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Article

Greenwashing Versus Green Authenticity: How Green Social Media Influences Consumer Perceptions and Green Purchase Decisions

by
Ziyi Fang
International College, Krirk University, Bangkhen, Bangkok 10220, Thailand
Sustainability 2024, 16(23), 10723; https://doi.org/10.3390/su162310723
Submission received: 30 October 2024 / Revised: 22 November 2024 / Accepted: 24 November 2024 / Published: 6 December 2024
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Abstract

:
Firms show their environmental efforts on social media in order to influence the green purchase decisions of environmentally conscious consumers. However, consumers remain suspicious of firms’ environmental claims. This study aims to assess the impact of green social media influence, greenwashing perception, and green authenticity perception on green purchase decisions. In addition, greenwashing perception and green authenticity perception mediate the relationship between green social media influence and green purchase decisions. Data on fashion clothing brands were collected from 413 respondents in Guangzhou, China. These data were analyzed through SPSS version 23 and Smartpls version 4.0.8 software. The findings of this study show that the relationship between green social media influence, greenwashing perception, and green authenticity perception remains significant. Similarly, the mediating relationship of green authenticity perception between green social media influence and green purchase decisions remains significant. However, the mediating relationship of greenwashing perception between green social media influence and green purchase decisions remains non-significant. The results of this study will be beneficial for fashion clothing brands, marketers, policymakers, and researchers. Moreover, this study provides practical guidance for stakeholders to gain maximum benefits from social media and avoid the harmful effects caused by greenwashing perception.

1. Introduction

Consumers are highly concerned about the excessive use of energy, natural resources, harmful chemicals, and waste in the fashion industry [1,2]. The concern of consumers about the environment makes them more aware of the negative human footprint on the planet. This situation leads consumers towards environmentally friendly products and services. Considering these trends, green marketing strategies are gaining prime importance in the overall marketing efforts of firms [3]. Social media marketing is one of the main tools used to promote the image of an organization. Firms use social media to persuade consumers and enhance the visibility of a firm’s initiatives to consumers [4]. The presence of environmentally conscious consumers motivates organizations to start environment-related campaigns. A systematic literature review conducted by Tomassi and colleagues [5] briefly described the dissemination of environment-related information through social media. This encourages the use of green social media to promote the environmental efforts of a firm [6]. A study by Ling and Aziz [7] sheds light on this research gap and shows concern that the relationship between green social media influence and green purchase decisions is less explored in the literature. Over time, the influx of green social media content is increasing day by day to influence the green purchase decisions of consumers.
Scholarly work shows that some organizations mislead their consumers about their environmental efforts. This deceptive promotion technique is called greenwashing activity [8]. Recent studies in the literature highlighted that sometimes firms share dubious information about the environment with the public in order to gain an advantage over the rest of the competition [5]; this is why greenwashing is an important area for academicians, researchers, policymakers, and society at large [9]. Greenwashing perception refers to consumer perception of an organization not undertaking or undertaking fewer environmental activities than their environmental claims. Previously, greenwashing was used as an antecedent and consequence in different settings. For instance, scholarly work shows the impact of environmental beliefs on greenwashing perception. Consequently, greenwashing perception influences environmental perception, product perception, and objective response [10]. A review of the literature on greenwashing perception in the fashion industry shows many research gaps. A few studies assessed the negative effect of greenwashing perception on green purchase decision. A recently published systemic literature review by Majeed and Kim [11] discussed how the current state of research on greenwashing is fragmented and inclusive in consumer-related environmental studies.
According to Kotler and Keller [12], consumer perception refers to “the process by which individuals organize and interpret information to create a meaningful picture of the world”. In this competitive world, positive perceptions of consumers about the products and the services of a firm play an important role in the success of the organization. Green authenticity is an emerging phenomenon in the academic literature [13]. The greenwashing claims of the organizations increase the importance of environmentally friendly authentic claims of the organizations [14]. Besides the importance of green authenticity perception, limited studies in the literature examined the relationship between green authenticity perception on green purchase decisions. The diverse literature of previous scholars discussed other forms of authenticity. For instance, Hasan et al. [15] conducted a study to assess influencer authenticity and purchase decisions. The findings of the study show that the authenticity of influencers significantly influences the purchase decisions of consumers. In the hospitality industry, green brand authenticity significantly influences respondents’ perception of well-being [13]. In the literature, few studies used green authenticity perception related to consumers. For instance, Lee et al. [16] explored the topic of the sustainable fashion marketing of luxury brands and examined the relationship between authenticity perception and intention to purchase. The findings of the study show a significant relationship between the studied variables.
To fill the gaps in the existing literature, this study aims to assess the influence of green social media influence, greenwashing perception, and green authenticity perception on green purchase decisions. Moreover, this study examines the mediating relationship between greenwashing perception and green authenticity perception between green social media influence and green purchase decisions. This study contributes significantly to the literature on the stimulus–organism–response (SOR) model, green social media influence, greenwashing perception, green authenticity perception, and green purchase decisions. Practically, this study is useful for the marketers involved in preparing environment-related marketing strategies. In a strategic marketing process, marketing managers may focus on green social media strategies that are helpful in promoting the image of an organization. However, they must make calculated moves in order to promote the green image of the organization. These green social media activities are a double-edged sword that may tarnish the image of the organization if consumers perceive the environmentally friendly activities of an organization as greenwashing. On the contrary, positive consumer perception (green authenticity perception) about the environmental activities of an organization is beneficial for the success of the organization.

2. Literature Review

2.1. Theory and Hypothesis Development

This study used the stimulus–organism–response model [17] to examine the hypothetical relationship between variables. This model is mainly divided into three sections, which provide a structured way to analyze how external stimuli (green social media influence) affect internal states (greenwashing perception and green authenticity perception) and lead to behavioral responses (green purchase decisions) illustrated in Figure 1. The existing literature uses the SOR model in studies on marketing. For instance, a study by Alberq [18] used the SOR model to assess the relationship between website information, website entertainment, the effectiveness of information content (S), website satisfaction (O), and purchase intention (R).

2.2. Green Social Media Influence

The use of social media is inevitable for firms to engage with consumers and other international players. Similarly, firms use social media to promote their environmentally friendly activities, which is called green social media. Studies show that there is a significant relationship between green social media influence and green purchase decisions [19]. In addition, a study was conducted on social media users, and it assessed the impact of green campaign characteristics (content and persuasiveness of the campaign) on consumer attitudes towards green hotels. Similarly, Yildirim [20] conducted a qualitative study on female social media influencers related to sustainable consumption patterns. The study shows that green women influencers promote green fashion, green foods, less wasteful products, green hospitality, and a green lifestyle. In a case study of a cotton brand, Zomorodian and Lu [21] noticed that the use of social media helped to improve the sales performance of the organization. Byrum [22] conducted a study to assess the relationship between message carriers and the promotion of a green perspective of the organization. The study examined different green social media marketing perspectives, i.e., new releases, articles, and advertisements. The study shows a significant relationship between the studied variables. A systematic literature review was conducted on green marketing campaigns and sustainable consumption behavior [23]. The study identified four thematic areas: green marketing strategies, green purchasing behavior of consumers, brand promotion strategies, and the environmental awareness of consumers. However, few studies have addressed the direct relationship between green social media and green purchase decisions in the fashion context of China. Consequently, this research presumes the following:
H1: 
Is green social media influence positively associated with green purchase decisions?

2.3. Greenwashing Perception

Organizations create different kinds of green marketing strategies to deceive their consumers. For instance, they use misleading environmental claims, deceptive green labels, and the selective disclosure of information [8,24] to gain more attention from environmentally conscious consumers. Based on the provided information, environmentally conscious consumers purchase products on the belief that the product is harmless for the environment or causes little damage to the environment [25]. The greenwashing act of an organization creates severe damage to the environment because the consumer continuously purchases products based on positive beliefs about the environmentally friendly claims of the organization about their products and services. Scholarly work on consumers living in Spain shows that firms used deceptive environmental activities to gain more attention from environmentally friendly consumers, with brands including, for instance, Zara, Mango, Bershka, Stradivarius, and Springfield [19]. The results of the study show that there was consumer greenwashing perception about the brands Zara (61.8%), Mango (54.3%), Bershka (55.6%), Stradivarius (54.9%), and Springfield (52.3%). In addition, a study examined the relationship between greenwashing and the intention to stay in environmentally friendly hotels; the results showed a negative association between greenwashing and the intention to stay in green hotels [26]. In previous studies, scholars have noticed that greenwashing perception is the consequence of the exaggerated claims of an organization, which further influences consumer behavior. The statistics of the Future Consumer Index report show that 63% of consumers give priority to the social impact of organizations related to the environment while purchasing a product or service. In this situation, 51% of them stop buying from organizations that have questionable environmental claims [19]. Drawing from this discussion, the following hypotheses are put forward:
H2: 
Is greenwashing perception negatively associated with green purchase decisions?
H3: 
Does greenwashing mediate the relationship between green social media influence and green purchase decisions?

2.4. Green Authenticity Perception

Authenticity plays an important role when brands bombard consumers with advertisements [27]. Customers are more inclined to purchase environmentally friendly brands as compared to non-green brands. Considering this situation, many brands claim that their operations are environmentally friendly. This creates dissonance for consumers as to whether the claims of the brands are authentic or whether they are just uplifting their green image. The role of green authentic brands is inevitable in this era of competition [28]. In the hospitality industry, green brand authenticity significantly influences respondents’ perception of well-being [13]. The confidence of a consumer in an organization’s claims plays a significant role in promoting the image of the organization. A similar point was discussed in a systemic literature review [23]. A literature review study by Södergren [27] identified three thematic areas, i.e., characteristics that distinguish the real thing from the fake, the legitimating function of authenticity, and the emotional and moral aspects of authentication. This argumentation leads to the following hypotheses:
H4: 
Does green authenticity perception significantly influence green purchase decision?
H5: 
Does green authenticity perception mediate the relationship between social media influence and sustainable purchase decision?

3. Methodology

3.1. Data Collection

This study’s target population is fashion clothing consumers in Guangzhou, China. In the recent past, the fashion market of China showed significant growth trends. The statistics [29] of the fashion market of China will achieve a milestone of USD 236.80 bn by the end of year 2024. Moreover, internationally, the city of Guangzhou is famous for manufacturing, wholesaling, and retailing fashion clothing [30]. The large-scale production and distribution of fashion clothing affect the environmental quality of Guangzhou, which creates water contamination, smog in the air, and the colossal waste of textiles [31]. Hence, this study selected the city of Guangzhou for data collection. Data were collected from 413 respondents who purchased fashion clothing in Guangzhou through a convenience sampling technique. Previous scholars used a similar sampling technique for data collection [31,32,33] to assess the determinants of eco-fashion purchase intention. The questionnaire was divided into two parts. The first portion of the questionnaire was related to the demographics of the participants who purchased fashion clothing from Guangzhou, China. The second portion was related to green social media influence, greenwashing perception, green authenticity perception, and green purchase behavior. The English version of the questionnaire was translated into Mandarin using a collaborative and interactive approach. In the translation process, this study received the help of two bilingual experts.
The information related to demographics is shown in Table 1. The female gender is dominant, with 71.5%, and the male respondents constitute 29.5%. The age categories of the participants are 20 years or under, 21–30 years, 31–40 years, 41–50 years, and more than 50 years. The majority of the respondents fall in the age categories of 21–30 (35.6%) and 31–40 (23.7%). The education section is divided into three categories: high school or below, bachelor’s degree, and master’s degree or above. Approximately half (47.5%) of the population who participated in the survey were high-school-or-below degree holders. Bachelor’s degree holders come in the second position (33.2%). Knowledge about monthly spending played an important role in understanding participant spending patterns. The demographic results of this study show that the majority of the respondents spent money on fashion clothing from USD 150 or under to USD 400.

3.2. Measurements

The questionnaire was adapted from different studies, utilizing, for instance, four items of green social media influence [34] (sample item: My engagement on social media influences my green purchase decisions), five items of greenwashing perception [35] (sample item: The brand misled with words about the environmental features of their products), five items of green authenticity perception [36] (sample item: The brand possesses a clear environmentally friendly philosophy, which guides the brand’s promise), and seven items of green purchase decisions [37,38] (Sample item: I intend to purchase environmentally friendly products). The response was gathered on a five-point Likert scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5).

4. Results

4.1. Measurement Model

The measurement model is important to assess internal consistency, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. Internal consistency of the data collected from the respondents was measured through composite reliability. The results depicted in Table 2 show that the values of composite reliability crossed the threshold milestones of 0.70 [39]. Moreover, the convergent validity of the constructs was measured through average variance extracted (AVE). Table 3 shows that this study achieved the threshold values, which were greater than 0.50 [40]. Discriminant validity was essential to assess the quality of the questionnaire. Previous studies used cross-loadings, the Fornell–Larcker criterion, and the Heterotrait–Monoterait ratio [41]. Out of the three methods, the HTMT ratio is the most widely used method to evaluate discriminant validity [42,43]. The values provided in the table are less than 0.85 and achieve the threshold level [43]. Two items (GWP4 and GAP2) were deleted from the overall questionnaire due to low factor loadings. Items with low factor loadings create noise in the overall analysis process [44]. Researchers in prior studies used [44,45] this approach in structural equation modeling to uphold the reliability and validity of a construct. Lastly, the Q2 values for the endogenous item were over 0 (greenwashing perception, 0.022; green authenticity perception, 0.083; green purchase decisions, 0.395); hence, predictive relevance was established.

4.2. Structural Model

This study used bootstrapping analysis to assess the hypothetical relationships. For instance, there was a direct relationship between green social media influence, greenwashing perception, and green authenticity perception on green purchase decisions. Furthermore, the mediating relationship of greenwashing perception and green authenticity perception was present between green social media influence and green purchase decisions. Table 4 and Figure 2 depicts the relationship between green social media influence and green purchase decisions is significant (β = 0.488, t-value = 8.676, p-value = 0.000). Hence, H1 is supported. In the subsequent hypothesis, the impact of greenwashing on green purchase decisions is significant (β = −0.078, t-value = 2.276, p-value = 0.023). Therefore, H2 was retained as expected. Moreover, the mediating relationship of greenwashing perception between green social media influence and green purchase decisions is non-significant (β = 0.018, t-value = 1.718, p-value = 0.086). Thus, H3 was not supported. In addition, the relationship between green authenticity perception and green purchase decisions was significant (β = 0.452, t-value = 11.010, p-value = 0.000). Hence, H4 was supported as predicted. As for H5, a similar significant discovery was found while assessing the mediating relationship of green authenticity between green social media influence and green purchase decisions (β = 0.190, t-value = 7.437, p-value = 0.000). Accordingly, we maintained H5 as predicted.

5. Discussion

To understand green purchase decisions, this study examined the impact of green social media influence, greenwashing perception, and green authenticity perception on green purchase decisions. Additionally, this study assessed the mediating role of greenwashing perception and green authenticity perception between green social media influence and green purchase decisions. The results of this study show that green social media activities play a significant role in influencing green purchase decisions. A similar relationship was assessed by other researchers [46,47]. Kumar et al. [47] examined the relationship between social media influence and purchase decisions. The data of the study were collected from Thai consumers who consumed supplements to maintain their physical fitness. The findings of the study showed a significant relationship between the studied variables. Additionally, a study was conducted in India to learn about young consumers’ use of social media and decisions to purchase environmentally friendly products and services [46]. The young consumers of India showed that their purchase decisions were influenced by social media.
Greenwashing is negatively associated with green purchase decisions. The results corroborate existing studies [26,48]. To gain a good reputation, organizations over-claim their environmental efforts, which affects the organization’s repute overall; in return, consumers gain a negative perception (greenwashing) about the brands. Isac et al. [48] conducted a study in Pakistan to assess the influence of greenwashing on purchase decisions. The results of the study show a negative association between the variables. The study concludes that customers show suspicious behavior towards brands that use greenwashing activities to deceive them. In a similar vein, a study [26] was conducted in the hospitality industry, which shows a significant but negative relationship between greenwashing and purchase decisions. The literature further warns firms that their prior greenwashing activities create long-lasting effects (negative) on the minds of consumers. For instance, Mainardes and colleagues [49] conducted a study in Brazil to assess the association between external motivation and green consumer behavior, which showed non-significant association. Mainardes and colleagues drew the conclusion that prior greenwashing activities of a firm influenced environmentally conscious consumers, who restrained from buying even after the external motivation of the firms was changed.
Green authenticity perception significantly influences green purchase decisions. Additionally, the mediating relationship of green authenticity perception between green social media influence and green purchase decisions remains significant. The existing studies show similar findings [50,51]. Qing et al. [50] used signaling theory to assess the relationship between brand authenticity and consumer purchase decisions to use the services of luxury hotels. The data were collected from regular social media users, travelers, and users of services of luxury hotels through a snowball sampling technique. The relations between the studied variables show a significant relationship. Moreover, a study by Fritz et al. [51] discusses how brand authenticity significantly influences brand relationship quality, which in turn influences consumer purchase decisions. In addition to the manufacturing sector of the world, many scholars have addressed this phenomenon in the service sector. For instance, Chua and colleagues [14] conducted a study in the tourism and hospitality industry on Korean consumers related to their perception of green authenticity and brand choice decisions, which showed significant association.

6. Conclusions and Recommendations

6.1. Theoretical Contributions

According to Statista [52], the rapidly growing industrial footprint of China has given birth to many environmental problems, such as water and air pollution. To overcome this menace, an organization undertakes environmentally friendly activities to influence consumer purchase decisions. This study examined the relationship between green social media influence, greenwashing perception, green authenticity perception, and green purchase decisions. Additionally, this study assessed the mediating role of greenwashing perception and green authenticity perception in the relationship between green social media influence and green purchase decisions. This study produced five theoretical contributions for academicians and researchers. First, this scholarly work used greenwashing perception and green authenticity perception in a single model, which is helpful for academicians and researchers to compare both relationships at a glance. Second, this study used a stimulus–organism–response model to assess the relationship between the studied variables. The stimulus–organism–response model is the most suitable model to examine the relationship between external stimuli, internal states of mind, and the behavioral response of an individual. Third, the existing literature has mainly discussed the relationship of brand authenticity to purchase intention. However, this current study used authenticity in an environmentally friendly context. Fourth, previous research work related to greenwashing was assessed in the hospitality and tourism sectors. On the contrary, this study used the context of the fashion industry in China, which has shown significant growth in previous years [29].

6.2. Practical Contributions

According to Statista, the population of China is the second biggest population in the world [53]. Moreover, the fashion industry is one of the biggest industries in China [29]. The use of social media is inevitable to promote the products and services of organizations. Considering the importance of social media, organizations must use different kinds of social media platforms to promote their products, enhance the image of the organization, and increase consumer traffic toward their brands. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and LinkedIn are famous in the world. However, the consumers of China use different social media platforms such as WeChat, Weibo, Douyin, Zhihu, Kuaishou, QQ, Bilibili, and Xiaohongshu. Firms working in China should use social media platforms to promote products and services.
Greenwashing perception negatively impacts green purchase decisions. In the beginning, firms should plan some small initiatives for the protection of the environment, for instance, tree plantation, sensor-based lights and water taps, and a paper-free office culture. Moreover, organizations must train their human resources on the green aspects that are beneficial in order for them to conserve their resources; this practice will help an organization adopt green practices and avoid greenwashing activities. Organizations must use “Kuaishou, a social media platform of China”, used for short videos. Organizations facing the issue of greenwashing could use videos of environmental activists through Kuaishou to gain a better reputation in the market.
Green authenticity plays a significant role in enhancing green purchase decisions. Moreover, green authenticity mediates the relationship between green social media influence and green purchase decisions. Transparency in environmentally friendly activities plays an important role in convincing consumers about the authentic environmentally friendly practices of an organization. Organizations must make their processes more transparent and empower consumers to come and check their environmental efforts. In addition to this, environmental audits and certifications could help convince consumers about the authentic environmental practices of an organization.

6.3. Limitations and Future Research Directions

This study is not free from limitations. This study mainly focused on green social media influence on green purchase decisions. According to Statista [53], China is the second most populated (1.4 billion inhabitants) country in the world. Based on the population of China and market trends in the fashion industry [29], future studies may consider the specific type of social media platform to examine green purchase decisions in China. The social media platforms in China are WeChat, Weibo, Douyin, Zhihu, Kuaishou, QQ, Bilibili, and Xiaohongshu. Chinese consumers and consumers of other nationalities living in China use these social media platforms. Moreover, future researchers may use demographic variables as moderators, i.e., the variables age, gender, income level, and education in this model. Sometimes, the use of demographic variables as moderators is helpful for obtaining more precise findings from a researcher’s point of view and gives better ideas to practitioners to apply them in real contexts.
This study examines the impact of green authenticity perception on green purchase decisions and the mediating role of green authenticity perception between green social media influence and green purchase decisions. Conversely, the concept of authenticity is a subjective phenomenon that may be explained in different ways in different contexts. A qualitative study is required to explore different aspects of green authenticity perception. For instance, a systematic literature review by Södergren [27] highlighted three important aspects of authenticity: (1) characteristics that distinguish the real thing from the fake, (2) the legitimating function of authenticity, (3) and emotional and moral aspects of authentication.
This study used the stimulus–organism–response model to examine the relationship of green social media influence, greenwashing perception, and green authenticity perception on green purchase decisions, in addition to greenwashing perception and green authenticity perception as mediators between green social media influence and green purchase decisions. Future researchers may use the elaboration likelihood model. This theory mainly deals with two routes (central and peripheral). External persuasive information hits individual minds through the central or peripheral parts of the mind. Consequently, the central or peripheral parts of the mind give information to the individual to execute decisions.

7. Conclusions

Considering the current surge in social media related to environmental claims, this study explored the relationship of green social media influence on green purchase decisions through the mediating role of greenwashing perception and green authenticity perception. The findings of this study encourage firms that perform real, environmentally friendly activities (tree plantation, use of energy-efficient devices) to protect the environment from harmful effects. Afterward, they should post material on social media that would gain significant attention from environmentally friendly consumers. Conversely, the findings of this study warn firms that fabricating environmental activities (and causing harm to the environment in general) to gain attention from consumers is a useless venture. Moreover, this study enriches the understanding of the stimulus–organism–response (SOR) model in the context of environmental social media claims and green consumer behavior through the dual mediation of green authenticity versus greenwashing perception. Finally, this study paves the way for more trustworthy and transparent sustainability practices.

Funding

This research received no external funding.

Institutional Review Board Statement

This study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Ethics Committee of Krirk University of Bankok.

Informed Consent Statement

Informed consent was obtained from all the subjects involved in this study.

Data Availability Statement

Data can be made available upon request.

Conflicts of Interest

Author declare no conflicts of interest.

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Figure 1. Author’s own work. The hypothetical relationship of green social media influence, greenwashing perception, green authenticity perception, and green purchase decisions.
Figure 1. Author’s own work. The hypothetical relationship of green social media influence, greenwashing perception, green authenticity perception, and green purchase decisions.
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Sustainability 16 10723 g002
Figure 2. Author’s own calculations. The direct and indirect association of green social media influence, greenwashing perception, green authenticity perception, and green purchase decisions.
Figure 2. Author’s own calculations. The direct and indirect association of green social media influence, greenwashing perception, green authenticity perception, and green purchase decisions.
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Table 1. Demographics of respondents.
Table 1. Demographics of respondents.
Demographic Characteristicsn%
Gender
  Male12229.5
  Female29171.5
Age
  20 years or under6415.5
  21–30 years14735.6
  31–40 years9823.7
  41–50 years6315.3
  More than 50 years419.9
Education
  High school or below19647.5
  Bachelor degree13733.2
  Master’s degree and above8019.3
Monthly spending on Fashion Clothing
  USD 150 or less10329.5
  USD 151–30014535.1
  USD 301–4008320.1
  USD 401–500399.4
  More than USD 500235.6
Table 2. Reliability and convergent validity.
Table 2. Reliability and convergent validity.
HypothesisItemsOuter LoadingsComposite ReliabilityAverage Variance Extracted
Green Social Media InfluenceGSMI10.7500.8660.619
GSMI 20.761
GSMI 30.770
GSMI 40.861
Greenwashing PerceptionGWP10.7180.8210.535
GWP20.739
GWP30.656
GWP40.805
Green Authenticity PerceptionGAP10.7730.8040.508
GAP30.666
GAP40.733
GAP50.672
Green Purchase DecisionsGPD10.6820.9100.594
GPD20.798
GPD30.635
GPD40.748
GPD50.823
GPD60.845
GPD70.837
Table 3. Discriminant validity (HTMT ratio).
Table 3. Discriminant validity (HTMT ratio).
Green Authenticity PerceptionGreen Purchase DecisionsGreen Social Media InfluenceGreenwashing Perception
Green Authenticity Perception0.713
Green Purchase Decisions0.8360.771
Green Social Media Influence0.5530.8260.787
Greenwashing Perception0.5290.4480.2840.731
The values in bold font show the square root of AVE.
Table 4. Hypothesis testing.
Table 4. Hypothesis testing.
Hypothesis Coefficients t-Valuep-ValueDecision
H1Green Social Media Influence → Green Purchase Decisions0.4888.6760.000Supported
H2Greenwashing Perception → Green Purchase Decisions−0.0782.2760.023Supported
H3Green Social Media Influence → Greenwashing Perception → Green Purchase Decisions0.0181.7180.086Not Supported
H4Green Authenticity Perception → Green Purchase Decisions0.45211.0100.000Supported
H5Green Social Media Influence → Green Authenticity Perception → Green Purchase Decisions0.1907.4370.000Supported
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Fang, Z. Greenwashing Versus Green Authenticity: How Green Social Media Influences Consumer Perceptions and Green Purchase Decisions. Sustainability 2024, 16, 10723. https://doi.org/10.3390/su162310723

AMA Style

Fang Z. Greenwashing Versus Green Authenticity: How Green Social Media Influences Consumer Perceptions and Green Purchase Decisions. Sustainability. 2024; 16(23):10723. https://doi.org/10.3390/su162310723

Chicago/Turabian Style

Fang, Ziyi. 2024. "Greenwashing Versus Green Authenticity: How Green Social Media Influences Consumer Perceptions and Green Purchase Decisions" Sustainability 16, no. 23: 10723. https://doi.org/10.3390/su162310723

APA Style

Fang, Z. (2024). Greenwashing Versus Green Authenticity: How Green Social Media Influences Consumer Perceptions and Green Purchase Decisions. Sustainability, 16(23), 10723. https://doi.org/10.3390/su162310723

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