Hyuck Jin Lee

This study investigates the impact of ESG management on consumer trust and purchase intention in the context of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). By categorizing trust into expertise trust and benevolence trust, the research reveals how different dimensions of ESG activities influence these trust types and their subsequent effect on purchase behavior. Employing survey data from 628 participants and structural equation modeling, the findings indicate that while environmental, social, and governance activities positively affect benevolence trust, they do not significantly influence expertise trust. Notably, social activities exhibit the strongest impact on benevolence trust, underscoring their importance in shaping consumer perceptions. Expertise trust, however, plays a more critical role in driving purchase intention, suggesting that SMEs should strategically focus on enhancing technical capabilities and effectively communicating their competencies to consumers. The study highlights the need for SMEs to integrate ESG practices with targeted promotional strategies, such as leveraging social media, to bridge the gap in consumer awareness. These insights provide actionable guidance for SMEs to navigate the growing societal demands for sustainable and responsible business practices.

This study investigates the impact of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practices on consumer behavior, focusing on the role of psychological distance in shaping purchase intentions. Using construal level theory as the theoretical framework, primary survey data from South Korean consumers were analyzed. The findings reveal that social and governance activities within ESG positively influence consumers' psychological distance, enhancing purchase intentions. However, environmental activities do not show a similar effect. These results underscore the importance of clear and transparent communication regarding environmental efforts. This research expands the academic discourse on ESG by incorporating psychological distance and offers practical insights for businesses to develop effective ESG strategies tailored to consumer preferences.

To overcome the serious climate crisis, the world must achieve carbon neutrality. Corporate participation is essential to achieve carbon neutrality, and ESG management is required to realize this. Additional efforts and costs are involved for a company to manage ESG. If a company’s ESG management is helpful for the company’s sustainable growth, the company will be willing to endure the effort and cost. Therefore, it is necessary to find out the impact of corporate ESG management on the brand. This study empirically analyzed the effects of corporate ESG management on brand image, brand attitude, brand attachment, and brand loyalty. ESG activities were divided into environmental and social and governance, to classify their impact. As a result of the study, it was found that environmental activities did not have a positive effect on brand image, brand attitude, and brand attachment. Social and governance activities were found to have a positive effect on brand image and brand attitude. In addition, it was found that social and governance activities affect brand loyalty through brand image, brand attitude, and brand attachment. The results of this study provide practical implications for corporate ESG management, and have theoretical significance in that they have expanded ESG-related research areas to consumer behavior, corporate strategy, and future economic fields.

The mining industry (MI) has played a key role in ensuring a stable supply of minerals for industrial production and human survival. The Chinese government is implementing various policies to promote the MI and needs quantitative information on the economic role and effects of the MI. Thus, this article uses comprehensive and multi-period input-output (IO) analysis to investigate the roles of four mining sectors, including the entire mining sector in the Chinese national economy, from the period 2007–2017. To this end, three models are employed. First, the production-inducing effects, value-added creation effects, and wage-inducing effects of 1 dollar of production in the MI sector are analyzed using a demand-driven model. One dollar of production or investment in the sector causes 0.862–1.171 dollars of production, 0.271–0.333 dollar of value-added, and 0.106–0.125 dollar of wage, respectively. Second, by applying a supply-driven model, it is found that one dollar of supply shortage in the MI causes 4.383–5.949 dollars of production failure throughout the national economy. Third, by utilizing a price-side model, it is discovered that a 10% increase in the price of output of the MI raises the overall price level by 0.108%–0.171%. The results of this article were critical to enlighten policy-makers to forward ever-improvement on the MI and combine the MI within national economic system reform and planning, by offering a clear vision of how MI will affect the various sectors and the economic system as a whole.