There have been controversies surrounding the actual effect of ‘green’ product labels in influencing consumers towards eco-friendly behaviours. While some claim that the proliferation of private business standards are confusing rather than assisting eco-friendly consumers in their green purchasing decisions, others posit that it has had significant positive effect in influencing consumers towards ‘green’ purchasing. Still yet, some others found neutral effect of ‘green’ labels on consumer behaviour. The objective of this critical review is to determine if available evidence-based studies on the use of ‘green’ labels support or contradict the above claims, using a systematic review approach. This review adopted an analytical framework developed by Gupta et al. (2006) for modeling the impact of business programs on customer lifetime value (CLV). The result of the analysis confirmed varied effect of eco labels among different classes of consumers and for different products in developed and developing economies. Further evidence abounds of both positive impacts (customer acquisition and sustained patronage of eco-labelled products) and negative impacts (confusing/discouraging consumers due to generic information or high price of eco-labelled products). There is also little evidence of no impact, which suggests that eco-labels alone may not be sufficient to influence consumer behaviour. Further empirical research on the impact of eco-labels on product utilization and disposal was recommended.
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In-Text Citation: (Ihemezie, Ukwuaba, & Nnaji, 2018)
To Cite this Article: Ihemezie, E. J., Ukwuaba, I. C., & Nnaji, A. P. (2018). Impact of ‘Green’ Product Label Standards on Consumer Behaviour: A Systematic Review Analysis. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 8(9), 666–684.
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