The eco‐friendly side of narcissism: The case of green marketing

Abstract

AbstractThe march toward marrying good business practice with sustainability in the global marketing contexts is articulated with the hope of decoupling consumption and affluence from environmental deterioration. However, the key question, whether and how chief executive officers' (CEO) psychological characteristics exert its influence on corporate marketing activities with relation to environmental conservation, is still unsolved. The current study aimed at examining how the personality traits of CEOs affect corporate green marketing program (GMP), with primary regard to CEO narcissism. On the basis of a moderated mediation analysis on a batch of survey data from a sample of manufacturing firms in China, the findings showed that narcissistic CEOs are often associated with the higher level of the corporate green marketing program. Besides, corporate environmental strategy (ES) plays a role of mediator in the relationship between CEO narcissism and the implementation of green marketing. Furthermore, regulatory pressure not only significantly drives corporate environmental strategy and green marketing program but also moderates the relationships among CEO narcissism, corporate environmental strategy, and green marketing program. This study shines light on the establishment of management mode, which could illuminate both business practitioners and policymakers on the governance of sustainability.