The influence of greenwashing practices on brand attitude: A multidimensional consumer analysis in Germany

As a consequence of increasingly sustainability-oriented markets, greenwashing (GW) has become a global marketing problem throughout recent years. Previous studies do not differentiate between varying forms of GW when analyzing their effects on consumers' brand attitude but rather use GW as a one-dimensional condition that either exists or does not exist. This paper explores how different greenwashing practices (GWPs) influence consumers' brand attitudes. We introduce a two-dimensional typology of GWPs that differentiates between claim-type (false, vague, or hidden information) and macro-level of initiation (product and firm level), resulting in six distinct categories of GWPs. We then introduce 315 German participants to the six different GW scenarios in a survey and measure their respective brand attitudes. Our findings reveal that respondents react significantly differently to most GWPs, which implies that if we want to understand the problem of GW from the eyes of consumers, we need to differentiate between various forms of GW.