Effect of spirituality and ethics on green advertising, and the multi- mediating roles of green buying and green satisfaction

Abstract

This study has extended Motivation-Ability-Opportunity- Model and has developed a framework with seven variables (i.e., green brand, green satisfaction, green advertising, green buying behavior, and spirituality ethics. The study has taken a holistic approach by testing 15 relationships for understanding green marketing. The authors distributed 415 questionnaires to the students of selected universities of Karachi and received 395 filled-in questionnaires. The study’s results support all the proposed hypotheses, and they are in line with earlier studies on green marketing (GM). The study found that green advertising (GA) is an essential aspect of green marketing (GM). Besides its direct effects on green-related elements (H1 to H7), it (green satisfaction) has significant mediating roles on ethics (ET) and green buying behavior (GBB) (H8); spiritually (SP) and green buying behavior (GBB) (H9); ethics, and green satisfaction (H10); Spirituality and green satisfaction (H11). We also found that green buying behavior mediates green advertising (GA) and green satisfaction (GS) (H12). Green buying behavior (GBB) also mediates green brand (GB) and green satisfaction (GS) (H13). The study’s variable’s interrelationships can be judged from the results that our results also support both multi mediating effects. The current study found that the multi-mediating impact of green advertising and green buying on ethics and green satisfaction (H14) and spirituality and green satisfaction (H15) is also significant. The theoretical and practical implications are based on empirical results.

Keywords:

• Green marketing
• consumer buying behavior
• green advertisement
• green brand
• green satisfaction
• spirituality
• ethics

GEL classfication:

• M30
• M31

PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT

Consumers’ consumption of goods and services and industrial waste has significantly contributed to the environment’s decay. At the same time, it has also increased consumers’ concern about green marketing. Green marketing is all about producing environmentally friendly products (green brand), communicating consumers about the green brand (green advertising), and changing consumer behavior towards eco-friendly products (green behavior). Firms in developed and developed countries focus on green marketing for sustainable growth and competitive advantage. The Textile industry is one of the largest sectors in Pakistan that contributes significantly towards GDP and employment. However, it has faced immense pressure from the government and international donor agencies to reduce pollution and environmental decay by recycling and reusing water from one process and adopting other recommended product modifications.

1. Introduction

The economic prosperity in Pakistan and other developing countries has increased consumers’ purchasing power and has also contributed to pollution and the environment’s deterioration. This environmental issue is adversely affecting individuals, societies, countries, and the planet earth. Thus the firms (Hameed et al., 2019) must adopt and practice green marketing. Green marketing is not a new concept and has been in discussion since the early 60s (Yarimoglu & Binboga, 2019). Paiva believes that the green marketing concept got formalized in the late 80s and early 90s. American Marketing Association has defined green marketing as a “ study of positive and negative aspects of pollution and depletion of energy sources.” Whereas Groening et al. (2018) has defined it as is all planned activities that “stimulate exchange, satisfy human needs and wants without adversely affecting the environment.”

Green marketing has emerged in three stages. Stage one was the early 1980s when the industry started adopting green marketing (Simão & Lisboa, 2017). Stage two is the era of the 1990s in which marketers developed a negative attitude towards green marketing. The industry backlash on green marketing was the realization that consumers’ concerns towards green marketing do not translate into actual purchases (Groening et al., 2018). The third stage is the era of 2000. In this period, the industries started investing their resources in green marketing. (Baran, 2018). Thus the researchers, due to the above-discussed stages, changed their scope from time to time. In the 70s, most researchers focused on the association between consumers’ environmental concerns and their behavior. Mainly on consumers’ perception towards recycling and green consumers’ characteristic (Mubarik et al. 2021). The research in the early 1990s was mainly descriptive and lacked academic rigor (Chairy, & Syahrivar, 2020). Many studies in this era were from a managerial perspective and have focused on “‘green’ consumer behavior, advertising, and market segmentation” (Amoako et al., 2020). Studies in the mid-nineties and onward focused on conceptual issues related to marketing sustainability (Vilkaite-Vaitone & Skackauskiene, 2019). Also, in this and subsequent periods, the researchers examined consumers’ green attitudes and behaviors for academic purposes.

Sustainability of the environment has become one of the major concerns the world over. Manufacturing sectors, especially textile and chemical industries, contribute significantly towards environmental decay. Thus, both the textile and chemical sectors in Pakistan face a lot of pressure from governmental and international donor agencies to adopt measures that decrease the country’s pollution and environmental decay. The current study has focused on Pakistan’s textile sector as it is one of the largest sectors that contributes significantly towards, exports, GDP, and employment generation (Memon et al., 2019). Additionally, the authors’ feel that the textile sector of Pakistan needs to adopt green marketing for sustainable and competitive advantages

Kirmani and Khan (2016), based on an extant literature review, suggested literature needs more studies on green advertising from Asian Countries, especially India and China, etc. that are facing problems related to environment degrading.” We have responded to Kimmai’s future research direction by studying Pakistan because it is a developing country and has serious environmental degradation problems. Similarly, Agarwal and Kumar (2020), based on three decades of literature bolometric review, found that most green advertising studies are from the United States. Therefore they felt more studies are needed the other countries. Kirmani and Khan (2016) have recommended that the researcher should delve deeper into green marketing research. We have addressed the above gaps by researching in Pakistan and have dwelled deeper by taking a holistic approach in which our developed model has seven direct relationships and nine mediating relationships.

Agarwal and Kumar (2020), based on an extensive literature review, found a dearth of green branding studies. He also observed that green advertising builds a green brand. The authors have responded to Agarwal and Kumar’s call (2020) and have incorporated both green advertising and green brand in the developed conceptual framework.

Agarwal and Kumar (2020) argue that most green advertising has used “fear appeal” to attract consumers’ attention. Therefore, Agarwal and Kumar (2020) have suggested future researchers identify other advertising appeals in the green advertisement. The study has responded to this call and found that green advertisement can also use spirituality and ethics appeal in green advertisements

Past studies have examined the ethics in adverting and have neglected the effect of consumers’ ethics on advertising (Epure & Mihăeş, 2019). Similarly, extant studies have examined the spiritual aspect in the advertising or spiritual messages in adverting and have neglected its effect of the spiritual aspect of on consumer on advertising (Ali et al, 2021; Chairy, & Syahrivar, 2020; George, 2018). The authors could not find any study that has examined the effect of ethics and spirituality on green advertising. Given these gaps, we have examined the impact of spirituality and ethics on green marketing.

Multi-mediating relationships are highly interrelated; therefore, a multi mediating relationship contributes significantly to the body of knowledge. While reviewing the extant literature, the authors found only one study in green marketing that has used multi- mediating relationships. This study on the multi-meditating relationship found that “green perceived quality and green purchase intentions” mediate green perceived quality and green purchase intention (Gil & Jacob, 2018). Given this gap, the authors have examined two multi-mediating relationships in the study.

2. Research questions

Based on the above-discussed gaps and contributions and discussions of extant literature in the. following sections, the authors have formulated the following research questions

1. What is the effect of ethics and spirituality on green advertising

2. What is the effect of green advertising and green brand on green buying behavior

3. What is the effect of green advertising, green brand, and green buying behavior on green satisfaction

4. What are the mediating effect of green advertising on (1) ethics and green buying behavior and (ii) spirituality and green buying behavior (11) Spirituality and green buying behavior, and (111) on ethics green satisfaction (1 V) spirituality and green satisfaction

5. What are the multi-mediating effect of green advertisement and green buying behavior on (1) ethics and green satisfaction (11) spirituality and green satisfaction

3. Theoretical grounding and conceptual framework

3.1. ABC model of behavior

The ABC Model integrates external conditions, internal processes, and attitudes for explaining consumers’ behaviors. It is a simplified version of Stern and Oskamp (1987). The ABC model assumes that the actions and behaviors (B) are precursors to attitudes (A). Consumers’ attitudes can promote negative behavior, which consumers adopt due to extreme coercion. Simultaneously, it may stimulate extremely positive behavior, which consumers adopt voluntarily(Groening et al., 2018). The actions are also associated with external conditions (C). External behavior significantly depends on external support or opposition. The support or opposition can be physical, financial, social, or legal, which could be extremely pleasant or extremely unpleasant.

The model has divided consumer behavior into three categories: A, B, and C. Expensive, difficult and inconvenient behaviors are rare (Negative C) (Liao et al., 2020). Whereas “positive C” is common for most of the population. Positive and conducive conditions promote “positive C” behavior. “Positive A” behavior in a population is prevalent and common, whereas negative “A behavior” in a population is rare (Zhang et al., 2018).

Many theorists assert that besides attitude, other factors directly affect consumers’ beliefs and attitude-behavior relationships (Groening et al., 2018). Many studies have used Attitude Behavior-Context (ABC) for explaining consumers green behavior. The theory postulates that favorable conditions motivate consumers’ behavior towards green products, and unfavorable conditions adversely affect (Yu et al., 2017).

Based on the above discussion, the study argues that the Motivation-Ability-Opportunity- Model is appropriate to green marketing. Thus the study has extended the same for developing the conceptual framework. The proposed conceptual framework has seven latent variables (i.e., Spirituality (SP), ethics (ET), green brand (GB), green advertising (GA), green buying behavior (GBB), and green satisfaction (GS). The new model has seven direct, five single mediating relationships, and two multi-mediating relationships. The conceptual is presented in Figure 1, followed by theoretical support for all the proposed hypotheses.

Figure 1. Conceptual framework

4. Hypothesis development Ethics (ET) and Green Advertising (GA)

Consumers with ethical values are concerned about their wellbeing and sustainability of the environment. Consequently, they have a positive attitude towards advertisements that promote public awareness about sustainability and support socially responsible behavior (Mubarik, Kazmi, & Zaman, 2021; Widyastuti et al., 2019). Thus the advertising messages should have the right blend of communications to motivate consumers towards green products and enhancing brand image (Sheehan, 2013; Widyastuti et al., 2019). Yang et al. (2015) argue that consumers’ positive attitudes towards green advertisements depend on their concern about the sustainable environment and the value proposition (i.e., “quality, price, style, and design”). Sheehan (2013) argues that human buying is a complex process; therefore, their response to the advertisements depends on humanistic, environmental, and product-related attributes. A consumer’s humanistic response is related to ethicality, ecological benefits, and connectedness to nature, whereas the product-related aspect is about the uniqueness of green products (Morgan & Pritchard, 2018; Son & Kim, 2018). The human-centric view evaluates how an advertisement addresses its product needs and contributes to a sustainable environment (Dong et al., 2018). Such a human-centric approach motivates consumers to buy green products and enhances their attitudes towards eco-friendly products (Shen & Shi, 2021; Son, & Kim, 2018).

Individuals with high ethical values are concern about their relationship with nature and how they intend to deal with environmental problems (Isnaini, 2020; Sheehan, 2013). Moral philosophers, for decades, have been debating on the association of human attitudes and the environment. The human-centered approach focuses on humans’ three essential facets: “human values, the needs of humans, and the welfare of human beings” (Schauster & Neill, 2017; Son & Kim, 2018). For example, consumers that value health and safety may prefer environmentally friendly products for themselves and their families. Gbadamosi (2019) define customer-centric sustainability as “a metric of performance based on sustainability outcomes that are personally consequential for customers and result from customer directed business actions.” Consumers world over have become highly conscious about the sustainable environmental issue. They are concerned about climate change, gas emissions, and greenhouse gas emissions. Firms worldwide are using green themes towards their products and services (Leonidou & Skarmeas, 2017). Consumers expect that the firms claiming that they have employed water and energy efficiency in their production process must also practice it (H. A. Shabbir et al., 2019). Therefore consumers are entitled and expect that the environmental claims made by the organizations are truthful. Firms’ claims about environment-friendly activities are only ethical if they practice what they claim (Lefter, 2018). A contradiction in an advertisement’s claims and actual practice is unethical and against many countries’ trade laws. Many countries have strict legislation that requires businesses not to deceive consumers by claiming something that is not true. Based on the above arguments, we proposed the following hypothesis.

H1: Consumers with a firm ethical belief will have a positive attitude towards green advertising (GA)

5. Spirituality (SP) and Green Advertising (GA)

Consumers’ social and consumption behavior and wellbeing besides religiosity significantly depend on Spirituality (Harizan & Rahman, 2017; Marmor-Lavie & Stout, 2016). On the other hand, consumerism promotes materialistic values, which are negatively associated with society’s welfare (Rezapouraghdam et al., 2019). Many past studies have used Spirituality (SP) and religiosity (RL) interchangeably, although they are different constructs. Spirituality is sublime. It “smells of incense and everything good in humans.” While advertising promotes materialistic consumption (Sharma et al., 2020). Thus, the focus of Spirituality (SP) and advertising are not aligned. The former’s notion is related to the internal world, and the latter concept is about the external materialistic world. Spirituality (SP) has two essential features, which are internal and external. Thus we can infer that it is not rational to exclude “external expressions and representation” from the process of Spirituality (SP). Expression of Spirituality (SP) can be extended to all walks of life, including “advertising and consumption.” The focus of advertisements to promote material objects. Many researchers have examined the association between spirituality materialistic consumption of human beings. For example, Genoveva and Syahrivar (2020) have acknowledged that spiritual orientation promotes intangibility and “spiritual” use and possession in the consumers. Harizan & Rahman, 2017) advocates intangibility in human consumption. Consumers’ consumption of goods and services reflects their attitude towards themselves and the universe. Spiritual consumers have a positive attitude towards products and advertisements which do not harm them and the environment. However, many consumers may not be aware that their consumption pattern has blurred boundaries between spirituality’s internal and external aspects (Marmor-Lavie & Stout, 2016).

The advertising industry must understand that the consumers’ orientation towards spirituality and a sustainable environment has increased. Therefore, their advertising messages should focus on these aspects (Marmor-Lavie & Stout, 2016). Advertising depends on the imagination of artists and poets who generally have a high inclination towards Spirituality (SP). Thus, the link between Spirituality (SP) and advertisement always had a strong relationship despite consumers’ beliefs (Rezapouraghdam et al., 2019). Based on a model, Sharma et al. (2020) concluded that individuals’ values and virtues promote ethical behavior at the workplace. Green advertisements also promote ethical behavior. Thus researchers argue that consumers with high spiritual values may also have a positive attitude towards green advertising. On the contrary, Fahm and Sanni (2019) argue that the new age spiritual thinkers have justified the consumptive behavior by labeling it “social products.”

H2: Individuals with high spiritual values would have a positive attitude towards green advertising

6. Green Advertising (GA) and Green Buying Behavior (GBB)

Advertising is an essential tool that communicates brand identity, value proposition, which builds brand equity (Keller, 1993). However, its effectiveness depends on credibility and truthfulness (Chaudhary, 2018). Green advertisements convey the necessity of green products and motivate consumers to adopt green lifestyles, leading to positive green behavior (Kumar, 2017). Chin et al. (2018). think that green advertisement can improve the green image and educate consumers about the importance of consuming green products. Consumers think that brand identity is cognitive; therefore, awareness also promotes buying behavior (Keller, 1993). Consumers tend to intemperate green advertisements negatively or positively depending on their pertinent needs and the fact that consumers are selective in processing information (Khandelwal et al., 2019). Consumers generally have a positive response to those green advertisements whose brand green marketing is aligned. Consumers assess green advertisement either cognately or affectively. They both, directly and indirectly, affect green buying behavior (Kazmi et al., 2021). Khare and Sadachar (2017) suggest that consumers, besides responding to green advertisements, also assess their credibility. If they feel that the advertisements are creditability, they will respondent positively towards such advertisement, Kumar (2017) also suggest that green advertisements promote green buying behavior, but he also believes its impact depends on how the message is communicated to consumers.

7. Green Advertising (GA) and Green Satisfaction (GS)

Green advertisement and green satisfaction (GS) are two different concepts. They either are an outcome of others or a part of a process (Yu et al., 2017).

Organizations’ inclination towards marketing green products and environmentally friendly packaging has increased to attract environmentally conscious consumers and gain a competitive edge (D. Alamsyah et al., 2020). An organization’s advertisements that communicate green marketing (GM) messages will not only attract more customers but will increase the satisfaction level of green customers (GS) (Urbański, 2020). Attitude towards environmental concern varies from one individual to another. It depends on their experience, culture, media, and peers’ influence (Schmuck et al., 2018). Thus environmentally friendly consumers are more attentive and satisfied with green advertisements (Chin et al., 2018). Kazmi et al. (2021) have also documented that consumers with more significant ecological concerns practice green consumerism and are satisfied with green marketing (GM) and advertisements. Many studies have concluded that green customers pay more attention to green advertisement messages and content. Consequently, this satisfaction leads to positive buying behavior (Yu et al., 2017). Kumar (2017) also found a positive association between green advertising (GA) and green satisfaction (GS). Schmuck et al. (2018)concluded that consumers with more serious environmental concerns pay more attention to green marketing (GM) messages and advertisements. Contrarily, consumers with low ecological concerns are insensitive to green advertising (GA). Khandelwal et al. (2019) found that consumers’ interest in a sustainable environment also varies from high to low involvement products. Consumers are more willing to purchase low-involvement green products than high-involvement green products.

Green advertising that labels its products as environmentally friendly attracts green consumers and stimulates and promotes green satisfaction (Urbański, 2020). Simultaneously, all the communicated claims related to green advertising are not authentic and mislead the consumers. As a result, consumers develop a negative attitude towards such advertisement Schmuck et al. (2018).

H4: Green Advertisement (GA) positively influences green satisfaction (GS).

8. Green Brand (GB) and Green Buying Behavior (GB)

Several perceptual brand models explain the association between the brand and consumer buying behavior. According to Keller (1993), a brand’s three crucial perceptual factors are “awareness, association, and perception.” All of them individually and collectively affect consumers buying behavior. Many firms frequently use green marketing (GM) to promote sustainable growth and enhance the brand image (Ha, 2020). However, for stimulating consumer buying behavior, just developing eco-friendly products is not enough. The brand attributes related to green marketing (GM) have to be communicated to the consumers (Butt et al., 2017). Green branding has two aspects, which are functional and emotional. The emotional element has a more substantial impact on consumer buying behavior than the functional part (Papista & Dimitriadis, 2019). Khandelwal et al. (2019) argues that “when green positioning is used in terms of a corporate strategy, it can be based on different emotional brand benefits such as selflessness associated with the emotion of wellbeing, benefits including auto-expression that are a result of using socially recognizable green brands and nature-related benefits.” Green branding stimulates consumers to buy eco-friendly products (Papista & Dimitriadis, 2019). Firms that use environmentally friendly package material will have the edge over their competitors (Semprebon et al., 2019).

Past studies have found a low investment in ecologically friendly package material is more effective in increasing sales than advertising and other promotional strategies (Ha, 2020). For example, Dell has used the green branding tagline “Go Green with Dell” very effectively for stimulating consumer buying behavior. Besides, Dell also focuses on efficient and green innovations (Bhatia & Jain, 2013). Papista and Dimitriadis (2019) found that firms that use green marketing as a tool to enhance the brand image but lack initiatives to back up their claims tend to lose their brand creditability. Semprebon et al. (2019) examined the green brand (GB) consequences based on 500 respondents. Their results show that consumers’ ecological concern, consumers’ brand perception, and consumer buying behavior are highly correlated. Hartmann and Apaolaza-Ibanez (2010) believe that the consumer image of the green brand (GB) is more important than firm positioning. Contrarily, Chang and Fong (2010) found that many consumers negatively perceive environmentally friendly products. The customers believe that the functional performance of eco-friendly products is lower than conventional products.

Green branding is still a topic which researchers have not extensively explored. However, consumers have developed positive attitudes and behavior towards green brand image (M. S. Shabbir et al. (2020). A green brand, due to its unique positioning, can change consumer attitudes and behavior. Khandelwal et al. (2019) believe that firms that do not incorporate green elements in their brands may face more difficulty selling their products than other firms. Many studies found a positive association between green brand green buying behavior (Papista and Dimitriadis (2019)

H5: Green brand (GB) positively influences green buying behavior (GBB).

9. Green Brand (GB) and Green Satisfaction (GS)

The two critical virtues of a green brand (GB) are preserving the environment and business sustainability. Green brand since focuses on preserving; therefore, it satisfies consumers concerned about green marketing (Ha, 2020). Wu et al. (2018) argue that a green brand (GB) enhances corporate image and unique selling proposition, leading to customer satisfaction. Many past studies have documented that consumers’ concern towards the green environment has increased significantly in the present era. Therefore, they expect firms to divert their resources to environmentally friendly products (Papista & Dimitriadis, 2019).

Firms that are practicing green marketing must provide information about green products, echo-labeling by using green messages. This strategy will enhance consumers’ green satisfaction (Khandelwal et al., 2019). However, green branding will only be useful if affordable and high quality (Gil & Jacob, 2018). Thus it has also been argued that both governmental (Wu et al., 2018) and non-governmental bodies (Ha, 2020) must take initiatives for creating awareness of a sustainable and healthy environment. These initiatives will promote green brands (GB) and stimulate a positive feeling (Papista & Dimitriadis, 2019). Consumers are generally more satisfied with those brands that promote a green environment and practice it (Khandelwal et al., 2019). Wu et al. (2018) think that brand image promotes a sustainable environment due to which consumers who are concern about the green environment are attracted towards such brands. Green consumers believe that green brand affect their attitudes as it satisfies their green needs and socially contributes in the society.

H6: Green brand (GB) positively influences green satisfaction (GS).

10. Green Buying Behavior (GBB) and Green Satisfaction (GS)

Papista and Dimitriadis (2019) refer to green satisfaction as “a pleasurable level of consumption-related fulfillment to satisfy a customer’s environmental desires, sustainable expectations, and green needs.” In this context, Khandelwal et al. (2019) found that consumers green buying behavior (GBB) has a direct effect on green satisfaction (GS). Government and other policymakers must spend substantial resources on changing consumers’ attitudes towards environmentally friendly products. Such efforts will increase the number of satisfied green consumers and affect their buying behavior (Maziriri, 2020). The cost of green products is significantly higher than conventional products. Thus when consumers buy these products, they prioritize societal interest over personal interest (Khan et al., 2021).

Consequently, this buying behavior results in green satisfaction (GS) (Miao et al., 2019). Consumers have a positive attitude towards those brands whose features and image promote environmentally friendly products. Besides, it helps in enhancing the organizational vision and brand loyalty. Misalignment between brand features and green marketing (GM) adversely affects “brand image, brand loyalty, and brand satisfaction” (Gonçalves et al., 2016).

H7: Green buying behavior (GBB) positively affects green satisfaction (GS)

11. Mediating effect on Green Buying Behavior (GBB)

We have proposed two mediating effects on green buying behavior (GBB). The literature support for the proposed mediating relationships follows.

Ethical values motivate individuals to focus on their association with nature and how they deal with environmental-related problems (Son, & Kim, 2018). Thus ethical consumers pay more attention to green advertisement since it promotes a sustainable environment. However, when they see a disparity in the sustainability claims and product features, they develop negative perceptions about the firms and advertisements (Sheehan, 2013). Widyastuti et al. (2019) argue that firms’ claims about environment-friendly activities are only ethical if they practice what they claim.

Green advertising (GA) not only communicates to the consumers that the products of their firms use environmentally friendly products and packaging, but it also motivates consumers to develop positive attitudes towards green products (Khandelwal et al., 2019). Many advertisements use green labeling in their advertising campaign and products, which symbolize green products. However, many consumers still are unable to align green labels with environmentally friendly products. Therefore many studies have advised that besides using the green-labels in the products and advertisements should explicitly communicate that their products are environmentally friendly (Chaudhary, 2018).

Internal and external aspects of Spirituality (SP) affect consumers’ consumption patterns. (Rezapouraghdam et al., 2019). Thus the marketers should also understand this and focus on the internal spirituality aspect as it has a more substantial impact on the green advertisement (GA) (Mallia, 2009). Artists and poets create advertisement messages. They have a higher inclination towards spirituality; therefore, many advertisements intentionally or intentionally reflect the creators’ spiritual beliefs.

The above theoretical discussions show that both ethics (ET) and Spirituality (SP) affects green advertisement (GA), and green advertisement (GA) is a precursor to green buying behavior (GBB); therefore, we argue that:

H8: Green advertising (GA) mediates ethics (ET) and green buying behavior (GBB).

H9: Green advertising (GA) mediates Spirituality (SP) and green buying behavior (GBB).

12. Mediating effect on Green Satisfaction (GS)

The study has proposed four mediating effects on green satisfaction (GS), whose literature support follows.

Consumers’ attitudes towards green advertising (GA) depends on their concern about the sustainable environment and humanistic values (Yang et al., 2015). The human-centric view of advertising focuses on addressing consumers’ product needs and contributes towards a sustainable environment (Kazmi et al., 2021; Son & Kim, 2018). Thus, green advertising depends on the right blend of product attributes, humanistic aspects, and environmental issues (Khare & Sadachar, 2017; Sheehan, 2013).

Consumers’ attitudes towards green advertising (GA) depend on numerous factors, including their values related to a sustainable environment, cultural values, and peers and families (D. Alamsyah et al., 2020). Individuals who live in a society that appreciates green marketing will tend to have a positive attitude towards green advertising (GA) (Kazmi et al., 2021). An individual may not have the same level of satisfaction towards all product categories. It is generally high for low involvement products and low for high-involvement products (Urbański, 2020).

Spirituality (SP) in consumers has a strong linkage with their consumption attitudes and behaviors. A highly spiritual person would be more concerned about the goods and products that are not harmful to individuals and t environment (Fahm and Sanni, 2019). Festival advertisements for Christmas and Easters stimulate the spiritualist aspect in consumers, due to which they become more attractive to such publicity and spend substantially (Marmor-Lavie & Stout, 2016). Many researchers believe that spiritual orientation promotes intangibility and spiritual-consumption behavior (Urbański, 2020).

Consumers’ attitude towards green buying behavior is on the rise globally. Besides other factors, green advertising and the availability of environmentally friendly products have also contributed to green advertising (GA) and green buying behavior (GBB) (Kazmi et al., 2021). The green advertisement (GA) promotes green buying behavior (GBB), which has ethical, resources, and communal consensus (Xiao et al., 2016).

When consumers buy environmentally friendly products, they are satisfied that they have contributed to the environment’s sustainability (Khare & Sadachar, 2017). Many past studies have acknowledged that green satisfaction (GS) and green buying behavior (GBB) are directly associated (Khandelwal et al., 2019)

However, the literature also suggests that most buying intentions do not translate to actual buying behavior. One of the reasons for this disparity is that consumers often believe that green products’ functional quality is not par with conventional products (Khandelwal et al., 2019). Thus to enhance green satisfaction (GS), marketers need to change their perception of green products (Maziriri, 2020).

Many past studies have acknowledged that green brand (GB) and green buying behavior (GBB) are positively linked. (Khandelwal et al., 2019; M. S. Shabbir et al., 2020). Thus firms with a robust green brand image stimulate green buying behavior. Similarly, Wu et al. (2018) found that consumers’ ecological concern, brand perception, and buying behavior are positively related. Many consumers still believe that the green brand’s functional quality is inferior to the traditional brand; therefore, firms in their branding strategies should focus on changing this consumers’ perception (Papista & Dimitriadis, 2019).

The above literature citations suggest that green advertising (GA) and green buying behavior (GBB) are the antecedents to green satisfaction (GS). Ethics (ET) and Spirituality (SP) are precursors to the green advertisement (GA). And green advertisement (GA) and green brand (GB) are antecedents to green buying behavior (GBB). Given these interrelationships, we argue:

H10: Green advertising (GA) mediates ethics (ET) and green satisfaction (GS).

H11: Green advertising (GA) mediates Spirituality (SP) and green satisfaction (GS).

H12: Green buying behavior (GBB) mediates green advertising (GA) and green satisfaction (GS).

H13: Green buying behavior (GBB) mediates green brand (GB) and green satisfaction (GS).

13. Multi mediating effect-1

In the above sections, we provided literature support on the mediating effect of green advertising (GA) on ethics (ET) and green satisfaction (GS) (H0). And the mediating effects of green buying behavior (GBV) on green advertising (GA) and green satisfaction (GS) (H12). Thus we argue that:

H14: Green advertising (GA) and green buying behavior (GBB) have a multi-mediating effect on green satisfaction (GS).

14. Multi mediating effect 2

The above-cited literature suggests that green advertising (GA) mediates Spirituality (SP) and green satisfaction (GS) (H11). Also, green buying behavior (GBB) mediates green advertisement (GA) and green satisfaction (GS). (H12), thus we argue that:

H15: Green advertising (GA) and Green Buying Behavior (GBB) have a multi meditating effect on green satisfaction (GS)

15. Methodology

15.1. Study’s perspective

15.1.1. Population and sampling

The scope of the study was to the university students of Karachi. The study has focused on Karachi’s city because Karachi is a metropolitan city with diversified culture, and according to Ali et al. (2009) and Saleem et al. (2018), it is a mini Pakistan. Thus the data collected from Karachi may not have a generalizability issue.

We have used a sample size of 387 that we calculated at a 95% confidence level and a 5% margin of error. Since the sample frame for the target population was not available, we have adapted the non-probability sampling technique for collecting through recruited enumerators. The recruited enumerators personally visited the leading private universities of Karachi. They collected the data based on the pre-developed close-ended questionnaire.

The universities from where we have collected the data are (1) Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology (SZABIST) (11) IQRA University (111) Institute of Business Management (IOBM) (IV) Institute of Business Administration (V) Bahria University (VI) Karachi Institute of Economics and Technology.

16. Respondents profile

Of the total respondents, 55% were males, and 45% were females. Married respondents were 35%, and 65% were single. Regarding education, 65% were pursuing a bachelor’s degree, and the rest were enrolled in a master’s degree.

17. Scale and measure

We have adapted all the seven constructs of the study from earlier established scales and measures. The authors have used a five-point Likert Scale for measuring latent variables, one showing a very low agreement and five indicating a very high agreement (Zinkhan & Carlson, 1995).

18. Green advertisement scale

Advertising has different appeals, including green advertising. The green advertising appeal focuses on fulfilling consumers’ needs and aspirations in the context of “ecology, sustainability, and pollution-free environment.” (Zinkhan & Carlson, 1995).

Green advertising has several dimensions. One, it focuses on enhancing consumers’ understanding of a sustainable environment. Second, it aims to increase the firm’s image and customer loyalty by communicating that the firms are concerned about the sustainable environment (Zhu, 2012). The scale used in this study has ten items, all adapted from Haytko and Matulich (2008), and its reported reliability in earlier studies ranged from 0.73 to 0.81.

19. Green Brand (GB) scale

Green Brand Image is “a set of perceptions of a brand in a consumer’s mind that has a link with environmental commitments and environmental concerns” (Chen, 2010). This study’s green brand scale has five items, all adapted from Keller (1993). Its reported reliability in previous studies ranged from 0.75 to 0.87.

20. The green buying behavior scale

Consumers’ green buying behavior (GBB) refers to buying environmentally friendly products (Chan, 2001). Consumers’ green buying behavior is a complex decision-making process. It also refers to socially responsible practices (Chan & Lau, 2000). The green buying behavior (GBB) scale used in this has nine items adapted from Nath et al. (2017), and its reported reliability in earlier studies ranged from 0.78 to 0.85.

21. The green satisfaction scale

Green satisfaction is “a pleasurable level of consumption-related fulfillment to satisfy a customer’s environmental desires, sustainable expectations, and green needs.” (Chen, 2010). The green satisfaction scale used in the study has four items adapted from Oliver (1996). Its reported reliability in previous studies ranged from 0.75 to 0.83.

22. Ethics scale

Ethics is a set of individuals’ values and principles, which guide them on what is wrong or right (Haytko & Matulich, 2008). It is a construct with seven indicator variables, While consumers’ ethics is “moral principles and standards that guide a person’s or group’s behavior when they acquire, use and dispose of goods and services” (Vitell & Muncy, 1992).

Ethics in advertising has seven indicators adapted from Haytko and Matulich (2008). Its reported reliability in previous studies ranged from 0.75 to 0.83.

23. The spirituality scale

Spirituality, a concomitant of ethical conduct, is inclusive of “interconnectedness, love, compassion, contentment, forgiveness, sense of responsibility and harmony” (Burkhardt & Nagai-Jacobson, 2002). Similarly, Reed (1992) has expressed spirituality through (a) connectedness to oneself (interpersonally), (b) about others and the natural environment (interpersonally), and (c) referring to the higher power or God (trans-personally). The spirituality scale used in the study has

ten items adapted from(Burkhardt & Nagai-Jacobson, 2002). Its reported reliability in previous studies ranged from 0.75 to 0.83.

24. Common method bias

Since the study collected the responses of predictor variables and dependent from the same respondents, the data could have common method bias issues. We checked this issue based on VIF values. We found that the VIF values for all the indicator variables ranged from 1.888 to 2.688, suggesting that the data set has no pathological collinearity and common method bias (Kock, 2015). The recruited enumerators have collected the data, and the non-response rate was 5%; therefore, there is no issue with non-response bias (Hornik & Ellis, 1988).

25. Content validity

The study has invited ten experts, six belonging to the industry and for professor from local private universities for content validity. Then we obtained the experts’ opinion on the relevance of the items used in construct on a scale of 1–4. Four being highly relevant and one being highly irrelevant. Due to space constraints, the study will demonstrate how it has ascertained the content validity of green brand only. The study obtained experts’ options on the following questionnaire.

The experts were asked to rate the relevance of five items used for measuring attitude towards green marketing on a scale of 4–1. Four being highly relevant and one being low relevant

Table

Green Brand	Relevance
1.You can distinguish green brands in comparison to other brands because of their environmental commitment
2. Green brands have a strong reputation towards a sustainable environment
3. Some environmental characteristics of a green brand come in your mind when you consider a brans
4. You can quickly recall the green image of a green brand
5. You can easily recognize a green brand because of its environmental concern

Subsequently, the study calculated CVI values of all the constructs, which ranged from 0.80 to 0.95, confirming all the constructs’ content validity. (Yusoff, 2019)

26. Results

26.1. Descriptive statistics

Table 1 illustrates the results related to internal consistency and the shapes and structures of skewness and kurtosis values.

Table 1. Descriptive analysis

	Mean	Std.Dev.	Skewness	Kurtosis	Cronbach’s Alpha
Ethics	4.20	1.348	0.003	−0.725	0.848
Green Advertising	3.95	1.340	0.335	−0.461	0.721
Green Brand	3.85	1.366	−0.236	−0.794	0.863
Green Buying Behavior	4.10	1.340	−0.696	1.009	0.896
Green Satisfaction	3.97	1.419	−0.078	−0.832	0.873
Spirituality	4.15	1.329	−0.120	−0.666	0.876

Standard Error for Skewness = 0.124, Standard error for Kurtosis = .247

The results show that the lowest Cronbach’s alpha value is for green advertising (Mean = 3.95, SD = 1.340, α = .721), and the highest for green buying behavior (Mean = 4.10, SD = 1.340, α = .896). All the Cronbach’s alpha values ranged from 0.721 to 0.896; therefore, we have inferred that the constructs used in the study have acceptable internal consistency. The Kurtosis value ranged from −0.461 to 1.009. The highest skewness value is for green buying behavior (SK = −0.696), and the lowest is for ethics (SK = 0.003). The standard error for Skewness and Kurtosis is 0.124 and 0.247, respectively. All kurtosis and skewness values are between ± 3.5. Therefore, we have concluded that the constructs do no deviate from univariate normality requirements (Henderson, 2006).

27. Convergent and discriminant validity

Table 2 below shows the summary of results related to convergent and discriminant validity.

Table 2. Convergent validity and discriminant validity

	CR	AVE	ET	GA	GB	GBB	GS	SP
Ethics (ET)	0.897	0.684	0.827
Green Advertising (GA)	0.845	0.646	0.562	0.804
Green Brand (GB)	0.902	0.649	0.672	0.682	0.805
Green Buying Behavior (GBB)	0.928	0.763	0.466	0.531	0.644	0.874
Green Satisfaction (GS)	0.914	0.727	0.631	0.613	0.770	0.643	0.853
Spirituality (SP)	0.912	0.677	0.685	0.490	0.630	0.390	0.573	0.823

The results show that the highest composite reliability is for green buying behavior (GBB) (CR = 0.928), and the lowest is for green adverting (GA) (CR = 0.845). The AVE values ranged between 0.646 and 0.727 Table 3. All the composite reliability values are higher than 0.70, and AVE values are at least 0.60; therefore, we conclude that the respective indicator variables are theoretically related to the individual constructs (Cunningham et al., 2001).

Table 3. Results related to hypothesis

	Beta Values	T Stat.	P Values	Results
Ethics -> Green Adv.(H1)	0.427	15.984	0	Accepted
Spirituality -> Green Adv.(H2)	0.198	6.805	0	Accepted
Green Adv. -> Green Buying Behavior (H3)	0.171	5.612	0	Accepted
Green Adv. -> Green Sat.(H4)	0.124	4.487	0	Accepted
Green Brand -> Green Buying Behavior (H5)	0.527	17.952	0	Accepted
Green Brand -> Green Sat.(H6)	0.535	18.818	0	Accepted
Green Buying Behavior -> Green Sat. (H7)	0.233	9.033	0	Accepted
Mediating Relationships
Ethics -> Gr Adv. -> Gr. Buying Behavior (H8)	0.073	5.203	0	Accepted
Spirituality -> Gr. Adv. -> Gr. Buying Beh. (H9)	0.034	4.429	0	Accepted
Ethics -> Gr. Adv. -> Gr. Sat. (H10)	0.053	4.1	0	Accepted
Spirituality -> Gr. Adv. -> Gr. Sat. (H11)	0.025	3.835	0	Accepted
Gr. Adv. -> Gr. Buying Beh. -> Gr. Sat. (H12)	0.04	5.229	0	Accepted
Gr. Adv. -> Gr. Buying Beh. -> Gr. Sat. (H13)	0.04	5.229	0	Accepted
Multi-Mediating Effects
Ethics -> Gr. Adv. -> Gr. Buy. Beh. -> Gr. Sat.(H14)	0.017	4.897	0	Accepted
Spir.ty -> Gr.Adv. -> Gr. Buy. Beh. -> Gr. Sat.(H15)	0.008	4.309	0	Accepted

We in the study have used Fornel and Larker’s (Fornell & Larcker, 1981) criteria for assessing discriminant validity. The results show that the square root of AVE values (Shown in diagonal) is higher than the correlation coefficient (off-diagonal) for each construct (related rows and columns). Thus we can infer that the constructs used in the study are unique and distinct (Fornell & Larcker, 1981)

28. Hypothesis results

The results suggest that the R square value for green buying behavior (GBB) is 0.328, and religiosity is 0.339, which is moderate. The Q values for green buying behavior and religiosity are 0.243 and 0.217, respectively, suggesting that medium predictive accuracy. Whereas SMR value is 0.081 < .10, and NFI value is .808 > 0.80. Based on these results, we can infer that the model has adequate fitness and predictive power (Hair et al., 2019).

We have tested the fifteen proposed hypotheses through Smart PLS. The results are presented in Table 4, and measurement and structural models are shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3.

Table 4. Results related to hypothesis

	Beta Values	T Stat.	P Values	Results
Ethics -> Green Adv.(H1)	0.427	15.984	0	Accepted
Spirituality -> Green Adv.(H2)	0.198	6.805	0	Accepted
Green Adv. -> Green Buying Behavior (H3)	0.171	5.612	0	Accepted
Green Adv. -> Green Sat.(H4)	0.124	4.487	0	Accepted
Green Brand -> Green Buying Behavior (H5)	0.527	17.952	0	Accepted
Green Brand -> Green Sat.(H6)	0.535	18.818	0	Accepted
Green Buying Behavior -> Green Sat. (H7)	0.233	9.033	0	Accepted
Mediating Relationships
Ethics -> Gr Adv. -> Gr. Buying Behavior (H8)	0.073	5.203	0	Accepted
Spirituality -> Gr. Adv. -> Gr. Buying Beh. (H9)	0.034	4.429	0	Accepted
Ethics -> Gr. Adv. -> Gr. Sat. (H10)	0.053	4.1	0	Accepted
Spirituality -> Gr. Adv. -> Gr. Sat. (H11)	0.025	3.835	0	Accepted
Gr. Adv. -> Gr. Buying Beh. -> Gr. Sat. (H12)	0.04	5.229	0	Accepted
Gr. Adv. -> Gr. Buying Beh. -> Gr. Sat. (H13)	0.04	5.229	0	Accepted
Multi-Mediating Effects
Ethics -> Gr. Adv. -> Gr. Buy. Beh. -> Gr. Sat.(H14)	0.017	4.897	0	Accepted
Spir.ty -> Gr.Adv. -> Gr. Buy. Beh. -> Gr. Sat.(H15)	0.008	4.309	0	Accepted

Figure 2. Measurement model

Figure 3. Structural model

Hypothesis 1 was “on the association between ethics (ET) and green advertising (GA),” which our results support (β = 0.427, t = 15.98 < .05). In Hypothesis 2, we postulated that “spirituality (SP) has a positive effect on the green advertisement (GA),” for which we found support from our results (β = 0.198, t = 6.805 < .05). Hypothesis 3 states that “green adverting (GA) affects green buying behavior (GBB),” which our results failed to reject (β = 0.171, t = 5.612 < .05). In Hypothesis 4, we postulated that “green advertising (GA) has a positive effect on green satisfaction (GS).” for which we found support from our results (β = 0.124, t = 4.487 < .05). Hypothesis 5 was on “the effect of the green brand (GB) on green buying behavior (GBB),” which we accepted (β = 0.527, t = 17.952 < .05). Hypothesis 6 was “on the association of green brand (GB) and green satisfaction (GS),” which our results support (β = 0.535, t = 18.818 < .05). Hypothesis 7 states that “green buying behavior (GBB) affects green satisfaction (GS),” which our results failed to reject (β = 0.233, t = 9.033 < .05).

Hypothesis 8 was on the “mediating effect of green adverting (GA) on ethics (ET) and green buying behavior (GBB),” which we accepted (β = 0.0.73, t = 5.203 < .05). Hypothesis 9, we postulated that “green advertisement (GA) has a mediating effect on spirituality (SP) and green buying behavior (GBB).” for which we found support from our results (β = 0.034, t = 4.429 < .05). Hypothesis 10 was on the “mediating effect of green adverting (GA) on ethics (ET) and green satisfaction (GS),” which we accepted (β = 0.053, t = 4.1 < .05). Hypothesis 11 was on the “mediating effect of green adverting (GA) on spirituality and green satisfaction (GS),” which we accepted (β = 0.025, t = 3.835 < .05). Hypothesis 12 was on the “mediating effect of green buying behavior (GBB) on green adverting (GA) and green satisfaction (GS),” which we accepted (β = 0.04,t = 5.229 < .05. Hypothesis 13 was on the “mediating effect of green buying behavior (GBB) on the green brand (GB) and green satisfaction (GS),” which we accepted (β = 0.123, t = 7.481 < .05). Hypothesis 14, we postulated that “green advertising (GA) and green buying behavior (GBB) have multi- mediating effects on ethics (ET) and green satisfaction (GS).” for which we found support from our results (β = 0.017, t = 4.4897 < .05). Hypothesis 15 postulates that “green advertising (GA) and green buying behavior (GBB) have multi- mediating effects on spirituality and green buying behavior,” for which we found support from our results (β = 0.008, t = 4.309 < .05).

29. Discussion and conclusion

The sustainability of the environment has increased significantly due to the high consumption of industrial and consumer goods. However, the encouraging aspects to it are that consumers’ and firms’ awareness globally towards a sustainable environment are increasing. Consumers’ attitude towards a sustainable environment depends on spirituality, ethical values, green brand, and green advertisement. All these variable are interrelated and directly, indirectly affects green buying behavior.

Therefore we have empirically tested a new conceptual framework with seven direct and eight mediating linkages, including two multi-mediating relationships. Our results support all the proposed hypotheses, and they are in line with earlier studies on green marketing (GM).

Our results support hypothesis one that states, “Consumers with ethical value would have a positive effect on green advertising.” Son and Kim (2018) argue that consumers with ethical values support green advertisements. Shaheen et al. (2017) suggests that green advertisements should promote green behavior and enhance green brand image. Ethical consumers are more concerned about their wellbeing and sustainable environment; therefore, they are more attentive to green advertisements (Yang et al., 2015). An ethical consumer has a strong ecological belief and connectivity with nature; therefore, he/she is more attentive to advertisements that convey environmental sustainability messages (Dong et al., 2018)

Hypothesis 2 postulates that “spiritual consumers have a positive attitude towards green advertising.” Based on the results, we accepted this hypothesis. Marketers globally understand that consumers in the present era are more inclined towards spirituality and environmental sustainability (Marmor-Lavie & Stout, 2016). Therefore they are spending resources on green marketing (Dong et al., 2018). (Harizan & Rahman, 2017) believe that the link between advertising and spirituality is ancient. They argue that poets and artists create an advertisement, and they have a high inclination towards spirituality. Thus all their creations, in this case, advertisement, always had a touch of spirituality. (Rezapouraghdam et al., 2019) believe that spirituality promotes intangibility and “spiritual” use and possession in consumers; therefore, highly spiritual consumers have a positive attitude towards the green advertisement

The study found that “green advertising (GA) positively affects green buying behavior (GBB).” (H3). Rahbar and Wahid (2011) argue that green buying behavior depends on ethics, resources, and community wellbeing. Therefore, green marketing focuses on promoting green products and motivating consumers to buy environmentally friendly products (Chaudhary, 2018). When a firm spends its resources on environmentally friendly and communicates the same to consumers through advertisements, green consumers appreciate such advertisements and develop a positive attitude (Chin et al., 2018).

Our study found green advertising (GA) promotes green satisfaction (GS) (Hypothesis 4). D. Alamsyah et al. (2020) state that the attitude towards a green advertisement (GA) varies from one consumer to another. Consumers who have a serious concern about environmental sustainability are more attentive to green adverting (GA), resulting in green satisfaction (GS) (Kazmi et al., 2021). Similarly, Khandelwal et al. (2019) based on empirical results have concluded that consumers’ ecological concern, green advertising, and green satisfaction are highly correlated

The results suggest that green brand (GB) promotes green buying behavior (GBB) (Hypothesis 5)

Papista and Dimitriadis (2019) document that the brands that use eco-friendly material will edge on others. Ha (2020) and Semprebon et al. (2019) found that low investment in an environmentally friendly package enhances green buying behavior. For example, Dell has used the green branding tagline “Go Green with Dell” very effectively for stimulating consumer buying behavior. Besides, Dell also focuses on efficient and green innovations (M. S. Shabbir et al., 2020).

The study’s results suggest that “green brand and green satisfaction are positively correlated.” (Hypotheses 6). Unlike the conventional brand, the green brand promotes a sustainable environment and business sustainability (Wu et al., 2018). Papista and Dimitriadis (2019) believe that consumers who do not want to consume products containing harmful ingredients are more satisfied with the green brand than conventional green brands. On the other hand, many consumers believe that green brands’ features are inferior to the traditional brand, due to which they have a negative attitude towards the green brand (Ha, 2020).

We found green buying behavior promotes green satisfaction (Hypothesis 7). Consumers with a positive green buying behavior are satisfied with green products and are willing to pay higher prices (Maziriri, 2020). Although consumers’ and firms’ attitudes towards sustainable products have increased significantly, their sales compared to non-green products are significantly low (Escobar-Sierra et al., 2021). Thus policymakers and other society’s stakeholders must spend considerable resources to promote environmentally friendly products. Thus, based on the above discussions, we conclude that green advertising is an important factor for stimulating sustainable demand growth. Therefore the textile industries need to adopt the above-disused strategies

30. Conclusion

The sustainability of the environment has decreased significantly due to the high consumption of industrial and consumer goods. However, the encouraging aspects to it are that consumers’ and firms’ awareness globally towards a sustainable environment has increased Consumers’ attitude towards sustainable environment depends on many factors including spirituality, ethical values, green brand, and green advertisement. All these variable are interrelated and directly, indirectly affects green buying behavior.

Therefore we have empirically tested a new conceptual framework with seven direct and eight mediating linkages, including two multi-mediating relationships. Our results support all the proposed hypotheses, and they are in line with earlier studies on green marketing (GM). We found that green advertising (GA) is an essential aspect of green marketing (GM). Besides its direct effects on green-related elements (H1 to H7), it (green satisfaction) has significant mediating roles on ethics (ET) and green buying behavior (GBB) (H8); spiritually (SP) and green buying behavior (GBB) (H9); ethics, and green satisfaction (H10); Spirituality and green satisfaction (H11).

We also found that green buying behavior mediates green advertising (GA) and green satisfaction (GS) (H12). Green buying behavior (GBB) also mediates green brand (GB) and green satisfaction (GS) (H13). The study results support both multi mediating relationships.

31. Theoretical implication

Kirmani and Khan (2016) suggests that more studies are needed on green marketing from developing countries, including China, India, etc. Similarly, Agarwal and Kumar (2020) found that most studies in green marketing are from the United States based on three decades of literature. Therefore they also suggested having more studies from other countries. The authors have responded to the call of Kirmani and Khan (2016) and Kirmani and Khan (2016) by undertaking a study in Pakistan, which is a developing country that faces the problem of a sustainable environment. Also. Kirmani and Khan (2016) have suggested that future studies should examine green marketing deeply. The study has responded to this call by developing a new model by extending the ABC model. The developed conceptual framework has nine direct relationships and seven mediating relationships.

Agarwal and Kumar (2020), based on an extensive literature review, found a dearth of green branding studies. He also observed that green advertising builds a green brand. The authors have responded to Agarwal and Kumar’s (2020) call and found that green brand promotes green satisfaction and green buying behavior. Past studies have either examined ethics in advertising (Epure & Mihăeş, 2019) or spirituality in advising. The current study could not find a single study that has examined the impact of ethics and spirituality on green advertising. The current study has examined the effects of ethics and spirituality on green adverting and found both significantly affect green advertising. Most past studies have “fear appeal” for attracting consumers (Agarwal and Kumar, 2020). The current study found that both ethics and spirituality affect green advertising. Thus the study concludes that firms can use spiritual and ethical appeals in their adverting to make it more effective. The multi-mediating effect brings insight to research phenomena. The author found only one multi-mediating study on green marketing, which found that “green perceived quality and green purchase intentions” mediate green perceived quality and green purchase intention (Gil & Jacob, 2018). The current study has used two multi- mediating relationships and found that “green adverting and buying behavior” have multi-mediating effects on (1) ethics and green satisfaction, and (11) spirituality and green satisfaction

32. Implications for marketers, policy makers, and society

Our results have several implications for marketers, policymakers, and society. The interrelated relationships of the variables tested in the study suggest that marketers may have to take a holistic approach to promote environmentally friendly products to consumers. Consumers can only purchase green products if they are readily available at affordable prices. In developing countries like Pakistan, only a few companies are promoting environmentally friendly products. Moreover, the firms that are promoting green marketing products are charging high prices for them. Consumers also perceive that the quality of green products is of low quality compared to conventional products. Thus, firms need to improve the product’s quality and use integrated advertising approaches to change consumers’ quality perception. The ethics and spiritual values also directly affect green advertising and indirect impacts on green buying and green satisfaction. Thus, marketers can incorporate spirituality and ethical aspects in advertising campaigns. These concepts are already in use in festival marketing (i.e., Christmas and Easter).

33. Implication for policy makers

A sustainable environment is a social issue in which all the stakes holders have to play useful roles. The policymakers may contribute by hosting seminars, lectures on the sustainability of the environment in schools and colleges, and other forums. Policymakers can also give tax concessions to the firms and consumers who produce and consume environmentally friendly products. Many developed countries have tax rebates for the consumers and firms that use and make green products. The developing countries also need to follow the same to promote environmentally friendly products.

34. Implication for society

Individuals in society, individually and collectively, have to contribute to the discussed social cause. The children learn ethical values through family, peers, and institutions. Thus all the society members should insist on buying environmentally friendly products where ever possible. They should also advise the family friends on the environmental suitability issue and green products. Once consumers start demanding green products, the marketers will also begin manufacturing environmentally friendly products.

35. Limitation and future research

The study has several limitations and avenues for future research. The study has focused on one city and university-going students. Future studies can be carried out in other cities of Pakistan and other domains. We have directly measured the effect of ethical values and spirituality on advertising. The results suggest that both spirituality and ethics indirectly effect green satisfaction and green consumption. Future studies can examine the direct effect of spirituality and ethics on green satisfaction, green brand, and green consumption. One of the issues in studies like green marketing is social desirability. Thus future studies can use a mixed methodology to overcome the problem of social desirability. Attitude towards products also depends on demographic factors and culture. These aspects were beyond the scope of the study, but other studies may incorporate the same

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tariq Jalees

The collaborative research trend has increased significantly in recent years. The benefit of collaborative research is the exchange of ideas and learning from each other. Our research group consists of four members, including one senior professors. Two group members are Associate professor Level, and the other one members are of Assistant professor level. The aggregate work experience of all the group members is about eighty years. The groups’ members have diversified backgrounds, including marketing, management, and finance. Since the group’s formation, it has contributed significantly to management, marketing, and consumer behavior. About five research contributions of the group are in different stages of evaluation in reputed international journals

Questionnaire (Appendix)

Table

Attitude towards Green Advertisements (Haytko & Matulich, 2008)
1. Green advertisement is valuable to Society
2. The green advertisement promotes the desire to possession
3. The green advertisement make consumers more social responsible
4. The green advertisement conveys to consumers that firms are also concern about sustainable environment
5. Green Advertising enhances a firm’s image.
6. I think green advertising is effective
7. Products and services in green advertisements are safe to consume
8. Green advertisement claims are far from reality
9. Green advertisement helps in solving the environmental sustainability problem
10. I have more confidence in the green advertisement in comparison to the non-green advertisement.
Green Brand (Keller & Lane, 1993)
1.You can distinguish green brands in comparison to other brands because of their environmental commitment
2. Green brands have a strong reputation towards a sustainable environment
3. Some environmental characteristics of a green brand come in your mind when you consider a brans
4. You can quickly recall the green image of a green brand
5. You can easily recognize a green brand because of its environmental concern
Consumer Buying Behavior (Imran et al., 2018).
I try to buy energy-efficient products and appliances
I avoid buying products that have excessive packaging
If I have a choice, I prefer buying a product that causes less promotion
I have switched the brands because they were harmful to the environment.
I make all the efforts to buy the products that use recycled paper packaging
I use environmentally friendly detergents
I advise my family to avoid using products that are harmful to the environment
Whenever possible, I purchase products packaged in a recyclable container
I try to buy products that can be recycled
I buy appliances that are energy efficient
Green Satisfaction (Oliver, 1996)
1. You are happy about the decision to choose this brand because of its environment commitment
2. You believe it is right to purchase this brand because of its environmental performance
3. Overall you are glad to buy this brand it is environmentally friendly
4. If you are happy to choose thie because of its environmental friendly commitment
Consumer Buying Behavior (Nath, Kumar, Agrawal, Gautam, & Sharma 2017)
1. I buy green products because environmental awareness has increased
2. I buy green products because of green advertisement
3. I buy green products because of echo labeling
4. I buy green products because of peer groups
5. I buy green products because of legal enforcement
6. I buy green products because of tax credits
7. In my opinion individuals by green product due to increased education level
8. In my opinion, most consumers buy green products positive change towards a sustainable environment
9. I buy a green product as it has a high perceived effectiveness
Ethics in Green Advertising Haytko and Matulich (2008).
1. Green advertising exploits environmental issues instead of addressing them.
2. Green advertising is deceptive.
3. Green advertising preys upon consumers’ environmental concerns.
4. Companies use green advertising to protect their reputations
5. Green advertising results in higher prices for products
6. Companies use green advertising to protect their reputations.
7. Advertisements that focus on environmental concerns persuade people to buy products they do not really need.
Spirituality scale (Burkhardt & Nagai-Jacobson, 2002).
1. I trust in God (Belief in God)
2. I trust in my faith for decision (beief in God_
3. I try to deal consciously with others (Mindfulness)
4. I deal consciously with the environment(Mindfulness
5. I try to be patient and tolerant with others
6. I try to be empathetic with others
7. I feel peace deep inside me
8. I feel one with the world
9. I see a friendly world around me
10. I feel there is a lot of love in the world