Firms' sustainability marketing commitment and performance: the role of chief marketing officers' Confucian dynamism, prosocial motivations and proactive personality

Existing research indicates that chief marketing officers (CMOs) play a critical role in the development and execution of marketing strategies, including market orientation, distribution, and corporate branding. However, researchers have overlooked the mechanisms through which Confucian culture informs the efforts made by CMOs to establish effective sustainability marketing. Specifically, there is minimal research on the relationship between the Confucian values held by CMOs and their prosocial motivations. In addition, the effect of a proactive personality among CMOs on sustainability marketing also remains unexplored. This study therefore investigates the effect of prosocial motivation and a proactive personality among CMOs on the relationship between Confucian values and the sustainability marketing undertaken by firms. Specifically, it examines (1) the mediation effect of CMOs’ prosocial motivations (pleasure and pressure based) on the relationship between Confucian dynamism and sustainability marketing commitment, which in turn affects firm performance, and (2) the moderating effect of CMOs’ proactive personality on the relationship between Confucian dynamism and CMOs’ prosocial motivations.

Six hypotheses were proposed. Hypothesis H1: sustainability marketing commitment has a positive effect on firm performance comprising sales growth (H1a), market share (H1b), and ROA (H1c). Hypothesis H2: Confucian dynamism impacts sustainability marketing commitment. Hypotheses H3 and H4: pleasure- and pressure-based prosocial motivations have a mediating effect on the relationship between Confucian dynamism and sustainability marketing commitment. Hypotheses H5 and H6: proactive personality has a moderating effect on the impacts of Confucian dynamism on both pleasure- and pressure-based prosocial motivations.

The sample comprised 302 firms in Vietnam. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were employed to validate Confucian dynamism, pleasure-based prosocial motivation, pressure-based prosocial motivation, sustainability marketing commitment, and proactive personality. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was employed to test the theoretical model and the hypotheses. All measures satisfied the requirements for scale reliability and validity. The results produced by SEM demonstrated that hypotheses H1(a, b), H2, H3, H4, and H5 were supported and hypotheses H1c and H6 were partly supported.

The findings extend the body of knowledge on the role of CMOs in promoting sustainability marketing among firms and improving performance within the context of a developing economy structured by Confucian institutions. Specifically, firms’ sustainability marketing commitment had a positive strong effect on firm performance. Both CMOs’ pressure- and pleasure-based prosocial motivations of mediate the effect of Confucian dynamism on sustainability marketing commitment. CMOs’ proactive personality moderates the effect of Confucian dynamism on pleasure-based prosocial motivation. The findings elucidate whether cultural values interact with CMOs’ prosocial motivations and proactive personality to enhance sustainability marketing commitment while boosting firm performance. The findings also offer practitioners in a Confucian culture an understanding of how to effectively manage firms’ sustainability development. They thus provide a clearer picture of the personal factors possessed by leaders that can potentially help push firms towards the new era of sustainable development.