Who pays more (or less) for pro-environmental consumer goods? Using the auction method to assess actual willingness-to-pay

Sustainability Commitment, New Competitors’ Presence, and Hotel Performance: The Hotel Industry in Barcelona

“…The effort they make in considering the impact of their activity on sustainability is not translated in higher valuation by customers that can result in higher prices, loyalty, a higher demand that improves occupancy, or more value for the intangible that represents reputation. This result is similar to those form previous research [12]. Using an experiment to measure the willingness to pay, they found that there is no a positive difference in favour of environmental products.…”

“…To confirm that the relationship is negative, we calculated the Spearman Rho coefficient and found it to be´0.489 and significant at the 5% level (correlation between the Tripadvisor valuation and having the ISO 14001). This result implies that, from customers' points of view, hotels committed to sustainability have no better results, probably because, as some authors have pointed out (Baber et al) [12] customers express that sustainability is important but they do not take this as a relevant variable when deciding their consumer behaviour, in deciding how to valuate hotels other factors are becoming key in defining the final valuation. In fact, the most important websites in terms of visitors to get information about hotels, Tripadvisor or Booking com, ask about service quality, cleaning, or hotel location; but there is no specific item for the eco-friendly attitude of the hotel.…”

“…From the first studies the idea of a gap between intention and action has been present [12]. Chong and Verma (2013) [28] found no evidence of a clear effect on revenues when a hotel become eco-certified, and the previous empirical research has not found evidence of customers willing to pay more for products just because they have been produced by firms more involved in green practices.…”

“…Some authors argue that what consumers express in terms of how important they consider sustainability is not always followed up by purchase decisions in the same direction [12]. This paper analyses the possible correlation between financial performance and proactive attitudes towards sustainability in the hospitality industry.…”

“…This paper analyses the possible correlation between financial performance and proactive attitudes towards sustainability in the hospitality industry. Previous studies have suggested that, in general, customers have no more willingness to pay just because a product has been produced by a firm committed to the environment, a situation that implies a gap between intentions, customers more concerned about the environment, and behaviour [12]. However, some authors have shown through their empirical work [13] that hotels which follow green practises have a competitive advantage; customers do not want to pay more but they prefer, ceteris paribus, to go to hotels that clearly apply green practices.…”