How are Swedish students motivated to buy eco-labelled food products

Abstract: Did you know that the food industry is the sector that causesthe most pollution in the world? Everyone has a role to play regarding this issue: farmers, producers, distributors and most of all consumers. Indeed, as they hold the decisional power whether to buy or not a product, consumers are often considered to bethe key actors to focus on. Since there are only a few studies about students’ perspectives in terms of their buying motivation, this study focuses on this very topic.In order to help consumers making their choices, eco-labels have been created. They impose some strict norms and standards onthe producers and distributors. They also provide some transparency and valuable information regarding the way food is produced. But,asthis is quitea new initiative,few step-back can be takenyet. Besides, eco-labels’effectiveness is still unclear yet. This leadsus to our research question:How are Swedish students motivated to buy eco-labelled food products?After reading the existing literature regarding this topic, we have identified four main themes that can help us to conductour study: values, norms, budget constraintsand purchase intentions. As our objective is to highlight Swedish students’ motivations, we decidedto conduct a qualitative study. We have chosetwo different methods to gather our primary data: interviews and focus groups. Finally, our conclusion shows that norms and budget constraintsare the most important factors regarding Swedish students motivation when it comes to buy eco-labelled food products. Other aspects, such as trust, values and the incentive towards the environmental causehave also been considered.