Factors Influencing the Decision to Purchase Goods with Ecolabels (on the Example of Russian Grocery Retail)

In the modern world, one of the most acute and urgent problems of all mankind is the deterioration of the environment. Along with the deterioration of the ecological situation, the level of people's awareness of the state of the environment is increasing. The growing popularity of environmental awareness has created a new segment of consumers with a demand for products that are harmless to the health and well-being of the planet. Retailers across industries are feeling the competition for a new segment of green shoppers, but grocery retail is showing the most growth, according to research from Knight Frank. Due to the ambiguity of the situation in the market for products with improved environmental performance, new research is needed to provide an understanding of the factors influencing the decision to purchase products with ecolabels. Among developed countries, sustainable consumption is more developed, which is why there is no lack of scientific work on this topic. However, the degree of scientific elaboration of the topic remains low for most developing countries, in particular for the Russian Federation. There are currently no studies on how food retailers influence consumer behavior in the context of purchasing eco-labeled goods on the Russian food retail market, which explains the scientific novelty of this study. Within the framework of this master's thesis, the process of making a decision to purchase goods is considered as an object of research. The subject of the research is a set of factors that influence the decision to purchase goods with ecolabels. The problem area highlighted above leads to the following main objective of this study: to identify the factors that influence the decision to purchase eco-labeled products. Structural equation modeling will be used as a data analysis method. Structural equation modeling will be implemented using RStudio software and accompanied by additional data analysis methods (cluster and regression analyzes) to test some hypotheses in IBM SPSS Statistics software. The result of the work is a model of factors influencing the decision to purchase goods with ecolabels. The most significant factors were identified and the strength of their influence on the Russian consumer in the food retail segment was determined. Moreover, additional analysis in the process of testing hypotheses helped to reveal some of the characteristics of the Russian consumer of goods with improved environmental characteristics. Based on the results of the work, recommendations were formed for grocery retailers and manufacturers of goods with ecolabels, wishing to attract a new segment of environmentally friendly consumers.