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Recommender systems have long been employed by e-commerce platforms to boost revenue by tailoring product suggestions to consumer preferences. However, recommender systems designed to achieve broader societal goals, such as nudging consumers towards sustainable choices by prioritizing sustainable products in their recommendations, are now emerging. While extant research has covered the effects of traditional recommender systems on consumer behaviour, research on the effectiveness and mechanisms of sustainability-oriented systems remains limited. Building upon recommender system and nudging theory, in this paper, we analyse how sustainability-oriented recommender systems change consumer choices compared to traditional systems and the absence of recommendations. Through a labcontrolled experiment featuring three conditions (traditional, sustainability-oriented, and no recommendations) in an online store simulation, we examine both behavioural outcomes and underlying drivers. Our findings reveal that sustainability-oriented recommender systems significantly increase the purchase of sustainable products by enhancing awareness of these items and reducing the effort required to find them. Importantly, these systems do not affect the overall quantity of products purchased. However, we also found that these systems amplify perceptions of being overwhelmed by sustainability messaging. This research shows practitioners the potential of sustainability-oriented recommender systems to encourage sustainable consumption while maintaining business objectives, offering a pathway to align sustainability with profitability goals.
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Satinet, C., Ducarroz, C., & Fouss, F. (2024). Understanding the impact of sustainability-oriented recommender systems on consumers’ choices (Louvain Research Institute in Management and Organizations Working Paper Series). https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/236312