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Consumer trust is a key prerequisite for establishing a market for credence goods, such as \"green\" products, especially when they are premium priced. This article reports research on exactly how, and how much, trust influences consumer decisions to buy new green products. It identifies consumer trust as a distinct volition factor influencing the likelihood that consumers will act on green intentions and strongly emphasizes the needs to manage consumer trust as a prerequisite for the development of a market for green products. Specifically, based on a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods, it is found that lack of consumer trust is a barrier for the development of a market for organic food in Thailand. Two focus groups and ten in-depth interviews revealed low knowledge about and low trust in organic food, certification, control, and labeling. Further, a mall-intercept survey (N = 177) revealed that lack of (especially) system trust reduces consumer expectations about benefits of buying organic food, and it makes them less likely to buy organic food. Mistrust in the control system and in the authenticity of food sold as organic has a significant negative impact on self-reported buying behavior. Implications for policy and future research are discussed.

The comfortable perception that global environmental challenges can be met through marginal lifestyle changes no longer bears scrutiny. The cumulative impact of large numbers of individuals making marginal improvements in their environmental impact will be a marginal collective improvement in environmental impact. Yet, we live at a time when we need urgent and ambitious changes. An appeal to environmental imperatives is more likely to lead to spillover into other pro-environmental behaviours than an appeal to financial self-interest or social status.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to develop and apply a framework for understanding consumer responses to ecolabelling.Design methodology approach - From a consumer perspective, ecolabels are tools for supporting decision making with regard to environmentally significant products. The paper proposes an adoption of innovation framework for understanding consumer responses. The framework is applied in a mall-intercept survey of the early adoption of a new ecolabel, the MSC label for sustainable fishery, in Denmark.Findings - Early adopters of a new ecolabel mostly employ a high effort adoption process. Starting the adoption process depends on both motivation (intention to buy sustainable fish products) and ability (issue-relevant knowledge). Whether and how quickly the consumer completes the adoption depends on his or her motivation, past experience with using ecolabels, and trust in the endorsing organisation.Research limitations implications - Environmental and product-related factors did not differ between respondents. Hence, a complete account of the importance of these factors for the adoption and (especially) diffusion of the label is not provided.Practical implications - Consumers scoring highly on both issue-relevant knowledge and motivation are the most likely innovators and early adopters. Their high level of expertise means that they do not need a lot of explanation for understanding the label and its self-relevance and their strong motivation means that they will search for more if they need it (and if it is not too difficult to get).Originality value - The paper makes both a conceptual and an empirical contribution, which are of value both to practitioners (ecolabel promoters and users) and to research on ecolabel effectiveness.

Introduction Practically all consumption activities entail negative environmental impacts. [...]the total environmental impact of human activity depends on the size of the population, the average amount of consumption per person (“affluence”) and the technology used to produce the consumed goods and services, as expressed long ago in Holdren and Ehrlich’s(1974) IPAT formula. Environmental impacts Human impacts on essential planetary processes have become so profound that human activity now rivals geological forces in influencing the trajectory of the Earth system according to some Earth system scientists, who speak about a new geological epoch that they term “the Anthropocene” (Steffen et al., 2018). Despite the recognition of the significance of biodiversity for human well-being at the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992 and most countries signing the Convention on Biological Diversity a decade later, committing to a significant reduction in the rate of biodiversity loss, genes, species and biological traits continue to be eliminated at an alarming rate (Butchart et al., 2010). Historically, economic development, entailing improved health, nutrition and education as well as increased personal autonomy for women and access to effective birth control technologies, has first boosted population growth because of a decline in mortality and later reduced it because of a decline in the fertility rate (Belmin, Hoffmann, Pichler, & Weisz, 2022; Lee, 2011).

PurposeFilling a gap in extant research regarding the measurement of an export country's environmental image and investigating its importance for consumers' evaluation of an environmentally differentiated imported product.Design/methodology/approachOnline surveys carried out in Denmark (Study 1), Germany and France (Study 2; N˜500 from each country). In Study 1, we develop an environmental country image instrument and investigate its nomological validity vis-à-vis other country image constructs and Danish consumers' evaluation of organic milk from Germany. In Study 2, we validate the instrument with consumers from Germany and France, evaluating organic milk from Denmark.FindingsConsumers differentiate between a country's environmental image and its general and production-related images. The country's environmental image is important to consumers' evaluation of an environmentally differentiated product from the country. Specifically, we find that a country's environmental image strongly influences its product-specific images and, through these, the consumer's evaluation of an organic food product from the country.Practical implicationsConsumers' use of a country's environmental image as a cue to the credibility of environmental claims gives competitive advantages to exporters from countries with a favorable environmental image, while exporters from countries with an unfavorable environmental image need measures to compensate. Companies and countries should monitor how the environmental image of their country evolves in important markets and be ready to act when facing damages to their country's environmental image.Originality/valueThis article is the first to propose a measure of environmental country image and to document that consumers use the environmental image of an exporting country to assess environmental claims on imported products.

Consumer policy can empower consumers for changing lifestyles by reducing personal constraints and limitations, but it should also attempt to loosen some of the external constraints that make changes towards a more sustainable lifestyle difficult. In terms of reducing consumers' subjectively felt restrictions on their ability to change lifestyle, the two approaches are equivalent. Policies that increase a feeling of empowerment may also have a positive effect on consumers' motivation to make an effort, thus amplifying its effects. In this paper both types of constraints on lifestyle changes in a sustainable direction are discussed as well as policies for reducing constraints. Possible motivational effects of the proposed policies are also outlined. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on the country-of-origin (COO) effect in the context of organic food and develop suggestions for further research in this area. Research has investigated COO effects and consumer responses to organic food, but there is little research on the combination of the two. Design/methodology/approach A narrative review of two research streams and their intersection, forming the basis for the development of a research agenda. Findings There are few studies analysing the possible interaction between the effects of organic and COO on consumers’ food preferences and choices. In general, COO seems to lose impact when other quality cues are salient. This suggests a lower impact of COO for organic than for conventional food products. However, there is still no research on the possible impact of organic labelling in categories where products from a foreign country are able to demand a premium, and little is known about consumer preferences for different import countries regarding organic food. Six potential future research directions are suggested. Research limitations/implications There is a need for research that more systematically investigates the possible interactions between COO and organic labelling on consumers’ food product preferences and choices. A research agenda is suggested as a starting point. Originality/value This literature review highlights the lack of research on the interaction between COO effects and consumer responses to organic food. The literature review creates a basis for future research and a possible research agenda is suggested.

Economic arguments, such as saving money, are often used to promote pro-environmental actions — for example, reducing energy use. However, research shows that people's environmental motives are sometimes better drivers of behavioural change.

A large body of research supports the idea of social norms communication promoting pro-social and pro-environmental behaviour. This paper investigates social norms communication in the field. Signs prompting consumers about sustainable seafood labels and informing them about other consumers’ sustainable choices were displayed in supermarkets in Norway and Germany. Seafood sales (sustainably labelled versus unlabelled products) were observed before, during, and after the implementation of the signs. The expected change towards more sustainable choices was generally not found. In Norway, the choice of sustainable seafood increased in the prompt-only condition, but the effect was neutralised when social norms information was added. In Germany, social norm messages lead to a decline in sustainable choices compared to baseline, a boomerang effect. Overall, an increase in the purchase of seafood (both sustainably labelled and unlabelled) was noted during the intervention. A second study was carried out to further explore the finding that consumers were mainly primed with “seafood” as a food group. In a laboratory setting, participants were confronted with stereotypical food pictures, combined with short sentences encouraging different consumption patterns. Subsequently, they were asked to choose food products in a virtual shop. Confirming the findings of Study 1, participants chose more of the groceries belonging to the food group they were primed with. These studies suggest that social norms interventions—recently often perceived as “the Holy Grail” for behaviour change—are not as universally applicable as suggested in the literature. According to this study, even descriptive norm messages can produce boomerang effects.

Purpose This paper aims to test the general validity of a hierarchical model of country image conceptualizations across countries that differ in socio-economic development and distance to the exporting country. Design/methodology/approach Representative consumer samples in Germany, France, China and Thailand (N ∼ 1,000 per country) completed an online survey on three levels of country image regarding Denmark and attitudes towards buying an organic food product from Denmark. Data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling. Findings The hierarchical country image model fitted the data well in the two European countries, but not in the two Asian countries. It appears that the hierarchical relationships proposed by the model require a high level of familiarity with and knowledge of the origin country and the product type. Research limitations/implications The application scope of the model is considerably narrower than implied by earlier research. Further research should combine data from a number of sources to investigate the model’s application further. Practical implications Exporters must pay attention to both the general image of their country and the image of their country with regard to their specific product category, as this impacts consumer product evaluations. Originality/value International trade and the success of export strategies ultimately depend on consumer acceptance in importing countries. This study demonstrates how consumer perception of imported products is affected by the exporting country’s image, which may be more or less elaborate and differentiated. It gives exporters new insight into how they can make their marketing effective when entering markets.