Ecolabels and Swedish Consumers’ Green Buying Behavior : A Quantitative Study of Factors Influencing Green Buying Behavior Towards Ecolabelled Food

Abstract: The steadily increased environmental concerns have become exceedingly palpable over time, not at least in consumers’ way of demanding greener products, or companies’ ways of incorporating green marketing strategies. A common tool for companies producing environmentally friendly food is ecolabelling. Foods with ecolabels on them enable consumers to know that this certain product indicates a good environmental choice. There are various factors that influence consumers’ buying behavior towards it. The purpose of this thesis is to examine whether knowledge, attitude and subjective norms have any relationship with Swedish consumers’ green buying behavior. A theoretical framework consisting of literature-identified constructs was developed. Using a questionnaire, a sample size of 158 was realized which was statistically analyzed. Findings indicated that there is a positive relationship between buying behavior and knowledge, attitude and subjective norms. It further revealed that the buying behavior towards ecolabelled food was not that common among the respondents. Hence, the study suggests that despite the positive attitude and sufficient amount of knowledge, consumers are still not that keen about buying ecolabelled food.