From ESG to DESG: The Impact of DESG (Digital Environmental, Social, and Governance) on Customer Attitudes and Brand Equity

Wilert Puriwat and Suchart Tripopsakul ()
Additional contact information
Wilert Puriwat: Chulalongkorn Business School, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand
Suchart Tripopsakul: School of Entrepreneurship and Management, Bangkok University, Bangkok 12120, Thailand

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 17, 1-15

Abstract: Due to the advances in digital technology, the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) concept has been transformed into the digital environmental, social, and corporate governance (DESG) model, which can be realized as a potentially vital strategic movement for sustainable business practices in the contemporary digital era. Nevertheless, there is a lack of empirical research evidence on how firms’ DESG practices impact customers’ attitudes and brand equity. The purposes of this study were (1) to investigate the effect of DESG initiatives on customers’ attitudes (CA) and brand equity (BE), and (2) to explore how those impacts vary based on the diversity of socio-economic attributes. An online survey was conducted, and the data were analyzed by a structural equation modeling (SEM) technique. Based on 212 samples of Thai citizens’ experiences with firms’ DESG initiatives, the results revealed that DESG has a significant positive direct effect on CA. The mediation analysis revealed that CA fully mediated the relationship between DESG and BE. The results of a second-order confirmatory factor analysis of the DESG construct found that the digital social dimension (b = 0.775) played the strongest role in explaining DESG, followed by the digital environmental (b = 0.768) and digital governance (b = 0.718) dimensions. The moderation analysis found that the impact of DESG on CA was stronger for younger groups than older populations. Additionally, the group with a higher formal education level seemed to exhibit higher levels of CA than those with a lower level. Our study is one of a few endeavors to clarify the effects of DESG from the customer’s side, and suggests several implications and recommendations.

Keywords: DESG; customer attitude; brand equity; Thailand (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/17/10480/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/17/10480/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:17:p:10480-:d:895273

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().