KOREASCHOLAR

The environmental consequences of consumerism are starting to demand change on the part of consumers, businesses, and the public sector. As consumer activity has been found to be a primary cause of environmental degradation and natural resources depletion, consumers need to become educated and involved in sustainability efforts (Sheth et al., 2011). In the current marketplace, however, consumers generally make purchase decisions without considering the environmental impact of those choices. This paper examines a sustainability claim, which allows consumers to consider the negative consequences of their decisions. Additionally, the consequences are communicated using message framings varying between the personal impact and company impact framing. This paper also considers differing levels of a consumer’s environmental involvement. Consistent with the theoretical concepts of social judgment, in conjunction with self-determination, the findings from this research offer an important expansion on prior work: here, the level of EI determined a boundary condition for the effects of sustainability labeling and message framing. While both groups of consumers evaluated the ad containing full information more favorably than the one with partial information, high-EI consumers preferred the ad focusing on the company’s impacts regarding the environment. Arguably, presenting the responsibilities of the company clarified and justified the use of the claim. However, extrinsic rewards and self-enhancement motives may not be key motivators for high-EI consumers. In fact, asking high-EI consumers to conserve nature and minimize their environmental impacts may be ineffective, since they typically respond more to their personal beliefs. Conversely, extrinsic rewards and recognition seem to be prime motivators for low-EI consumers. To encourage consumers to make more mindful consumption decisions, a communication tool that incorporates sustainability labeling and environmental impact framing seems to offer much promise. Indeed, the ability to connect environmental impacts with consumer choices appears to be an important determinant of the effectiveness of sustainability communication. If an ad fails to clearly convey to consumers the environmental impact of purchasing specific products, the provision of sustainability information on product packaging is of no practical value. A more transparent approach of presenting sustainability information may prove helpful to both consumers and the environment.

• Yoon-Na Cho(Villanova University)