Sustainability Marketing Commitment Scale

What it measures

Measures the extent to which sustainability is a central, visible, and active component of a firm's marketing strategy and mix. Adapted from Tollin and Christensen (2019), who developed it based on a working definition requiring that sustainability: (1) is a central component of marketing strategy; (2) is manifested throughout the marketing mix; and (3) involves cross-departmental engagement. Validated in Vietnamese CMO sample. All seven items address different facets of how marketing commits to and operationalises sustainability.

Response format

7-point Likert (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree)

Scale items

• One of the marketing's most important tasks is to disseminate information about customers' attitudes towards sustainability to other parts of the company (R&D, top management, value chain, etc.).
• The marketing function is very focused on promoting sustainability within the company.
• Marketing is very focused on educating our customers (and their customers) about sustainability and sustainable solutions.
• A central task for marketing is to initiate and manage the development of new products and services with a sustainability focus.
• Sustainability is an important aspect when we plan and implement advertising campaigns (e.g., using electronic rather than print channels).
• We allocate significant resources to the process of finding possible sustainable brand line extensions.
• It is the responsibility of the marketing department to create and maintain relations with public and private organizations and networks with a focus on sustainability.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Adapted from Tollin, K., & Christensen, L.B. (2019). Sustainability marketing commitment: Empirical insights about its drivers at the corporate and functional level of marketing. Journal of Business Ethics, 156(4), 1165–1185. Original scale validated with Danish and Swedish companies; composite reliability = .93. Thu et al. applied it in a Vietnamese emerging-market context (CR = .89, AVE = .52) with back-translation. Suitable for CMO self-report measurement of firm-level sustainability marketing orientation.

Recommended companion scales

Citation

Thu, N.N.Q., Kadirov, D., Fam, K-S., & Tho, N.D. (2023). Firms' sustainability marketing commitment: The roles of chief marketing officers' future focus and prosocial motivation. Journal of Macromarketing, 43(3), 306–321.

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