Corporate green policies: consumer perception and legitimacy effects

This paper aims to address consumer perceptions and the effects on corporate legitimacy resulting from the adoption of green policies. After a theoretical analysis and a literature review, a questionnaire was administered to 102 consumers to understand aspects of corporate green policies. The paper then focused on certain forms of green policies, using a chi-square statistical analysis to determine consumers’ willingness to pay a price premium for products characterized, in the green sector, by recycling and the adoption of voluntary certification when the company’s legal representative provides direct communication. Greater consumer willingness can be found in improved consumer perception, resulting in increased corporate legitimacy. The results confirm the research hypothesis, providing a contribution to more specific studies investigating the effects of green policies on consumers, even for individual sub-forms or aspects.