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Business, trust and environmental information: Perceptions from consumers and retailers
Author(s) -
Eden Sally
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
business strategy and the environment
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.123
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1099-0836
pISSN - 0964-4733
DOI - 10.1002/bse.3280030401
Subject(s) - distrust , perception , public relations , business , marketing , government (linguistics) , economic interventionism , balance (ability) , politics , political science , linguistics , philosophy , neuroscience , law , medicine , physical medicine and rehabilitation , biology
This paper explores how business sees its role as a provider of information to the public about products marketed with environmental claims. This revolves around issues of depersonalised advice to customers, education of the wider public and, most crucially, justification of company activities. The author demonstrates how people criticise this information because of the way that they perceive the motives of business to colour it, rather than because of the facts it conveys. People distrust aspects of business, especially its environmental information, for these reasons but the perceived expertise of business in comparison with the lack of expertise of the public means that they have little choice but to trust the more general system of information provision. The balance of trust to doubt is precarious and an overall loss of public trust has implications for the regulation of business because self‐regulation will no longer be seen as accountable and pressure may build for increasing government intervention, e.g. in eco‐labelling. These issues are addressed through the use of qualitative data from in‐depth interviews with green consumers and retailers.