{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,16]],"date-time":"2026-01-16T19:43:48Z","timestamp":1768592628231,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":37,"publisher":"Emerald","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2019,7,8]],"date-time":"2019-07-08T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1562544000000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/site-policies"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IMDS"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2019,7,8]]},"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Purpose<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>The purpose of this paper is to find the optimal environmental quality criteria for a strategic eco-labeling authority with three objectives (i.e. maximizing the aggregate environmental quality, maximizing the industry profit and maximizing the social welfare). Particularly, the authors investigate how the existence of imperfectly informed consumers affects labeling criteria determination and competition among firms.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Design\/methodology\/approach<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>A game-theoretic modeling approach was adopted in this paper. A three-stage sequential game was modeled and backward induction was used to solve for a subgame perfect Nash equilibrium. To investigate the impacts of the existence of imperfectly informed consumers, the equilibrium, if all consumers are perfectly informed of the eco-label, was studied as a benchmark.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Findings<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>A more strict eco-labeling criterion improves revenues for both the labeled and unlabeled firms. It is interesting to find that the eco-labeling criteria to maximize industry profits are stricter than the criteria to maximize social welfare. Moreover, when the fraction of imperfectly informed consumers increases, the eco-labeling criteria to maximize aggregate environmental quality or industry profits will be more strict, while the criteria to maximize the social welfare will be looser.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec>\n<jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Originality\/value<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>The authors analyze the equilibrium strategies for firms against the eco-labeling criteria certified by authority with different objectives. The obtained optimal labeling strategies could provide insightful guidelines for the certifying authority to select the best suitable labeling criteria to achieve its goals.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1108\/imds-06-2018-0256","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,6,26]],"date-time":"2019-06-26T04:45:57Z","timestamp":1561524357000},"page":"1166-1188","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":16,"title":["Optimal eco-labeling strategy with imperfectly informed consumers"],"prefix":"10.1108","volume":"119","author":[{"given":"Tijun","family":"Fan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Yang","family":"Song","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Huan","family":"Cao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Haiyang","family":"Xia","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]}],"member":"140","reference":[{"issue":"2","key":"key2019100712125165800_ref001","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"284","DOI":"10.1016\/S0095-0696(03)00078-0","article-title":"Environmental quality competition and eco-labeling","volume":"47","year":"2004","journal-title":"Journal of Environmental Economics and Management"},{"issue":"3","key":"key2019100712125165800_ref002","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"289","DOI":"10.1016\/0167-2681(95)00037-2","article-title":"Toward a theoretical model of voluntary overcompliance","volume":"28","year":"1995","journal-title":"Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization"},{"issue":"2","key":"key2019100712125165800_ref003","first-page":"1","article-title":"Multiplicity of eco- labels, competition, and the environment","volume":"7","year":"2009","journal-title":"Journal of Agricultural and Food Industrial Organization"},{"issue":"2","key":"key2019100712125165800_ref004","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"133","DOI":"10.1007\/s10640-007-9184-6","article-title":"Eco-labeling, competition and environment: endogenization of labelling criterion","volume":"41","year":"2008","journal-title":"Environmental and Re-source Economics"},{"issue":"1","key":"key2019100712125165800_ref005","first-page":"1","article-title":"Can non-state global governance be legitimate? 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