Author(s): Servjaeta Verma and Aditya Shankar Mishra
In the last few years, there has been a growing interest amongst organizations and consumers in the adoption and promotion of sustainable products and services. Since a brand’s sustainability credentials significantly influence consumer choices, these must be communicated effectively to the target consumers. This has resulted in emergence of a specialized domain of marketing termed ‘sustainability advertising’. However, there is a lack of consensus amongst researchers over the dimensions of sustainability advertising and the operationalization of its constructs. Therefore, the current study aims to summarize the extant literature available in sustainability advertising domain and assess its role in influencing consumer response. For this, a systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted on empirical studies published between the years 2000 and 2023, and insights were derived by performing a thematic synthesis of 118 studies obtained through multiple databases. The study gives a snapshot of various theoretical frameworks, and summarizes antecedents, moderators, mediators, and outcome variables studied so far in context of sustainability advertising. Based on the synthesis of findings, the authors propose a conceptual framework of various dimensions of sustainability advertising and their influence on outcome variables. At the end of the study, future research directions are also proposed. The study makes a profound contribution to the academic literature while providing important strategic recommendations to advertisers and advertising agencies in crafting their sustainability advertisement and communication.