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. 2023;18(6):2649-2660.
doi: 10.1007/s11625-023-01386-1. Epub 2023 Jul 10.

Non-monetary narratives motivate businesses to engage with climate change

Christopher Luederitz  1   2 , Animesh Animesh  1 , Katrin Rohrbacher  3 , Tiange Li  1 , Andrew Piper  3 , Catherine Potvin  2 , Dror Etzion  4
Affiliations

Non-monetary narratives motivate businesses to engage with climate change

Christopher Luederitz et al. Sustain Sci. 2023.

Abstract

The dominant narrative to motivate business actors to take climate actions emphasizes opportunities to increase monetary gains, linking sustainability to the financial goals of these organizations. The prevalence of monetary motivations in sustainability communication among businesses, consultancies, academics and international organizations has made this narrative a truism in the private sector. We conducted an online, real-world, large-n experiment to evaluate the comparative effectiveness of different motivations using narrative communication. We show that non-monetary narratives highlighting prosocial or achievement motivations are 55% more effective in creating responses from businesses than narratives emphasizing monetary gains. These findings are robust across most narrative and audience characteristics, including age and language. Our findings suggest that communication towards business leaders around sustainability can be multi-pronged and should incorporate prosocial and achievement motivations aside from articulating potential financial benefits.

Keywords: Business; Climate action; Narrative motivations; Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); Storytelling; Sustainability communication.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interestThe authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Christopher Luederitz reports financial support was provided by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Animesh, Animesh reports financial support was provided by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Andrew Piper reports financial support was provided by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Catherine Potvin reports financial support was provided by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Dror Etzion reports financial support was provided by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Display of the three narrative summaries for one specific protagonist on Facebook in English and French
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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