Our study reviews the rapidly growing marketing literature on the organic label effect, and classifies it based on the underlying explanatory principles (theoretical background). Two broad categories of these studies are identified. The first consists of papers based on the image transfer or on the halo effect, and the second is composed of examinations built on signaling models. After reviewing 60 papers we can conclude that although the presence of the organic label effect has already been proven by many examinations in different contexts, its theoretical foundation is predominantly ad hoc: the authors of the reviewed studies do not justify that the choice of the underlying theory is the most fitting to the situation; moreover we could not find any studies comparing the relevance of the alternative explanations.

JEL codes: D82, Q13, L15