The effects of green consumer empowerment in advertising on corporate evaluations and purchase intention: the case of organic food

Abstract

This research aims to investigate the potential of consumer empowerment, the activation of consumers’ perceived power over companies, to achieve improved advertising effects for organic food compared to only communicating ecological benefits (classical green appeals). Two online experiments were conducted to analyze the ad effectiveness for consumers’ responses including their evaluations of the company and purchase intentions (nStudy1 = 294; nStudy2 = 457). Results indicate that green empowerment ads reach overall better performance to increase people’s perceived customer orientation and purchase intentions compared to green appeals, while similar effects are identified for perceived corporate environmental responsibility. Empowerment tactics are especially effective when consumers perceive the supplier to be a larger, high-resource company compared to a smaller, low-resource one. The significant effects of perceived corporate resources also indicates that smaller companies should use differentiated ad strategies depending on if they intend to enhance consumers’ purchase intentions or their environmental reputation.

Surprisingly unsustainable: How and when hindsight biases shape consumer evaluations of unsustainable and sustainable products

“…For better realism and to avoid distortions, we held type of product (caps), type of coffee (Arabica), country of origin (Brazil), taste (caramel and chocolate notes), package content (16 caps), intensity (4 out of 5), and price (€6.49) constant across the products. In line with Yang et al (2022), we balanced environmental and non‐environmental elements in our stimuli to avoid systematic distortions.…”

“…All other information in these stimuli was held constant, such as the picture of the clothes cabinet, the package weight, delivery conditions, and price (see Figure 1). We also followed Yang et al (2022), balancing environmental and non‐environmental elements in our stimuli to avoid systematic distortions. As a second manipulation, we applied the hypothetical design for HB (Pohl, 2007); i.e., the respondents were randomly assigned to three conditions.…”

The performance of green communication across social media: Evidence from large‐scale retail industry in Italy

“…The academic interest in the use of social media for green communication purposes has flourished in recent years. An important research stream addresses the relationship between green marketing and the concept of gaining a competitive advantage and differentiation (Arnaud, 2017; York, 2009), discussing the ability of green marketing to augment consumers' perceived benefits, increase the marketability of products as well as boost the overall company performance (Dangelico & Pontrandolfo, 2015; Ottman et al, 2006; Walker & Wan, 2012; Yang et al, 2022). Several scholars identify the authentic commitment to sustainability as a key competitive advantage (Beverland & Farrelly, 2010; Delmas & Burbano, 2011; Delmas & Grant, 2014; Porter & Kramer, 2011).…”

The strategic effect of corporate reputation on customer citizenship behavior: an empirical verification

“…Finally, scholars began to look into the drivers and effects of CR (Rindova et al 2005 ; Helm 2007b ; Walsh et al 2009 ; Bartikowski and Walsh 2011 ; Bartikowski et al 2011 ; Ali et al 2015 ; Wolter et al 2021 ). Recently, when investigating how the activation of customers' perceived power over businesses may lead to consumer empowerment, it was highlighted that small and medium enterprises could realise different advertising policies depending on whether they want to improve customer purchase intentions or green CR (Yang et al 2022 ).…”