Consumer Environmental Awareness Research Articles

Dynamic optimal control of firms' green innovation investment and pricing strategies with environmental awareness and emission tax

This paper develops a dynamic optimal control model to investigate the effects of consumer environmental awareness and emission tax on firms' green innovation investment and pricing strategies. Our main results show the following: (i) when both consumer environmental awareness and emission tax are present, the firm's reaction to environmental awareness may be non‐monotone, although a higher emission tax always yields higher green innovation investment and price; (ii) competition in an environmentally sensitive market increases the investment of the firm's green innovation; (iii) raising emission tax may be a better policy choice than promoting consumer environmental awareness when the market size is small.

Differential game model and coordination model for green supply chain based on green technology research and development

The purpose of this paper is to establish a green supply chain differential game model for green technology research and development based on a secondary green supply chain composed of a single manufacturer and a single retailer. It compares the differential game equilibrium solutions under centralized and decentralized decision-making. The green supply chain members are coordinated through the dynamic wholesale price mechanism, and numerical simulation is used as a methodology, to verify and explain the results. The study found that compared to decentralized decision-making, the level of green technology and the total profit of green channels are higher under centralized decision-making. When the coordination parameters are within a certain range, the dynamic wholesale price mechanism can coordinate the behavior of manufacturers and retailers. The result also discovers that under the dynamic wholesale price mechanism, with the increase of investment cost coefficient, or the increase of price sensitivity or the decrease of consumer's environmental awareness, the green technology level, product green degree, price, retailer's profit, and the total profit of green channel is decreased. In contrast, the wholesale price and manufacturer's profits are increased.

The Green Product’s Pricing Strategy in a Dual Channel considering Manufacturer’s Risk Attitude

This paper develops a two-echelon green supply chain that consists of one green manufacturer and one retailer. The green manufacturer has both online direct and offline retail channels. Considering manufacturer’s risk attitude and product’s green level, the paper constructs centralized and decentralized game models when the online channel’s demand is uncertain. Furthermore, this paper analyzes the impacts of a set of factors, including consumer environmental awareness (CEA), product green level, and risk attitude on decision-making in the supply chain. Finally, we present numerical examples. The main findings are as follows: the manufacturer and the retailer will benefit from the improvement of CEA; hence, they could invest more to obtain more profits by improving CEA; manufacturer’s risk attitude has a negative impact on the pricing and profits of the supply chain; as such, the members of the supply chain should improve the accuracy of their demand forecast, so as to minimize risks and losses resulting from uncertainty in demand.

Optimal Return Policies and Micro-Plastics Prevention Based on Environmental Quality Improvement Efforts and Consumer Environmental Awareness

Consumers initiating returns online may produce secondary packaging, while most of the packages are produced by plastics. The more products are returned, the more plastics are used. Existing research indicates that the plastic packages can contribute to the micro-plastics pollution of the environment. As consumer environmental awareness (CEA) improves, more and more consumers are willing to pay extra fees to change the materials of packages from plastics to others in order to protect the environment, prompting enterprises to adjust to their return policies. In this context, this paper takes environmental quality improvement effort and the environmental coefficient as decision variables, and compares the manufacturer’s optimal decisions under with and without return policy. Our results show as follows: (1) There is a positive correlation between CEA and environmental quality improvement effort and the environmental coefficient; that is, environmental quality improvement effort and the environmental coefficient increase with an increase in CEA; (2) When CEA is high (k≤τ≤d), there is a threshold for manufacturers to invest in environmental effort. However, when CEA is low (0≤τ≤k), regardless of the return policy the manufacturer implements, its profit increases with the promotion of CEA, and when the manufacturer allows consumer returns, the relationship is more obvious; (3) The manufacturer should adopt an appropriate return policy according to the changes in CEA. When CEA is low (0≤τ≤k), the manufacturer should adopt a without return policy; when CEA is high (k≤τ≤d), the manufacturer should adopt a full refund (r=p) return policy, which is the optimal profit, and increase investment in environmental protection. From the above conclusions, we suggest that the government should increase the publicity of environmental protection, consumers should establish the awareness of green consumption, and enterprises should increase investment in environmental quality improvement to achieve sustainable development.

Is smart the new green? The impact of consumer environmental awareness and data network effect

PurposeNew information technologies such as IoT and big data analytics have reshaped the development of smart green products. These products exhibit two important features that are not seen in traditional products: environmental friendliness and data network effect. Based on these unique features, the authors investigate a firm's optimal selling strategy of smart green products from both the profitability and environmental perspectives.Design/methodology/approachThe authors establish stylized models to consider the optimality of three selling strategies: (1) traditional strategy – only offering traditional products, (2) green strategy – only offering smart green products, and (3) hybrid strategy – offering both traditional and smart green products.FindingsThe authors’ analysis shows that in the absence of data network effect, there will always be a conflict between profit maximization and environmental protection. However, a strategy that benefits both the firm and the environment exists when data network effect is present. Interestingly, hybrid and traditional strategies can be win-win strategies, but the green strategy cannot. Also surprisingly, the green strategy may harm the environment more as smart products become greener.Originality/valueThis study examines the economic and environmental implications of selling smart green products, and contributes to existing literature on sustainable operations and green product design by incorporating the impact of both consumer environmental awareness and data network effect. The authors’ findings shed light on how to coordinate the profitability and environmental impact of selling smart green products in the era of big data and IoT.

Optimal freshness and carbon abatement decisions in a two-echelon cold chain

Due to both carbon policy and consumer environmental awareness, the large amount of carbon emissions generated while keeping deteriorating products fresh has attracted attention. In particular, under international competition, both freshness and environmental friendliness have significant effects on the market demand for deteriorating products. Furthermore, considering harmonious economic and environmental development, many recent studies take social welfare as the optimization goal. However, due to the trade-offs between the freshness and environmental friendliness of deteriorating products, how should the government formulate a reasonable carbon policy to guide cold chain members to make optimal decisions on freshness-keeping efforts and carbon abatement to improve social welfare and reduce carbon emissions? Against this backdrop, in this study, considering cap-and-trade regulations and consumers’ preference for low-carbon fresh products, we develop tripartite game models consisting of the government, one emission-dependent supplier and one retailer in a two-echelon cold chain system. Two models are developed to compare the optimal decisions under two scenarios: when the supplier purchases carbon quotas and when the supplier adopts carbon abatement technology. Conducting theoretical analysis and numerical experiments, we obtain the following main insights: (1) The adoption of carbon abatement technologies does not always create greater social welfare, and there is a boundary between the two scenarios. (2) Production costs and freshness-keeping costs have the greatest influence on social welfare and unit carbon emissions. (3) The government should implement a looser carbon policy for deteriorating products with higher price elasticity. (4) The most effective way to simultaneously improve social welfare and reduce total carbon emissions is to increase consumer environmental awareness and reduce the abatement cost exponent.

Consumer's intention to purchase 5G: Do environmental awareness, environmental knowledge and health consciousness attitude matter?

With the enhancement of consumer's environmental awareness, environmental knowledge and health consciousness attitude, environment friendly product and services have attracted much attention. The main objective of this study was to analyze the determinants of consumer's adoption intention to 5G services. Value adaptation Model (VAM) model was extended to develop a correlational model by adding three factors: environmental awareness, environmental knowledge, and health consciousness attitude to pay for 5G services. The model was tested based on online survey data from 423 respondents in China applying structural equation modelling (SEM) approach. The final results illustrate the significant relationship between environmental awareness, knowledge and health-consciousness attitude, which further influences consumer's intentions to purchase 5G. In addition, compared with previous models, this model can improve the explained variance. The significance of the study for managers and researchers and some limitations are also discussed.

Optimal decisions for competitive manufacturers under carbon tax and cap-and-trade policies

With the gradual increasing of deepening of people's understanding of sustainable development, governments and enterprises have come to attach great importance to carbon emissions. Cap-and-trade (C&T) and carbon tax policies are widely regarded as two effective mechanisms for reducing carbon emissions. In this paper, considering consumer environmental awareness (CEA), we study the carbon emission reduction (CER) of two competitive manufacturers given the carbon tax and C&T policies. The two manufactures have two competitive behaviors: Cournot and Collusion. Four models are respectively constructed for different behaviors and policies, and the optimal decisions are obtained. Furthermore, comparison of the optimal solutions and parametric sensitivity analysis are discussed under two scenarios. The results indicate that the C&T policy is more sensitive to CEA than is the carbon tax policy. When manufacturers improve the efficiency of CER, compared with carbon tax policy, the C&T policy can more effectively curb carbon emissions, improve social welfare, and enhance the competitiveness of manufacturers. The fiercer CER competition leads to lower emissions and social welfare but higher total carbon emissions. The manufacturers' collusion behavior cannot make them achieve a win–win situation.

Do Consumers Value Environmental Innovation in Product?

Customers are considered to be major stakeholders whose demands and preferences have a strong influence on corporate strategies. In this sense, increased consumer environmental awareness has led to a growing demand for environmentally friendly products which, in turn, has compelled firms to adopt innovative forms of integrating environmental protection into product development and production processes. Nevertheless, an “attitude–behavior gap” has been witnessed, which implies that consumers’ environmental attitudes do not always translate into an actual ecologically compatible purchasing behavior and, consequently, eco-product innovations will not necessarily entail a positive economic impact for companies. This paper aims to analyze if the companies that invest in eco-product innovation are valued by consumers, showing higher growth. Specifically, we propose that eco-product innovation has a positive effect on a firm’s sales growth. Additionally, we aim to analyze the consumers’ preferences in relation to eco-product innovations considering two alternative approaches that companies can follow in this respect: eco-design and products with ecological use. The results obtained for an unbalanced sample of 5391 international companies corresponding to the period 2002–2017 (51,666 observations) show that proactive environmental innovation strategies are positively valued by consumers, having a positive impact on the companies’ sales growth. Furthermore, consumers show a greater preference for environmental innovations in eco-design than for products with ecological use.

Çevre Duyarlılığının Çevreci Satın Alma Davranışına Etkisinin Belirlenmesi

Çevre duyarlılığı; bireylerin çevreye olan sorumluluklarının bilincinde olması ve bu sorumlulukları yerine getirme yeteneğidir. Bu çalışmanın amacı Kahramanmaraş ilinde yaşayan tüketicilerin çevre duyarlılığının ve çevre duyarlılığının çevreci satın alma davranışı üzerindeki etkilerinin belirlenmesidir. Araştırmanın ana materyalini 2020 yılı ocak ve şubat aylarında Kahramanmaraş ili kent merkezinde yaşayan 384 tüketici ile yüz yüze yapılan anketlerden elde edilen veriler oluşturmaktadır. Verilerin analiz edilmesinde tanımlayıcı istatistik ve ki-kare testinden yararlanılmıştır. Araştırma sonucunda tüketicilerin %89,1‘inin çevreye karşı duyarlı olduğunu kabul ettiği tespit edilmiştir. Ki-kare testi sonucunda kadınların, eğitim seviyesi daha yüksek olanların, çekirdek ailelerin çevreye karşı duyarlılığı istatistiksel olarak daha yüksektir. Daha az kirlenmeye neden olan ürünleri satın alan tüketicilerin %93,4‘ünün, çevre dostu ürünlere diğer ürünlere ödenenden daha fazla para ödemeye razı olan tüketicilerin ise %95,7‘sinin çevreye duyarlı olduğu sonucuna ulaşılmıştır. Konu ile ilgili paydaşlara bir kaynak niteliği taşıyacak bu çalışma ile tüketicilerin çevre duyarlılığının artırılması, tüketicilerin çevreci ürünlere olan farkındalıklarının artırılması ve çevrenin korunmasına katkı sağlamak hedeflenmektedir.

Implications of green optimism upon sustainable supply chain management

In recent years, managers have increasingly integrated sustainability into their business models. However, they might overestimate the premium that average consumers are willing to pay for the environment. In this paper, we formulate a game-theoretical model that illustrates the impacts of green optimism which refers to managers’ optimistic bias about consumer environmental awareness. We consider a sustainable supply chain in which one manufacturer invests in green product development and sells the green product through one retailer. Each firm within the supply chain is operated by one manager who is either realistic or optimistic. Contrary to conventional wisdom, we find that managers’ optimistic bias might discourage investment in green product development. We also find that green optimism is always detrimental to the upstream manufacturer, but might be beneficial to the downstream retailer. Surprisingly, under certain conditions, green optimism can be detrimental to all stakeholders, i.e., firms in the supply chain, consumers, and the environment. This study suggests an interesting link between supply chain management and human resource management; that is, within a sustainable supply chain those managers who are optimistic about the future of green business might be an obstacle to the success of green business.

The impacts of subsidy policies and channel encroachment on the power battery recycling of new energy vehicles

AbstractWith the rapid development of new energy vehicles (NEVs), the recycling and reuse of retired power batteries has attracted extensive attention from the society and scholars. In this paper, we establish a closed-loop supply chain model composed of the government, one power battery supplier and one NEV manufacturer. Based on game theory, considering whether the battery supplier encroaches on the power battery recycling channel, we study the optimal decisions of the government and supply chain members under different government subsidy policies (no subsidy, subsidy for the NEV manufacturer and subsidy for consumers) and their impact on profits and social welfare. The results show that, whether the battery supplier encroaches on the recycling channel or not, compared with the no subsidy policy, subsidy for the NEV manufacturer is more conducive to the improvement of enterprise profits and social welfare. In addition, whether the battery collection quantity is constrained by the NEV sales quantity, when the recycling channel cost is lower than a certain threshold, the encroachment is always beneficial to the battery supplier. When the recycling channel cost is within a certain threshold range, the encroachment will achieve a win–win situation; otherwise, win–lose. When the recycling channel cost is higher than a certain threshold, the encroachment behavior has no impact on the NEV manufacturer and the battery supplier. Finally, we investigate the impact of key parameters on the enterprise profits and social welfare through numerical experiments. We also find that the environmental awareness of consumers have significant impacts on social welfare.

DETERMINATION OF MARKETING COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES OF HOTELS USING RENEWABLE ENERGY

In order to protect nature, clean energy sources obtained fromnature are required. Currently, the use of renewable energy is also important for the tourism sector. The purpose of this study is to identify the priorities and differences in marketing communication strategies that can be used in different country markets that prefer hotels with renewable energy. In line with this purpose of the study, the priority of Afyon İkbal Thermal Hotel&Spa in marketing communication strategies was analyzed by the TOPSIS method. Marketing communication strategies in US, UK and Netherlands, which mostly prefer renewable energy hotels in order to communicate messages that emphasize the renewable energy use of the tourism businesses in today's conditions with global environmental problems, have been considered based on 8 criteria and 4 alternatives. The criteria have been determined as cost, establishing corporate reputation, competitors' strategies, technological developments, the level of development of the target market, environmental awareness of consumers, consumer trends changing based on environment, and attitudes of agencies. Alternatives can be listed as advertisement, public relations and publicity, fair and promotion. As a result of this evaluation, advertising has been identified as the primary tool in all three markets.

Factors affecting green consumer behavior of young consumers

The purpose of the article is to attempt to examine the factors affecting the green consumption behavior of young consumers by surveying more than 380 young consumers under the age of 35 in Vietnam. The methods of analysis, comparison, and synthesis combined with quantitative research methods (Exploratory Factor Analysis - EFA, Linear Regression Analysis) are used to determine and quantify the impact of factors on the green consumption behavior of young people. The research results show that there are 4 factors affecting the green consumption behavior of young people, consisting of (1) health concerns of consumers, (2) green product prices, (3) crowd effects on young consumer's consumption behavior, (4) environmental awareness of consumers. The new finding of the study is that the product's price has a positive impact on the green consumption behavior of young consumers, in other words, the higher the price of green products, the stronger the effect of motivating young consumers to buy more. From the obtained results, implications for businesses as well as policy implications for state agencies are proposed to promote and enhance green consumption behavior among young people, towards the goal of better environmental protection.

The Impact of Cross-Industry Pollution, Consumer Environmental Awareness, and Corporate Social Responsibility on Industrial Environmental Policies

In this paper, I established a cross-industry pollution externality design and used the three-stage game analysis framework to discuss the issues linked to firm output, labor union negotiation wages, and the government’s optimal environmental tax. We show that with environmentally oriented corporate social responsibility, the government’s optimal environmental tax rate and firms’ residual pollution abatement level will decrease, which is conducive to environmental protection, and the negotiated wages of all firms will increase. With environmentally oriented corporate social responsibility, the profits and union utility of industry firms will increase, as will the overall consumer surplus and the social welfare level, but there will be no effect on the profit and union utility of firms whose productivity is reduced by pollution.

Research on Dynamic and Complexity of Duopoly Price Strategies between Low‐Carbon and Nonlow‐Carbon Products under Cap‐and‐Trade Policies

This paper studies the complexity of the pricing system for the production of low‐carbon and nonlow‐carbon products in a market composed of duopoly manufacturers under the cap‐and‐trade policies. Through nonlinear system theory and numerical derivation and simulation, it considers the influence of different market power structures, carbon trading prices, consumer environmental awareness, and other factors on price decisions, carbon emission decisions, profits, and system stability. The influence of price adjustment parameters and unit product carbon emission decision adjustment parameters on the complexity of the pricing system under different market power structures is analyzed. And, it was found that compared with the variable feedback chaos control method, the parameter adjustment chaos control method is more effective in controlling the pricing system in this paper. Our research provides management implications for market competition and operational decision‐making for low‐carbon and nonlow‐carbon products.

Eco-labeling is a useful piece of informational metabolism in the youth environment

Environmental awareness of consumers and the popularity of a healthy lifestyle are the trends of our time both in the world and in Russia. The article discusses the ecolabelling sign as a means of offline information about the environmental characteristics of products and an important criterion when choosing and buying various goods. In our country, there are only prerequisites for an approach to greening business and positioning "environmentally friendly" products. However, it is vital that everyone understands the eco-label and distinguishes the certificate of declared quality from the marketing ploy. The paper touches upon the issues of ecological education and formation of the population ecological culture. To clarify the importance of eco-labeling in the formation of an environmentally oriented lifestyle among young people, a sociological research method was used, suitable for clarifying any aspects of social relations and capable of providing operational primary sociological information. The results of the survey of the 1st and 2nd year students of the Moscow State University of Fine Chemical Technologies named after M.V. Lomonosov in 2019/2020 academic year, concerning their interest in the environmental characteristics of the purchased goods, are provided.

Impact of eco-labelling on the implementation of sustainable production and consumption

• Ecolabeling supports the process of achieving sustainable production and consumption. • Consumer environmental awareness helps reduce negative impacts on the environment. • Environmental labeling influences consumer purchasing decisions. • AHP will assess the impact of ecolabeling on sustainable production and consumption

Optimal pricing strategy of competing manufacturers under carbon policy and consumer environmental awareness

With consideration of consumer environmental awareness (CEA) and upstream competition, this paper investigates the joint pricing strategy of enterprises based on carbon tax and low-carbon subsidy and the design of carbon tax and low-carbon subsidy based on environment goal. Results indicate that both carbon tax and subsidy policy benefit low-carbon products despite different action ways. Analysis of firms’ joint pricing strategy under carbon policy provide a reference for firms’ decision-making adjustments under upstream competition. Carbon policy design strategies help policymakers regulating carbon emissions in industries with upstream competition make policy-making decisions. Further, the comparison of the two policies’ emission reduction efficiency helps policymakers make policy-selection decisions to better avoid certain policy failures. An interesting finding in this paper is that there is a complementary effect between CEA and low-carbon subsidy in reducing carbon emission, policymakers can achieve the environmental goal of minimum carbon emissions with a small subsidy expenditure by promoting low-carbon concepts to raise CEA.

Competitive pricing and innovation investment strategies of green products considering firms' farsightedness and myopia

AbstractWith the deterioration of ecological environment and the improvement of consumer environmental awareness, a number of firms are actively engaging in product innovation to enhance product greenness. In this paper, we develop a differential game involving two competing firms, each of which produces and sells one green product to end consumers. The two firms carry out innovation investments to improve customers' perceived product greenness and also determine their own retail prices. Each firm's demand is linearly dependent on its own retail price and innovation investment, the rival's retail price and innovation investment, and the customer perceived product greenness. The objective of our study is to examine the impacts of the competing firms' farsighted and myopic behaviors regarding the consumer perceived product greenness on their pricing and innovation investment strategies and profits. We find the following interesting results. First, when one firm is farsighted and the other is myopic, the latter obtains more profits than the former if one firm's innovation investment has a relatively small direct effect on the other's demand, that is, there is a free‐riding for the myopic firm. Second, when the intensity of competition regarding the two firms' innovation investments is not strong, competing with a farsighted rival can make a firm better off. Third, the scenario that the two firms adopt farsighted strategies can achieve an equilibrium, whereas acting myopic strategies can bring more profits for both of them under some conditions, which leads to a prisoner's dilemma. These results still hold under separable multiplicative demand between retail prices and innovation investments.