Sustainability Claims and Perceived Product Quality: The Moderating Role of Brand CSR

Jenny van Doorn, Peter C. Verhoef and Hans Risselada
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Jenny van Doorn: Department of Marketing, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Groningen, Paviljoen 136, P.O. Box 800, NL-9700 AV Groningen, The Netherlands
Peter C. Verhoef: Department of Marketing, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Groningen, Paviljoen 136, P.O. Box 800, NL-9700 AV Groningen, The Netherlands
Hans Risselada: Department of Marketing, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Groningen, Paviljoen 136, P.O. Box 800, NL-9700 AV Groningen, The Netherlands

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 9, 1-8

Abstract: In this research, we focus on the presumed negative effect of a sustainability claim on product quality. We propose that a brands’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) can reduce this negative effect. We conduct an experiment to test our hypotheses for a newly introduced detergent brand with an ecolabel vs. without one for high and low brand CSR levels. The experiment was conducted among 304 participants. Our results show that the ecolabel of the detergent can indeed trigger quality concerns. These quality concerns are reduced for brands high in CSR. This suggests that a brand’s sustained commitment to sustainability is important in overcoming negative effects of sustainability claims on product quality.

Keywords: sustainability; corporate social responsibility; product quality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:9:p:3711-:d:353748

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