The impact of sustainability in coffee production on consumers’ willingness to pay–new evidence from the field of ethical consumption

Although there is an abundance of literature on the general relationship between sustainability and financial performance of businesses, the results often remain controversial concerning the measurement of business sustainability performance. Especially for concrete managerial purposes, a clearer focus on the product level as a major driver for corporate success seems fruitful. On such topic, likewise a number of studies exist, of which several questions remain not fully settled. Particularly, one of the most cited studies in the field by Trudel and Cotte (MIT Sloan Manag Rev 50(2):61–68, 2009) provides only preliminary results, calling for further research. Consequently, following the considerations of the two authors, we conducted a study focusing on sustainability in coffee production to clarify some of the questions remaining open. Besides further scrutinizing whether sustainable conduct is valued and bad conduct punished by customers in changing their willingness to pay for coffee, we also differentiated between the social and environmental dimension, furthermore exceeding their research by considering whether consumers value additional certification of sustainability. Applying a vignette study, we find that sustainability measures do not necessarily have to pay off, while conversely, bad conduct, especially in the social dimension, is clearly punished. In addition, we can show that bad behavior is stronger punished than good behavior rewarded. Finally, our results reveal that certification does not significantly increase the average consumer’s willingness to pay.