IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/globus/v25y2024i2p491-511.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Greenwashing Understanding Among Indian Consumers and Its Impact on Their Green Consumption

Author

Listed:
  • Deepti Jog
  • Divya Singhal

Abstract

The consumer markets for green personal care products have been expanding rapidly in the past decade and so are the greenwashing practices of the companies. More and more companies are engaging in greenwashing, misleading consumers about their environmental performance or the environmental benefits of a product or service. As the discussion around greenwashing practices has grown in the past few years, consumers have become conscious of their choices and have started understanding the greenwashing practices of companies. The purpose of this empirical study is to assess the greenwashing understanding in Indian consumers’ green purchase behaviour and the effects of receptivity to green advertising, environmental consciousness and personal norm, using structural equation modelling. The findings confirm that the level of greenwashing understanding moderates the relationship between receptivity to green advertising and green purchase behaviour. Additionally, the findings provide that income level has a significant impact on environmental consciousness and green purchase behaviour relationship. The study has possible implications for advertisers, government and other agencies.

Suggested Citation

  • Deepti Jog & Divya Singhal, 2024. "Greenwashing Understanding Among Indian Consumers and Its Impact on Their Green Consumption," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 25(2), pages 491-511, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:globus:v:25:y:2024:i:2:p:491-511
    DOI: 10.1177/0972150920962933
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0972150920962933
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0972150920962933?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hung Vu Nguyen & Cuong Hung Nguyen & Thoa Thi Bao Hoang, 2019. "Green consumption: Closing the intention‐behavior gap," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(1), pages 118-129, January.
    2. Ghazali, Ezlika & Soon, Pat Chen & Mutum, Dilip S. & Nguyen, Bang, 2017. "Health and cosmetics: Investigating consumers’ values for buying organic personal care products," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 154-163.
    3. Ken Peattie, 2001. "Golden goose or wild goose? The hunt for the green consumer," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(4), pages 187-199, July.
    4. Roberts, James A., 1996. "Green Consumers in the 1990s: Profile and Implications for Advertising," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 217-231, July.
    5. 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.
    6. Xianbing Liu & Can Wang & Tomohiro Shishime & Tetsuro Fujitsuka, 2012. "Sustainable consumption: Green purchasing behaviours of urban residents in China," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(4), pages 293-308, July.
    7. Sheth, Jagdish N. & Newman, Bruce I. & Gross, Barbara L., 1991. "Why we buy what we buy: A theory of consumption values," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 159-170, March.
    8. Jaiswal, Deepak & Kant, Rishi, 2018. "Green purchasing behaviour: A conceptual framework and empirical investigation of Indian consumers," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 60-69.
    9. 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.
    10. Constantinos N. Leonidou & Dionysis Skarmeas, 2017. "Gray Shades of Green: Causes and Consequences of Green Skepticism," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 144(2), pages 401-415, August.
    11. Newsom, Jason T. & McFarland, Bentson H. & Kaplan, Mark S. & Huguet, Nathalie & Zani, Brigid, 2005. "The health consciousness myth: implications of the near independence of major health behaviors in the North American population," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(2), pages 433-437, January.
    12. Varshneya, Geetika & Das, Gopal, 2017. "Experiential value: Multi-item scale development and validation," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 48-57.
    13. Riccardo Torelli & Federica Balluchi & Arianna Lazzini, 2020. "Greenwashing and environmental communication: Effects on stakeholders' perceptions," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 407-421, February.
    14. Rajdeep Grewal & Joseph A. Cote & Hans Baumgartner, 2004. "Multicollinearity and Measurement Error in Structural Equation Models: Implications for Theory Testing," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(4), pages 519-529, June.
    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. 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.
    2. Vera Ferrón‐Vílchez & Jesus Valero‐Gil & Inés Suárez‐Perales, 2021. "How does greenwashing influence managers' decision‐making? An experimental approach under stakeholder view," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(2), pages 860-880, March.
    3. Tingfa Zhang & Huaying Qin & Weishuang Xu, 2022. "Environmental Regulation, Greenwashing Behaviour, and Green Governance of High-Pollution Enterprises in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-22, October.
    4. Abdullah Al-Swidi & Redhwan Mohammed Saleh, 2021. "How green our future would be? An investigation of the determinants of green purchasing behavior of young citizens in a developing Country," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(9), pages 13436-13468, September.
    5. Katarzyna Kreczmańska-Gigol & Tomasz Gigol, 2022. "The Impact of Consumers’ Green Skepticism on the Purchase of Energy-Efficient and Environmentally Friendly Products," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-12, March.
    6. Bhardwaj, Seema & Sreen, Naman & Das, Manish & Chitnis, Asmita & Kumar, Sushant, 2023. "Product specific values and personal values together better explains green purchase," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    7. Xianchuan Yang & Shih‐Chih Chen & Lei Zhang, 2020. "Promoting sustainable development: A research on residents' green purchasing behavior from a perspective of the goal‐framing theory," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(5), pages 1208-1219, September.
    8. Andreas Falke & Nadine Schröder & Claudia Hofmann, 2022. "The influence of values in sustainable consumption among millennials," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 92(6), pages 899-928, August.
    9. 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.
    10. Francesca Bernini & Fabio La Rosa, 2024. "Research in the greenwashing field: concepts, theories, and potential impacts on economic and social value," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 28(2), pages 405-444, June.
    11. Gonçalves, Helena Martins & Lourenço, Tiago Ferreira & Silva, Graça Miranda, 2016. "Green buying behavior and the theory of consumption values: A fuzzy-set approach," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(4), pages 1484-1491.
    12. Ramona Zharfpeykan, 2021. "Representative account or greenwashing? Voluntary sustainability reports in Australia's mining/metals and financial services industries," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 2209-2223, May.
    13. Handoko Limaho & Sugiarto & Rudy Pramono & Rio Christiawan, 2022. "The Need for Global Green Marketing for the Palm Oil Industry in Indonesia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-15, July.
    14. Nadine E. van der Waal & Frans Folkvord & Rachid Azrout & Corine S. Meppelink, 2022. "Can Product Information Steer towards Sustainable and Healthy Food Choices? A Pilot Study in an Online Supermarket," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-17, January.
    15. Jana Hojnik & Mitja Ruzzier & Tatiana S. Manolova, 2020. "Sustainable development: Predictors of green consumerism in Slovenia," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(4), pages 1695-1708, July.
    16. Zaremohzzabieh, Zeinab & Ismail, Normala & Ahrari, Seyedali & Abu Samah, Asnarulkhadi, 2021. "The effects of consumer attitude on green purchase intention: A meta-analytic path analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 732-743.
    17. Birindelli, Giuliana & Chiappini, Helen & Jalal, Raja Nabeel-Ud-Din, 2024. "Greenwashing, bank financial performance and the moderating role of gender diversity," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    18. Waris, Idrees & Hameed, Irfan, 2019. "Using Extended Model of Theory of Planned Behavior to Predict Purchase Intention of Energy Efficient Home Appliances in Pakistan," MPRA Paper 109612, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Florence Lachet-Touya, 2019. "The Assignment of a CSR Level of Action: Rule vs Discretion," Working papers of CATT hal-02141052, HAL.
    20. Jana Hojnik & Mitja Ruzzier & Maja Konečnik Ruzzier, 2019. "Transition towards Sustainability: Adoption of Eco-Products among Consumers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-29, August.

    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:sae:globus:v:25:y:2024:i:2:p:491-511. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.imi.edu/ .

    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.