Environmentally friendly but strategically useful? A systematic review of marketing’s consideration of green initiatives

Abstract

Whether called environmental, social, and governance (ESG), sustainable, or green, efforts to gain a market advantage by providing products that do not compromise people or the planet (‘green initiatives’) are notably increasing. While marketing scholarship has extensively examined consumers’ psychological reactions to such initiatives, primarily focusing on consumer well-being, a critical gap persists. Current research offers insufficient insight into how these efforts concretely benefit firms, aid policymakers, and enhance provider and societal well-being through tangible user responses like purchase behaviors, thereby limiting advancements in both marketing theory and practice. This systematic review (62 articles, 1997–2024) addresses the aforementioned gap by not just examining the effects of firms’ green initiatives on user psychological responses, but also the potential implications for provider and society well-being. Our findings highlight significant shortcomings in the current literature: (1) a commonly accepted definition of “green” marketing strategies is missing, (2) current measures of green perceptions appear to be unidimensional, (3) the behavioral outcomes of green initiatives are understudied, and (4) the literature offers limited insight as to how consumers respond to different types of green initiatives. In response to these shortcomings, a consensus definition of green initiatives is offered, factors that drive consumers’ assessments of green strategic initiatives are identified, a model depicting the antecedents of and outcomes from green initiatives is offered to suggest how such efforts have utility for providers, users, and society, and a research agenda is suggested.