Impact of raising awareness of Sustainable Development Goals: A survey experiment eliciting stakeholder preferences for corporate behavior

Abstract

Raising stakeholder awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) may enhance pro-sustainable behavior. However, little is known regarding the extent to which SDG-related information affects stakeholder preferences in supporting the realization of the SDGs. The aim of this study is to determine whether raising awareness of the SDGs affects stakeholder support for companies that contribute to SDG realization. We examined the heterogeneous effects of personal characteristics, including demographics, personality traits, and pro-sustainable attitudes, on (1) stakeholder preferences and (2) raising awareness. This study employed a national representative survey dataset (n = 6048) collected in Japan in March 2019. We used a conjoint survey experiment dataset, which elicited stakeholder preferences for companies that contribute to the realization of the SDGs. We investigated how these preferences shift with the provision of SDG-related knowledge, and determined how personal characteristics affects such shifts. Our results showed that the respondents in the treatment groups were provided with sustainable development-related information, they were more likely to support SDG-minded companies compared with the control group. However, the results also indicated that stakeholder preferences and effects of the information provision were heterogeneous, and consequently, the impact of raising awareness can be complex.