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‘We Are All in This Together’: Government, Industry, Firm, Not-for-Profit, and Consumer Responses to a Changing Climate

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Air, Climate Change and Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 June 2022) | Viewed by 18592

Special Issue Editors

Department of Marketing, University at Albany State University of New York, Albany, NY 12222, USA
Interests: prosocial behavior; fake news; advertising effectiveness; sensory perception
Department of Marketing, Robins School of Business, University of Richmond, Richmond VA, 23173, USA
Interests: advertising effects salesperson effectiveness; green advertising; pricing; subjective time in marketing

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Manuscripts are being solicited for an upcoming Special Issue of the journal Sustainability (5-Year Impact Factor: 2.798) that will focus on potential ways to address climate change. In particular, this issue aims to feature original research focusing on any of the following: government, industry, firm, not-for-profit, and consumer responses to climate change.

Sheth and Parvatiyar (2020) emphasize that practitioners and scholars need to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts, as global CO2 emissions have increased by about 50% in the last three decades, “and without action, the world’s average surface temperature is likely to rise by 3 degrees centigrade this century.” Relatedly, according to the IPCC report (IPCC 2018), about “1.0 °C of global warming above pre-industrial levels,” can be attributed to human activities. Furthermore, this comprehensive study finds that if we maintain current rates of emissions, global warming will reach “1.5 °C between 2030 and 2052.” Furthermore, rising global temperatures tend to increase the likelihood of future pandemics, similar to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic (Mende and Misra 2020).

Our changing climate presents a number of existential crises (to our economic, social, and natural systems), yet fewer than 1% of all marketing submissions deal with this issue (Hall 2018). This Special Issue will focus on approaches to deal with our changing climate. We are looking for original manuscripts that include empirical investigations, domain summaries, as well as theoretical and opinion pieces. We are interested in research addressing any of the following questions (additional relevant topics will be considered):

  • How can government/not-for-profit organizations/companies best persuade consumers to alter their behaviors and consumption patterns to be more eco-friendly and less wasteful? Manuscripts in this area can focus on consumer behavior/advertising/social marketing empirical investigations demonstrating the effectiveness of different approaches.
  • What role should regulatory approaches play in curbing the environmentally harmful activities of industry/firms (e.g., carbon taxes aimed at reducing carbon footprints)? Manuscripts in this area could have an emphasis on the public policy considerations and/or the strategic business implications of such initiatives.
  • How do consumer perceptions of climate change vary across demographic and/or psychographic groups? For example, how do climate change perceptions differ across consumers of different generation groups, across countries, across the spectrum of political ideology/affiliation?
  • How do businesses effectively work with their target audiences to develop and communicate effective green marketing initiatives? Manuscripts in this area could focus on how firms can best engage with their consumers to become more environmentally friendly. For example, initiatives to reduce waste, which could simultaneously be eco-friendly and profitable.
  • What have we learned from the extant literature on climate change interventions aimed at mitigating the devastating impacts of climate change across academic disciplines, including (but not limited to) marketing, economics, psychology, sociology, anthropology, ecology?

Dr. Ioannis Kareklas
Dr. Jeffrey R. Carlson
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • climate change
  • ecological marketing
  • green marketing
  • marketing responses to climate change
  • consumer responses to climate change
  • public policy and social marketing responses to climate change
  • advertising/persuasion/communication strategies to address climate change

Published Papers (5 papers)

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19 pages, 3671 KiB  
Article
Online Engagement with Memes and Comments about Climate Change
by Aleksandra Kovacheva, Hillary J. D. Wiener, Ioannis Kareklas and Darrel Muehling
Sustainability 2022, 14(14), 8900; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14148900 - 20 Jul 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3103
Abstract
Social media posts, and memes in particular, offer important opportunities for social media users and organizations to disseminate information about climate change. However, as this topic remains controversial, memes often elicit comments that may oppose (rather than support) the existence of climate change. [...] Read more.
Social media posts, and memes in particular, offer important opportunities for social media users and organizations to disseminate information about climate change. However, as this topic remains controversial, memes often elicit comments that may oppose (rather than support) the existence of climate change. In three studies, we find that the position of the comments influences users’ engagement with the main post: when the user’s and the meme’s positions on climate change align, comments opposing the claim of the meme decrease users’ readiness to “like” the meme. We also examine social media users’ attitudes toward different comment moderating options, including disabling, deleting, hiding, or responding to comments. Full article
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21 pages, 445 KiB  
Article
Analysis of Carbon Emission Reduction in International Civil Aviation through the Lens of Shared Triple Bottom Line Value Creation
by Hong Guan, Hao Liu and Raafat George Saadé
Sustainability 2022, 14(14), 8513; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14148513 - 12 Jul 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2268
Abstract
Overall, climate concerns have been on the global agenda for many years now. However, the aviation sector’s impact on climate change has been receiving increased attention recently. This is primarily due to the adoption of the 2016 carbon offsetting and reduction scheme for [...] Read more.
Overall, climate concerns have been on the global agenda for many years now. However, the aviation sector’s impact on climate change has been receiving increased attention recently. This is primarily due to the adoption of the 2016 carbon offsetting and reduction scheme for international civil aviation (CORSIA) which was introduced by the international civil aviation organization (ICAO). The aims of our study are to analyze ICAO’s carbon offsetting reduction scheme through the lens of the triple bottom line (TBL) value creation dimensions and to explore implementation issues relevant to its success and alignment between regulatory and commercial capabilities. Findings from our analysis were presented to a pilot focus group to further our understanding of the area. After cross-examination of the carbon emission reduction implementation issues against the TBL dimensions, we show the gap between regulatory schemes and the realities of the sustainable commercial aviation sector to meet climate goals. By highlighting the regulatory versus commercial social capabilities, our study illuminates the dimensions which need to be considered in regulatory practice, emphasizing the necessity for commercial sustainability. We finally provide recommendations to be considered for the successful implementation of CORSIA. Full article
16 pages, 407 KiB  
Article
When Are Loss Frames More Effective in Climate Change Communication? An Application of Fear Appeal Theory
by Scott T. Armbruster, Rajesh V. Manchanda and Ngan Vo
Sustainability 2022, 14(12), 7411; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14127411 - 17 Jun 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3365
Abstract
This study investigated how goal frames (gain, non-loss, loss) either with or without efficacy statements affect consumers’ support for climate-change policy. Addressing the goal-framing literature’s difficulty in establishing a guiding theory with consistent findings, we (1) propose fear appeal theory as an alternative [...] Read more.
This study investigated how goal frames (gain, non-loss, loss) either with or without efficacy statements affect consumers’ support for climate-change policy. Addressing the goal-framing literature’s difficulty in establishing a guiding theory with consistent findings, we (1) propose fear appeal theory as an alternative framework to guide goal-framing research; (2) test five fear appeal variables (fear, perceived threat, hope, perceived efficacy, and message processing) as mediators of goal-framing effects on policy support; and (3) highlight four common goal-framing confounds that may partly underlie the literature’s inconsistent findings. Aligning with fear appeal theory, results from a carefully controlled experiment revealed that a more threatening loss frame paired with an efficacy statement produced the strongest pro-policy attitudes and the greatest willingness-to-pay by successfully balancing fear/threat with hope/efficacy and by producing deeper message processing. Full article
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19 pages, 3556 KiB  
Article
Understanding Consumer Perspectives of Bio-Based Products—A Comparative Case Study from Ireland and The Netherlands
by James Gaffey, Helena McMahon, Emily Marsh, Kaisa Vehmas, Tiina Kymäläinen and John Vos
Sustainability 2021, 13(11), 6062; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13116062 - 27 May 2021
Cited by 23 | Viewed by 5776
Abstract
The bioeconomy can support Europe’s transition to a low-carbon economy and help to meet key international, European and member state sustainability targets through the provision of bio-based products and energy derived from sustainably sourced biomass. A successful implementation of a bio-based economy in [...] Read more.
The bioeconomy can support Europe’s transition to a low-carbon economy and help to meet key international, European and member state sustainability targets through the provision of bio-based products and energy derived from sustainably sourced biomass. A successful implementation of a bio-based economy in Europe will, however, require a profound transformation of our production and consumption patterns. Consumer behavior will play a major role in supporting the successful transition to a bio-based economy. This paper uses a structured quantitative survey approach to gain an understanding of consumer perspectives in relation to bio-based products. Conducted among 18–75-year-old consumers in Ireland and the Netherlands, the study indicates that consumers in both countries have a relatively positive outlook regarding bio-based products, with Irish consumers showing a slightly more positive outlook. The study finds that a larger majority of Irish consumers would prefer buying bio-based products as opposed to fossil-based products, while Irish consumers also have a slightly more positive impression than Dutch consumers that their consumer choices can be beneficial for the environment. Full article
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14 pages, 306 KiB  
Concept Paper
How to Effectively Promote Eco-Friendly Behaviors: Insights from Contextual Behavioral Science
by Alison Stapleton, Louise McHugh and Maria Karekla
Sustainability 2022, 14(21), 13887; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su142113887 - 26 Oct 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2759
Abstract
The rapidly increasing rate of climate change is a major threat of our time. Human behaviors contribute to climate change. These behaviors are malleable. To change human behavior in significant and sustainable ways, we need a scientific understanding of motivation and behavior change. [...] Read more.
The rapidly increasing rate of climate change is a major threat of our time. Human behaviors contribute to climate change. These behaviors are malleable. To change human behavior in significant and sustainable ways, we need a scientific understanding of motivation and behavior change. One area in psychological science that provides precision, scope, and depth to our understanding of human behavior and motivation is contextual behavioral science (CBS). The current article provides an account of how CBS can provide real-world solutions to promoting positive behavior change to reduce human-induced climate issues. Specifically, we will outline six evidence-based considerations for organizations aiming to promote pro-environmental behaviors through messaging, advertising, and social marketing. Practical examples are provided across all six considerations to promote behavior change to reduce the rapidly increasing rate of climate change. Full article
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