Consumers' perception on green products and services: Evidence from the Czech automotive sector

Résumé:

Green consumers´ behavior is significant in the context of value chain of business. Sustainability in Automotive plays a big role, because of EU directives, social responsible attitudes, economic efficiency etc. But, the sustainable activities without some positive consumers´ response have negligible impact on value chain. Consumers should accept green products, their higher price, and sustainable distribution system of green products. Sometimes, consumers tend to search for information about a sustainability of supply chain, to confirm a greenness of their favorite products. On the other side, many consumers in Automotive do not interest in sustainability, more in technical aspects of cars. The research question is: Do the Czech consumers interest in green solutions of Automotive businesses, and do they believe in sincere efforts of manufacturers by implementation of these solutions?
This paper aims to outline consumers´ perception of green solutions in the context of automotive business. Based on results of marketing research, the interest in green solutions, and trust in sincere efforts will be described. The paper is based on secondary data collection, literature review, and summary of previous researches, which were conducted previously by the authors. Due to a long-term interest of researchers in this topic, the paper compares data from the research in 2018 to responses in 2020. In 2020, the research was organized after the first COVID wave in the Czech Republic, in the time period June - August. Researchers expected a change in consumers´ behavior, because of transformation of society all over the world. Therefore, the same questions in both questionnaires (2018, 2020) were designed. It enables a direct comparison in time.