Consumer effects of environmental impact in product labeling

Norm Borin · Douglas C. Cerf · Ram Krishnan

256 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Consumer Marketing

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Environmental Sustainability in Business Sustainable Supply Chain Management Consumer Attitudes and Food Labeling

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of different levels of environmental information on key consumer metrics. More specifically, it aims to evaluate environmentally benign products against those that have negative environmental impacts. Design/methodology/approach – Multiple product categories and messages that varied from strongly negative to strongly positive were used to test whether the accuracy/completeness of the information changes consumers’ view of green products. Findings – The results show that consumer perception of product quality, value, and purchase intentions does not differ significantly between products with positive environmental messages and those without any message. Products with positive environmental messages are viewed better than products with negative environmental messages. It is also found that the impact of environmental information is greater for consumable products. Practical implications – Clearly presented information can make a significant difference in consumer evaluation of products. If green products highlighted the reasons why products free of harmful ingredients did not have a negative impact on the environment, and if non-green products were required to disclose the harmful impact of their ingredients, green products would be favorably perceived over the non-green alternative. Social implications – The paper conjectures that if “fair” and clear explanations of environmental impact, both good and bad, are required, consumer evaluations of green products will improve and, ultimately, a larger percentage of consumers will purchase green products. The findings suggest that policy makers should require manufacturers to disclose key product ingredients and their environmental impact. Originality/value – This project adds to the growing body of literature on environmental labeling, and investigates the effects of different levels of environmental information on key consumer metrics.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 256 citations exist upstream.

References

1979Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision under Risk 1988Prospect theory: An analysis of decision under risk 1981The Framing of Decisions and the Psychology of Choice 1992Putting the fear back into fear appeals: The extended parallel process model 2001Targeting consumers who are willing to pay more for environmentally friendly products 1998All Frames Are Not Created Equal: A Typology and Critical Analysis of Framing Effects 2004A Comparison of Web and Mail Survey Response Rates 2008Pro‐environmental products: marketing influence on consumer purchase decision

Cited by

2014Green consumerism: The influence of product attributes and values on purchasing intentions 2015Green initiatives: a step towards sustainable development and firm's performance in the automobile industry 2012Analysing the impact of green marketing strategies on consumer purchasing patterns in Mauritius 2018The Effect of Emerging Green Market on Green Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Development in Knowledge-Based Companies 2022The effects of visual sustainability labels on consumer perception and behavior: A systematic review of the empirical literature

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.