49 Chapter 3 and the positive long-term consequences of its behavior, namely, benefitting the cause that the sustainability-driven company supports (virtue). Therefore, we expect other-benefit frames to have a stronger effect on impulse buying. Impulse buying urge is a strong predictor of impulse buying behavior (e.g., Rook, 1985). Hence, we measure the effect of advertising framing on both urge and behavior. Based on the preceding, we formulated the following hypotheses: H1: Other-benefit advertising frames for hedonic products from sustainability-driven companies lead to stronger impulse buying urges than self-benefit advertising frames. H2: Other-benefit advertising frames for hedonic products from sustainability-driven companies lead to more impulse buying behaviors than self-benefit advertising frames. A self-benefit frame, although still often used in advertising, arguably fits a more traditional marketing style. It focuses only on the consumer as a stakeholder in advertisements. However, other-benefit frames arguably fit a more contemporary marketing style. It focuses on stakeholders other than (only) the consumer, which corresponds to the increasing number of companies that embed sustainability in their strategies (Villamil et al., 2022). This also matches stakeholder theory, which postulates that a company’s purpose is to generate value for all stakeholders, instead of just for the seller and the buyer (Freeman et al., 2010). Both the literature on sustainability management and stakeholder theory argue that business and ethics should not, and cannot, be separated as they are fundamentally intertwined (Hörisch et al., 2014). When companies choose to advertise through an other-benefit frame, they align their advertisements with this vision. In other words, the other-benefit message frame fits contemporary operational management. Correspondingly, it merges the vice and virtue options. We argue that people can use an other-benefit frame to morally justify their impulse purchase, and that this, therefore, mediates the proposed effect of other-benefit advertisements (versus self-benefit advertisements) on impulse buying. The other-benefit frame arguably liberates people to act on their impulses since people receive information through the advertisement that allows them to morally justify the purchase. By contrast, self-benefit advertisements could evoke deservingness justification. However, this type of justification only builds a case on why one should choose the vice option. It does not appeal to the virtue option, resulting in a continuing existing vice/virtue conflict. When the vice and virtue option are both addressed in one frame, as with the other-benefit frame, it can arguably (close to) solve the conflict through moral justification, resulting in impulse buying behavior. H3: Moral justification mediates the effect of advertising frames on impulse buying urges and behaviors. Additionally, to present a complete conceptual model, we assess the previously observed relationship between impulse buying urges and impulse buying behaviors (e.g., Badgaiyan & Verma, 2015). H4: Impulse buying urges lead to impulse buying behaviors.
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