New research project on experimentation for plastic reduction

Vegetables in plastic bags. Photo: Arimag/Shutterstock
Photo: Arimag/Shutterstock

20 January 2020 14:40

New research project on experimentation for plastic reduction

How can retail companies contribute to reduce plastic consumption? NHH researchers will find answers.

After having been granted 9.5 million Norwegian kroner in funding from the Norwegian research council to investigate sustainable business models and green consumer behaviour, NHH researchers Sveinung Jørgensen, Lars Jacob Tynes Pedersen and Siv Skard have received an additional 700 000 NOK research grant from the Norwegian Retailers’ Environmental Fund. The purpose is to conduct a series of experimental studies on plastic reduction in retail.

The perceptions and choices of consumers

The researchers recently had a first paper published from this work, in the FT50-ranked  journal of business ethics.

The paper,  When is sustainability reliability and when is it an asset? Quality inferences for core and peripheral attributes, investigates the perceptions and choices of consumers related to products with green attributes, including recycled packaging through four experiments in the lab and in the field.

The study is conducted in collaboration with Orkla, which is one of the corporate partners in the research project.

The funds from the Fund is the first research grant since the Fund began its activities, as most of the existing grants (in excess of 50 MNOK) have been given to various environmental protection measures.

Research dissemination movies

The research projects investigates business topics of high relevance to companies. For this reason, the researchers have also received funds to produce and share movies that communicates the topics and results of the research projects.

Below are two examples of short movies (in Norwegian) that have been produced thus far.

The first one presents the broader research project, while the other one zooms in on how companies can proceed to design and implement sustainable and profitable business models in practice.

More movies are under production and will be shared in due course.