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Concerns related to the environment are evident in the increasingly ecologically conscious marketplace. Using various statistical analyses, investigats the demographic, psychological and behavioral profiles of consumers who are willing to pay more for environmentally friendly products. Finds that this segment of consumers were more likely to be females, married and with at least one child living at home. They reported that today’s ecological problems are severe, that corporations do not act responsibly toward the environment and that behaving in an ecologically favorable fashion is important and not inconvenient. They place a high importance on security and warm relationships with others, and they often consider ecological issues when making a purchase. Managerial implications for green marketers and suggestions for future research are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the coordination mechanism of cost sharing for green food production and marketing between a food producer and a supplier who both contribute to the sales of green food.

This paper first develops demand functions for both a food supplier and a producer, considering their influence on green degree of food and associated consumers’ acceptances. Then, cost-sharing contracts-based game models are proposed. At last, regarding to optimal supply chain profits and green performance, the proposed contracts and the non-coordination situation are compared and tested by a real case.

When green cost is only shared by one side, the cost-sharing contracts cannot optimally coordinate the food supply chain, but it can improve profits for both the supplier and producer. When consumers’ sensitivity to the green degree of food increases, a mutual cost-sharing contract will bring more profits for both the supplier and producer than those under the non-coordination mode in a decentralized supply chain situation. A real case verifies the conclusions.

The models are in complete information, and the market demand is assumed to be linear to sales price. Mutual cost sharing is only for material processing and food production, which can be extended to include sharing for sales cost. Coordination ideas on the proposed contracts development and solutions for optimal decisions can be applied in the other industries.

The study shows that coordination between a supplier and a producer is needed to improve the food supply chain’s green performance.

This paper first extends the existing profit functions by considering the green efforts of both a supplier and a producer as well as their effects on green degree of products and consumers’ acceptances to the green degree.

The theory of planned behavior (TPB) served as a framework for identifying major antecedents of everyday green purchasing behavior and for determining their relative importance.

The German market research institute GfK provided data (n = 12,113) from their 2012 household panel survey. A two-step structural equation modeling approach was applied to test both the measurement and the structural model.

Willingness to pay (WTP) was the strongest predictor of green purchasing behavior, followed by personal norms. The impact of attitude is insignificant. This implies an attitude – behavior gap.

Individuals overestimate their self-reported WTP and behavior, which suggests that the share of explained variance is in reality lower. It has to be doubted whether consumers are objectively able to judge products by their environmental impact. Even if consumers are willing to buy a “greener” product, their subjective evaluation might be incorrect. Further research should be based on actual purchasing data. In addition, the attitude – behavior gap should be scrutinized by further research to identify further barriers to green consumption.

Consumers need to be aware that their consumption behavior can make a difference. They have to value the benefits of green products and understand why these are priced higher. Firms can apply pricing and promotional strategies addressing personal norms and inducing a higher WTP to capitalize on the opportunities of the green market segment.

The study integrates WTP and personal norms as critical predictors into the TPB and furthermore expands the extant literature on green purchasing behavior to cover daily consumer goods extending beyond organic food. This enhances understanding of the structure of the constructs and determines their relative importance.