IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ers/journl/vxxiiiy2020i4p1098-1112.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Green Consumerism vs. Greenwashing

Author

Listed:
  • Anna Jakubczak
  • Malgorzata Gotowska

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of the article is to diagnose knowledge about greenwashing and consumer attitudes towards this phenomenon on selected markets of European organic food products. The main principle of greenwashing is the attempt to give the impression that the company is doing more for the environment than it actually does. The article discusses the characteristics of greenwashing and also examines the level of awareness among young consumers about the knowledge of this type of practices on the organic food market. Approach/Methodology/Design: The subjects of the research are young people, aged 12-35, from two European countries Poland and Turkey. The research material was collected by direct interview method using a questionnaire, which contained 15 closed questions and 5 survey questions. The selection of the sample was deliberately random. Findings. Demographic characteristics such as sex, education or other descriptions of consumers as net monthly income, place of residence do not change the knowledge about greenwashing. Practical Implications: Greenwashing is a barrier to economic development in a sustainable way, because it contributes to the increase of skepticism among consumers towards pro-environmental initiatives. Greenwashing companies use resources that could be used in an environmentally friendly way. Originality/Value: It cannot be ruled out that the results obtained may also affect other groups of consumers and other markets.

Suggested Citation

  • Anna Jakubczak & Malgorzata Gotowska, 2020. "Green Consumerism vs. Greenwashing," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(4), pages 1098-1112.
    • Handle: RePEc:ers:journl:v:xxiii:y:2020:i:4:p:1098-1112
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.ersj.eu/journal/1733/download
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kai-Michael Griese & Kim Werner & Johannes Hogg, 2017. "Avoiding Greenwashing in Event Marketing: An Exploration of Concepts, Literature and Methods," Journal of Management and Sustainability, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 7(4), pages 1-15, December.
    2. Yu-Shan Chen & Ching-Hsun Chang, 2013. "Greenwash and Green Trust: The Mediation Effects of Green Consumer Confusion and Green Perceived Risk," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 114(3), pages 489-500, May.
    3. Lori Holder-Webb & Jeffrey Cohen & Leda Nath & David Wood, 2009. "The Supply of Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosures Among U.S. Firms," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 84(4), pages 497-527, February.
    4. Thomas P. Lyon & John W. Maxwell, 2008. "Corporate Social Responsibility and the Environment: A Theoretical Perspective," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 2(2), pages 240-260, Summer.
    5. Thomas P. Lyon & John W. Maxwell, 2011. "Greenwash: Corporate Environmental Disclosure under Threat of Audit," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(1), pages 3-41, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Anna Jakubczak & Małgorzata Gotowska, 2020. "Green Consumerism vs. Greenwashing," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(Special 2), pages 167-181.
    2. Silvia Ruiz-Blanco & Silvia Romero & Belen Fernandez-Feijoo, 2022. "Green, blue or black, but washing–What company characteristics determine greenwashing?," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 4024-4045, March.
    3. Heyes, Anthony & Lyon, Thomas P. & Martin, Steve, 2018. "Salience games: Private politics when public attention is limited," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 396-410.
    4. Wong, Jin Boon & Zhang, Qin, 2022. "Stock market reactions to adverse ESG disclosure via media channels," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(1).
    5. Wei Li & Weining Li & Veikko Seppänen & Timo Koivumäki, 2022. "How and when does perceived greenwashing affect employees' job performance? Evidence from China," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(5), pages 1722-1735, September.
    6. Mark Bagnoli & Susan G. Watts, 2017. "Voluntary Assurance of Voluntary CSR Disclosure," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(1), pages 205-230, February.
    7. Florence Lachet-Touya, 2019. "The Assignment of a CSR Level of Action: Rule vs Discretion," Working papers of CATT hal-02141052, HAL.
    8. Torelli, Riccardo & Balluchi, Federica & Lazzini, Arianna, 2019. "Greenwashing and Environmental Communication: Effects on Stakeholders’ Perceptions," OSF Preprints 97vxn, Center for Open Science.
    9. Marta Pizzetti & Lucia Gatti & Peter Seele, 2021. "Firms Talk, Suppliers Walk: Analyzing the Locus of Greenwashing in the Blame Game and Introducing ‘Vicarious Greenwashing’," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 170(1), pages 21-38, April.
    10. Daniel Reimsbach & Rüdiger Hahn, 2015. "The Effects of Negative Incidents in Sustainability Reporting on Investors’ Judgments–an Experimental Study of Third‐party Versus Self‐disclosure in the Realm of Sustainable Development," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(4), pages 217-235, May.
    11. Torelli, Riccardo & Balluchi, Federica & Lazzini, Arianna, 2019. "Greenwashing and Environmental Communication: Effects on Stakeholders’ Perceptions," OSF Preprints 97vxn_v1, Center for Open Science.
    12. Wei Li & Weining Li & Veikko Seppänen & Timo Koivumäki, 2023. "Effects of greenwashing on financial performance: Moderation through local environmental regulation and media coverage," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 820-841, January.
    13. Jennifer L. Robertson & A. Wren Montgomery & Timur Ozbilir, 2023. "Employees' response to corporate greenwashing," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(7), pages 4015-4027, November.
    14. Tobias Bauckloh & Stefan Schaltegger & Sebastian Utz & Sebastian Zeile & Bernhard Zwergel, 2023. "Active First Movers vs. Late Free-Riders? An Empirical Analysis of UN PRI Signatories’ Commitment," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 182(3), pages 747-781, January.
    15. Rene Brauer & Mirek Dymitrow, 2020. "The Language of Sustainable Tourism as a Proxy Indicator of Quality," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-17, December.
    16. Kaijun Gan & Silin Ye, 2024. "Window Dressing in Impression Management: Does Negative Media Coverage Drive Corporate Green Production?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-22, January.
    17. Mark Bagnoli & Susan G. Watts, 2020. "On the corporate use of green bonds," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 187-209, January.
    18. Honglei Mu & Youngchan Lee, 2023. "Greenwashing in Corporate Social Responsibility: A Dual-Faceted Analysis of Its Impact on Employee Trust and Identification," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(22), pages 1-17, November.
    19. Gregor Dorfleitner & Sebastian Utz, 2024. "Green, green, it’s green they say: a conceptual framework for measuring greenwashing on firm level," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 18(12), pages 3463-3486, December.
    20. Patricia Crifo & Vanina D. Forget, 2015. "The Economics Of Corporate Social Responsibility: A Firm-Level Perspective Survey," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 112-130, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Greenwashing; green consumerism; social corporate responsibility; social consumer responsibility; rural areas.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility
    • M31 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - Marketing
    • D18 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Protection
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • Q01 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - General - - - Sustainable Development

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ers:journl:v:xxiii:y:2020:i:4:p:1098-1112. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Marios Agiomavritis (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://ersj.eu/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.