Prior research has suggested that consumers believe that products made using sustainable, environmentally friendly technologies are likely to underperform those made using traditional methods. We question the robustness of this assumption and identify scenarios in which sustainability is likely to have the opposite effect, strengthening rather than weakening consumers' product performance beliefs. Specifically, we argue that sustainability is likely to produce a halo effect able to attenuate and even override the negative impact of compensatory inferences underlying consumers' belief that sustainability comes at the expense of performance. We propose that this halo effect stems from consumers' view of the company as a moral agent engaged in a prosocial behavior. In this context, we identify two factors that are likely to influence the strength of the halo effect: the degree to which consumers view the company as a moral agent whose actions aim to benefit society and the degree to which moral concerns are prominent in consumers' minds. Following this line of reasoning, we identify two ways in which managers can increase the perceived performance of sustainable products: by associating sustainable benefits with the company rather than with its products and by emphasizing the societal benefits of sustainability. We test these predictions in a series of four empirical studies that show convergent evidence for our theorizing. Our findings have important public policy implications, documenting actionable strategies that managers can use to mitigate the potential negative impact of sustainability and strengthen the perceived performance of sustainable products.

中文翻译：

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当可持续性不是责任时：市场道德的光环效应

先前的研究表明，消费者认为使用可持续、环保技术制造的产品可能会逊于使用传统方法制造的产品。我们质疑这一假设的稳健性，并确定可持续性可能产生相反效果的情景，加强而不是削弱消费者对产品性能的信念。具体而言，我们认为可持续性可能会产生光环效应，能够减弱甚至覆盖消费者认为可持续性是以牺牲性能为代价的补偿性推理的负面影响。我们认为这种光环效应源于消费者将公司视为从事亲社会行为的道德代理人的观点。在这种情况下，我们确定了两个可能影响光环效应强度的因素：消费者将公司视为其行为旨在造福社会的道德代理人的程度以及消费者心目中道德问题的突出程度。按照这一推理思路，我们确定了管理者可以通过两种方式提高可持续产品的感知性能：将可持续收益与公司而不是其产品联系起来，以及通过强调可持续发展的社会收益。我们在一系列四项实证研究中测试了这些预测，这些研究显示了我们理论化的收敛证据。我们的发现具有重要的公共政策含义，