Purpose As consumers’ needs and wants are often reflected in their thoughts and behaviors, the purpose of this paper is to seek to understand Thai consumers’ environmental value orientations and green lifestyle behaviors. Additionally, this study explores whether a notable relationship was specifically formed between the devastating impacts of the 2011 floods on the consumers’ lives and their environmental value and green lifestyle behavior. Design/methodology/approach A consumer survey was conducted across Bangkok during the first two weeks of May 2012, following a seven-month nationwide flooding within Thailand, which lasted between July 2011 and January 2012. Findings Thai consumers demonstrate high environmental value, which is predominantly motivated by egoistic and biospheric-based values. Nevertheless, they exhibit low levels of green lifestyle behaviors. In addition, only a low positive relationship appears to exist between consumers’ environmental value and their green lifestyle behavior. Moreover, the Thai consumers’ green lifestyle behavior is mainly driven by their egoistic and social-altruistic values. Surprisingly, no distinctive positive relationship was detected between the effects of the 2011 Thailand floods on consumers’ lives and their environmental value or green lifestyle behavior. Originality/value Firms are encouraged to capitalize on Thai consumers’ egoistic and biospheric values when seeking to raise their environmental awareness. To encourage green lifestyle behavior responses, however, firms should emphasize egoistic and social-altruistic values. Furthermore, firms are encouraged to incorporate recycling aspects as notable features within their green offerings. Firms are to be discouraged, however, from specifically using natural disaster concern appeals when seeking to explicitly stimulate Thai consumers to think or act greener.

Purpose – Although a company can manifest its corporate social responsibility (CSR) effort through various strategies, the challenge this presents is that not all CSR activities have identical attributes with respect to the consumers’ perception. The purpose of this paper is to examine the efficacy of four CSR initiatives – regulatory compliance, green cause-related marketing (CRM), green product, and a combination of green CRM and green product – on consumer attitude and purchase intention. Design/methodology/approach – An experiment is conducted to investigate how consumers in an emerging Asian market like Thailand respond to different environmental CSR tactics. Findings – The results of this study demonstrate that a specific environmental CSR strategy elicits more favorable response than a general approach of complying with regulations. In addition, engaging in green CRM and offering a green product concurrently is perceived as more appealing than employing only either of the two strategies. The key finding is that in the eyes of Thai consumers, green CRM and green product CSR initiatives are substitutable. Originality/value – The paper conceptualizes the difference between four environmental CSR strategies from dimensions of the firm’s discretion and commitment level and highlights the importance of using specific voluntary environmental CSR strategies over involuntary regulatory compliance. Firms are recommended to engage in either green CRM or green product initiatives. The choice depends on a firm’s resources and opportunities. The addition of green CSR initiatives increases the positive impact on consumer attitude and purchase intention.