IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v16y2024i16p6863-d1453523.html

Brands’ Green Activism: An Empirical Comparison between Posts of Digital Influencers and Brands

Author

Listed:
  • Paulo Duarte Silveira

    (Instituto Politécnico de Setúbal, Escola Superior de Ciências Empresariais, RESILIENCE, 2914-503 Setúbal, Portugal
    Centro de Estudos e Formação Avançada em Gestão e Economia [CEFAGE], University of Evora, 7000-811 Évora, Portugal)

  • Fábio Shimabukuro Sandes

    (CICANT Research Centre, Universidade Lusófona, 1749-024 Lisbon, Portugal)

  • Duarte Xara-Brasil

    (Instituto Politécnico de Setúbal, Escola Superior de Ciências Empresariais, RESILIENCE, 2914-503 Setúbal, Portugal)

  • Karla Menezes

    (Instituto Politécnico de Setúbal, Escola Superior de Ciências Empresariais, 2914-503 Setúbal, Portugal)

Abstract

In this article, we present a study that investigates the effectiveness of social media communication in conveying brands’ green activism actions framed by corporate social responsibility. To address this question, a survey was conducted with 550 participants, comparing their opinions about the green posts made by brands and influencers. Statistical analysis (Wilcoxon rank-sum test means comparison of responses between the two groups) revealed significant differences in consumer perceptions between them. The findings indicate that using social media channels to communicate green initiatives is effective for brands. Moreover, the study concludes that direct brand communication is more beneficial than relying on digital influencers. This research contributes to the existing literature by providing empirical evidence on the comparative effectiveness of brand-generated social media posts and influencer-generated content in promoting green activism actions. The study highlights the importance of direct brand communication in enhancing consumer perception and engagement with green initiatives. It offers valuable insights for brands seeking to optimize their social media strategies for sustainability messaging.

Suggested Citation

  • Paulo Duarte Silveira & Fábio Shimabukuro Sandes & Duarte Xara-Brasil & Karla Menezes, 2024. "Brands’ Green Activism: An Empirical Comparison between Posts of Digital Influencers and Brands," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-18, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:16:p:6863-:d:1453523
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/16/6863/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/16/6863/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. François Maon & Valérie Swaen & Kenneth de Roeck, 2021. "Coporate branding and corporate social responsibility: Toward a multi-stakeholder interpretive perspective," Post-Print hal-03275858, HAL.
    2. Carina Thürridl & Frauke Mattison Thompson, 2023. "Making brand activism successful: How advice-giving can boost support behavior and reap benefits for the brand," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 34(4), pages 685-696, December.
    3. Kraus, Sascha & Rehman, Shafique Ur & García, F. Javier Sendra, 2020. "Corporate social responsibility and environmental performance: The mediating role of environmental strategy and green innovation," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    4. Casaló, Luis V. & Flavián, Carlos & Ibáñez-Sánchez, Sergio, 2020. "Influencers on Instagram: Antecedents and consequences of opinion leadership," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 510-519.
    5. Szerena Szabo & Jane Webster, 2021. "Perceived Greenwashing: The Effects of Green Marketing on Environmental and Product Perceptions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 171(4), pages 719-739, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sarajlić Halida & Kondić Lordan & Lincender Ana, 2025. "Sustainable Consumption behavior among Generation Z in Croatia: Understanding Actions and Attitudes in the Context of Global Ecological Challenges," South East European Journal of Economics and Business, Sciendo, vol. 20(2), pages 120-133.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zhifeng Zhang & Fariha Sami & Irfan Ullah & Sami Ullah Khan & Salahuddin Khan, 2024. "Analyzing the green marketing approaches and their impact on consumer behavior toward the environment in China: a logistic regression approach," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(11), pages 29453-29474, November.
    2. Jiacai Xiong & Zelin Yang & Lijuan Xiao & Yushu Zhu, 2025. "Environmental judicial reform and corporate greenwashing: evidence from China’s environmental public interest litigation pilot," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-16, December.
    3. Wang, Le & Luo, Xin (Robert) & Li, Han, 2022. "Envy or conformity? An empirical investigation of peer influence on the purchase of non-functional items in mobile free-to-play games," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 308-324.
    4. Fayyaz, Muhammad Shahzeb & Abbasi, Amir Zaib & Kumar, Sanjeev & Qureshi, Ammar & Hussain, Khalil & Muhammad, Lakhi, 2025. "Integrating digital influencer persuasion model and theory of planned behavior: The mediating role of consumer involvement in endorsed brands," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    5. Kim, Sumin & He, Hongwei, 2025. "The impact of brand activism on consumer behaviors: Examining the contrasting roles of admiration and anger," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 201(C).
    6. Guosen Miao & Guoping Chen & Fan Wang & Anupam Kumar Das, 2023. "The Effect of Corporate Greenwashing on Employees’ Environmental Performance: Person–Organization Values Fit Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-19, February.
    7. Jiang, Wei & Zhang, Cheng & Si, Chengyu, 2022. "The real effect of mandatory CSR disclosure: Evidence of corporate tax avoidance," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    8. Candan Özgün-Ayar & Murat Selim Selvi, 2025. "A Scale Development Study on Green Marketing Mix Practice Culture in Small and Medium Enterprises," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(15), pages 1-40, July.
    9. Md Ismail Haidar, 2025. "Does Societal Trust Reduce Greenwashing? International Evidence," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(3), pages 3400-3424, March.
    10. Gao, Lifang & Yin, Heng, 2025. "Managerial myopia and greenwashing: A machine learning and text analysis approach," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    11. Xu, Liangguo & Lu, Xianglin & Zhang, Ziqing & Shu, Haicheng, 2025. "Green innovation, financialization, and ESG performance," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    12. María Luisa Pajuelo‐Moreno & María Jesús Barroso‐Méndez & Dolores Gallardo‐Vázquez, 2024. "Relationship between sustainability disclosure and corporate reputation: Evidence from a meta‐analysis," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(8), pages 8593-8615, December.
    13. Galina Biedenbach, 2025. "The dark side of conscientious branding: exploring the interplay between moral failures and organizational resilience," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 32(6), pages 528-544, November.
    14. Tudu, Preshita Neha & Mishra, Vaibhav, 2025. "Toward smart and green: A sustainable IT-HRM framework," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 218(C).
    15. Rodriguez, Virginie & Sangle-Ferriere, Marion, 2023. "Do supermarkets’ emails have any value for their customers? The effect of emails’ content and interestingness on customers’ attitude and engagement," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    16. Wang, Quan-Jing & Wang, Hai-Jie & Chang, Chun-Ping, 2022. "Environmental performance, green finance and green innovation: What's the long-run relationships among variables?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    17. Chen, Yanpeng & Masron, Tajul Ariffin, 2025. "The role of media visibility in mitigating greenwashing driven by executive environmental cognition: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    18. Liu, Jing-Yue & Lei, Quan & Li, Ruojin & Zhang, Yue-Jun, 2024. "Resistance or motivation? Impact of climate risk on corporate greenwashing: An empirical study of Chinese enterprises," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    19. Kajikawa, Yuya & Mejia, Cristian & Wu, Mengjia & Zhang, Yi, 2022. "Academic landscape of Technological Forecasting and Social Change through citation network and topic analyses," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    20. Ullah, Irfan & Jebran, Khalil & Umar, Muhammad & Bin Yousaf, Umair, 2023. "Chief executive officer trustworthiness and green innovation," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:16:p:6863-:d:1453523. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.