradable jute-based biopolymer, is a sustainable response to the global demand for environmentally friendly substitutes. Using information from the Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation and market projections, this study assesses its viability with SWOT, PESTEL, the 4Ps of the marketing mix, and Porter’s Five Forces. Research shows that the Sonali Bag is cost-competitive, with a Benefit-Cost Ratio of 2.53 at a premium price. Government incentives, including a 10% tax cut until 2026 and 8.4 million bales of jute produced annually, bolster its growth. Despite current production costs ( to 0.12 per unit) being higher than conventional plastic, strategic scaling may bridge this gap. The SWOT and 4Ps frameworks highlight market potential (21.3% CAGR), Porter’s 5 forces show risks of substitution, while the PESTEL analysis emphasizes regulatory and technological dynamics. Sales of lignin by-products ( 60/kg) could offset 15.94% of expenses. The study supports several UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 9, SDG 12, SDG 13, and SDG 14 which calls companies and policymakers to give innovation and awareness top priority. With effective policy, innovation, and awareness, the Sonali Bag could position Bangladesh as a leader in green packaging and jute-based bioplastics.
The study investigated how tourists' awareness of greenwashing affects their intention to book green accommodation services, focusing on the roles of green skepticism and trust as mediators. A structured questionnaire was used to assess tourists’ ability to identify misleading environmental claims, trust in service providers, skepticism towards sustainability claims, and intention to book green accommodation services. The survey was distributed online and in person, resulting in 303 valid responses. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 20.0 for preliminary statistical analyses and AMOS version 24.0 to conduct Covariance-Based Structural Equation Modeling. Results indicate that tourists’ awareness of greenwashing increases green skepticism and positively influences trust, while its direct effect on booking intention is not significant. Interestingly, tourists’ green skepticism strengthened their trust and booking intention, suggesting that critical thinking may help tourists make more confident, informed decisions. Trust was found to be the strongest predictor of tourists’ booking intention, with both green skepticism and trust mediating the relationship between awareness and behavioral intention. The study concludes that skepticism can serve as a useful filter, helping tourists differentiate between superficial and genuine sustainability claims, offering valuable insights for hospitality professionals seeking to build credibility in a consumer-conscious market.
The successful implementation of sustainable business strategies necessitates a well-aligned communication concept for conveying product sustainability to consumers. However, communicating product sustainability is challenging due to the high-noise environment filled with complex information. Although companies typically use signal portfolios (i.e., sets of multiple signals) to communicate product sustainability, prior research has mainly examined the effects of individual signals on consumers. Signal portfolios can vary in how holistically they cover different sustainability-related product attributes. While research indicates that the greatest improvements in a company's actual sustainability performance can be achieved through holistic sustainability strategies, it remains unclear whether consumers recognize and value signal portfolios that reflect such approaches. Across three studies, we find that consumers perceive holistic signal portfolios as more sustainable than selective portfolios. This has positive downstream effects on purchase-related variables. Our research advances the understanding of holistic sustainability signal portfolios as a crucial component of sustainable marketing and business strategies.
The African electric vehicle market is gaining momentum, with indigenous automotive manufacturers like Nigeria's Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing (IVM), Ghana's Kantanka, and Uganda's Kiira Motors driving innovation and resilience despite challenges. This study highlights the role of entrepreneurship, local systems, and government policies in shaping the industry's growth. While obstacles such as infrastructure gaps, high costs, and limited support persist, these firms hold potential for both local and global impact. Drawing particularly from the case of IVM, the findings underscore the need for aligned policies, education, and industrial strategies to foster sustainable growth and global competitiveness, emphasizing the importance of indigenous enterprise development and sustainable marketing.
The fashion industry is one of the largest contributors to pollution. It is crucial to reduce the carbon footprint of these industries by adopting sustainability. This study investigates the factors that promote the adoption of sustainable fashion practices and provides the theoretical framework from an extensive literature review of existing literature through the Delphi-assisted Total Interpretive Structural Modeling (TISM) and Cross-Impact Matrix Multiplication Applied to Classification (MICMAC) analysis. TISM is utilized to develop a structural model based on contextual relationships, allowing the identification of influential factors. Meanwhile, MICMAC is used to categorize these factors based on their driving power and dependence. The findings reveal that consumer awareness and demand, CSR Knowledge, Consumer awareness and Sustainability Education, Environmental regulations and policies, and Global sustainability goals (e.g., SDGs) are the most influential factors of adoption. This study will help industry practitioners, policymakers, and managers to strategically navigate the road to successfully adopting sustainable fashion, paving the way for more sustainable and efficient practices in the textile industry.
This research investigates how self-investment influences consumers’ psychological ownership and subsequently compulsive hoarding tendencies toward both fast fashion and conventional ``regular'' fashion items. Through a pre-registered online experiment (N = 434), our results show that high self-investment leads to stronger psychological ownership of fashion items, which in turn drives compulsive hoarding tendencies. When examining the three subdimensions of compulsive hoarding (clutter, difficulty discarding, excessive acquisition) separately, we also find that compared to regular fashion, fast fashion items lead to perceptions of more excessive clutter. In contrast, while regular fashion items may be perceived as associated with less clutter, they also trigger stronger reluctance and difficulty to discard. Our work contributes to the literature by being one of the first studies to empirically link psychological ownership to compulsive hoarding in a fashion consumption context. We also offer practical suggestions on tailored marketing initiatives and retail approaches to reduce fashion hoarding for both fast fashion and regular fashion consumption.
Bridal fashion is resource-intensive and largely characterized by single-use garments, resulting in significant environmental impact. Collaborative consumption models, such as second-hand purchasing and dress rentals offer a more sustainable alternative by extending product lifecycles and reducing waste. This study investigates the factors influencing Austrian consumers' adoption of collaborative consumption models in bridal fashion. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with women married between 2022 and 2024 or at the time planning a wedding, the research identifies key motivations and barriers for buying a second-hand or rental gown. Findings reveal that monetary incentives, practicality, and access to unique designs or discontinued designs are primary drivers of adoption, while sustainability is perceived as a secondary benefit. Barriers include limited awareness or availability, perceived lack of uniqueness, social influences and concerns about quality, fit or the ambiance of second-hand settings. Emotional and cultural factors such as superstition or attachment to the symbolism of the wedding dress also play a role. This study extends collaborative fashion consumption research into a high-symbolism, niche product category. It offers both theoretical contributions and practical insights for improving communication, service design, and consumer engagement in the bridal sector.
The rapidly growing fashion industry is producing harmful environmental results because of its unsustainable practices. Thus, sustainable fashion is receiving much attention from both practice and academia as it can be a potential solution to sustainability issues in the industry. Although past research explored various factors of sustainable fashion, most of it is only from the consumers' perspective. Hence, to explore the practitioner's perspective, this research used grounded theory to explore sustainable fashion perceptions and practices amongst industry professionals to identify and understand key themes and categories related to sustainable fashion. The data was collected in the form of semi-structured interviews with the 14 industry professionals in the fashion and sustainability area. The data was coded (open, axial, and selective coding) and analyzed using the software ATLAS.ti 24. The analysis identified and discussed in detail the environmental impact, ethical considerations, consumer behaviors, social influence, economic factors, and sustainable practices as core categories of sustainable fashion. Based on findings, the authors proposed a contingency-based sustainable fashion framework. The proposed framework can guide practitioners and policymakers in the decision making. The study contributes by exploring sustainable fashion from a practitioner perspective, addressing a significant gap in the literature.
This study investigates the role of social media influence in fostering the adoption of sustainable fashion in Indonesia through the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework. Specifically, it examines how social media influence shapes psychological mechanisms—pro-environmental attitudes, environmental guilt, and perceived longevity—while evaluating the moderating effect of financial constraints on the relationship between intention to switch and behavioral switching. Employing a quantitative approach, data were gathered from 306 respondents via online surveys and analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling-Partial Least Squares (SEM-PLS). The findings reveal that social media influence significantly enhances pro-environmental attitudes, fosters environmental guilt, and strengthens perceived longevity, collectively driving the intention to switch. However, financial constraints substantially weaken the progression from intention to switch to behavioral switching, highlighting critical barriers in cost-sensitive markets like Indonesia. These results emphasize the pivotal role of psychological factors in promoting sustainable consumption behaviors amid economic challenges. The study contributes theoretical insights and practical strategies for advancing sustainable fashion adoption, addressing both psychological mechanisms and financial barriers. Limitations and directions for future research are also discussed.
