An Eco-label for the Airline Industry PDF
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JYVÄSKYLÄ STUDIES IN BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS 178 SKteafraen NBoaruvmapeiasltoer An Eco-label for the Airline Industry – Instrument for Behavioral Change? JYVÄSKYLÄ STUDIES IN BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS 178 Stefan Baumeister An Eco-label for the Airline Industry – Instrument for Behavioral Change? Esitetään Jyväskylän yliopiston kauppakorkeakoulun suostumuksella julkisesti tarkastettavaksi yliopiston Agora-rakennuksen Lea Pulkkisen salissa kesäkuun 12. päivänä 2017 kello 12. Academic dissertation to be publicly discussed, by permission of the Jyväskylä University School of Business and Economics, in building Agora, Lea Pulkkinen hall, on June 12, 2017 at 12 o’clock noon. UNIVERSITY OF JYVÄSKYLÄ JYVÄSKYLÄ 2017 An Eco-label for the Airline Industry – Instrument for Behavioral Change? JYVÄSKYLÄ STUDIES IN BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS 178 Stefan Baumeister An Eco-label for the Airline Industry – Instrument for Behavioral Change? UNIVERSITY OF JYVÄSKYLÄ JYVÄSKYLÄ 2017 Editors Tuomo Takala Jyväskylä University School of Business and Economics Pekka Olsbo, Ville Korkiakangas Publishing Unit, University Library of Jyväskylä Cover photo by Stefan Baumeister. Permanent link to this publication: http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-39-7081-9 URN:ISBN:978-951-39-7081-9 ISBN 978-951-39-7081-9 (PDF) ISBN 978-951-39-7080-2 (nid.) ISSN 1457-1986 Copyright © 2017, by University of Jyväskylä Jyväskylä University Printing House, Jyväskylä 2017 ABSTRACT Baumeister, Stefan Christoff An Eco-label for the Airline Industry - Instrument for Behavioral Change? Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä, 2017, 111 p. (Jyväskylä Studies in Business and Economics ISSN 1457-1986; 178) ISBN 978-951-39-7080-2 (nid.) ISBN 978-951-39-7081-9 (PDF) Climate change is the biggest challenge humanity has ever faced and there is no doubt that human activities are the main cause. One activity that has received much attention in this discussion is air transportation. Although its contribution is still moderate, this industry is growing at a very fast rate and with that its impact on climate change. In order to enjoy its social and economic benefits also in the future and to avoid regulatory restrictions, the industry’s contribution needs to be kept in check. Various mitigation strategies exist such as technolog- ical, market-based, operational, regulatory and behavioral changes. This disser- tation focuses on behavioral change. One instrument leading towards behavior- al change is the eco-label. This dissertation presents and examines the idea of introducing an eco- label for the airline industry. It has the following two objectives: 1) to study pre- requisites essential for the use of an eco-label in the airline industry and 2) to study the potential outcome an airline eco-label could have on the behavior of air passengers aiming at the mitigation of climate change. This dissertation is based on four articles and follows a mixed-method approach. It utilizes data from two surveys (N=148, N=554), 12 industry expert interviews and flight and fuel data from secondary sources. The results showed that it is difficult for air passengers to identify green flight options. However, air passengers actively selecting greener flight options can make a real difference as it was found that there are tremendous differences in the environmental performances of individual flights. An eco-label could promote behavioral change as it helps air passengers to easier identify greener flights. The results showed that an airline eco-label had influenced the booking decision of air passengers and led to behavioral change. Air passengers chang- ing behavior would also demand the airline industry to improve its environ- mental performance. This could also lead to more environmental competition within the industry. Based on the findings a clear recommendation can be given to the airline industry to implement an industry wide eco-label. An eco-label would lead to behavioral change among air passengers which in turn would mean less emissions and a reduced impact of air transportation on climate change. Keywords: eco-label, behavioral change, air passengers, airline industry, climate change Author’s address Stefan Baumeister Mattilanniemi 2 FI-40100 Jyväskylä [email protected] Supervisor Prof. Hanna-Leena Pesonen School of Business and Economics University of Jyväskylä Jyväskylä, Finland Reviewers Prof. Lassi Linnanen School of Energy Systems Lappeenranta University of Technology Lappeenranta, Finland Dr. Andreas Wittmer Institute for Public Services and Tourism University of St. Gallen St. Gallen, Switzerland Opponent Prof. Lassi Linnanen ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor Hanna-Leena Pesonen, for all the guidance and advice as well as for always being there for me when I needed support or help in completing this project. Secondly, I would like to thank my second supervisor, Senior Researcher Tiina Onkila, who has been a great source of inspiration when it comes to actually doing research and an excellent co-author. Further, I would also extend my gratitude to Professor Magali Delmas at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and Profes- sor Sybille Schwarz from the University of Applied Science Offenburg for their valuable contribution to this work. I also thank my opponent Professor Lassi Linnanen and my external reviewer Dr. Andreas Wittmer for their valuable comments in the final stages of writing this dissertation. For all the personal and scientific support I would like to thank all my fel- low Ph.D. candidates Salvatore Ruggiero, Sari Hämälainen, Kukka-Maria Ulvila, Kristiina Joensuu, Taneli Vaskelainen and Bhavesh Sarna as well as my dear colleagues at UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. Also would I like to express my warmest gratitude to the University of Jyväskylä, School of Business and Economics for providing me with the facilities, training and generous funding during all these years. Further I would like to thank the Fulbright program for giving me the opportunity to spend one year as a Gradu- ate Visiting Researcher at UCLA. In addition to that, I would like to thank TEKES, Työsuojelurahasto and Liikesivistysrahasto for their financial support. Also would I like to thank Finnair Oyj, as one of the cooperation partners in the WINCSR project, for supporting me with my data collection. Nevertheless, I would have never chosen this path without my parents and my brother who have taught me the importance of protecting our envi- ronment since my early childhood. Thank you for your ongoing support during all these years. Further, my gratitude goes to my relatives in Finland who have so often provided me with a home whenever I needed it. Last but not least I would also like to thank all those inspiring and wonderful people I have spent significant time with during this journey and who have made the past five years so memorable: Suvi Mäkelä, Gintas Silinskas, Xin Xing, Guillaume Ber- nard, Antonina Shevchuk, Daniela Wachter, Anson Lam, Peerapong Ping, Mik- ko Karhunen, Demi Smoloktou, Cecile Fountain, Andrew Mambo, Vesa Kaak- kuriniemi, Jussi Rumbin, all the volunteers of the local Greenpeace Jyväskylä Group as well as all the guys from Kortepohja Sauna. Jyväskylä 15.05.2017 Stefan Baumeister CONTENTS ABSTRACT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS FIGURES AND TABLES CONTENTS PART I: INTRODUCTORY ESSAY 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 9 1.1 The investigated topic ................................................................................ 9 1.2 Aim and research task of the study........................................................ 15 1.3 Eco-labels in the airline industry ............................................................ 16 1.4 The research process and summary of the articles .............................. 19 2 THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS ................................................................... 22 2.1 Aviation and the environment ................................................................ 22 2.1.1 Aviation’s environmental impacts and possible solutions ..... 22 2.1.2 Behavioral change ......................................................................... 24 2.1.3 Pro-environmental initiatives in the aviation industry ........... 26 2.1.4 Behavioral change among air passengers .................................. 28 2.2 Eco-labels as a new approach ................................................................. 30 2.3 Aviation and eco-labels ............................................................................ 32 2.3.1 Eco-labels ........................................................................................ 32 2.3.1.1 How eco-labels function ....................................................... 32 2.3.1.2 Types of eco-labels ................................................................. 33 2.3.1.3 Eco-label as market mechanism ........................................... 34 2.3.1.4 Reasons for consumers to respond or not respond to eco-labels ................................................................................. 34 2.3.2 Eco-label as an instrument for behavioral change ................... 35 2.3.3 Issues Critical to the Introduction and Success of Eco-labels ... 38 2.3.4 Specific Features for an Airline Industry Eco-label .................. 40 2.4 Measuring environmental impacts of aviation .................................... 42 3 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS ......................................................... 46 3.1 Research approach .................................................................................... 46 3.2 Research material and its analysis ......................................................... 48 4 REVIEWING THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE ARTICLES ......................... 59 4.1 Article 1 – Are airline’s pro-environmental initiatives actually visible to air passengers? ......................................................................... 59 4.2 Article 2 – How should and airline eco-label been developed to function as a driver for behavioral change? .......................................... 60 4.3 Article 3 – Are there differences in the environmental performance of individual flights? ......................................................... 63 4.4 Article 4 – Would an airline eco-label affect the booking decisions of air passengers? .................................................................... 66 4.5 Synthesis of the results ............................................................................. 67 5 CONCLUDING REMARKS ............................................................................. 70 5.1 Scientific implications .............................................................................. 70 5.1.1 Why eco-labels? – An air passenger’s perspective ................... 70 5.1.2 Willingness to pay for less polluting flights .............................. 71 5.1.3 Airline eco-label target group ..................................................... 72 5.1.4 Prerequisites for an airline eco-label .......................................... 73 5.1.5 Why eco-labels? – An airline’s perspective ............................... 74 5.1.6 Competitive advantage for airline’s environmental differentiation ................................................................................ 75 5.2 Practical implications for the airline industry ...................................... 76 5.3 Reliability and validity ............................................................................. 78 5.4 Directions for further research ................................................................ 80 YHTEENVETO (SUMMARY IN FINNISH) ............................................................ 82 ZUSAMMENFASSUNG (SUMMARY IN GERMAN) ........................................... 83 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 84 APPENDIX 1: SURVEY QUESTIONS FOR ARTICLE I ......................................... 96 APPENDIX 2: INTERVIEW FRAMEWORK FOR ARTICLE II ............................ 99 APPENDIX 3: FLIGHTS INCLUDED IN ARTICLE III ........................................ 100 APPENDIX 4: SURVEY QUESTIONS FOR ARTICLE IV .................................... 102
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