TY - JOUR
T1 - How to stimulate environmentally friendly consumption
T2 - Evidence from a nationwide social experiment in Japan to promote eco-friendly coffee
AU - Takahashi, Ryo
N1 - Funding Information:
This paper was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B) Number 15 K21001 and Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas Number 25101003 . The author would like to thank Y. Todo, S. Shimokawa, T. Aida, K. Tanaka, K. Takeuchi, J. Yamasaki, and J. Goto for their constructive comments. The author is also grateful to M. Mukai, F. Rin, and J. Nakane for their help with the implementation of experiment and data collection.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s)
PY - 2021/8
Y1 - 2021/8
N2 - We investigate the effect of information provision about environmentally friendly coffee on consumers' purchasing behaviors. We use a dataset from a nationwide social experiment in Japan involving over 10,000 vending machines serving brewed coffee. We also provide empirical insights into the potential drivers affecting pro-environmental behavior of consumers through information provision. Our results demonstrate that informing consumers about the product's eco-friendliness significantly increases eco-friendly coffee sales (+7%) only in social spaces (e.g., office buildings) and not in non-social spaces (e.g., shopping malls). Consumers in social spaces might be motivated to purchase eco-friendly coffee to build a “green” reputation among community members after receiving such information.
AB - We investigate the effect of information provision about environmentally friendly coffee on consumers' purchasing behaviors. We use a dataset from a nationwide social experiment in Japan involving over 10,000 vending machines serving brewed coffee. We also provide empirical insights into the potential drivers affecting pro-environmental behavior of consumers through information provision. Our results demonstrate that informing consumers about the product's eco-friendliness significantly increases eco-friendly coffee sales (+7%) only in social spaces (e.g., office buildings) and not in non-social spaces (e.g., shopping malls). Consumers in social spaces might be motivated to purchase eco-friendly coffee to build a “green” reputation among community members after receiving such information.
KW - Coffee certification
KW - Green reputation
KW - Information provision
KW - Social experiment
KW - Sustainability labels
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.107082
DO - 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.107082
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85105034523
SN - 0921-8009
VL - 186
JO - Ecological Economics
JF - Ecological Economics
M1 - 107082
ER -