Talking green, behaving brown : A study about consumers intention-behavior gap among eco-labels

Abstract: Title: Talking green, behaving brown - A study about consumers intention-behavior gap among eco-labels Level: Bachelor thesis in Business & Administration   Authors: Emma-Sophie Doksaeter & Julia Nordman   Supervisor: Jonas Kågström   Date: January 2019   Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze consumers intention-behavior gap towards eco-labeled products based on Carrington’s et. al. model considering more recent studies regarding different variables such as relations, moral and knowledge.   Method: A quantitative survey design was developed based on variables from Carrington et al. (2010) and variables from more recent studies. Four surveys were made divided into three different countries; Sweden, Norway and Finland. The total number of participating respondents were 540. We used cluster, factor and SEM analysis to interpret our results.   Result & analysis: The result shows that it exists a gap between intention and behavior when speaking of eco-labels among consumers. Variables such as knowledge, actual behavior control have a big impact on implementation intention. Situational context and relations have low significance on implementation intention. Although, by considering all of these variables, it is possible to close the gap. To close the gap, it is also important to consider different consumer groups.     Contribution of the thesis: The study shows that it exists a gap between what consumers say they are going to do, and what they actually do, and that it is possible to close the gap between intentions and behavior when talking about eco-labels.   Suggestions for future research: The study shows cultural differences in intentions and behavior towards eco-labels. It would be possible to study this further. Another study could look at how organizations could increase eco-labels credibility towards consumers.    Keywords: Green marketing, behavior economics, intention-behavior gap, eco-labels, environmental intention