Determinants of consumers’ response to eco-labelled seafoods: The interaction between altruism, awareness and information demand

Abstract

Eco-labels are one of the most effective tools of environmental information policy. Several studies have been carried out in order to explore the determinants of consumers’ seafood eco-labels choice emphasizing that awareness, altruism and information demand play a key role. However, it is unclear whether these three aspects are independent of each other or have important interrelationships that deserve to be studied. To fill this gap, this study aims to explore the interaction between altruism, awareness, information demand and seafoods eco-label choice in three Mediterranean countries (Greece, Italy and Spain). Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling has been used in order to identify the key determinants and the relationship between selected variable, while we used PLS multigroup analysis (PLS-MGA) to perform a cross-country analysis. The results, based on 781 respondents, found that altruism is the key factor that leads consumers to choose eco-labelled seafood acts as a significant mediator between awareness and information demand and the choice of eco-labelled seafood products. This conclusion highlights the need to spread altruistic values among consumers by encouraging pro-social and pro-environmental behaviours, reducing inhibiting factors such as pluralistic ignorance, and then increasing consumer knowledge, skills and confidence.