Promoting ethical consumerism through sustainability influencers (2022)

Sustainability influencers thereby have potential for effectively promoting corporations’ sustainable business practices. Moreover, collaborating with sustainability influencers who have a natural affinity with the organization’s sustainable initiatives enhances the altruistic appeal of the message, which helps viewers build a strong relationship with both the influencer and the firm. Despite the great potential of influencer marketing tactics in corporations’ strategic sustainable communication, research into this area is scant. This research project seeks to gain an empirical understanding of how influencers can help promote organizations’ sustainable efforts in an ethical and accountable manner to build trustworthy relationships with their publics. Specifically, this study focuses on influencers’ narratives that resemble testimonial ads and how-to videos to understand how narrative type can help enhance the authenticity of messages and encourage audiences to adopt a sustainable lifestyle taught by influencers.