Increasing Environmental Sensitivity via Workplace Experiences

Abstract

The authors examine the extent to which environmentally sensitive behavior at the workplace facilitates the translation of proenvironmental attitudes into consumer choices. They take advantage of a naturally occurring quasi-experiment in workplace experience and use a conjoint choice task to measure consumer behavior. The results indicate that (1) consumers are influenced by environmental attributes, (2) experience and level of concern moderate the influence of environmental attributes, (3) the effects of experience and concern are more than just additive, and (4) experience can facilitate environmentally conscious behavior among those with high levels of environmental concern by reducing their sensitivity to the effect of brand name. The authors conclude with implications for activists, public policymakers, and marketing managers.