The Shadow of the Consumer: Analyzing the Importance of Consumers to the Uptake and Sophistication of Ratings, Certifications, and Eco-Labels

Bullock, Graham; Ven, Hamish van der

doi:10.1177/1086026618803748

Cited by 19 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 77 publications

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“…As scientific findings inform the priorities of several stakeholders, we hypothesize that coffee companies adopt multiple practices addressing the sustainability challenges confronting the sector (Hypothesis 1). Consistent with stakeholder theory, we expect a company's stakeholders to influence adoption of sustainability practices (Bullock & van der Ven, 2020; Shubham et al, 2018; Waldman & Kerr, 2014). We expect company location, ownership, business type and customer engagement to affect adoption of practices.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 83%

Sustainability strategies by companies in the global coffee sector

Bager

Lambin

2020

Bus Strat Env

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The coffee sector is facing several sustainability challenges. We ask whether addressing these is transforming the entire coffee sector or rather leading to market differentiation. Drawing on stakeholder theory and global value chain analysis, we analyse how the coffee sector approaches sustainability by examining the sustainability efforts of a random sample of 513 companies. We also identify the factors shaping the adoption of sustainability strategies. A third of companies report no commitment to sustainability, whereas another third report vague commitment. The final third of companies report tangible commitments to sustainability. Company characteristics and stakeholders affect the scope and type of sustainability strategy chosen. Large, risk-aware companies tend to conduct 'hands-on' governance, adopting internal sustainability practices along their value chain. Small, consumerfacing companies and producers rely on 'hands-off' governance, adopting external voluntary sustainability standards. Several sustainability issues remain underaddressed by most companies, including climate change and deforestation. We found indications of potential greenwashing by some companies. Addressing sustainability is not yet fully mainstreamed in the sector, though ambitious commitments by sustainability leaders and large actors signal increasing importance of sustainability as part of corporate social responsibility efforts. We observe market differentiation through sustainability with progressive companies adopting sustainability strategies that align with their stakeholders, depending on value chain characteristics. Our results indicate a notable reliance on internal sustainability practices. There is a need for common coffee sustainability indicators relevant for all actors along the value chain, which are consistent with the Sustainable Development Goals, and a transparent, mandatory reporting framework.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 83%

Sustainability strategies by companies in the global coffee sector

Bager

Lambin

2020

Bus Strat Env

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“…The scholars also emphasize that companies' unpreparedness for certification creates the risk of cheating and manipulation. Paper [31] states that national governments are working hard to make ecolabeling and certification programs more transparent, inclusive, and impartial. While individual consumers may not be sufficiently aware of the purpose and content of ecolabels to make the right personal choices, the availability of environmental information is itself an incentive for companies to change and behave more environmentally.…”

Section: The Theoretical Foundations and Empirical Evidence Of The Problems In Ecolabeling: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecolabeling as a Policy Instrument for More Sustainable Development: The Evidence of Supply and Demand Interactions from Russia

et al. 2021

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Ecolabeling can complement more conventional policy instruments such as taxes and subsidies to stimulate more sustainable development of the economy. However, in practice, ecolabels may not always comply with legal requirements in terms of reliability, accuracy and clarity, and sometimes deliberately mislead the consumer. In Russia and many other developing countries, the problem of inaccurate information on the environmental properties of goods and services is still not recognized. The only regulatory document that currently defines the basic principles for developing and using environmental labels and declarations is the national versions of international standards ISO 14020/14021/14024/14025-Environmental Labels Package. This paper contributes to the literature in two main dimensions. It assesses the degree of prevalence of ecolabeling in the Russian market of everyday goods and the reliability and informational content of frequently used labels (supply-side research). Second, it estimates the consumers’ awareness and reaction to ecolabeled products (demand-side research). The most obvious finding to emerge from this study is that low consumer awareness keeps the level of greenwashing low, but at the same time does not stimulate eco-innovations. We suggest developing smartphone applications that allow buyers to check the compliance of ecolabels on a product with ISO standards directly during the shopping process. We propose to use this approach as a cost-effective and straightforward way to simultaneously raise consumer awareness of ecolabeling and reduce the likelihood of greenwashing.

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“…Perceived stringency may increase market demand for certified products (Atkinson & Rosenthal, 2014) but may also reduce adoption by firms (Prado, 2013). Alternatively, perceived stringency may increase adoption as companies anticipate potential public reactions to their choices (Bullock & van der Ven, 2020). Changes in stringency that disadvantage some firms or groups may catalyze these actors to create alternative private regulatory programs (Meidinger, 2003).…”

Section: Regulatory Stringency As a Variablementioning

confidence: 99%

Do Private Regulations Ratchet Up? How to Distinguish Types of Regulatory Stringency and Patterns of Change

Judge-Lord

McDermott

Cashore

2020

Organization & Environment

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Due to inconsistent concepts of regulatory stringency, scholars offer conflicting accounts about whether competing private governance initiatives “race to the bottom,” “ratchet up,” “converge,” or “diverge.” To remedy this, we offer a framework for more systematic comparisons across programs and over time. We distinguish three often-conflated measures of stringency: regulatory scope, prescriptiveness, and performance levels. Applying this framework, we compare competing U.S. forestry certification programs, one founded by environmental activists and their allies, the other by the national industry association. We find ‘upwardly divergent’ policy prescriptiveness: both programs increased in prescriptiveness, but this increase was greater for the activist-backed program. Furthermore, requirements added by the activist-backed program were more likely to impose costs on firms than requirements added by the industry-backed program, many of which may even benefit firms. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that industry-backed programs emphasize less costly types of stringency than activist-backed programs. They also reveal patterns of change that previous scholarship failed to anticipate, illustrating how disentangling types of stringency can improve theory building and testing.

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The Shadow of the Consumer: Analyzing the Importance of Consumers to the Uptake and Sophistication of Ratings, Certifications, and Eco-Labels

Cited by 19 publications

References 77 publications

Sustainability strategies by companies in the global coffee sector

Sustainability strategies by companies in the global coffee sector

Ecolabeling as a Policy Instrument for More Sustainable Development: The Evidence of Supply and Demand Interactions from Russia

Do Private Regulations Ratchet Up? How to Distinguish Types of Regulatory Stringency and Patterns of Change

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