The more I care, the less I will listen to you: How information, environmental concern and ethical production influence consumers' attitudes and the purchasing of sustainable products

• Published in: Journal of cleaner production Vol. 175; pp. 343 - 353
• Main Authors: Cerri, Jacopo, Testa, Francesco, Rizzi, Francesco
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 20.02.2018
• Subjects: Attitudes; Consumer behavior; Ecolabels; Environmental concern; Information; Sustainable products; Attitudes; Sustainable products; Consumer behavior; Ecolabels; Environmental concern; Information
• ISSN: 0959-6526; 1879-1786
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.12.054

Providing information to consumers is crucial to foster pro-environmental attitudes and the purchasing of green products. To date few studies explored the interplay between information, pre-existing environmental concern and barriers to the purchase of green products. By analyzing the data from a survey to a large sample of Italian consumers (n = 8001), we advanced 6 hypotheses to explain the main drivers behind consumers' selection of sustainable products. Attitudes towards green products were the main predictors of green product purchasing and were influenced by consumer's attitudes towards ecolabels, whose marginal effect varied according to the level of individual environmental concern. Our study provides evidence that ecolabels can play a significant role in attitude formation about green products, interacting with environmental concern. Therefore, we suggest future studies about green consumer profiling based on how consumers access and integrate information in decision-making, to improve green marketing campaigns. Product information strategies are crucial to foster pro-environmental attitudes and the purchasing of green products. To date, few studies have explored the interplay between information, existing environmental concern and barriers to the purchase of green products. By analyzing the data from a survey to a large sample of Italian consumers (n = 8001), six hypotheses to explain the main drivers of consumers' selections of sustainable products were advanced. Attitudes towards the products were the main predictors of green product purchasing and were influenced by consumer's attitudes towards ecolabels, whose marginal effect decreased as the environmental concern increased. This research also demonstrates that a complex interaction between previous environmental knowledge and the use of green labels influence attitudes towards sustainable products, rather than environmental concern per-se, and that ethical aspects of production are important predictors of consumer's attitudes towards sustainable products, despite they have not been traditionally regarded as such. Future studies about green consumer profiling based on how consumers access and integrate information in decision-making are suggested, to improve green marketing campaigns.