Consumer Perceptions of Sustainable Development Goals: Conceptualization, Measurement and Contingent Effects

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused drastic disruptions to many multinational companies’ (MNCs’) supply chain management, pushing them to relocate their manufacturing activities to their home countries, a phenomenon known as reshoring. Grounded in moral psychology theory and the resource-based view (RBV), the aims of this research are to provide an extended conceptualization of sustainable development goal (SDG) perceptions from local consumers, develop a scale, and assess this scale in relation to the reliability and validity of consumer perception of SDG antecedents and consequences in reshoring contexts from three industries, with the help of six studies. We conceptualise these perceptions on the basis of seven components (i.e. society/community wellbeing, affordable and clean energy consumption, economic growth, responsible consumption, responsible production, sustainable industrialization and innovation and gender equality). Using data from three distinct industries and a sample of 1075 reshoring MNC customers, we also determine how local consumers perceive and react to reshoring initiatives geared towards achieving SDGs and advocacy. The findings offer relevant implications for both the management and research of SDGs in a reshoring context at a scale level, which we describe in the form of future research directions.