Worse is worse and better doesn't matter
The effects of favorable and unfavorable environmental information on consumers’ willingness to pay
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19468699 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Lars Petersen (0000-0003-1062-7846, Faculty of Business Management Alanus University of Arts and Social Sciences Alfter Germany, corresponding author), Jacob Hörisch (0000-0001-5825-1652, Centre for Sustainability Management Leuphana University of Lüneburg Lüneburg Germany), Kathleen Jacobs (0000-0001-8837-6632, Institute for Food and Resource Economics University of Bonn Bonn Germany) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 25 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 1338-1356 |
| Publication date | 2021-10-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Industrial Ecology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1088-1980 • E-ISSN: 1530-9290 |
| Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1111/jiec.13141 |
| OpenAlex | W3169058082 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 63 |
Increasing consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for environmentally friendly products is a key challenge for sustainable development in market economies. Still, how consumers react to favorable and unfavorable environmental information of different quantitative extents is largely unknown. This research therefore uses prospect theory and competing theoretical foundations to derive pertinent hypotheses and test them by using a multi‐level structural equation model. The analysis draws on a survey‐based experiment conducted among a representative sample of the German population. Results confirm key assertions of prospect theory. The negative effect caused by unfavorable product carbon footprint information on WTP is stronger than the positive effect caused by respective favorable information. Besides this negativity bias, consumers tend to generally reward or punish deviations of a product's environmental performance from industry average instead of consistently accounting for the size of these deviations. From a sustainable development perspective, the observed patterns highlight a problematic contrast between the need for substantial environmental improvements and limited market incentives for companies. Consequently, political intervention is needed to introduce negative labeling, raise consumers’ reference points, set minimum industry standards, and subsidize companies for radical improvements
Business · Carbon Footprint · Economics · Greenhouse gas · Incentive · Microeconomics · Public economics · Willingness to pay · Economic and Environmental Valuation · Environmental Education and Sustainability · Environmental Sustainability in Business · Marketing
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Anomalies
| Citations per year | 1.5 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2024 - 2026 (3) |
| Highly cited | No |