The impact of green marketing on collective behaviour: Experimental evidence from the sports industry

This paper aims to investigate how supporters perceive and react to environmental messages that call for reducing the environmental impact of sporting events. Based on prospect theory, we randomly provided 1423 supporters attending football events in Europe with (1) a negative (perceived loss for supporters), (2) a neutral (no perceived gain or loss) or a (3) a positive (perceived gain for supporters) environmental message and measured their attitudes towards the message, pro-environmental behavioural intentions and perceived consumer effectiveness. Our results reveal that supporters show traits of collective behaviour during sports events that may lower the in-stadium effectiveness of environmental messages. The environmental commitment of the favoured sports club increases the influence of green marketing on supporters with higher levels of environmental values and knowledge, but only when they depart from a collective identity. This paper contributes to green marketing literature revealing that modelling collective behaviours of members of groups exposed to highly emotional situations should be coordinated with information and awareness-raising campaigns in everyday life. We also contribute to the prospect theory showing that loss aversion prevails in risk-free conditions even though it does not directly shape supporters' behavioural intentions.