On Physical Quality and Green Quality: Moving Towards Green Marketing
Abstract
The paper uses product characteristics approach to model consumer's preference for the physical quality and the green quality of a product being offered in a duopoly. Using a two stage game the paper shows that when greening involves reliance on an end-of-pipe technology then the green firm offers a lower physical quality product in contrast to its polluting counterpart which lowers its equilibrium market share. Moreover, with an increasing consumer's valuation for physical quality the market share of the polluting firm increases, increasing the environmental damage accrued to the society. A comparison with the welfare maximizing physical qualities indicates towards the sub optimal market outcomes. The paper also explores greening through the cleaner production initiatives and finds that the green firm offers a product with higher physical quality that result in lowering the market share of the polluting firm and thus the environmental damage. Lastly, a welfare analysis under the two settings reveals that under the cleaner production setting the total welfare is higher in contrast to the end-of-pipe setting accentuating the supremacy of former as a greening industrial initiative.