Attributes of Carbon Labelling to Drive Consumer Purchase Intentions

Abstract

According to estimates, more than 60% of Australian grocery shoppers are ‘conscious consumers’ who would like to buy products carrying the carbon reduction label. Our paper proposes that in line with the cue utilisation theory, consumers will use the carbon label as a cue or a signal to assess the extrinsic quality of a product. While some product features can be evaluated through visual and sensory examination, other credence qualities (such as the amount of carbon produced during manufacturing) need to be assessed through the use of surrogate ‘cues’ of quality (i.e. carbon labelling). Consumers’ perceptions regarding the carbon label can play an important role in the resulting attitudes towards the product. We propose to test a model in which we aim to examine whether consumers’ attitudes and intentions towards purchasing a product are indeed impacted by their evaluation of the carbon label. This proposed study makes a theoretical contribution as it is one of the first pieces of research which proposes to measure consumer perceptions regarding the accuracy, sincerity and ease in understanding the claims made by a carbon label. The empirical results will also be useful for organisations such as the Carbon Reduction Institute, which certify and issue the labels. We hope that our results can help guide the design and promotion of carbon labels.