How Does Corporate ESG Management Affect Consumers’ Brand Choice?

Abstract

To overcome the serious climate crisis, the world must achieve carbon neutrality. Corporate participation is essential to achieve carbon neutrality, and ESG management is required to realize this. Additional efforts and costs are involved for a company to manage ESG. If a company’s ESG management is helpful for the company’s sustainable growth, the company will be willing to endure the effort and cost. Therefore, it is necessary to find out the impact of corporate ESG management on the brand. This study empirically analyzed the effects of corporate ESG management on brand image, brand attitude, brand attachment, and brand loyalty. ESG activities were divided into environmental and social and governance, to classify their impact. As a result of the study, it was found that environmental activities did not have a positive effect on brand image, brand attitude, and brand attachment. Social and governance activities were found to have a positive effect on brand image and brand attitude. In addition, it was found that social and governance activities affect brand loyalty through brand image, brand attitude, and brand attachment. The results of this study provide practical implications for corporate ESG management, and have theoretical significance in that they have expanded ESG-related research areas to consumer behavior, corporate strategy, and future economic fields.