When Going Green Backfires: How Firm Intentions Shape the Evaluation of Socially Beneficial Product Enhancements
the exact mechanism the brief asks about, stated outright in the abstract. The authors report that consumers are less likely to buy a green product when they see the company as having improved it on purpose than when the same environmental benefit arrived as an unintended side effect. They explain it through lay theories about resource allocation: consumers assume an intended green enhancement took resources away from product quality, which lowers purchase interest. They also report a boundary condition that depends on the type of enhancement, and that the effect generalises beyond a single setting
the exact mechanism the brief asks about, stated outright in the abstract. The authors report that consumers are less likely to buy a green product when they see the company as having improved it on purpose than when the same environmental benefit arrived as an unintended side effect. They explain it through lay theories about resource allocation: consumers assume an intended green enhancement took resources away from product quality, which lowers purchase interest. They also report a boundary condition that depends on the type of enhancement, and that the effect generalises beyond a single setting
Written from the abstract read 2026-10-18.
What our sources record
Recorded when this source was checked, figures included, with page references and quotation marks removed.
Newman, G. E., Gorlin, M., & Dhar, R. (2014). When Going Green Backfires: How Firm Intentions Shape the Evaluation of Socially Beneficial Product Enhancements. Journal of Consumer Research, 41(3), 823-839. doi:10.1086/677841.