Assessing the impact of sustainable brand practices in shaping customer trust and long-term retention

Abstract

In today's evolving business landscape, sustainability has become an integral part of business strategy, with significant implications for how consumers perceive brands and evaluate business success. This investigation is a systematic review of the existing literature on the relationship between sustainable practices implemented by brands and long-term trust and retention. The core objective is to understand the impact that ethical, social, and environmental brand initiatives have on generating trust and extended relationships with consumers. The study is framed by research questions centred on the role of sustainability, on trust and retention, as well as strength dimensions of a variety of sustainability models, and applies the PRISMA framework to transparently incorporate methodological credibility and authenticity. A total of 29 articles that meet relevance criteria are extracted from the Scopus database through the application of defined inclusion and exclusion criteria of articles published between the years of 2020 and 2025. The literature continuously acknowledges the relationship between sustainable-based branding of some sort, equal to trust development, and subsequent retention and loyalty. Lastly, the literature notes ethical obligations and transparency in the environmental aspects, in particular, are influential in trust positioning. This study looks at the strategic significance of how firms incorporate sustainability practices within their brand identities and communication to foster sustainable relationships with consumers.. Future research could more directly explore sustainability practices across various industries and construction models to create a more accurate measurement of these relationships.