PEPP Seminar “When Do Consumers Stand Up for the Environment? Evidence from a Large-scale Social Experiment to Promote Environmentally Friendly Coffee” (Feb 2)
2017/01/10
Title: “When Do Consumers Stand Up for the Environment? Evidence from a Large-scale Social Experiment to Promote Environmentally Friendly Coffee”
Presenter: Dr. Ryo Takahashi (Assistant Professor, Waseda Institute for Advanced Study)
Date: Thursday, February 2nd, 2017
Time: 15:30-17:00
Venue: 3K Building, Room 311 (Central Area)
Coordinator: Prof. Hisahiro Naito
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Abstract
To prevent and reduce environmental degradation and pollution, in recent years, sustainable consumption and production have been promoted. For example, shade-grown coffee certification programs (hereafter, “forest coffee certification”), one of the environmentally friendly certification schemes, have attracted increasing attention. Although the consumption of certified coffee in Western countries increased since 1990s, the situation in Asia is different. For example, although Japan was the one of the major coffee-importing countries, the market share of certified coffee is limited. The current market situation implies that certain obstacles limit consumers’ purchasing behaviors for certified forest coffee. However, due to the lack of rigorous empirical studies, the obstacles to purchases of certified forest coffee and determinants of consumer behaviors remain unclear.
This study examines effects of marketing strategies on sales of environmentally friendly coffee (particularly, forest coffee), utilizing a social experiment in collaboration with a company that provides coffee and other drinks through vending machines throughout Japan.
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