When Green Companies Cultivate Non-Green Consumers: The Role of Delegability in Pro- Environmental Behavior
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Abstract:
As more companies incorporate sustainable initiatives in their business practice, it is a common belief that such initiatives would encourage its consumers to follow suit and engage in similar pro- environmental behavior (PEB) of their own. Our research challenges this notion and demonstrates that consumers are in fact less likely to undertake their own PEB when the firm undertakes sustainable initiative that is proximate to theirs. We test the boomerang effect of green proximity, the extent to which the firm’s sustainable initiative is closely related to consumers’ PEB. Using actual behavioral data, we show that customers of a university pantry used more single-use plastic bags when the store recycled plastic bags (high green proximity) rather than aluminum cans (low green proximity). Using 11 experiments, we demonstrate process evidence, tease out alternative explanations, examine consumer heterogeneity, and test interventions. Specifically, we show that (1) the effect of green proximity is driven by delegability, such that consumers perceive that environmental protection can be delegated to the firm when the firm’s sustainable initiative is proximate to their own PEB, (2) it is the high green proximity reducing consumers’ PEB as opposed to the low green proximity increasing consumers’ PEB, (3) the effect is more pronounced among consumers with a high propensity for delegation, and (4) the effect can be mitigated by decoupling firm’s sustainable initiative and consumer’s PEB either temporally or geographically. Furthermore, we rule out moral licensing using both mediation and moderation methods and demonstrate that, while consumers fail to consider the wastefulness of their actions on the spot, they do recognize wastefulness in retrospect. Unveiling a fundamental prediction error, we show that managers erroneously believe a firm’s sustainable initiative would motivate consumers to engage in similar PEB, the exact opposite to how consumers actually behave. Together, this research sheds light on when and why the firm’s sustainable initiative, though well-intended, may unwittingly decrease consumers’ PEB and promote more wasteful behaviors.
Bios:
Yu-Shan Huang is a fourth-year doctoral candidate in the Department of Marketing, University of Central Florida (UCF) and is the 2025 AMA-Sheth Foundation Doctoral Consortium Fellow. Yu-Shan earned her master’s degree in marketing from the University of Manchester, UK. Her primary research focuses on social corporate responsibility, sustainability, and consumer pro-environmental behavior. Yu-Shan earned the Judge’s Choice Award at the 2023 UCF Student Scholar Symposium and represented UCF at the Conference of Florida Graduate Schools Statewide Research Poster Symposium. She was awarded the Doctoral Research Support Award (2023-2024) and was named a Doctoral Finalist in the 2023 UCF Three-Minute Thesis Competition.
Dr. Xin He is Associate Professor and the Ph.D. Program Coordinator in the Department of Marketing, University of Central Florida. Xin earned his Ph.D. from the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh in 2004 and has since been a faculty member at the University of Central Florida. His research primarily focuses on (1) consumer decision making, especially consumption decisions and (2) word of mouth. Furthermore, he studies consumer adoption of automation and artificial intelligence. Xin’s research has appeared in leading journals, including Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, among others. Xin was a recipient of the Excellence in Research Award, the Teaching Incentive Program Award, and the Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award. He was nominated by doctoral graduates and received the 2020-21 Excellence in Mentoring Doctoral Students Award (a university award).