지속가능한 소비자 행동 실천을 위한 정책 개입 효과: 텍스트마이닝을 활용한 소비자 반응 분석

The increasing importance of environmental sustainability requires consumers’ active engagement in environmentally sustainable consumption. Accordingly, there have been various attempts to encourage consumers to participate in initiatives for environmental protection. Government’s policy intervention is one of such attempts designed to force the public to change their behavior to be more environmentally sustainable. With a growing emphasis on achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, governments in many countries adopt and enforce policies that directly influence consumer behavior. However, there are only limited research on consumer reactions and the effects of enforcement of such policies that require consumers to sacrifice their consumption experience for sustainability. Existent studies have primarily focused on compensatory policies for sustainable consumption and examined the effects of various rewards for participating in government policies on reducing consumer resistance to the policies. Recently, however, governments implement policies for sustainability that requires compulsory participation. Despite the growing enforcement of compulsory policies for sustainability, research on consumer response to and the effects of such policies are scarce. This study aims to bridge this research gap by analyzing initial reactions of consumers to policies for environmental sustainability enforced in Korea and subsequent response to consumption experiences which has been restrained (or even deteriorated) after the policy enforcement. To answer the research question, this study employed a comprehensive approach of collecting text data from various sources such as consumer comments on internet news articles discussing upcoming regulatory policies and reviews from individuals who have directly experienced the service changes resulting from policy enforcement. The collected text data was subjected to sentimental analysis, to classify the opinions expressed into positive, negative, and neutral categories. Moreover, LDA topic modeling techniques were utilized to gain further insights and understand patterns within the classified data. This study provides a deeper understanding of the impact of policy implementation on consumer attitudes and behavior through a comprehensive examination of consumer reactions. The sentiment analysis revealed that initially, there was a prevalence of negative opinions among consumers when the regulatory policies were announced. However, there was a notable increase in positive opinions among those who actually experienced the service changes resulting from policy implementation. Furthermore, the LDA topic modeling analysis of the classified data revealed that consumers generally recognize the seriousness of environmental problems and the importance of addressing them and thus try to be accepting of policies that may restrain their consumption behavior. However, there were negative views specifically related to service quality and skepticism that the companies may actually benefit from cost reduction. The findings from this study contribute to a deeper understanding of consumer behavior in the context of compulsory policy implementation. The insights gained can inform policymakers and corporate practitioners in developing and implementing effective policies that encourage sustainable behavior while addressing consumer concerns. By recognizing the initial resistance to new policies and understanding the factors that contribute to consumer acceptance, policymakers can tailor their approaches to ensure the successful adoption and long-term effectiveness of compulsory measures. This study sheds light on consumer reactions to changes in consumption experiences.