Journal
JOURNAL OF BUSINESS ETHICS
Volume 171, Issue 4, Pages 719-739Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s10551-020-04461-0
Keywords
Environmental sustainability; Website design; Interactivity; Green value; Green risk; Purchase intentions; Brand attitudes; Facial expressions; Mouse interactions
Funding
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
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Green marketing can help companies gain competitive advantage but may also lead to greenwashing, potentially impacting profitability and ethics. Consumer perceptions of greenwashing vary and are influenced by website interactivity.
Many firms are striving to improve their environmental positions by presenting their environmental efforts to the public. To do so, they are applying green marketing strategies to help gain competitive advantage and appeal to ecologically conscious consumers. However, not all green marketing claims accurately reflect firms' environmental conduct, and can be viewed as 'greenwashing'. Greenwashing may not only affect a company's profitability, but more importantly, result in ethical harm. Therefore, this research extends past greenwashing studies by examining additional influences on and outcomes of perceived greenwashing. To do so, we conducted two studies, an interview study with consumer product and consulting firms, as well as an experiment examining consumers interacting with a company website. For these studies, we used multiple methods, including interviews, questionnaires, and neurophysiological techniques. We found that perceived greenwashing relates not only to environmental and product perceptions, but also to consumers' happiness while interacting with the website. We also found that website interactivity relates to perceived greenwashing, environmental and product perceptions, and to the amount of interaction with the website. We conclude by discussing managerial and ethical implications for research and practice.
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