Sustainable Consumption in the Age of Digitalisation: Digital Marketing Innovation and the Consumer Intention–Behaviour Gap

This study examines the relationship between digitalisation, digital marketing innovation, and sustainable consumption using macro-level longitudinal data for 2012–2025 (T = 14 annual observations). The core empirical analysis is correlational and descriptive in character: ordinary least squares (OLS) regression is used to estimate associations between digital marketing indicators and sustainable-market outcomes. The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) are used as interpretive theoretical lenses for discussing possible behavioural mechanisms; mediation and moderation mechanisms motivated by these theories are discussed as exploratory propositions but are not formally tested as statistical models. The study conducts an exploratory assessment of these interrelationships at the macro level. The findings show that digitalisation, reflected in the growth of digital advertising expenditure and internet penetration, is associated with the expansion of sustainable-product markets, particularly in the organic and eco-friendly sectors. A 1% increase in global digital advertising expenditure is associated with an approximately 0.607% increase in the organic market in a log-log specification. However, this level association attenuates substantially once common temporal trends are removed via first-differencing; this contrast between level and first-differenced results is treated as a central empirical finding of the study. Complementary survey evidence indicates that Generation Z and Millennials account for an estimated 75% of sustainability-related purchasing decisions. The findings are also consistent with the persistence of a structural “Green Gap” between pro-environmental attitudes and actual purchasing behaviour. Descriptive and survey-based evidence further suggests that this gap co-varies with price sensitivity, informational frictions, habitual routines, and consumer trust. As descriptive contextual evidence only, the difference between survey-based attitudinal prevalence and aggregate sustainable market share (a group-level comparison, not an individual-level measurement of the intention–behaviour gap) is approximately 53–58 percentage points. The evidence is also consistent with the possibility that digital marketing’s contribution to sustainable consumption may be constrained by the risk of greenwashing, which can erode consumer trust, and by supply-side and economic barriers that lie outside the scope of digital marketing interventions. Overall, the study provides descriptive and correlational evidence that digitalisation and digital marketing innovation may provide an enabling context for responsible consumption, while their contribution likely depends on complementary supply-side, regulatory, and trust-related conditions.