Final Draft
Final Draft
Final Draft
2022-2023
Bachelor Thesis
2
Table of contents
1. INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................4
2.2 Greenwashing....................................................................................................8
3.1 Hypotheses......................................................................................................15
4. METHODOLOGY..................................................................................................19
5. RESULTS................................................................................................................24
7. BIBLIOGRAPHY...................................................................................................34
8. APPENDIX.............................................................................................................41
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1. INTRODUCTION
However, while there are many papers on these two topics separately, there is no
literature analyzing these two concepts parallelly. Furthermore, while many sectors use
greenwashing and green marketing techniques, there is one which has been under the
radar for exploiting, in great numbers, these types of campaigns. This is the fashion
industry, the sector highly present in people’s everyday lives, not only as consumers but
also as witnesses of their marketing campaigns. Nevertheless, focusing on this industry
is not only worthwhile because of these two factors, but because it is considered one of
the most polluting.
Bearing this in mind, the objectives of this paper are the following: to understand if the
increasing importance that is given to the environment and its protection really impacts
the fashion-consuming habits of people; to verify if there is a difference between people
who are exposed to greenwashing in contrast to green marketing in variables such as
intention to purchase, recommend, switch or trust a brand in the fashion context; to
identify which demographic groups are more affected by companies falsifying or
exaggerating their environmentally positive practices; and finally, to have a better
understanding of how greenwashing could be addressed based on the importance given
to it by consumers, if the responsibility should be placed on managers, institutions, and
consumers, or a mix of all.
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2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW
During the last decades, more and more environmental issues have arisen. This has
made the public progressively concerned about climate change and its impact on its
daily lives (Funk et al., 2020). The rising awareness and concern led governments to
implement public policies or legal frameworks to include the consequences of climate
change. Nevertheless, in recent years, following the legislative pressure and the pull
effect from the public, private companies have started to engage in climate action or
consolidated their environmentally friendly strategies.
Corporations have been increasingly considering their externalities, putting into practice
corporate social responsibility (CSR) business models. This has translated companies
making themselves accountable for their impact on society and making an effort to
partake in activities that benefit the environment and society, rather than detrimental
ones (Fernando, 2022). Some of the most popular CSR initiatives implemented by
companies are the reduction of their carbon footprint; promotion of diversity, inclusion,
and equity; volunteering programs for their employees during working hours;
ameliorating their labor policies, among others (Digital Marketing Institute, 2022).
Nevertheless, corporate efforts toward managing their externalities are not only driven
by their hope to have a better impact on society but also to attract investors.
Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting has increased during the past
years with continuing positive trends looking into the future. In 2011, 20% of the S&P
500 companies presented a sustainability report, in contrast to 2022 data, that shows
how this percentage has grown to 96% (Governance & Accountability Institute, INC.,
2022)
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Economists such as Milton Friedman renegade from the idea that businesses should
partake in these types of initiatives and rather focus on profit creation (Friedman, 1970).
However, it is undeniable that companies’ scope of impact and influence transcend
themselves and they should also be responsible for this, especially when it comes to
their environmental footprint. Even though this impact varies from industry to industry,
research shows that 63% of the greenhouse gases emitted around the world between
1751 and 2010 belonged to the same 90 companies (Star, 2016). Consequently, it would
be natural for companies to engage in activities that counteracted and reduced these
consequences.
Nonetheless, corporate activities have not been limited to reporting or decreasing their
negative impact on society. These actions have come hand in hand with public relations,
advertising, and the development of new areas of strategic marketing, making great
efforts to imprint their initiatives in their public image. While these initiatives can be
applied in any area corresponding to ESG, the focus of this paper will be on the “E”,
that is, the environmental field. The reason behind this is the alarming tendencies of the
last decade. A report developed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) showed how companies have increased the usage of self-
declared environmental claims (ISO 14021) as a corporate marketing tool (OECD,
2011) with a predicted increment of 66% in the number of eco-labels 1 used by 2030
(Ludvigsen & Zeuthen, 2018). But, while this data might seem positive, it came along
with other tendencies that polluted its well-intentioned purpose: 42% of these green
claims are believed to be “exaggerated, false and deceptive” or even in violation of
European Union standards according to the national consumer protection authorities
(European Commission, 2021).
1 Green marketing
As time passes, more studies are carried out on consumers' interest and demand for
environmentally conscious brands and products (Andy Kiersz, 2021; Dawn Papandrea,
2021; First Insight, Inc et al., 2022). This phenomenon has led companies to try to
attract customers and improve their competitive advantage by advertising their green
1
Eco-labels: “Labels that help to identify products, materials or services that have been produced on the
basis of criteria that guarantee the care and conservation of the environment” (BBVA, 2023)
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initiatives, their environmentally friendly products, or their sustainable business
practices, this strategy is known as green marketing (Fernando, 2022).
Some examples of companies doing this are Ikea or el Corte Inglés. The former is
working towards making all of their energy usages 100% renewable throughout all of
their shops and factories, in addition to reducing their waste creation to less than their
current 15% (Ikea, 2021). The latter guarantees that more than 90% of the residues
generated in their non-food branch are revalued through recycling or upcycling
techniques (El Corte Inglés, 2022). All of this information is easily accessible on their
web pages under “sustainability”.
This is becoming a common practice among brands, especially for those that sell
products or services online. This trend is likely taking place because of a pull effect
from the public. As a matter of fact, a quick search on “sustainable brand” in Google
trends between 2006 and today2 around the world will effectively evince how interest
over time follows a positive trend starting in 2015 and reaching its maximum point in
Research carried out in 2019 on the usability of corporate websites discovered that
people appreciate when companies demonstrate concern for society and the
environment as they are perceived as compassionate and responsible. However, users
2
Interest over time: The numbers reflect the search interest relative to the maximum value of a graph in a
given region and period. A value of 100 indicates the maximum popularity of a term, while 50 and 0
indicate that a term is half as popular relative to the maximum value or that there was insufficient data for
the term, respectively. (Source: www.google.com/trends).
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have specific expectations for how and where companies should communicate about
this positive impact. It was found that dedicating a whole category for this was more
effective, such as having a section titled “About Us” or “Sustainability” where all of the
initiatives are presented. Furthermore, information on environmental protection is
preferred, in addition to showcasing comprehensive data using a public-friendly tone
that avoids technical jargon (Kaley, 2019).
2 Greenwashing
Firstly coined by environmentalist Jay Westerfield in the 1980s, greenwashing has been
present even earlier in history. Some of the first examples of this date back to the 1960s
and an electrical company with nuclear power plants advertising their cleanness and
safety right after two nuclear meltdowns, in these same plants occurred in the US
(Watson, 2016). Since the creation of the concept of greenwashing, studies have tried to
analyze these actions. Researchers have attempted to categorize them and study their
causes and consequences.
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Some of the literature focused on extending the taxonomy of greenwashing has
managed to converge this concept with traditional corporate misbehavior. For example,
three of the most common misbehaviors are decoupling, selective disclosure, and
attention deflection. The first one, decoupling, refers to the space that is created between
the official rules and the actual way in which an organization operates (J. W. Meyer &
Rowan, 1977). This occurs when an organization wants to meet the expectations of its
stakeholders but does not change its practices in accordance. An example of this is the
re-branding strategy and promotion campaign of BP in 2000, the company spent more
than 30 million dollars in showing to the public this “greener” face but did not spend
nearly as much on renewable energy in the earlier years (Visser, 2012). The second
concept, selective disclosure, refers to the provision of information to some interested
parties before others, being this information complete or partial. For example, some
companies make public their positive actions toward the environment to seem more
transparent while still damaging it (Font et al., 2012). The third, attention deflection,
means the use of symbolic actions to redirect the focus of stakeholders and conceal
dishonest or fraudulent business practices. The use of dubious labels or certifications by
some companies is an example of this (Brown & Dacin, 1997; Marquis & Toffel, 2012).
Furthermore, there have also been more recent efforts to label environmental
misbehavior by companies and expand outside traditional conceptualizations. An
example of this is the report published by TerraChoice in 2010. This publication is
widely used throughout the literature on greenwashing because it established a list of
the most common ways that corporations manipulate environmental claims, known as
“the 7 sins of greenwashing”. Some examples are the sin of worshiping false labels, the
sin of vagueness, the sin of irrelevance, or the sin of no proof. These so-called sins
include tactics such as using third-party accreditations that do not exist or presenting
claims that are vague, ambiguous, and unsubstantiated (TerraChoice, 2010).
Nevertheless, albeit the aforementioned report is newer, the sins can easily be connected
to the classic conceptualization. For instance, the sin of fibbing could be an example of
decoupling as both imply delivering false information. In addition to this, other sins
presented such as the sin of irrelevance, vagueness, and no proof could be subsumed
under attention deflection, and the same with the sin of lesser of two evils which is
similar to selective disclosure (ibid).
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Moving on from taxonomizing greenwashing, another important part of the literature is
focused on analyzing the consequences at a business level of engaging in this type of
deceptive activity. A study that used the Chinese stock market as a sample found that
when a company is accused of greenwashing, its cumulative abnormal returns are
significantly negatively affected (Du, 2015). Another research found, for a sample of
nearly 1500 firms in more than 30 countries, that when there is a gap between internal
and external CSR actions (decoupling), the market value decreases as this space widens
due to a loss of credibility and legitimacy (Hawn & Ioannou, 2016). Another paper
detected that companies that struggle to provide precise information in their corporate
social reports find similar issues when trying to comply with the law (Laufer, 2003).
3 Consumer-level concepts
When a consumer goes through the process of deciding it passes through different
stages. It starts when they recognize they have a need, continued by looking for
information on a product or service that will better satisfy them, and the evaluation of
different alternatives. This is followed by finally deciding to purchase, and once bought,
the last stage: the evaluation of the satisfaction and matched or unmatched expectations
(Shaw, n.d.). Furthermore, consumer behavior is specific to each person due to the
personal, psychological, and social factors involved. Every customer has specific needs
that are influenced by their particular characteristics such as gender, age, culture,
income, and perceptions, as well as external factors like marketing campaigns and peer
pressure (Radu, 2023).
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Bearing this in mind, it can be expected that the rising environmental preoccupation
among the population might affect their decision-making and purchase intentions when
buying a product or service. Some consultancy groups such as Deloitte and Simon-
Kucher & Partners have carried out different studies on how sustainability and
environmental concerns affect consumer behavior. The former found for a sample of
UK adult consumers that more than 30%, with a 6% increase between 2021 and 2022,
ceased purchasing from some brands due to having ethical or sustainability-related
issues with them. This same study found that only 25% of consumers consider green
labels as a sign of sustainability and that 20% thought of these labels as something
important that could influence their purchasing decisions. The consulting group
associated these unexpectedly low percentages with frequent labeling inconsistencies by
companies that might be confusing consumers. To add insult to injury, the report
showed how almost 50% of the sample either lack knowledge about business
commitments regarding climate change and sustainability or have a lack of trust in them
(Archer et al., 2022).
On the other hand, the latter group found disparities among generations when it comes
to environmental concerns influencing their purchasing behavior. While 4 out of 5
consumers said that they are changing their consumption habits towards being more
sustainable, when it comes to making significant changes, Baby Boomers and
Generation X percentage is lower than Millennials 3. Furthermore, they unveiled that 1
out of every 3 consumers are willing to pay a premium for sustainable products, but
younger generations would pay more than older ones. They also found differences
among countries, with Austria leading in % of people significantly changing their
behavior to be more sustainable, followed by Italy, Spain, and Germany, with 42%,
41%, 35%, and 34% respectively (Jain et al., 2021).
As we can see, sustainability is very present in people’s lives across the globe and ages,
so important, that it has been considered among consumers one of the most relevant
drivers of value (Pope, 2021). Consumer behavior and sustainability have become so
intertwined that a new area of study merging the two concepts was created: the
3
There is a widespread consensus on the ages conforming different generational groups. The first group is
“Baby Boomers” which refer to the people born between 1946 and 1964, some divide this group in two
and name the later range “Generation Jones: Boomer II”. This is followed by “Generation X”, including
the group born between 1965 and 1980. Then, there are “Millennials” ranging between 1981 and 1996,
and finally, “Generation Z” including people born between 1997 and 2012 (Brunjes, 2023).
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sustainable consumer behavior (Belz & Peattie, 2009). It combines Dewey’s five stages
of the decision process (Dewey, 1910) and how it is influenced by the priority of being
sustainable, normally with a focus on environmental concerns (green consumption).
So, born from the aforementioned concept, a type of consumer was newly included in
general categorizations known as an environmentally-friendly consumer,
environmentally-sustainable consumer, or environmentally-responsible consumer.
While the concept has not been narrowed down, these categorizations are used as an
umbrella term for a consumer with certain characteristics. A green consumer is one that
has a predisposition for conserving the environment for the present and future
generations (Oliveira & Sousa, 2019; Quevedo et al., 2020). It is one that takes action
toward preserving natural resources, like energy or water, and wants to reduce the harm
done to the environment, overall, reaching society’s green goals (Yıldırım et al., 2016).
To sum up, they are consumers showcasing pro-environmental, and thus, pro-social
behavior (De Groot & Steg, 2009; Halder et al., 2020).
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Early work carried out in 1993, empirically studied different environmental claims and
the probability that they were found to be misleading and/or deceptive. The study
suggested how the claims related to promoting brand image and the environmental
advantages of the product were more likely to be considered deceptive in contrast to
claims related to straightforward environmental facts or claims talking about the
ecological benefit of the process used (Carlson et al., 1993). Another more recent study
showed that consumer behavior is affected differently depending on what type of green
marketing they are exposed to. It found that environmental advertisement had a more
significant impact followed by eco-labels and ending in eco-brands (Delafrooz et al.,
2014).
As it is observed, there has been a comprehensive general effort by research groups and
institutions to carry out detailed studies on concepts such as sustainability, green
marketing, ESG, green consumer behavior, and greenwashing. This compilation of
information will be used to theoretically support the hypothesis and causal mechanisms
that will be developed in the next section. It was important to this research to present
clear definitions of the concepts that will be analyzed and from which new conclusions
will be extracted.
4
Green trust: “willingness to depend on one object based on the belief or expectation resulting from its
credibility, benevolence, and ability about environmental performance” (Chen, 2010), p. 312.
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As concern about the environment increases it is important to understand in which ways
does this reflect on individual action. It has been shown that a considerable amount of
people is willing to change some of their habits in order to preserve and protect the
environment. On the other hand, companies, for different reasons, do also have the
intention of changing their practices to reach certain ecological standards. Nevertheless,
these companies' efforts are not always real or completely genuine. As it has been
mentioned before, some enterprises market themselves as sustainable when the reality is
far from that. Having this in mind, it is essential to understand how people’s behavior
changes around this matter.
This behavioral change has great implications for two main actors: companies and
governments. The former needs information on how consumers react to their actions,
they need to know if a consumer will continue buying their brand despite having their
reputation questioned. If this is the case, enterprises do not have an incentive to change
their practices. The latter is the one who is expected to act and constrain the former’s
actions. In many cases, consumers do not have the power to impact a company’s
activities, especially when it comes to conglomerates. So, this should be the case where
governments intervene and punish the harmful practices partaken by businesses.
While there is a growing body of literature trying to understand how consumer variables
interact with greenwashing, there are still some gaps to fill. Some authors have focused
on green marketing and the effect of the different ways it might be showcased, while
others have studied greenwashing and its impact on green perceived risk or green trust.
Likewise, researchers have also paid attention to how it might affect the purchase
intention of specific products (Barber et al., 2012). However, there is no research
comparing simultaneously green marketing and greenwashing in the fashion industry.
As such, there is no data nor conclusive information on whether people would behave
differently if presented with green marketing in contrast to greenwashing focusing on
one of the industries that consumers are more exposed to and one with which they
constantly interact: the fashion industry.
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current trend is that with the rise of the internet, the popularity of social media, and the
widespread access to audiovisual content, advertisement is more integrated into our
daily lives than ever across all demographic groups. As the type of ads people are
exposed to changes over time, so does the way customers interact with them.
Traditional media advertisements like TV ads, continue to be the most popular way for
people to discover a product, followed by word-of-mouth (Mander, 2021).
Nevertheless, the second most common way to find more information and do research
on a product, after search engines, is through social media (Doug, 2022).
Understandably, brands have greatly increased their spending to increment their media
presence and accordingly, the fashion industry has adjusted to the current trends,
becoming the higher spender in digital advertising across all industries in countries like
the US (Gitnux, 2023).
The apparel industry is one of the most consolidated sectors since it never ceases to
grow (Statista, 2023). Nevertheless, while the financial numbers are positive, they come
hand in hand with other alarming ones: this sector emits more CO2 than shipping and
international flights combined, amounting to 10% of the total world’s emissions,
furthermore, 20% of the plastic produced every year is associated to the manufacturing
of garment, besides, it is considered to be one of the primary polluters of clean water
due to the dyes used (Dottle & Gu, 2022; Halliday, 2022). While this happens, fashion
companies try to deceive consumers and greenwash their image, which brings us to
some outstanding data specific to the sector: nearly 60% of the “green” claims made by
fashion brands are considered to be greenwashing, these brands do not have easily
accessible information that proves their sustainable claims (World Bio Market Insights,
2021).
Taking this into account, the goals of this paper are the following: to examine if the
increasing importance that is given to the environment and its protection really impacts
the fashion-consuming habits of people; to verify if there are any disparities between
people who are exposed to greenwashing in contrast to green marketing in variables
such as intention to purchase, recommend, switch or trust a brand in the fashion context;
to identify which demographic groups are more susceptible to companies falsifying or
exaggerating their environmentally positive practices; and finally, to have a better
understanding of how greenwashing could be addressed based on the importance given
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to it by consumers, if it could be a joint effort between them, managers and/or
institutions.
3.1 Hypotheses
Once the objectives have been presented, the following subsection will describe the
hypotheses to be studied. As the intention of the paper is to analyze the consuming
behavior of consumers around both concepts: greenwashing and green marketing, this
will be done by comparing them parallelly. Nevertheless, the hypotheses presented are
going to be written based on the negative impact of greenwashing, using green
marketing as the reference group.
The causal mechanism between deceptive or honest marketing and purchase intention
works in different ways. Advertising techniques work by catching a consumer’s
attention, creating an initial interest in the product or service, followed by the creation
of a perceived value or benefits based on the claims made by the brand. However, once
a consumer understands or learns that this information is false, the trust in the brand
decreases damaging its reputation and image. This will make consumers hesitant to
purchase the product or even avoid the brand in the future. Furthermore, consumer
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backlash could be expected, where they might show their discontent publicly causing
negative advertisement. Conversely, the opposite might happen if the advertising is
honest (Verstraten, 2015).
These findings and mechanisms could be extrapolated to the subject of this paper.
Considering that greenwashing is a false claim and a type of deceptive advertisement it
can be expected that it will have a negative impact on the purchase intention of fashion
products. So, in this sense, it is expected that when compared with the green marketing
scenario, on average the purchase intention will be lower. Taking this into
consideration, the following hypothesis has been developed.
H1: Greenwashing will negatively affect the probability that a product is purchased.
Brand trust is known as the level of confidence, belief, and reliance that consumers have
on a company or brand. It is the consequence of a consumer trusting the claims made by
a company. It represents the consumer's perception that the brand will deliver on its
promises, maintain its integrity, and consistently provide products or services that align
with its claims (Chaudhuri & Holbrook, 2001). Brand trust is created by companies
through transparency, open communication, and their capacity to honor their
commitments. This is directly related to how businesses present and back their
sustainability claims. If a company falsifies its practices and this is discovered or
understood by its customers, it can be expected that they would feel betrayed and as if
they have been deceived by the brand. Expectedly, this will have negative consequences
on brand trust, as clients will become skeptical of future claims made by the company
questioning their integrity and honesty. Following this logic, the next hypotheses have
been developed.
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provided by the business (McMullan & Gilmore, 2008). Data shows that acquiring a
new customer is more expensive than retaining one, it is calculated to be 5 times more
costly (Tidey, 2018). Consequently, companies engage in strategies to retain consumers,
and many times this is done through marketing. The intention is to create positive
experiences for the customer, to increase their satisfaction, and create long-lasting
loyalty, which will reflect in a client repurchasing the brand’s products but also, as
important, in this client becoming an advocate for the brand (Rizan et al., 2014). Loyal
customers are more prone to share their positive experiences through word-of-mouth
marketing as they recommend the business to friends, family, and colleagues. All of
this, impacts positively on a brand’s reputation, giving place to a competitive advantage,
generating more revenue, and becoming more cost-efficient (Singh, 2006).
On the other hand, the opposite can be expected if the marketing used by the companies
involves false information or deceptive communications. Once the customer senses a
discrepancy between what was promised and what was delivered, the clients develop a
sense of dissatisfaction which hinders the brand’s reputation and the relationship
between the brand and the customer. Dissatisfaction leads to consumers becoming less
likely to remain loyal and to seek other alternatives increasing the churn rate (Bhat,
2023). In addition to having a negative effect on word-of-mouth and losing advocates
for the brand (Iqbal & Siddiqui, 2019). This has also been found true, specifically, in the
fashion industry (Nisa et al., 2022).
In order to test this relationship of deceptive or honest marketing with customer loyalty
applied to the research on greenwashing and green marketing, a related hypothesis was
developed. Nevertheless, in this case, following the aforementioned definitions,
consumer loyalty will be measured as the likelihood of switching brands and the
likelihood to recommend the product (Shailesh & Reddy, 2016; Tweddle, 2022).
These three hypotheses will be the ones to be tested through a survey and experiment
which will be explained in the next section. While this is the focus of the work, it is also
important to understand the demographical dynamics of consumer behavior, especially
because of the implications it might have for businesses and their targeting strategies.
While not hypotheses, based on the research previously done by different organizations,
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there are some expectations on how some population groups will behave. For example,
a gender gap has been evidenced in relation to sustainability and eco-friendly behavior
(Mintel, 2018). Women are more likely to engage in these types of activities in
comparison to men, the same behavior is anticipated in this paper, women will be more
likely to be negatively impacted by greenwashing, in contrast to green marketing, than
men.
Furthermore, on similar lines, age is also determinant of ecological concerns. It has been
demonstrated that younger generations are the ones more aware and willing to change
their behavior towards an eco-friendlier one. Gen Zs, or the people born between the
late 90s and early 2000s, give more importance to sustainability than brand name while
shopping. As well, they prefer buying from sustainable brands, in addition to using their
media presence to promote these types of eco-behavior (Insight, 2023; World Economic
Forum, 2022). Based on this, similar lines are expected on this research, younger age
groups will be more negatively affected by greenwashing when compared to green
marketing. Moreover, educational attainment has also proven to be related to
environmentally friendly behavior. Studies have found that higher levels of education
lead to individuals having a higher concern for popular welfare which manifest in acting
in an eco-friendlier manner (A. Meyer, 2015; Santhakumar et al., n.d.). So, according to
this, it can be expected that for the people who have attained higher educational levels,
the relationship between green marketing and greenwashing will deepen. Overall, we
could expect that the type of person most affected will be a young woman with a high
educational level.
4. METHODOLOGY
In order to test the hypotheses developed in the prior section a survey was created. The
questionnaire included 3 parts: demographic questions, the experiment and its related
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questions, and sustainability-related questions, these can be seen in Appendix A. The
survey was created in Spanish to reach a bigger audience as the population to be tested
is the people living in Spain or who usually shop for fashion in Spain. Furthermore, the
questions related to the case were formulated using a 5-point likelihood Likert scale.
This method was chosen due to being a more precise way of capturing respondents'
attitudes towards the ideas presented, also, it allows them to have a neutral standpoint
without forcing them to position, allowing for higher validity through the reduction of
response bias (Johnson & Morgan, 2016). While some questions could not be subjected
to a Likert scale, the sustainability-related questions also adopted the 5-point scale for
importance and frequency questions.
Google Forms was used as the tool to develop and share the survey due to its user-
friendliness and easiness to uses among respondents. Inside the survey, an in-between-
subject experiment was included. Half of the sample was presented with an example of
green marketing, and the other half with an example of greenwashing. Due to the latter's
nature, many of the scenarios that could be presented would have been redundant or
invalid, considering normally someone understands a product is greenwashed by
learning about it on the news or social media. This is why two imaginary situations
were created, utilizing completely neutral vocabulary without qualifying adjectives,
except for colors.
From an experimental point of view, the greenwashing scenario reactions will act as the
control group, while the greenwashing scenario and their answers will be considered the
treatment group. This is based on the assumption that green marketing is or should be
the status quo, while green marketing is more of an exceptional event. Through the
creation of these groups and the randomization of their participants, the effect of
greenwashing in contrast to green marketing can be measured.
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You find a cardboard label that reads:
100% organic cotton
Made in Spain
Certified by Global Organic Textile Standard and EcoLabel EU
QR titled "Get to know our commitment to the environment" and when you
scan it, more information about the materials' origin and the garment's
production appears.”
By presenting these two scenarios, the intention was to evoke a real-life situation. One
case, where all of the information was coherent, and other where doubts and confusion
could arise. In both of them, the concept of sustainability and environmental friendliness
were presented, but in the second one, the information on the label did not align with
these two terms. In one, we have a garment made out of organic cotton, which is
considered to be the most sustainable and eco-friendly fabric (Rauturier, 2022). Also,
this piece of clothing is manufactured in Spain, which is a signal for certain ecological
and ethical standards being met due to the applicability of Spanish and European Union
legislation, like the Law 22/2011 on Waste and Contaminated Soil 5 or the Energy
5
The Law 22/2011 on Waste and Contaminated Soil, this law aims to establish a legal framework for the
management of waste by promoting measures to prevent waste generation and reduce its negative impacts
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Efficiency Directive6. In addition to this, two ecological certifications are presented,
while they are two of the most popular eco-labels (Dhanani, 2022), the respondents are
not expected to know these certifications, but they were included to support the
sustainability statement and give more credit to the authenticity of the organic cotton.
The “EcoLabel EU” was expressly used because, even though a person might not
previously know it, they can understand that a recognized authority is certifying the
information presented. Finally, the QR statement was introduced to address one of the
most common greenwashing techniques: to claim something is sustainable without
providing accessible information to verify these allegations, which would not be the
case here.
On the other hand, the greenwashing scenario was created having in mind the
TerraChoice sins of greenwashing (2013). The attributes of the product do not match
the description of the advertisement, which would make it false information and thus,
the sin of fibbing. Furthermore, with the inclusion of a QR which essentially does not
work, the sin of no proof is also included. The intention behind the design of this
situation was, as mentioned before, to create confusion, a sense of dissonance, a
scenario where people could understand that something is wrong without necessarily
telling them. A test run was sent to a small sample in order to check the overall validity
of the survey, to evaluate if all the questions were understood, and specifically to assess
the confusion-creating objective of the greenwashing scenery worked. After the test run,
this was proven to be the case. To the question “Do you trust the “Sustainable and
Environmentally Friendly Fashion” promotion in this case?”, the people exposed to the
greenwashing situation answered on a 5-point scale from I trust it a lot (5) to I do not
trust it at all (1), all the respondents answered one of the two lowest scale points.
Along with the experiment, four questions were included to analyze how the scenarios
might affect several aspects: the probability of purchasing and recommending the
product, the probability of changing to another brand, and as mentioned before, the level
of trust in the statement presented. These questions mean to address three wider
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concepts in consumer behavior and their decision-making process: purchase intention,
brand trust, and brand loyalty. While the last two are highly intertwined, here, they are
specifically separated to highlight the nature of greenwashing and how it is essentially a
way to mislead consumers which can highly impact their perception.
When it comes to the third and last section, this part was included to understand better
the fashion-consuming behavior of the participants. A question about what are the
factors that most influence their purchasing decisions were included, in addition to three
questions to examine if they have in mind the environment when buying fashion
products and if they would be willing to pay more for those that are sustainable. Also, a
question specific to greenwashing practices was included without the term, but the
definition. It is a yes and no question on whether they would stop purchasing a product
if they knew a company was greenwashing. This question was introduced to examine
what people would do, once they had full information about a company being guilty of
greenwashing, and to see if they would be sufficiently affected by this so they would
change their usual behavior. Finally, a yes or no question was added to verify if
respondents identify themselves as environmentally conscious consumers. This query
allows to examine if there needs to exist a precondition of green self-perception in order
to behave according to certain green standards.
While the survey is about greenwashing, this term was not mentioned by name
throughout it. Due to the population chosen to survey is Spanish, introducing an English
term could induce to error due not having a guarantee that every respondent knows the
language. Moreover, greenwashing is not a widespread concept, while many people
understand its definition, they might not be able to label it under that same name, and by
avoiding the direct usage of the term, confusion was avoided, and the focus was placed
on the possible actions that greenwashing or green marketing could mean. Another
reason to do this is that the Spanish language does not have a unique verb or noun to
describe this phenomenon. According to FundéuRAE, a Spanish non-profit organization
that works for promoting the correct usage of the language in the media, the Spanish
words that could substitute the term greenwashing are ecoimpostura, lavado de imagen
verde, ecopostureo, impostura verde, or impostura ecológica (FundéuRAE, 2020).
Nevertheless, when introduced in Google Trends, the search for Spain shows that there
23
is no sufficient data on these concepts to show results, giving away that these terms are
not popular among the Spanish population, at least yet.
To sum up, a survey with an in-between subjects experiment was created to try and shed
some light on how being exposed to greenwashing might affect several consumer
variables in contrast to being exposed to green marketing. Furthermore, the survey
included demographic questions and others related to attitudes towards sustainability,
this was done in order to collect more information on how age groups, gender,
education level, and occupation might interact with the two scenarios and sustainability
when shopping fashion overall.
5. RESULTS
The survey was distributed through different social media platforms, collecting 134
answers, 67 corresponding to the greenwashing scenario and the other 67 to the gree
marketing one. The demographics were very varied, finding larger and smaller samples
for each category. The graphs corresponding to each question and the responses will be
included in Appendix B, however, the results will be summarized here. The following
graphs show the percentage of respondents that belong to each gender, age, educational
level, and employment group.
24
was quantified, transforming the 5-point Likert scale to the corresponding values from 1
to 5. For the first three questions, corresponding to the probability of purchasing,
recommending, or changing brands, the response “Very likely” was given a value of 5
while “Very unlikely” was given a value of one. Once this was done, the mean values
for the greenwashing experiment were calculated, as the same was done for the green
marketing scenario.
The first question for both scenarios was “How likely would you be to purchase this
product”. The graph below shows the answers to this question, comparing the responses
of the greenwashing and the green marketing scenario. The sample performed as
expected, and the likelihood of purchase increases for the green marketing scenario, the
average for this is 4,59, on a scale of 1 to 5. So, the average answer for green marketing
was between Likely and Very likely to purchase. On the other hand, the average
response for the greenwashing case was 2,85, positioning the likeliness of purchase
between Neutral and Unlikely.
25
This question was followed by the ones related to customer loyalty. Respondents had to
answer ‘How likely would you be to recommend this product?’ and ‘How likely would
you be to look for this item in a different brand?’. These two queries intended to find
out the likelihood of a person becoming an advocate for the brand or if they would be
satisfied enough to not seek other alternatives. The graphs below show the answers to
these two questions.
Figure 3. Response distribution for likeliness to recommend Figure 4. Response distribution for likeliness to switch brand
On the right hand, the likeliness to recommend is found, following again the expected
logic, where consumers will be more willing to recommend the green-marketed product
than the greenwashed one. On the left hand, the likeliness to switch brands is
represented. The results are not as evidently different as the prior questions or as
expected. Here, while nearly 60% of the sample was very likely or likely to switch
brands in the case of greenwashing, a considerable amount was also willing to do it in
the case of green marketing. This does not follow the expected behavior, and to further
understand this, each of the answers to the green marketing scenario was revisited. It
was found that many of the people who answered that it was very likely and likely that
they would purchase the product or recommended it also answered that they would
likely or very likely switch brands. From this, it could be understood that either the
question was not formulated correctly and some people interpreted it the other way
around, or that maybe they needed more information on the brand to not switch to
another one.
26
Finally, the last question in the scenarios was focused on brand trust. It was included to
understand the level of trust people had in the claims made in each case, and as
presented before it went as follows: ‘Do you trust the “Sustainable and Environmentally
Friendly Fashion” promotion in this case?’. The following graph shows the
comparative answers to that question.
Here, it is found that the experiment worked as expected. People exposed to the
greenwashing scenario were skeptical to trust the eco-friendly promotion as it did not
align with the information offered on the product. Contrary to this, nearly 80% of the
sample exposed to green marketing trusted the claims made as they were coherent with
the description of the garment.
As described above, most of the answers followed the expected logic. This leads to
comparing the average responses for each variable and performing the necessary tests in
order to be able to reject or not the hypotheses developed. The following graphs
represent the average response value for each variable and scenario, in addition to the
corresponding standard deviations.
27
Figure 6. Comparison of averages for purchase Figure 7. Comparison of averages for likeliness to
intention and their standard deviations switch brands and their standard deviations
Figure 8. Comparison of averages for likeliness to Figure 9. Comparison of averages for brand trust
recommend and their standard deviations and their standard deviations
28
Greenwashing Green
t-value p-value
(x̄ ) Marketing (x̄ )
Purchase Intention 2,85 4,6 -10,0833 0,000
Recommend Brand 2,87 4,4 -8,0841 0,000
Switch Brand 3,6 3,03 2,9999 0,001
Brand Trust 2,69 4,03 -7,1897 0,000
The interpretation of these results is the following: if the mean difference is compared,
people will be 35% more likely to purchase a green-marketed piece of clothing in
contrast to a greenwashed one. The result obtained is significant as alpha was set at
0,05, and the t-value moved to the expected direction, meaning that H1 is supported. It
can be said that purchase intention is negatively affected by greenwashing when
compared to green marketing. Furthermore, the same can be stated for Consumer
Loyalty. On the one hand, customers will be 31% more likely to recommend the
product in the green marketing scenario than the one in the greenwashing one. On the
other hand, consumers on average will be 11% more likely to switch to another brand
when presented with a green-washed garment in contrast to a green-marketed one.
Based on these two results and their significance level, H2 is also supported. So,
greenwashing negatively affects customer loyalty in contrast to green marketing.
Finally, on average people will be 27% more likely to trust the claims made in the green
marketing scenario with a p-value lower than alpha, supporting too H3.
In addition to the hypothesis analysis, the theorization around gender, age, and
educational attainment aforementioned was studied in order to see if the tendencies
replicated in this research. For this, in the last section of the study several questions on
sustainability preferences when purchasing fashion products were asked. When gender
is crossed with the question ‘How important is it to you if a product is sustainable and
eco-friendly?’, it is found that on a scale from 1 to 5 being 1 not important and 5 very
important, women on average respond 3.8 while men 3.2. Nevertheless, this data is not
necessarily representative due to the imbalance of women and men in the sample.
Moreover, the same was done with this question and age, finding tendencies contrary to
other studies. The group that ranges from 46 to 55 gives these characteristics an
importance of 3.7, followed by the age group between 18 and 25, and afterward of age
between 36 and 45, responding on average 3.5 and 3.2, respectively. On the other hand,
this sample does follow the expected tendencies for educational attainment, giving
fashion sustainability increasing importance as the level of education gets higher.
29
Some other interesting information was extracted from the survey. People were asked if
they would be willing to pay a higher price for a garment that is made with sustainable
materials and practices, and while 24% answered yes, 69% answered yes but not much
more, and 7% directly answered no. Also, once this is mixed with the results of the
question ‘What do you value more about a piece of clothing: price, quality, brand,
and/or sustainability?’, it can be inferred that price is still a relevant factor that
influences the purchase sustainable clothing, as 70% of the sample answered ‘price’.
Finally, to sum up the results, it can be said that consumer behavior, when measured
through purchase intention, consumer loyalty, and brand trust, is negatively affected by
greenwashing, once it is compared with green marketing. This, alongside then
demographic tendencies and sustainability preferences can shed light on how marketing
campaigns involving eco-friendly products can be managed. The following and last
section will be used to summarize the paper and to make a critical analysis of the results
to provide recommendations to businesses and institutions.
Sustainability has proven to be a topic of increasing concern in our society, but concern
does not always translate into action. It has been found that companies are a good
30
example of values not being put into practice, many businesses have been guilty of
promoting greener operations without real change: this is when greenwashing takes
place. Through an in-between-subjects experiment, this study has found that
greenwashing has a negative impact on fashion consumer behavior in comparison to
green marketing. When presented with incoherent and contradicting information in the
green promotion of a clothing item, respondents were found to be less likely to purchase
the garment, recommend the brand and trust the eco-friendly promotion, in addition to
being more likely to switch brands. This was seen when the answers were compared to
the ones given to a green marketing scenario, where all the information was consistent
and matched.
On paper, people showcase a preference for sustainability, but in practice, many other
factors intervene in the manifestation of these values. For example, the green marketing
scenario, also presented what could be understood as a high-quality product, while the
greenwashing one described a garment without such characteristics. Here, it could be
understood that not only the eco-friendliness and coherent promotion influenced
consumer behavior, but also a preference for high-quality products. Furthermore,
another question in the survey asked if they would be willing to pay more for a
sustainable piece of clothing, 70% answered ‘yes, but not much more’. From this, it can
be inferred that price is still another factor that becomes important in the green-
consuming behavior equation. Price sensitivity has proven to be a determinant factor in
green consumption, even when monetary capabilities are assumed (Yue et al., 2020).
All this information on preferences and behavior has many implications for both
businesses and institutions.
31
On the one hand, understanding the impact of greenwashing is complex. It is very hard
to separate what influences the consumer once they know a company, they buy from is
greenwashing. The customer might stop buying, not because of environmental concerns,
but because they feel their trust betrayed. Either way, this experiment shows that
different aspects of consumer behavior are negatively affected by greenwashing when
compared to green marketing. Moreover, this paper has also shown the increasing
importance of ESG investors, so companies should engage in operations that satisfy
both two actors.
On a similar line, managers could create open lines of communication with the
stakeholders in their community. They could partner up with associations and NGOs, to
understand their specific needs and work side by side to create programs and invest in
32
the public. Companies should not be expected to only compensate for their negative
externalities, but also to contribute to society. A good example of this type of initiative
is Grameen Uniqlo. The Chinese company partnered up with Peace Nobel Prize Winner
Muhammad Yunus, to open a series of clothing shops in Bangladesh. Through this
project, they created lines adapted to the specific needs and trends of the country and
worked alongside local manufacturers to source and produce the garments. Finally, and
most importantly, all the profit generated has been reinvested in the business, promoting
its growth and the possibility to hire more Bangladeshis, continuing their contributions
to the community (Uniqlo, 2023).
On the other hand, considering that the ultimate motive of businesses is to generate
profit, in many cases, the interest of society will not align with the interest of the
community. This gap conflict leads companies to perform in ways that contradict the
well-being of society. Here, is where the State and institutions should exert their power
and control. There are many ways in which the State could intervene to avoid or reduce
the probability of environmental misbehavior or greenwashing by companies, in
addition to promoting sustainable initiatives.
33
with incentives for companies that go beyond the law and really invest in becoming
more sustainable and transparent.
Some activities that could be encouraged by institutions are the usage of clear,
information-filled tags on clothes. As of now, tags include the materials used and the
place it was manufactured, but they could also include a breakdown of every resource
used for its production: energy, water, labor time… Also, information on exactly where
every material comes from. A fashion brand called Everlane is an example of how
transparency can be executed: they included in every tag information on the costs of
each step the pieces take from their creation until it reaches the customer. Through this,
the client knows exactly what they are paying for, whether it is dying or cutting costs to
the unitary profit made by the brand (Clifford, 2014). These types of initiatives should
be incentivized by regulatory powers.
34
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8. APPENDIX
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1. ¿Qué edad tienes? // How old are you?
<18
18-25
26-35
36-45
46-55
56-65
>65
5. ¿Cuán probable sería que recomendaras este producto? // How likely would you
be to recommend this product?
Muy probable // Very likely
Algo probable // Likely
Neutro // Neutral
Poco probable // Unlikely
Nada probable // Not at all likely
6. ¿Cuán probable sería que buscaras este básico en una marca diferente? // How
likely would you be to look for this basic in a different brand?
Muy probable // Very likely
Algo probable // Likely
Neutro // Neutral
Poco probable // Unlikely
Nada probable // Not at all likely
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7. ¿Cuánto confías en la promoción “Moda Sostenible y Comprometida con el
Medio Ambiente” en este caso? // How much do you trust the "Sustainable and
Environmentally Committed Fashion" promotion in this case?
Confío mucho // Trust a lot
Confío algo // Trust somewhat
Neutro // Neutral
Confío poco // Trust a little
No confío nada // Don’t trust at all
8. ¿Qué factores dirías que influyen más tu decisión de comprar? Por favor,
selecciona dos. // Which factors would you say most influence your decision to
buy? Please select two
Precio // Price
Calidad // Quality
Marca // Brand
Sostenibilidad // Sustainability
10. ¿Estarías dispuesto a pagar más por un producto que utilice materiales y
prácticas sostenibles? // Would you be willing to pay more for a product that
uses sustainable materials and practices?
Sí // Yes
Sí, pero no mucho más // Yes, but not a lot more
No
11. ¿Sueles informarte sobre las prácticas sostenibles anunciadas por las
empresas? // Do you tend to inform yourself about the sustainable practices
advertised by companies?
Siempre // Always
Muy a menudo // Frequently
A veces // Sometimes
Rara vez // Unfrequently
Nunca // Never
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12. ¿Dejarías de comprar una marca si descubrieras que falsifican o exageran sus
prácticas sostenibles? // Would you stop buying a brand if you found out that
they were misrepresenting or exaggerating their sustainable practices?
Sí // Yes
No
13. ¿Te consideras un consumidor con conciencia medioambiental? // Do you
consider yourself an environmentally conscious consumer?
Sí // Yes
No
ORIGINALITY DECLARATION
44
Hereby I, Violeta Arellano Pardillo, certify that the bachelor thesis titled "The Impact of
Greenwashing and Green Marketing on Consumer Behavior Variables: A Comparative
Study" is totally original mine, that has not been presented in any other university as a
bachelor thesis and that all sources that have been used have been properly cited and
appear in the references.
Getafe, 12/06/2023
45