Choose Sustainable! How Digital Nudging positively impacts consumer behavior and corporate reputation

Digital nudging has recently gained relevance across multiple domains; however, its effectiveness in fostering sustainable consumer behaviour remains underexplored. This study is part of ongoing research on digital nudging for sustainability and contributes to a broader research project on conscious shopping. This study builds upon previous research that identified three predominant digital nudging architectures and aims to empirically test their effectiveness in promoting conscious shopping. Employing a between-groups experimental design and a structured online questionnaire, the results confirm the efficacy of all three proposed architectures in driving sustainable consumption. The study found that the crowd-sourcing model was the most effective in increasing engagement, while the in-sourcing model had the strongest effect on consumers’ willingness to pay a premium price for sustainable products. The study also emphasized the crucial role of retailers in fostering consumer trust and credibility through digital nudging strategies. While prior research has examined digital nudging for sustainability, this is the first empirical study to evaluate the effectiveness of dominant nudging architectures within the realm of conscious shopping.