‘I wanna be sustainable, but I don't wanna show it!’: The effect of sustainability cues on young adult consumers' preferences
通过焦点小组和在线实验，研究了产品上的可持续性符号（如环保标识）如何影响年轻消费者的购买偏好，发现这些符号并非总是有效，其效果取决于消费者的环境关注度和感知亲近度。
Abstract Given the urgent need to address plastic pollution, fashion companies are implementing diverse strategies to reduce plastic in their production processes. To communicate their commitment to plastic waste reduction, companies have started including symbols on their products (i.e., sustainability cues). However, the effect of these symbols on consumer behaviour remains unclear. Thus, through a mixed method involving three focus groups and two online experiments, we investigate the effect of sustainability cues on consumers' preferences. Our findings show that including sustainability cues on a product is not always an effective business strategy. Hence, we expand the ongoing debate on the effects of environmental strategies, offering new insights into consumers' perceptions of sustainability cues and demonstrating the importance of perceived proximity and environmental concern in enhancing or reducing buying intentions towards sustainable products. For fashion companies, we reveal if and how sustainability cues can represent a competitive leverage prompting environmentally friendly purchases.