Do Confucian principles enhance sustainable marketing and customer equity?

The authors study whether Confucianism, China's dominant cultural paradigm, is a major driver of customer lifetime value (CLV) and sustainability in the Chinese context. Perceptions of young Chinese consumers are measured regarding whether they believe firms should adhere to Confucian principles. The scale is then used to examine the influences of Confucian philosophy on sustainable marketing and customer equity drivers. Adherence to Confucianism is shown to significantly and positively affect sustainable marketing but not to affect customer equity drivers directly. Perceptions regarding sustainable marketing activities are shown to positively influence customer equity drivers but not CLV. Customer equity drivers are shown to positively affect CLV. Implications for theory, practice, and future work are discussed.