1. Introduction
How will different corporate values and structures of sustainability affect consumers’ quality perception and trust? This paper was motivated by this single question. For corporations, a well-defined system will guide all sectors to make accurate decisions and achieve better performance, including both economic profits and public praise. Similarly, clear goals toward sustainability and a well-defined corporate structure related to sustainability may also enable a corporation to reach these effects, especially to obtain higher consumer trust and high-quality social evaluation, so as to enhance the competitiveness of the corporation.
In practice, corporate sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) are often used equally. Indeed, although they are closely related, they are two different concepts, so it is necessary to clarify the basic concepts of the two and determine the standpoint of this paper. Sustainability is the development of the ability to meet the needs of contemporary people without endangering the ability of future generations to meet their needs. It is also the common economic, social, and environmental goal of human beings, which are interdependent and complementary [
1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6]. Social responsibility refers to the responsibility that an organization undertakes for the influence of its decision-making and activities on society and the environment through its transparent and ethical behaviors [
7,
8]. According to this definition, social responsibility must have a specific subject, that is, an organization. This shows that organizations pursuing responsible action should consider sustainable development as a broader social expectation; promoting sustainable development is the overall goal of organizational social responsibility. It can be seen that CSR is a relatively more micro and specific concept that emphasizes how to implement the requirements of sustainability.
According to the connotations of the two concepts of sustainability and social responsibility, there are both differences and connections between them. It can be said that whether it is conducive to promoting sustainability is the measurement standard for the organization to fulfill social responsibility, and the social responsibility is an important way to achieve sustainability of an organization or society as a whole. As a corporation is a form of organization, it can be considered that corporate sustainability and CSR also follow above relationship. For this paper, we focus on measuring consumers’ attitudes towards the goals of corporate sustainability. Hence, corporate sustainability in this paper will be regarded as a macro-concept and corporate goal; only through responsible actions can it be infinitely approached and finally achieved. These approaches include not only CSR, a micro-concept and a typical approach related to environmental and social sustainability, but also other actions related to economic sustainability.
In previous studies, Dincer and Dincer [
9] thought that people’s views and understanding of CSR are formed by interpersonal communication and mass-media communication channels. If communication is conducive to providing CSR information and shaping the overall perception, the public will be more likely to think that a corporation is responsible. In addition, CSR also has a significant positive impact on consumers’ purchase decisions [
3,
10,
11]. Furthermore, in the network era of product injury crisis and normalization of negative exposure events, CSR can also reduce negative attribution and perceived risk [
12,
13,
14], and has become an important barrier against crisis [
15].
However, on the other hand, with the further development of social networks, some corporations have encountered an evaluation of “hypocrisy” from the public when they implement sustainability or CSR measures [
16]. Although this phenomenon obviously deviates from the previous mainstream research conclusions, it makes sense. Mohr and Webb [
17] found that half of the respondents believed that corporations performed CSR for their own interests. Some sustainability behaviors are considered to gain more profits by winning good brand reputation for themselves [
18]. As a result, consumers’ questioning of sustainability and CSR is also on the rise [
19]. As the perceived hypocrisy of sustainability will lead to the negative evaluation of sustainable behavior and even the whole corporation [
20,
21], more seriously, it will also lead to severe punishment for the corporation [
22]. Therefrom, hypocrisy has become a phenomenon that cannot be ignored in the practice of sustainability, which has also attracted more and more scholars’ attention [
21,
22,
23,
24,
25,
26,
27,
28,
29,
30].
So why does the corporation fulfill its sustainability or CSR, but get the reputation of hypocrisy? Fassin and Buelens [
26] discussed the reasons for inconsistency between statements and actual actions of corporations. They believed that the degree of involvement and communication strategies in the process of CSR implementation will affect the effects of CSR activities. Godfrey [
31] emphasized the importance of public value and sincerity, and claimed that the public recognizes true charity, but not hypocrisy. Madar et al. [
32] pointed out that the relationship between purchase intention and behavior depends on the CSR awareness of consumers. Only when consumers with purchase intention realize the CSR activities of a corporation or brand, their intention can be transformed into behavior. It can be concluded from the above research that when a gap arises between the behavior of individuals and the goals or structure of a corporation, it will lead to hypocritical evaluation. Furthermore, the gap is precisely due to the lack or fuzziness of the corporate structure or culture related to sustainability, which will not only cause consumers, but also cause members of the corporation to think that this corporation is hypocritical [
33].
Thus, will corporations that take sustainability as a perfect duty and have clear goals and well-defined structures really lead to consumers’ better perception and gain consumers’ trust? This paper will use an empirical analysis method to explore these effects of sustainability orientations of corporations on consumers’ sustainability quality perception and trust. Furthermore, we also consider two variables, CSR association and consumer–corporation identity, to explore whether these two variables can play a moderating effect. Our conclusion can not only enrich the theory of sustainability, but also help those corporations that boast sustainability to improve the value and structure of sustainability scientifically by understanding the attitudes of consumers. Furthermore, this can also provide some references for government organizations to formulate regulatory policies.
6. Conclusions and Discussion
To examine the effects of corporate sustainable orientation on consumers’ quality perception and trust, we consider six types of sustainable corporations according to their orientations toward sustainability, including value, goals, and structure, from the perspective of consumer behavior and based on the moral responsibility theory of corporate sustainability. We measure corporate sustainable orientation according to the value, goal, and structure attributes. The dependent variables of consumers’ sustainable quality perception and trust and moderator variables of corporate social responsibility association and consumer–corporation identity were measured according to a five-point Likert scale. Using these variables, we are able to make hypotheses about corporate sustainable orientation, the two dependent variables, and the two moderator variables, and we collected data (N = 203) using a questionnaire survey to test the hypotheses.
Our results indicate that, compared with corporations with unclear sustainable goals, those with clear goals can gain more trust from consumers. In addition, corporations that have a well-defined corporate structure related to sustainability will trigger consumers’ higher sustainable quality perception and trust. However, whether the goal is clear or not does not have a significant effect on sustainable quality perception. No corporations regard sustainability as a perfect or imperfect duty; there is no significant difference in consumer perception or trust. The reason for why these effects are not significant might be that, on the one hand, some consumers think that the essence of corporations is to pursue profits. Compared with environmental and social sustainability, economic sustainability is more essential for them, which has been confirmed in previous studies [
66,
67]. On the other hand, it cannot be ruled out that there is also an aspect of pressure from the society. For the sustainable practice of corporations, consumers may also think that the behavior of corporations is mainly due to the pressure of the society, rather than the moral responsibility of corporation itself, so the consumers’ sustainable quality perception and trust have not been significantly improved.
Furthermore, consumers’ sustainable quality perception is also positively associated with their trust in a corporation; this conclusion is consistent with the previous literature [
2,
8,
83,
84,
85,
86,
87,
88,
89,
90]. Comprehensive sustainability, especially the sustainable responsibility involving the environmental and social aspects, is not the moral responsibility that must be undertaken in some corporations’ views. However, for those corporations that consciously undertake these responsibilities, consumers’ perception can deepen their respect and trust for corporations, increase consumer trust, and then attract new customers and retain old customers. Therefore, it is actually an investment of social capital to undertake comprehensive sustainable responsibility. Its merits are at that time and its benefits are in the future. The sustainable responsibility undertaking of effective and moderate communication with the society and consumers can enhance the sense of social identity, the reputations of corporations, the trust of consumers, and the sustainable competitiveness of corporations.
Moreover, the consumer–corporation identity negatively moderates the relationship between consumers’ sustainable quality perception and trust. This is because consumers may not have high expectations for corporate sustainable quality if they do not have a strong sense of corporate identity at first. However, when they perceive a higher sustainable quality, they are more likely to look at such a corporation in a new light, trust the corporation, and then generate a higher relevant emotional involvement or emotional commitment to the corporation. On the contrary, if consumers initially have a high sense of corporate identity, when the possible high expectations encounter a low perception, consumers may be disappointed, thus reducing the trust in the corporation. Therefore, the psychological attachment of consumers based on the overlap of self-perception and perception of corporations will be affected, which will weaken the relationship between consumers’ sustainable quality perception and trust.
However, that the effect of CSR association moderates the relationship between consumers’ sustainable quality perception and trust is not significant in this study. According to contract theory, the matching degree between the target brand concept and the consumer’s own concept is the key to affecting their positive brand attitude. However, the conclusion shows that our verification was unsuccessful, which may be because, in the cultural environment of the participants, the atmosphere and popularity of CSR are not particularly perfect, even though most of the data we collected are from consumers with higher-education backgrounds. Furthermore, our participants may not have a relatively clear concept of CSR, and they may view sustainability as too abstract or too concrete. The above listed factors of consumer cognition and cultural atmosphere may have some interferences in the moderating effect that we proposed.
6.1. Theoretical and Managerial Implications
The theoretical implications of this research are as follows. First, by verifying the positive effect of corporate sustainability orientation on consumer trust, this study enriches the literature on corporate sustainability and provides support for the actual benefits of sustainability or CSR. A good sustainability or CSR image has become the basic requirement for corporations according to the public. The existing literature showed that investment in sustainability or CSR is not only a necessary cost for corporations, but also a profitable investment. However, considering the high cost of actively undertaking sustainability and social responsibility, the corporate motivation to fulfill sustainability or CSR is still insufficient. This study complements the research on consumer response and confirms that positive sustainable orientation can not only affect consumers’ sustainable quality perception, but also further affect consumers’ trust.
Secondly, the conclusion of this study provides theoretical support for the sustainable orientation decision-making of corporations, and enriches the connotation of brand promotion theory and organizational hypocrisy theory. Compared with a not-well-defined structure related to sustainability, a well-defined structure has an obvious effect on consumers’ sustainable quality perception and trust promotion. Furthermore, clear goals toward sustainability also make a significant difference in consumers’ trust promotion. The innovation value of this study is that it provides three specific ways of expression for the abstract corporate attitude of sustainable orientation, and finds that these three dimensions have different effects on consumer perception and trust promotion. This conclusion also provides a theoretical basis for corporate sustainable strategy. Compared with the previous studies on sustainable perception, we have made significant progress. The attribution theory can also well explain our finding that consumers have higher sustainable quality perception, in part because of the clear goals and well-defined structure toward sustainability, which is attributed to corporate characteristics. Consumers will think that such sustainable motivation or orientation of the corporation is sincere, so they have a high level of trust in the corporation.
Last but not least, the theoretical model proposed and verified in this paper extends the extension of the moral responsibility theory of corporate sustainability (MRCS). In the theory of MRCS, the concept of corporate views on sustainability as a perfect or imperfect duty is considered as an antecedent, the presence (or lack) of clear goals and a well-defined structure are drivers, and corporate hypocrisy or sustainability performance are consequences [
33]. This proposition has a rich theoretical basis and research value. The MRCS theory was put forward not long ago; although there is not a large number of scholars who have verified it so far, it has been studied and tested; this paper is one of verifiers. Our results confirm that clear sustainable goals and well-defined sustainable structure can bring higher sustainable quality perception and trust to consumers, which may be an empirical improvement for the MRCS theory.
The managerial implications and suggestions of this study are fourfold. First, integrate the concept of sustainability into the corporate strategy and strengthen the guidance of consumers’ awareness of sustainable consumption. It can be seen from the literature and corporate practice in recent years that the degree of attention to sustainability issues is increasing from Chinese and global consumers; a growing number of consumers also practice the concept of sustainable consumption in their daily lives. As a promoter of sustainable production and consumption, corporations should not only integrate the concept of sustainability into their structure and strategy, but also play their own role in promoting and actively guiding consumers to gradually establish a sense of sustainable consumption. In future competition, only those corporations that actively promote sustainability and have good CSR performance are more likely to affect consumers’ minds, enhance their brand image, transfer brand concept, and achieve the integration of brand building and branding efficiency.
Second, actively promote the popularization of a sustainable product certification mark. With the continuous improvement of sustainability awareness, consumers’ awareness of a sustainable product certification mark will also be improved simultaneously, which cannot be separated from the positive promotion of corporations. However, on the whole, the current public awareness of sustainable products and their logos is still unbalanced and incomplete. It is undeniable that the difficulty of identifying sustainable products is one of the factors hindering their sustainable consumption. A certification mark is one of the most important standards for identifying sustainable products. Corporations should continue to actively promote the popularization of a certification mark of sustainable products in order to make sustainable products visible. When necessary, the corporation should carry out joint public advocacy with a standard institution.
Third, capture the needs of consumers and formulate more accurate marketing strategies. Consumers are a significant driving force and partner for promoting social and environmental progress. With the change of lifestyle, consumers’ life attitudes and life concepts have also changed, so demand has also changed. Therefore, if a corporation wants to practice the sustainable concept and achieve the long-term goal, it should focus on consumers and their changes, track and capture such changes at all times, have insight into consumers, and formulate more accurate marketing strategies. In recent decades, consumers have come to prefer more social and interactive marketing promotion methods. Hence, when formulating marketing strategies, corporations can rely on this feature to accurately understand consumers’ needs and be good at using new technologies and platforms to build an effective marketing communication matrix to attract consumers for sustainable consumption. In addition, the development of community and public welfare activities is also a powerful channel for corporations to carry out sustainable cultural publicity and product marketing. Furthermore, in the face of considerate consumers and public opinion, corporations that boldly admit that they are not sustainable but work hard at present may gain more public support than those that boast that they are sustainable but make some contrary consensus, and finally get the “hypocrisy” evaluation.
Finally, from the perspective of consumer value demands, promote sustainable consumption and advocacy through multi-faceted linkage. In the eyes of consumers, sustainability is diverse, but also concrete (such as waste classification, recycling, low-carbon, making the best use of things, clothing donation). The vocabulary associated with sustainability basically covers many aspects of consumers’ daily lives. Therefore, in the communication of sustainability and lifestyle, corporations should start from the perspective of consumers, and then through the connection between sustainability and various scenes of food, clothing, housing, and transportation, so as to arouse the resonance of consumers. At the same time, corporations can establish appropriate communication strategies, better dialogue, and communication with consumers so as to carry out effective information transmission. In addition, the media, especially the mobile network media, plays a momentous role in promoting sustainability; the media reports and popular science articles about sustainability may be the reasons for promoting sustainability. Thus, corporations can also consider combining with the media to form a joint force through multi-party linkage so as to better promote sustainable consumption.
6.2. Limitations and Future Directions
Nevertheless, our research has also some limitations, and it can provide opportunities for future research. First, this paper mainly studies from the external perspective of consumer perception and trust, and does not discuss the results of sustainable orientation from the internal perspective of the organization. A large number of related theories of organizational behavior have confirmed that organizational characteristics (such as system and culture) can affect employee identity and then affect organizational citizenship behavior. The realization of corporations’ sustainability is inseparable from the joint efforts of each member. Therefore, future research can explore the effects of corporations’ sustainable orientation from the perspectives of employees (internal) and consumers (external), especially whether positive sustainable orientation can really lead to positive employee behavior so as to improve corporation reputation.
Second, although we have discussed such a dependent variable as consumer trust, we cannot avoid that different disclosures about sustainability and different sustainable practices have different effects on consumer trust that are not considered in this paper. In this regard, future research can focus on this issue and continue to conduct in-depth research.
Third, this study only collected 203 samples, although we attempted to ensure that they were as widespread as possible (e.g., city, occupational, or professional distribution). On the other hand, we targeted the sample at some groups of young people with higher education. The young people who have received higher education are the solid strength of social construction in the coming decades. We believe that studying the attitudes of these people will play a more positive role in overall social sustainability. In addition to continuing to expand the number of samples, the horizontal expansion of different groups can also be one of the research directions.
Finally, we have only considered demographic information as control variable for the time being, and the variables of corporations are not included. Therefore, the future research can also expand the control variables and explore the impact differences caused by corporate attributes, such as industry type, corporation scale, product type, etc.