Means and ends sustainability nudges, information effects, and consumer restaurant patronage
通过离散选择实验，研究揭示餐厅在实施可持续性助推时，披露手段会降低顾客光顾意愿，而披露目的可能提升光顾，且餐厅类型影响效果。
Abstract Restaurants can nudge their customers toward more sustainable actions. However, implementing nudges may affect consumer patronage. Using a discrete choice experiment, we propose a means‐ends framework to shed light on the conditional (on patronage) impact of sustainability nudges on consumer preference for restaurants. The findings reveal that while preserving the subtleness of a specific sustainability nudge, disclosing the means or the mechanism of the nudges leads to a negative impact on consumer restaurant patronage, while revealing the ends or the goodwill behind the sustainability nudges may suggest positive effects on patronage which may in turn lead to an unconditional gain in sustainability. Furthermore, some nudges may only improve patronage if both the means and the ends of nudges are revealed. By examining two types of restaurants, we show that the type of restaurant also significantly influences the effects of sustainability nudges on patronage. This research quantifies the nuanced dynamics of how revealing the means and the ends of nudges may affect the restaurant business and provides insights for designing effective sustainability strategies in the restaurant industry.