An empirical study on the influence of environmental labels on consumers

TLDR: The authors found that there are consumers who will buy green products even if they are lower in quality in comparison to alternative products, but would look for environmental information on labels, while there appears to be a relationship be... with respect to price sensitive green consumers.

Abstract: Purpose – Despite research studies indicating strong support for labelling information, uncertainty remains with respect to how labels influence consumers. This paper attempts to empirically investigate how consumers who differ in terms of environmentalism respond to labels.Design/methodology/approach – The data were collected on an Australian sample using a structured questionnaire administered on the phone using quantum research (CATI) data collection services. A total of 155 questionnaires were completed and used for data analysis. The data were analysed using both descriptive measures and correlations between variables.Findings – There appears to be a proportion of consumers that find product labels hard to understand. The research found that there are consumers who will buy green products even if they are lower in quality in comparison to alternative products, but would look for environmental information on labels. With respect to price sensitive green consumers, there appears to be a relationship be...