Factors influencing consumers’ perception of sustainable products: a systematic literature review

Following consumers’ desires, companies are committing to supply sustainable products on the market. Despite their efforts, the market share of sustainable products remains low. Available literature has provided many possible interpretations without reaching definitive results. This work aims to help bridge this gap by summarizing the main results and providing an original perspective on the factors influencing consumers’ perception of sustainable products, focusing on practical implications. In this paper, an in-depth literature review is conducted to identify factors influencing consumers’ perception of sustainable products. These factors are then classified according to the triple bottom line framework in order to provide a holistic perspective on sustainability, that is also in line with companies’ needs. Findings suggest that the uncertainty of the literature results is caused by the adoption of a partial perspective on sustainability, as most works focus only on one of the sustainability dimensions or consider only one product category. The results show that there are numerous factors that can influence consumer perception across all three sustainability dimensions. Businesses can enhance their marketing and communication efforts by adopting a holistic approach to sustainability. From a practical perspective, this study provides managers with a solid starting point to identify and assess sustainable products’ value in relation to the sustainability dimensions and the characteristics of the target customer segments.