Tackling grand challenges and making sustainable development a reality through sustainable consumption crucially depends upon both companies’ activities as well as individuals’ consumption choices. In opinion polls, many consumers claim to favor sustainable products over conventional ones. However, a large gap remains between their stated purchasing intentions and actual decisions, posing a challenge for companies in predicting product demand and strategically managing their product portfolios. In this study, we develop a conceptual framework to demonstrate how companies can encourage sustainable consumption behavior among their customers by involving them in their corporate sustainability (CS) activities. We introduce psychological ownership as the underlying mechanism explaining how customer involvement in CS activities translates into changes in their consumption choices. We further argue that the link between customer involvement and psychological ownership depends on the type of a company’s CS—that is, whether CS is embedded in or peripheral to the company’s core business. The results from three experiments, including one field experiment conducted in collaboration with a fashion retailer and involving real customer purchase decisions, support our theorizing. The findings reveal the power of customer involvement as a marketing tool in promoting sustainable consumption.

通过可持续消费应对重大挑战并实现可持续发展，关键取决于企业的活动以及个人的消费选择。在民意调查中，许多消费者声称比传统产品更喜欢可持续产品。然而，他们表达的购买意向与实际决策之间仍然存在很大差距，这给企业预测产品需求和战略管理产品组合带来了挑战。在这项研究中，我们开发了一个概念框架来展示公司如何通过让客户参与企业可持续发展（CS）活动来鼓励客户的可持续消费行为。我们引入心理所有权作为解释客户对客户服务活动的参与如何转化为他们的消费选择的变化的基本机制。我们进一步认为，客户参与和心理所有权之间的联系取决于公司的客户服务类型，即客户服务是嵌入公司的核心业务还是外围业务。三项实验的结果支持了我们的理论，其中一项是与时尚零售商合作进行的现场实验，涉及真实的客户购买决策。研究结果揭示了客户参与作为营销工具在促进可持续消费方面的力量。