Ready for take-off? : Effectiveness of Different Green Communication Strategies in the Aviation Industry The influence of evidence type and eco-label type on willingness to pay for sustainable kerosine

Objective: The study at hand deals with the effectiveness of different communication strategies related to convincing travellers to embrace green initiatives. The goal was to examine how the use of different message contents would influence the willingness to pay for sustainable kerosene for potential passengers. Method: To answer this question, a 2 x 2 experimental design was created, using videos as the stimuli. The videos differed with regards to evidence type (emotional vs. factual) and the sender of an eco-label (EU vs. airline association), resulting in four different videos. It was examined to what extent these two design factors can influence the trustworthiness, credibility, and consumer attitude of an airline. Lastly, a connection between evidence type in combination with label type and the willingness to pay for sustainable aviation fuel was studied. Results: The results of this study suggest no connection between the design factors and the dependent measures. The mean scores of the dependent measures barely differed within the sample and showed no statistical significance. Eventually, this research discusses possible reasons for the insignificance of results and provides implications for future research. Keywords: SAF, evidence type, eco-label, sustainable aviation, behavioral change