A Meta-Analytic Review of the Relationship Between Environmental Dimensions of ESG Management and Purchase Intentions in South Korea

Abstract

The importance of corporate environmental stewardship has been diversely emphasized, but recently, under the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) paradigm, environmental practices for corporates sustainability have been more dominant. However, few researchers have comprehensively examined how ESG environmental practices affect consumer behavior, so we estimated the effect size of the association between environmental dimension of ESG management and consumer purchase intentions. Given that South Korea is one of the countries where ESG is gaining importance, we targeted and collected journal papers and dissertations published in South Korean databases until March 2024. Among the collected materials, we selected 21 academic papers (n=6399) that met the criteria for final analysis. After estimating the entire effect size of ESG environmental practices via a random effects model, we found the effect size of the correlation coefficients to be 0.528, which is large. Furthermore, after examining the differences per publication year and between genders, we found that the difference in effect size per publication year was insignificant whereas the effect size was significantly higher when the female rate was higher. The findings of the study provide empirical evidence on the positive impact of corporates’ environmental practices under ESG on consumer purchase intentions. This study is useful as a rationale for why and how both corporations and policymakers should effectively develop and support environmental practices within the ESG framework.