Premium
The Effect of Information on Willingness to Pay for Canned Tuna Fish with Different Corporate Social Responsibility ( CSR ) Certification: A Pilot Study
Author(s) -
DE MAGISTRIS TIZIANA,
DEL GIUDICE TERESA,
VERNEAU FABIO
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of consumer affairs
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.582
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1745-6606
pISSN - 0022-0078
DOI - 10.1111/joca.12046
Subject(s) - certification , corporate social responsibility , willingness to pay , business , tuna , marketing , fish <actinopterygii> , fishery , economics , public relations , microeconomics , management , political science , biology
The objective of this study was to assess the role of information in consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) for food products with corporate social responsibility (CSR) certification. The item used for the experimental design was canned tuna fish, a product on the market that is already exhibiting various kinds of certification related to social and environmental attributes. Two different kinds of certifications were examined, namely Friend of the Sea , which involves environmental aspects, and SA8000 , related to workers' rights and more general social attributes. We implemented experimental auctions, taking into account three information treatments. The initial findings show that the WTP for both CSR labels is higher than the WTP for tuna fish without any CSR certification. Nevertheless, the information provided on CSR certification did not change consumers' WTP among the certification schemes. Our findings could also serve to fine‐tune marketing strategies to consumer preferences and determine which CSR activities are worth undertaking.