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The Influence of Knowledge and Motivation on Sustainable Label Use

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Abstract

Sustainable labels are considered the best way for consumers to identify brands with environmental or social attributes on the shelves, and therefore promoted as a means to develop the so-called “ethical markets”. However, little is known about how consumers use these brands. This paper tries to offer complementary theoretical insights on the determinants of sustainable label use by drawing on the economic model of information search; in particular, it examines the influence of two factors on the purchase of such labels: motivation and knowledge. Information was gathered through a structured questionnaire in personal interviews with 289 primary buyers. The study found that education influences directly knowledge, while Motivation influences Label use both directly and indirectly, via Label knowledge. This study concludes that Motivation is the most powerful factor to explain Label use; knowledge is a necessary but not sufficient condition. Even more, consumers may not have a good understanding of sustainable labels and still use them in their purchasing decisions. This suggests that there is a dual processing mode of sustainable labels, both systematic and heuristic.

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Notes

  1. It could be argued that the opposite measurement relationship between the indicators and the latent variables could be modeled. Although this could be the case, this model was estimated with reflective indicators. Despite the contrasting opinions among scholars on the subject of formative/reflective measurement for latent variables (Hardin et al. 2008a, b; Marakas et al. 2008; Petter et al. 2007), following Anderson and Gerbing (1988), for theory testing and development, reflective indicators have several strengths: observed measures are assumed to have random error variance and measure-specific variance components that are not of theoretical interest. This unwanted part of the observed measures is excluded from the definition of the latent construct and is modeled separately. Then, the models provide parameter estimates that best explain the observed covariances, most efficient parameter estimates (Joreskog and Wold 1982) and an overall test of model fit.

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Ministerio de Trabajo e Inmigración (BOE 17-02-2010) to complete this research. We would like to thank Jose Manuel Rosa for his help in data collection.

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Correspondence to Carmen Valor.

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Valor, C., Carrero, I. & Redondo, R. The Influence of Knowledge and Motivation on Sustainable Label Use. J Agric Environ Ethics 27, 591–607 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10806-013-9478-3

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