Greenwash and green brand equity: The mediating role of green brand image, green satisfaction and green trust and the moderating role of information and knowledge

This work examines the impact of greenwash on green brand equity and analyses the mediation effects of green brand image, green satisfaction and green trust as well as the moderating effect of information and knowledge based on the legitimacy theory and signalling theory. This study adopts a questionnaire‐based survey design to gather data from 445 respondents using a cluster random sampling technique. Data collection focuses on Vietnamese consumers who had purchased electronic products in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The findings show that although greenwash is not significantly related to green brand equity possibly due to the halo effect, greenwash is adversely related to green brand image, green satisfaction and green trust, which would positively influence green brand equity. In other words, green brand image, green satisfaction and green trust play a full mediation role in the relationship between greenwash and green brand equity. In addition, information and knowledge actually moderate the relationship between greenwash and green brand equity, and it strengthens the adverse relationship between greenwash and green brand equity. This research is the first to combine green brand image, green satisfaction and green trust as mediators to shed light on the understanding of different impact mechanisms in the greenwash–green brand equity relationship. Furthermore, this research is also the first to study information and knowledge as a moderator in the greenwash–green brand equity relationship. This provides a better insight into the process and context by which greenwash affects green brand equity. Taken together, the findings of this study extend and advance the understanding regarding the different mechanisms and the dynamics in which green brand image, green satisfaction, green trust as mediators and information and knowledge as a moderator can play in the emerging market context of consumers of electronic products in Vietnam. The findings enrich the growing body of green marketing literature and contribute significantly towards a unified theory of brand equity.