Problem definition

Due to their central role as intermediaries between capital surplus and deficit units, banks in particular have an outstanding role to play in the transformation towards a sustainable economic and social structure. Regulatory bodies have therefore been working for some time on readjusting the incentive system for financial market players. However, the question of whether bank customers are generally prepared to support this development and prefer banking products that integrate sustainability attributes over traditional product variants in the sense of an increased willingness to pay remains open - and has been largely unexplored to date.

Research objective

The research project addresses the aforementioned problem by means of a comprehensive and representative willingness to pay analysis: is there a general willingness to pay for sustainable attributes in banking products? The planned study will focus specifically on private customers and identify possible differences in willingness to pay based on various socio-economic characteristics (e.g. differentiation by gender, age, income bracket)

Study design and methodology

The study is carried out using conjoint analysis. The advantages of this method are

1. Respondents are confronted with a hypothetical choice situation that approximates a real choice situation as closely as possible. This ensures a high level of external validity
2. Conclusions about the significance of individual attributes in relation to willingness to pay are determined statistically and therefore indirectly. A higher internal validity is therefore possible, as it is not jeopardized by the distorting effects of direct surveys.

Product configurations (attributes and their composition in product vignettes) are developed together with experts from the banking sector. Based on this, a digital questionnaire is created, which is distributed by a market research institute to a representative sample (for Germany, by age, gender and region; at least N=1000). This makes it possible to make reliable statements about the willingness to pay for sustainable banking products. The large representative sample also allows segmentation to highlight the effects of demographic variables using multiple regression analyses.

Expected benefits / social relevance

The transformation towards a more sustainability-oriented economic and social structure that is already taking place today is an urgent and challenging change development for the coming decades. Despite a wide range of regulatory efforts, this can only succeed if there is sufficient public awareness of the need for this transformation. Due to their special role as intermediaries, banks and savings banks have an essential role to play. In this respect, the expected benefits and social relevance of the project result from initial insights into the question of whether and, in particular, in which sections of the population, in their role as bank customers, there is a willingness to make an individual contribution to the success of the sustainable transformation

The project is funded by the Foundation for Science