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The Sustainability Liability: Potential Negative Effects Of Ethicality On Product Preference, Michael G. Luchs, Rebecca W. Naylor, Julie R. Irwin, Rajagopal Raghunathan

Mason School of Business Articles

Manufacturers are increasingly producing and promoting sustainable products (i.e., products that have a positive social and/or environmental impact). However, relatively little is known about how product sustainability affects consumers' preferences. Theauthors propose that sustainability may not always be an asset, even if most consumers care about social and environmental issues. The degree to which sustainability enhances preference depends on the type of benefit consumers most value for theproduct category in question. In this research, the authors demonstrate that consumers associate higher product ethicality with gentleness-related attributes and lower product ethicality with strength-related attributes. As a consequence of these associations, the …