IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/bstrat/v30y2021i1p694-704.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What you see is meaningful: Does green advertising change the intentions of consumers to purchase eco‐labeled products?

Author

Listed:
  • Ying Sun
  • Biao Luo
  • Shanyong Wang
  • Wenpei Fang

Abstract

Consumers are increasingly worried that their current consumption patterns have negative environmental impacts, which in turn shapes their green purchase intentions. Based on the signaling theory and stimulus–organism–response model, the purpose of this research is to construct a theoretical framework to understand consumer intentions to buy eco‐labeled products. Empirical results from 671 questionnaires show that as expected, green advertising receptivity positively affects intention, and the relationship between green advertising receptivity and intention is also moderated by promotion focus and mediated by system trust and personal trust. However, the relationship between green advertising receptivity and purchase intention is not moderated by prevention focus. Hence, this research suggests that stakeholders should conduct truthful green advertising campaigns to dispel consumer suspicion and target different consumers with different green advertising and marketing campaigns to increase sales.

Suggested Citation

  • Ying Sun & Biao Luo & Shanyong Wang & Wenpei Fang, 2021. "What you see is meaningful: Does green advertising change the intentions of consumers to purchase eco‐labeled products?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 694-704, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:30:y:2021:i:1:p:694-704
    DOI: 10.1002/bse.2648
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2648
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/bse.2648?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gergely Nyilasy & Harsha Gangadharbatla & Angela Paladino, 2014. "Perceived Greenwashing: The Interactive Effects of Green Advertising and Corporate Environmental Performance on Consumer Reactions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 125(4), pages 693-707, December.
    2. Olya Bullard & Rajesh Manchanda, 2013. "Do sustainable products make us prevention focused?," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 177-189, June.
    3. Béatrice Parguel & Florence Benoît-Moreau & Fabrice Larceneux, 2011. "How Sustainability Ratings Might Deter "Greenwashing": A Closer Look at Ethical Corporate Communication," Post-Print halshs-00561187, HAL.
    4. Konstantinos Giannakas, 2002. "Information Asymmetries and Consumption Decisions in Organic Food Product Markets," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 50(1), pages 35-50, March.
    5. Béatrice Parguel & Florence Benoît-Moreau & Fabrice Larceneux, 2011. "How Sustainability Ratings Might Deter ‘Greenwashing’: A Closer Look at Ethical Corporate Communication," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 102(1), pages 15-28, August.
    6. Yu-Shan Chen & Ching-Hsun Chang, 2013. "Greenwash and Green Trust: The Mediation Effects of Green Consumer Confusion and Green Perceived Risk," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 114(3), pages 489-500, May.
    7. Shanyong Wang & Jin Fan & Dingtao Zhao & Shu Yang & Yuanguang Fu, 2016. "Predicting consumers’ intention to adopt hybrid electric vehicles: using an extended version of the theory of planned behavior model," Transportation, Springer, vol. 43(1), pages 123-143, January.
    8. Chong Choi & Tarek Eldomiaty & Sae Kim, 2007. "Consumer Trust, Social Marketing and Ethics of Welfare Exchange," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 74(1), pages 17-23, August.
    9. Krittinee Nuttavuthisit & John Thøgersen, 2017. "The Importance of Consumer Trust for the Emergence of a Market for Green Products: The Case of Organic Food," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 140(2), pages 323-337, January.
    10. Wang, Shanyong & Li, Jun & Zhao, Dingtao, 2017. "The impact of policy measures on consumer intention to adopt electric vehicles: Evidence from China," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 14-26.
    11. Yeosun Yoon & Gülen Sarial-Abi & Zeynep Gürhan-Canli, 2012. "Effect of Regulatory Focus on Selective Information Processing," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 39(1), pages 93-110.
    12. Zou, Lili Wenli & Chan, Ricky Y.K., 2019. "Why and when do consumers perform green behaviors? An examination of regulatory focus and ethical ideology," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 113-127.
    13. Shanyong Wang & Jing Wang & Feng Yang & Yu Wang & Jun Li, 2018. "Consumer familiarity, ambiguity tolerance, and purchase behavior toward remanufactured products: The implications for remanufacturers," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(8), pages 1741-1750, December.
    14. Wang, Shanyong & Wang, Jing & Lin, Shoufu & Li, Jun, 2019. "Public perceptions and acceptance of nuclear energy in China: The role of public knowledge, perceived benefit, perceived risk and public engagement," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 352-360.
    15. Bulent Menguc & Seigyoung Auh & Lucie Ozanne, 2010. "The Interactive Effect of Internal and External Factors on a Proactive Environmental Strategy and its Influence on a Firm's Performance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 94(2), pages 279-298, June.
    16. repec:dau:papers:123456789/4687 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Shanyong Wang & Jin Fan & Dingtao Zhao & Shu Yang & Yuanguang Fu, 2016. "Predicting consumers’ intention to adopt hybrid electric vehicles: using an extended version of the theory of planned behavior model," Transportation, Springer, vol. 43(1), pages 123-143, January.
    18. Ying Sun & Shanyong Wang & Jun Li & Dingtao Zhao & Jin Fan, 2017. "Understanding consumers’ intention to use plastic bags: using an extended theory of planned behaviour model," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 89(3), pages 1327-1342, December.
    19. Boulding, William & Kirmani, Amna, 1993. "A Consumer-Side Experimental Examination of Signaling Theory: Do Consumers Perceive Warranties as Signals of Quality?," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 20(1), pages 111-123, June.
    20. Michael Spence, 1973. "Job Market Signaling," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 87(3), pages 355-374.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Stefanos Balaskas & Aliki Panagiotarou & Maria Rigou, 2023. "Impact of Environmental Concern, Emotional Appeals, and Attitude toward the Advertisement on the Intention to Buy Green Products: The Case of Younger Consumer Audiences," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-19, September.
    2. Muhammad Ishfaq Khan & Shahbaz Khalid & Umer Zaman & Ana Ercília José & Paulo Ferreira, 2021. "Green Paradox in Emerging Tourism Supply Chains: Achieving Green Consumption Behavior through Strategic Green Marketing Orientation, Brand Social Responsibility, and Green Image," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(18), pages 1-24, September.
    3. Rakhshan Ummar & Kanwal Shaheen & Iram Bashir & Junaid Ul Haq & Mark A. Bonn, 2023. "Green Social Media Campaigns: Influencing Consumers’ Attitudes and Behaviors," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-15, August.
    4. Evangelia Ktisti & Leonidas Hatzithomas & Christina Boutsouki, 2022. "Green Advertising on Social Media: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-25, November.
    5. Tewari, Alok & Mathur, Smriti & Srivastava, Smriti & Gangwar, Divya, 2022. "Examining the role of receptivity to green communication, altruism and openness to change on young consumers’ intention to purchase green apparel: A multi-analytical approach," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    6. Di Kuang & Xiao-Fei Li & Wen-Wen Bi, 2021. "How to Effectively Design Referral Rewards to Increase the Referral Likelihood for Green Products," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-16, June.
    7. Shan, Minghui & Zhu, Zhenzhong & Song, Chunlei & Chen, Haipeng (Allan), 2023. "The effectiveness of advertising appeals: A culturally-derived power perspective," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    8. Jessica Müller & Ángel Acevedo-Duque & Sheyla Müller & Prateek Kalia & Khalid Mehmood, 2021. "Predictive Sustainability Model Based on the Theory of Planned Behavior Incorporating Ecological Conscience and Moral Obligation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-16, April.
    9. Jessica Müller-Pérez & Ángel Acevedo-Duque & Pilar Valenzuela Rettig & Elizabeth Emperatriz García-Salirrosas & Mirtha Mercedes Fernández-Mantilla & Sandra Sofía Izquierdo-Marín & Rina Álvarez-Becerra, 2023. "Consumer Behavior after COVID-19: Interpersonal Influences, eWOM and Digital Lifestyles in More Diverse Youths," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-13, April.
    10. Saddam A. Hazaea & Ebrahim Mohammed Al-Matari & Khaled Zedan & Saleh F. A. Khatib & Jinyu Zhu & Hamzeh Al Amosh, 2022. "Green Purchasing: Past, Present and Future," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-28, April.
    11. Zhengkai Wang & Debing Ni & Kaiming Zheng, 2022. "The Role of False-Claims Ban Regulation in Greenwashing of Firms with Imprecise Greenness Information," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-25, October.
    12. Sun, Ying & Leng, Ke & Xiong, Haitao, 2022. "Research on the influencing factors of consumers’ green purchase behavior in the post-pandemic era," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    13. Jiatong Dai & Guanghua Sheng, 2022. "Advertising strategies and sustainable development: The effects of green advertising appeals and subjective busyness on green purchase intention," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(7), pages 3421-3436, November.
    14. Lan Gao & Liang Wan, 2023. "Does corporate environmental responsibility contribute to financial performance? A dual path analysis through operational efficiency and the cost of debt," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(1), pages 308-323, January.
    15. Rusitha Wijekoon & Mohamad Fazli Sabri, 2021. "Determinants That Influence Green Product Purchase Intention and Behavior: A Literature Review and Guiding Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-40, May.
    16. Santa, Juana Castro & Drews, Stefan, 2023. "Heuristic processing of green advertising: Review and policy implications," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Torelli, Riccardo & Balluchi, Federica & Lazzini, Arianna, 2019. "Greenwashing and Environmental Communication: Effects on Stakeholders’ Perceptions," OSF Preprints 97vxn, Center for Open Science.
    2. Marta Pizzetti & Lucia Gatti & Peter Seele, 2021. "Firms Talk, Suppliers Walk: Analyzing the Locus of Greenwashing in the Blame Game and Introducing ‘Vicarious Greenwashing’," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 170(1), pages 21-38, April.
    3. Wang, Shanyong & Wang, Jing & Lin, Shoufu & Li, Jun, 2020. "How and when does information publicity affect public acceptance of nuclear energy?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    4. Jennifer L. Robertson & A. Wren Montgomery & Timur Ozbilir, 2023. "Employees' response to corporate greenwashing," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(7), pages 4015-4027, November.
    5. Honglei Mu & Youngchan Lee, 2023. "Greenwashing in Corporate Social Responsibility: A Dual-Faceted Analysis of Its Impact on Employee Trust and Identification," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(22), pages 1-17, November.
    6. Peter Seele & Lucia Gatti, 2017. "Greenwashing Revisited: In Search of a Typology and Accusation‐Based Definition Incorporating Legitimacy Strategies," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(2), pages 239-252, February.
    7. Ye, Fei & Kang, Wanlin & Li, Lixu & Wang, Zhiqiang, 2021. "Why do consumers choose to buy electric vehicles? A paired data analysis of purchase intention configurations," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 14-27.
    8. Yong Ming Wang & Hafiz Muhammad Fakhar Zaman & Abdul Khaliq Alvi, 2022. "Linkage of Green Brand Positioning and Green Customer Value With Green Purchase Intention: The Mediating and Moderating Role of Attitude Toward Green Brand and Green Trust," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(2), pages 21582440221, June.
    9. Carla Rossi & Francesca Rivetti, 2020. "Assessing Young Consumers’ Responses to Sustainable Labels: Insights from a Factorial Experiment in Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-23, December.
    10. Constantinos N. Leonidou & Dionysis Skarmeas, 2017. "Gray Shades of Green: Causes and Consequences of Green Skepticism," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 144(2), pages 401-415, August.
    11. Udit Chawla & Rajesh Mohnot & Varsha Mishra & Harsh Vikram Singh & Ayush Kumar Singh, 2023. "Factors Influencing Customer Preference and Adoption of Electric Vehicles in India: A Journey towards More Sustainable Transportation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-15, April.
    12. Sun, Ying & Leng, Ke & Xiong, Haitao, 2022. "Research on the influencing factors of consumers’ green purchase behavior in the post-pandemic era," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    13. Yongbo Sun & Binbin Shi, 2022. "Impact of Greenwashing Perception on Consumers’ Green Purchasing Intentions: A Moderated Mediation Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-15, September.
    14. Lucia Gatti & Peter Seele & Lars Rademacher, 2019. "Grey zone in – greenwash out. A review of greenwashing research and implications for the voluntary-mandatory transition of CSR," International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 1-15, December.
    15. Gatti, Lucia & Pizzetti, Marta & Seele, Peter, 2021. "Green lies and their effect on intention to invest," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 228-240.
    16. Whitney Ginder & Wi-Suk Kwon & Sang-Eun Byun, 2021. "Effects of Internal–External Congruence-Based CSR Positioning: An Attribution Theory Approach," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 169(2), pages 355-369, March.
    17. Lan Gao & Feng Yang, 2023. "Do resource slack and green organizational climate moderate the relationships between institutional pressures and corporate environmental responsibility practices of SMEs in China?," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(11), pages 13495-13520, November.
    18. Wang, Xiao-Wu & Cao, Yu-Mei & Zhang, Ning, 2021. "The influences of incentive policy perceptions and consumer social attributes on battery electric vehicle purchase intentions," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    19. Riccardo Torelli & Federica Balluchi & Arianna Lazzini, 2020. "Greenwashing and environmental communication: Effects on stakeholders' perceptions," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 407-421, February.
    20. Shah, Sayed Kifayat & Zhongjun, Tang & Sattar, Abdul & XinHao, Zhou, 2021. "Consumer's intention to purchase 5G: Do environmental awareness, environmental knowledge and health consciousness attitude matter?," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:30:y:2021:i:1:p:694-704. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-0836 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.