‘Student Switch Off!’: How do university students respond to a corporate-sponsored pro-environmental social marketing campaign?

TY - JOUR

T1 - ‘Student Switch Off!’

T2 - How do university students respond to a corporate-sponsored pro-environmental social marketing campaign?

AU - Manika, Danae

AU - Gregory-Smith, Diana

AU - Wells, Victoria

AU - Trombetti, Emma

N1 - © 2018 Society for Research into Higher Education. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details

PY - 2019

Y1 - 2019

N2 - Sponsorship in pro-environmental social marketing campaigns has received limited academic attention within a higher education (HEI) context. This study examines how multi-level variables, i.e. individual (general environmental attitudes), organisational (scepticism toward the HEI’s environmental corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives; perceived HEI behaviour) and campaign-related (attitudes toward the advertisement; attitudes toward the corporate sponsor) factors, influence university students’ environmental intentions in response to a corporate-sponsored environmental initiative; using mixed methods (231 surveys and 40 interviews). Questionnaires revealed that scepticism toward the HEI’s CSR initiatives led to less positive perceptions of the HEI’s environmental behaviour, which decreased positive attitudes toward the advertisement and environmental intentions. Interviews revealed that the corporate sponsor seemed to motivate environmental behavioural intentions due to product discounts related to the sponsorship. Thus, a corporate sponsor may have confounding effects on pro-environmental behaviour campaigns. This has implications for the use of sponsorship in environmental social marketing campaigns.

AB - Sponsorship in pro-environmental social marketing campaigns has received limited academic attention within a higher education (HEI) context. This study examines how multi-level variables, i.e. individual (general environmental attitudes), organisational (scepticism toward the HEI’s environmental corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives; perceived HEI behaviour) and campaign-related (attitudes toward the advertisement; attitudes toward the corporate sponsor) factors, influence university students’ environmental intentions in response to a corporate-sponsored environmental initiative; using mixed methods (231 surveys and 40 interviews). Questionnaires revealed that scepticism toward the HEI’s CSR initiatives led to less positive perceptions of the HEI’s environmental behaviour, which decreased positive attitudes toward the advertisement and environmental intentions. Interviews revealed that the corporate sponsor seemed to motivate environmental behavioural intentions due to product discounts related to the sponsorship. Thus, a corporate sponsor may have confounding effects on pro-environmental behaviour campaigns. This has implications for the use of sponsorship in environmental social marketing campaigns.

KW - Corporate social responsibility

KW - environmental attitudes

KW - perceived higher education institution behaviour

KW - scepticism

KW - sponsored environmental campaign

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85049654962&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1080/03075079.2018.1474456

DO - 10.1080/03075079.2018.1474456

M3 - Article

SN - 0307-5079

VL - 44

SP - 1691

EP - 1706

JO - Studies in Higher Education

JF - Studies in Higher Education

IS - 9

ER -