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Sustainability
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Greenwashing Strategies and Their Effects on Stakeholders’ Perceptions
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Greenwashing Strategies and Their Effects on Stakeholders’ Perceptions

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 July 2021) | Viewed by 12793

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Gianluigi Guido

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Guest Editor
Department of Management and Economics, University of Salento, 73100 Lecce, Italy
Interests: consumer behavior; marketing strategies; place marketing; ethical consumption; advertising
Dr. Cristian Rizzo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Management and Economics, University of Salento, Via per Monteroni, Lecce 73100, Italy
Interests: consumer behavior; quantitative methods; sustainable marketing
Dr. Luigi Piper

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Management and Economics, University of Salento, Via per Monteroni, 73100 Lecce, Italy
Interests: quantitative methods; consumer behavior; consumer psychology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, corporate environmental performance has increased dramatically, together with documented cases of greenwashing. The term “greenwashing” refers to misleading communication strategies enhanced by firms whose activity may have an harmful impact on the environment. The final aim of greenwashing is, therefore, to form overly positive beliefs regarding firms’ environmental practices or products.

The extant literature has analyzed this phenomenon at two main levels: at the firm level and at the product/service level. At a firm level, greenwashing is associated with the tendency of firms to disseminate distorted information about their environmental practices in order to restore their perceived image. For instance, it is quite common that polluting companies sponsor sport events or clubs in order to benefit from the positive image related to them. At a product/service level, greenwashing regards a set of marketing strategies through which companies advertise, in a misleading manner, the environmental features of a given product or service. Despite the considerable amount of literature analyzing greenwashing practices, the overall contribution to extant literature is, to date, sparse. Indeed, there are several aspects that deserve further consideration, that is, for instance, how greenwashing impacts consumers’ perception about a brand or how firms use sponsoring strategies to restore their brand image.

This Special Issue embodies the varied research analyzing greenwashing either at a firm or at a product level. Therefore, we invite both theoretical and empirical evidence covering a wide range of multidisciplinary aspects related to the phenomenon of greenwashing. In particular, selected topics will include but not be limited to:

- Firms’ greenwashing practices and their reflection at a legal level;

- Perception of different stakeholders on greenwashing practices;

- Effects on brand or product images;

- Corporate social responsibility (CSR), sustainability report, and non-financial reporting;

- Controversial sponsorships and other forms of misleading communication strategies.

Contributes selected for the Special Issue are subject to a peer review procedure that will ensure a rigorous and fast dissemination of research results.

Prof. Dr. Gianluigi Guido
Dr. Cristian Rizzo
Dr. Luigi Piper
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • greenwashing
  • communication
  • CSR
  • sustainability
  • brand image

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 1494 KiB  
Article
Ecolabeling as a Policy Instrument for More Sustainable Development: The Evidence of Supply and Demand Interactions from Russia
by Svetlana Ratner, Konstantin Gomonov, Svetlana Revinova and Inna Lazanyuk
Sustainability 2021, 13(17), 9581; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13179581 - 25 Aug 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3144
Abstract
Ecolabeling can complement more conventional policy instruments such as taxes and subsidies to stimulate more sustainable development of the economy. However, in practice, ecolabels may not always comply with legal requirements in terms of reliability, accuracy and clarity, and sometimes deliberately mislead the [...] Read more.
Ecolabeling can complement more conventional policy instruments such as taxes and subsidies to stimulate more sustainable development of the economy. However, in practice, ecolabels may not always comply with legal requirements in terms of reliability, accuracy and clarity, and sometimes deliberately mislead the consumer. In Russia and many other developing countries, the problem of inaccurate information on the environmental properties of goods and services is still not recognized. The only regulatory document that currently defines the basic principles for developing and using environmental labels and declarations is the national versions of international standards ISO 14020/14021/14024/14025-Environmental Labels Package. This paper contributes to the literature in two main dimensions. It assesses the degree of prevalence of ecolabeling in the Russian market of everyday goods and the reliability and informational content of frequently used labels (supply-side research). Second, it estimates the consumers’ awareness and reaction to ecolabeled products (demand-side research). The most obvious finding to emerge from this study is that low consumer awareness keeps the level of greenwashing low, but at the same time does not stimulate eco-innovations. We suggest developing smartphone applications that allow buyers to check the compliance of ecolabels on a product with ISO standards directly during the shopping process. We propose to use this approach as a cost-effective and straightforward way to simultaneously raise consumer awareness of ecolabeling and reduce the likelihood of greenwashing. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Greenwashing Strategies and Their Effects on Stakeholders’ Perceptions)
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10 pages, 544 KiB  
Article
How Attributes of Green Advertising Affect Purchase Intention: The Moderating Role of Consumer Innovativeness
by Woohyuk Kim and Seunghee Cha
Sustainability 2021, 13(16), 8723; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13168723 - 4 Aug 2021
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 4781
Abstract
Although the importance of green advertising has increased, there is still little research in terms of attributes of green advertising. The purpose of our study was to investigate the relationship between attributes of green advertising and purchase intention when moderated by consumer innovativeness. [...] Read more.
Although the importance of green advertising has increased, there is still little research in terms of attributes of green advertising. The purpose of our study was to investigate the relationship between attributes of green advertising and purchase intention when moderated by consumer innovativeness. After collecting data from consumers in South Korea, we analyzed 200 usable surveys in structural equation modeling. The analysis revealed positive relationships between three attributes of green advertising (i.e., attractiveness, informativity, and reliability) and purchase intention and identified the moderating role of consumer innovativeness in those relationships. Our findings have implications for marketing, especially for the development of green advertising strategies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Greenwashing Strategies and Their Effects on Stakeholders’ Perceptions)
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12 pages, 690 KiB  
Article
Measuring Behavioural Intention through the Use of Greenwashing: A Study of the Mediating Effects and Variables Involved
by Eloy Gil-Cordero, Juan Pedro Cabrera-Sánchez, Ignacio Cepeda-Carrión and Jaime Ortega-Gutierrez
Sustainability 2021, 13(12), 6720; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13126720 - 14 Jun 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3354
Abstract
The work aims to achieve a better understanding of firms’ green strategy, and specifically, in the false green strategy called greenwashing, and the relationships between greenwashing (GW) and behaviour intention (BI), and how this relationship is affected by word of mouth (WOM) and [...] Read more.
The work aims to achieve a better understanding of firms’ green strategy, and specifically, in the false green strategy called greenwashing, and the relationships between greenwashing (GW) and behaviour intention (BI), and how this relationship is affected by word of mouth (WOM) and corporative social responsability (CRS). A survey was conducted and 198 valid and complete online questionnaires were collected from users of urban mobility apps (Blablacar and Amovens) in Spain. The structural equation modeling technique partial least squares (PLS-SEM) was used to test the proposed research model and hypothesized relationships. The results of our study indicate that the direct relationship between GW and BI is not supported, although the indirect relationship through WOM and CRS is significant, so that both become mediating variables of the GW and BI relationship. The paper also analyzes the direct relationships between GW, CRS, WOM and BI, so that the direct effects GW and CRS; CRS and WOM; and WOM and BI are significant. This empirical study analyzes the effect of GW, which has not been studied much, especially in empirical research. The study analyzes several variable consequences of GW and analyzes mediating effects of CRS and WOM on the GW and BI relationship. The study also includes two behavioral indicators, WOM and BI, in a research model, and, additionally, the study demonstrates the relationship between GW and perceived CRS. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Greenwashing Strategies and Their Effects on Stakeholders’ Perceptions)
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