How ESG sub-activities impact customer trust, satisfaction, and loyalty

This study analyzed the simple and double mediated effects of trust and satisfaction on the relationship between sub-activities of ESG management and customer loyalty, focusing on the core marketing performance of customer loyalty. For this purpose, an online survey was conducted targeting 150 consumers, and the collected data was verified using Process MACRO(Model 6) analysis. The results show that the sub-activities of ESG management do not directly affect customer loyalty but indirectly affect it through trust and satisfaction. In other words, trust and satisfaction play a mediating role in the relationship between environmental, social, and governance sub-activities of ESG management. In particular, among the sub-activities of ESG management, environmental activities affect customer loyalty through trust and satisfaction, while social and governance activities affect customer loyalty through trust rather than satisfaction. These results suggest that companies pursuing ESG management should prioritize efforts to gain customer trust in the social and governance dimensions.