Overcoming the Perceived Performance Inferiority of Sustainable Product: An Abstract

Abstract

The results from two studies suggest that valued characteristics are critical in the evaluation of sustainable product’s performance. Despite the popularity of sustainable product the sales represent a small percentage of the overall product category. A study indicates that out of 30% of the consumers who preferred to do ethical shopping only 3% of them end up in doing so (Futerra 2005). Most of the consumers avoid sustainable product with belief that they have to incur some amount of inconvenience and cost for an inferior product. Therefore it becomes important to identify conditions under which sustainability enhances the performance of the product rather than preference as done in past research (Luchs et al. 2010), specifically when expressed preference is not leading to sales. Thus in study-1, authors demonstrate that consumers perceive the performance of the sustainable product to be superior when gentleness related characteristics are valued and inferior when strength related characteristics are valued. Contrasting to slight preference shown (Luchs et al. 2010), the performance of the sustainable product is perceived inferior when strength related features are valued. In study-2, the authors show specified ways to overcome the perceived performance inferiority of sustainable product by linking sustainability from central to peripheral attributes of the product. The above studies contribute towards the understanding of consumer behavior in the recent practices of sustainable consumption. In the process, we also enrich the fields of compensatory inference theory and centrality of attribute investigations in the field of valued characteristics in a product – perceived performance relationship. It helps the firms to mediate the efforts of sustainability effectively. This finding can be used to design products in accordance by linking sustainability to central/peripheral attributes of the product depending on valued characteristics in the product.