IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pstr00/0000204.html

The influence of environmental knowledge, awareness, and concern on corporate sustainability performance by the mediating variable of ecological behavior—A case study of airlines in Korea

Author

Listed:
  • Jungyoon Jang
  • Jin-Woo Park
  • Sukhoon Chung

Abstract

Recent research seeks to investigate the influence of employees’ understanding of sustainability on sustainable corporate performance, utilizing independent variables such as environmental knowledge, awareness, and concern, along with dependent variables including environmental, financial and social performance. The total sample for this study is 230, collected from current employees of the airline industry in Korea. CFA (Confirmatory Factor Analysis) and SEM (Structural Equation Modeling) were employed for statistical analysis. The findings reveal that employees’ environmental concern positively influences ecological behavior, which in turn contributes to corporate sustainability performance across environmental, financial, and social dimensions. By contrast, environmental awareness has a negative effect on ecological behavior, and environmental knowledge shows no significant impact. The results offer meaningful insights and contribute to the understanding of corporate sustainability within the airline industry.Author summary: The author’s academic and professional trajectory reflects a sustained engagement with business strategy, organizational behavior, and the global aviation industry. The author developed a strong analytical foundation for examining organizational dynamics, strategic decision-making, and sustainable management practices. This academic preparation is complemented by professional experience with international airlines, including British Airways and Alitalia, where the author contributed to passenger transport and logistics. These roles provided first-hand insight into the operational, financial, and strategic challenges faced by one of the world’s most complex industries. Building on this combined background, the author’s research interests focus on sustainability in business and organizational behavior, with particular attention to the aviation sector as a critical domain for global connectivity, economic development, and environmental responsibility. By integrating empirical analysis with professional experience, the author seeks to generate insights that advance scholarly understanding while also supporting practical approaches to sustainable growth and responsible management in complex organizational contexts.

Suggested Citation

  • Jungyoon Jang & Jin-Woo Park & Sukhoon Chung, 2025. "The influence of environmental knowledge, awareness, and concern on corporate sustainability performance by the mediating variable of ecological behavior—A case study of airlines in Korea," PLOS Sustainability and Transformation, Public Library of Science, vol. 4(10), pages 1-18, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pstr00:0000204
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pstr.0000204
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/sustainabilitytransformation/article?id=10.1371/journal.pstr.0000204
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/sustainabilitytransformation/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pstr.0000204&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pstr.0000204?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brown Johnson, Nancy & Anderson, Jonathan R, 2004. "5. Airline Employment, Productivity, And Working Conditions Following Deregulation," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 79-108, January.
    2. Burov, Nikita O. & Savelenko, Vsevolod D. & Ershov, Mikhail A. & Vikhritskaya, Anastasia O. & Tikhomirova, Ekaterina O. & Klimov, Nikita A. & Kapustin, Vladimir M. & Chernysheva, Elena A. & Sereda, Al, 2023. "Knowledge contribution from science to technology in the conceptualization model to produce sustainable aviation fuels from lignocellulosic biomass," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 215(C).
    3. Eltayeb, Tarig K. & Zailani, Suhaiza & Ramayah, T., 2011. "Green supply chain initiatives among certified companies in Malaysia and environmental sustainability: Investigating the outcomes," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 55(5), pages 495-506.
    4. Zinan Liu & E. L. Lynk, 1999. "Evidence on market structure of the deregulated US airline industry," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(9), pages 1083-1092.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Marcello Risitano & Rosaria Romano & Vincenzo Rusciano & Gennaro Civero & Debora Scarpato, 2022. "The impact of sustainability on marketing strategy and business performance: The case of Italian fisheries," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 1538-1551, May.
    2. Abderahman Rejeb & Karim Rejeb & Yasanur Kayikci & Andrea Appolloni & Horst Treiblmaier, 2024. "Mapping the knowledge domain of green procurement: a review and bibliometric analysis," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(12), pages 30027-30061, December.
    3. Zou, Bo & Elke, Matthew & Hansen, Mark & Kafle, Nabin, 2014. "Evaluating air carrier fuel efficiency in the US airline industry," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 306-330.
    4. Leonardo J. Basso & Sergio R. Jara-Díaz, 2006. "Are Returns to Scale with Variable Network Size Adequate for Transport Industry Structure Analysis?," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 40(3), pages 259-268, August.
    5. Tao, Zhibin & Chao, Jiaxiao, 2024. "Unlocking new opportunities in the industry 4.0 era, exploring the critical impact of digital technology on sustainable performance and the mediating role of GSCM practices," Innovation and Green Development, Elsevier, vol. 3(3).
    6. Carl Mela & Praveen Kopalle, 2002. "The impact of collinearity on regression analysis: the asymmetric effect of negative and positive correlations," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(6), pages 667-677.
    7. Barros, Carlos Pestana & Wanke, Peter, 2015. "An analysis of African airlines efficiency with two-stage TOPSIS and neural networks," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 44, pages 90-102.
    8. Sher Jahan Khan & Puneet Kaur & Fauzia Jabeen & Amandeep Dhir, 2021. "Green process innovation: Where we are and where we are going," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(7), pages 3273-3296, November.
    9. Rongrong Li & Feng Ren & Qiang Wang, 2024. "China–US scientific collaboration on sustainable development amidst geopolitical tensions," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-19, December.
    10. Mark Anthony Camilleri, 2022. "The rationale for ISO 14001 certification: A systematic review and a cost–benefit analysis," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(4), pages 1067-1083, July.
    11. Xin Chen & Jiannan Li & Decai Tang & Ziqian Zhao & Valentina Boamah, 2024. "Stackelberg game analysis of government subsidy policy in green product market," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(5), pages 13273-13302, May.
    12. Rostamnejad Takleh, H. & Razbin, Milad & Mehdizadeh, Sevda & Hashemzade, Hediye & Feili, Milad & Parikhani, Towhid & Azariyan, Hossein, 2025. "Advanced optimization techniques for biogas-fueled cogeneration system using soft computing approaches," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 245(C).
    13. Zuidberg, Joost, 2014. "Identifying airline cost economies: An econometric analysis of the factors affecting aircraft operating costs," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 86-95.
    14. Goll Irene & Rasheed Abdul A., 2011. "Environmental Jolts, Clocks, and Strategic Change in the U.S. Airline Industry: The Effects of Deregulation and the 9/11/2001 Terrorist Attacks," Business and Politics, De Gruyter, vol. 13(4), pages 1-37, December.
    15. Haibo Sun & Tonghuan Bai & Youqing Fan & Zhonglu Liu, 2024. "Environmental, social, and governance performance and enterprise sustainable green innovation: Evidence from China," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(4), pages 3633-3650, July.
    16. Hisham Alidrisi, 2021. "Measuring the Environmental Maturity of the Supply Chain Finance: A Big Data-Based Multi-Criteria Perspective," Logistics, MDPI, vol. 5(2), pages 1-24, April.
    17. Ping‐Kuo Chen & Xiang Huang, 2024. "Enhancing supply chain resilience and realizing green sustainable development through the virtual environment of the metaverse," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(1), pages 438-454, February.
    18. Lee, Boon L. & Worthington, Andrew C., 2014. "Technical efficiency of mainstream airlines and low-cost carriers: New evidence using bootstrap data envelopment analysis truncated regression," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 15-20.
    19. Ardian Qorri & Saranda Gashi & Andrzej Kraslawski, 2021. "Performance outcomes of supply chain practices for sustainable development: A meta‐analysis of moderators," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(1), pages 194-216, January.
    20. Leonardo Basso & Sergio Jara-Díaz, 2006. "Distinguishing Multiproduct Economies of Scale from Economies of Density on a Fixed-Size Transport Network," Networks and Spatial Economics, Springer, vol. 6(2), pages 149-162, June.

    More about this item

    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:plo:pstr00:0000204. 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: sustaintransform (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/sustainabilitytransformation/ .

    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.