University of Twente Student Theses

Login

How greenwashing influences customer trust and purchase intentions - a quantitative research study

Eversmann, Maike (2019) How greenwashing influences customer trust and purchase intentions - a quantitative research study.

[img] PDF
533kB
Abstract:Sustainability has become an important topic in the recent years which leads to green advertising strategies of organization and the adoption of quality marks that show the eco-friendliness of an organization, but not every organization which promotes to be green and sustainable, actually is sustainable and green. This phenomenon is called greenwashing. Organizations make use of fake quality marks to show their sustainable work. This study aims to analyze the consequences of a greenwashing scandal on trust and on purchase intentions. Trust is a key factor in every customer-organization relationship, especially for green products. Purchase intentions are a good predictor for actual purchase behavior and therefore, used a substitute measure. The theory of planned behavior builds the theoretical background of this study to explain the relations between the variables. A survey of 62 participants have been conducted to test three hypotheses related to greenwashing, trust and purchase intentions. The analysis shows that trust has a significant relationship toward purchase intention and that greenwashing has a significant effect on trust, whereas greenwashing has no significant impact on customer purchase intention. If greenwashing has consequences on trust and purchase intentions, greenwashing by the organization is detected and customers are aware of greenwashing.
Item Type:Essay (Bachelor)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:85 business administration, organizational science
Programme:International Business Administration BSc (50952)
Keywords:Trust, Purchase intentions, Greenwashing, Sustainability, Corporate scandal, Consequences, Customers, Theory of planned behavior
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/78493
Export this item as:BibTeX
EndNote
HTML Citation
Reference Manager

 

Repository Staff Only: item control page