Abstract
Today, companies are searching for the ways to be perceived as more sensitive to the environment in order to enhance their green brand equity, because of consumers’ increasing environmental concern. Companies have reacted to increasing environmental consciousness of consumers by introducing and developing eco-friendly products. However, there are still consumers being suspicious about the environmental performance of companies and their products. Greenwash or disclosure of deceptive green claims decreases the popularity of the real green product and decreases the effectiveness of green marketing.This study proposed four constructs -greenwashing, green perceived risk, green confusion and green trust- as the predictors of the green brand equity of gas station companies. The study offers a negative relationship between greenwash perception and green brand equity. Besides, the effects of green confusion, green perceived risk and green trust on green brand equity are tested. The study also develops perceived greenwash index, so that it reveals a direct effect of greenwash on green brand equity. The empirical analysis was carried out based on the data obtained from 400 customers of the gas station companies, which are located in Ankara, the capital city of Turkey. The survey result was analyzed by using Partial Least Squares (PLS-PM) analysis method. The results reveal that consumer’s greenwash perception has a positive effect on green confusion and green perceived risk, whereas green confusion and green perceived risk have negative effects on green trust. Expectedly, green trust has a positive effect on green brand equity. The result also indicates that consumer’s greenwash perception negatively and directly affects green brand equity.
Highlights
The numbers of companies considering environmental applications in their practices have been raised rapidly in recent years
The results reveal that consumer‟s greenwash perception has a positive effect on green confusion and green perceived risk, whereas green confusion and green perceived risk have negative effects on green trust
Thanks to the importance of green marketing, this study focuses on the concept of green brand equity and offers a research framework to examine its relationship with its four drivers: greenwashing, green perceived risk, green consumer confusion, and green trust
Summary
The numbers of companies considering environmental applications in their practices have been raised rapidly in recent years. Lyon and Maxwell (2011) define the concept as “declaration of positive information about company‟s social and environmental performance by hiding negative information in order to present a positive corporate image”. It includes some applications of firms such as their environmental claims that are an untruth and unhelpful, suggesting a product is “green” but representing some product attributes without considering other essential environmental issues (Markham et al, 2014). It emerges at both the corporate level and the product level and includes a variety of modes of deceptive communication (Lyon and Montgomery, 2015)
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