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Consumers have grown increasingly aware of the impact of packaging on the environment. Therefore, interest has grown in more environmentally friendly packaging, but we wondered how consumers recognize ‘green’ as distinct from ‘grey’ when evaluating packaging. We asked over 3,000 respondents from Germany, France and the United States how they recognize environmentally friendly packaging. To solicit responses that we may not have anticipated, we used an open‐ended format, which we then followed with a closed‐ended format so that we could compare the two sets of responses. Not surprisingly, in both sets of responses, we found labelling to be the attribute consumers rely upon most, as well as evidence of misleading labels. We also found consumers in Germany and the United States relied on information on the packaging and named searching for information as one of their preferred ways to decide whether packaging is environmentally friendly. French consumers seemed less trusting of published information and more trusting of the look and feel, especially the material, of the package. Our results point to the importance of cultural influences in the acquisition of perceptual cues by the consumer.

No abstract

Modern social and marketing research relies heavily on surveys to collect data. At the same time, it is well established that survey responses are influenced by response style biases that vary across individuals, countries and cultures. Investigating such biases, we focused on Mexico and South Korea, two uprising markets mostly neglected in response style research. Data came from a survey instrument of 28 questions focusing on environmental attitudes, individual responsibilities and green packaging characteristics, administered to 500 Mexican and 525 South Korean respondents. We computed response style metrics and compared these to predictions made using scores on Hofstede and Minkov's quantitative cultural research scale. The predictions made using this scale were largely confirmed through the response style metrics. While respondents in both countries preferred answering items with "Agree" or "Strongly Agree," respondents in Mexico were about twice as willing to "Disagree" or "Strongly Disagree" than those in South Korea. Overall, respondents in Mexico showed a bias toward extreme responses, while those in South Korea showed a response bias toward mid-point values. Our approach can be used to assist survey design and to interpret the significance of survey results. Data captured from Mexican and South Korean respondents is now available to add to the general body of knowledge on response styles.

No abstract