How digital content marketing shapes corporate sustainability: Evidence from consumer trust dynamics in the food and beverage industry

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Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
As companies in Jordan’s food and beverage sector face increasing pressure to demonstrate environmental, social, and economic responsibility, digital content marketing has become an important channel for communicating sustainability initiatives to consumers. This study examines how digital content marketing influences consumer perceptions of corporate sustainability and whether consumer trust strengthens this relationship. Drawing on signaling theory and trust dynamics, the study explores whether sustainability-oriented digital content can shape consumer perceptions beyond the baseline of pre-existing trust. A quantitative cross-sectional survey was conducted among 346 consumers of food and beverage products in Jordan using a structured questionnaire measuring perceptions of companies’ digital content marketing activities, corporate sustainability practices, and consumer trust. The respondent sample included both male and female consumers representing different age groups, educational backgrounds, and income levels, reflecting the diversity of the Jordanian consumer market. The collected data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to examine relationships among latent constructs. The findings indicate that digital content marketing has a strong positive effect on perceived corporate sustainability (β = 0.526, t = 12.434, p < 0.001), suggesting that transparent and informative digital sustainability content can serve as a credible signal of corporate responsibility and help reduce information asymmetry between companies and consumers. However, consumer trust does not significantly moderate this relationship (β = 0.014, t = 0.436, p = 0.663), indicating that consumers tend to evaluate sustainability-related digital content similarly regardless of their initial level of trust in a company. Overall, the results highlight the importance of clear and substantive sustainability communication in digital environments for shaping consumer perceptions.

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    • Figure 1. Evaluation of measurement model
    • Figure 2. Structural model results
    • Table 1. Construct reliability and validity
    • Table 2. Discriminant validity Fornell-Larcker criterion
    • Table 3. Goodness of fit
    • Table 4. Evaluation of structural model
    • Table A1. Study questionnaire
    • Data curation
      Khaled M. Aboalganam
    • Formal Analysis
      Khaled M. Aboalganam
    • Funding acquisition
      Khaled M. Aboalganam
    • Investigation
      Khaled M. Aboalganam, Amro Alzghoul
    • Methodology
      Khaled M. Aboalganam, Amro Alzghoul
    • Resources
      Khaled M. Aboalganam, Amro Alzghoul
    • Software
      Khaled M. Aboalganam
    • Validation
      Khaled M. Aboalganam
    • Visualization
      Khaled M. Aboalganam, Amro Alzghoul
    • Writing – original draft
      Khaled M. Aboalganam, Amro Alzghoul
    • Writing – review & editing
      Khaled M. Aboalganam, Amro Alzghoul
    • Conceptualization
      Amro Alzghoul
    • Project administration
      Amro Alzghoul
    • Supervision
      Amro Alzghoul