Does SDGs Advertising Promote Ethical Consumer Behavior?: An Integrative Model of Ethical Consumption with Elements of Communication Strategy and Rational Purchase

Abstract

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) advertising is still not widespread due to uncertainty about its profitability for business, though awareness of the SDGs has been remarkably raised among corporations and consumers recently. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to analyze the influence of general SDGs advertising on consumers’ ethical consumption intentions. This study proposes an integrative ethical consumption model in which new determinants related to rational consumption and SDGs advertising are included. The proposed ethical consumption model was validated by analyzing responses from 350 consumers in Japan using structural equation modeling (SEM), and the results demonstrate that ethical consumption intentions are constructed by attitudes toward ethical consumption, together with subjective norms and feasibility assessments. Moreover, this study found that, as a consumer views SDGs advertisements more frequently, they show greater ethical interest, which further increases their ethical consumption intentions. However, no significant evidence reveals that it can also improve the level of knowledge of the SDGs. The findings of this study contribute to the theoretical understanding of ethical consumption from the corporation aspect, providing quantitative evidence for corporations to better allocate resources toward profitable SDGs advertising that aligns with customer behavior.