The impact of consumer confusion from eco-labels on negative WOM, distrust, and dissatisfaction

Abstract

For decades companies have added eco-labels to products to gain a competitive advantage and inform consumers about the environmental impact of products. Although benefits of eco-labels have been investigated previously, negative outcomes related to the proliferation of these labels have not been studied until this point. This study investigates the impact of eco-labels on a variety of forms of consumer confusion, specifically studying whether this confusion has a direct or indirect effect on negative word-of-mouth, distrust, and dissatisfaction, as mediated by negative emotion. The results from a quasi-experimental field study that employs a between-subject design from the food and detergent industries show that similarity, overload, and ambiguity confusion lead to negative emotion, negative word-of-mouth, distrust, and dissatisfaction. This study also shows that negative emotion mediates the effect of three confusion constructs on dependent variables, such as negative word-of-mouth, distrust, and dissatisfaction. This study presents theoretical and practical implications, limitations, and future research avenues in the areas of consumer confusion and eco-labeling.

Keywords:

• eco-labels
• information overload
• consumer confusion
• negative emotion
• negative word-of-mouth
• distrust
• dissatisfaction

Acknowledgement

We appreciate our three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments, which helped us improve the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.