Effects of Consumer Evaluation of ESG for Food Subscription
 Services on Intention to Word-of-Mouth and Continuous Usage: Moderating Role
 of Altruism

* Purpose: This study is an empirical paper on how consumers' direct evaluation of the three dimensions of ESG management, Environment, Society, and Governance, affects marketing performance such as word-of-mouth and continued use intention. We also investigated how consumers' altruistic tendencies regulate their relationships. Through this, we intend to present practical implications for effective ESG activity strategies of food subscription companies. Research design, data, and methodology: This study is based on the Stimulus-Organism-Response theory proposed by Mehrabian and Russell (1974). Considering the ESG activity of a regular food delivery company as a stimulus, the consumer's evaluation of the activity perception as an organism for the activity and the purchase intention (continuous use or word of mouth) were designed as a result of the response according to the evaluation. A survey was conducted with 279 customers who had regular food delivery experience. The questionnaire was defined as follows by referring to previous ESG research and each ESG activity of a company that actually delivers food on a regular basis. First, the environment (E) refers to the use of eco-friendly products and specific activities to prevent environmental pollution. The second society (S) refers to the use of regular delivery and community service activities that are easy for consumers to recognize (donation and employment for the underprivileged), and the third dominance (G) is a number of activities to improve corporate governance (transparency). In addition, the questionnaire items on word of mouth intention, continuing use intention, and altruism were also measured on a Likert 7-point scale. Confirmatory factor analysis, correlation, and hypothesis testing for each item were verified through SPSS and AMOS. Results: First, it was found that the more positive the evaluation of environment (E) and society (S) among consumers' ESG evaluation, the more positive the word of mouth intention and the intention to continue using it. Second, governance (G) had a positive (+) effect on word of mouth intention, but rejected the positive (+) relationship with continued use intention. Third, as for the moderating effect according to altruism, the higher the altruism, the higher the environmental (E) and social (S) dimensions positively adjusted word-of-mouth intention and continued use intention. Also, the relationship between governance and word of mouth intent was positively adjusted. However, as the altruistic tendency was higher, the positive moderating effect between governance (G) and continued use intention was not significant. Conclusions: In order for ESG activities, which are non-financial evaluations, to become meaningful business strategies for companies, it is important for consumers to have a positive perception of the activities. Therefore, among ESG activities, companies should first focus on environmental and social activities to communicate with consumers. We also need to put more effort into building consensus with consumers about our governance-related activities. In addition, Generation Z, who has a growing influence on consumer culture, is a generation interested in fairness and altruism. Therefore, companies should select Generation Z as a major publicity target for ESG activities and communicate intensively.