IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0277421.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Greenwash and green brand equity: The mediating role of green brand image, green satisfaction, and green trust, and the moderating role of green concern

Author

Listed:
  • Minh-Tri Ha

Abstract

This study explores whether and, if so, how efficiently consumers’ greenwashing (GW) influences green brand equity (GBE) by integrating the mediation role of green brand image (GBI), green satisfaction (GSA), and green trust (GTR) and the moderating role of green concern (GC), using the legitimacy and signaling theories. A quantitative study was conducted by means of a questionnaire-based survey using a cluster random sampling technique with a sample of 436 consumers who purchased electronic products in supermarkets in Vietnam. A partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) approach was used to analyze data. Our findings show that GW is not significantly associated with GBE, possibly due to the halo effect. The findings also show that GW is adversely related to GBI, GSA, and GTR, which would positively influence GBE, except for the GW-GSA relationship. This means that, although GW does not directly affect GBE, it does indirectly influence it via GBI and GTR. Furthermore, GC significantly moderates the relationship between GW and GBE. Our work is the first to combine GBI, GSA, and GTR as mediators, and GC as a moderator using PLS-SEM approach to advance the theory of green brand equity on green marketing and to contribute significantly toward a unified theory of brand equity. Furthermore, our findings extend our understanding regarding the different mechanisms for which GBI and GTR play as mediators, and with GC as a moderator in the GW-GBE relationship in the electronics products setting of Vietnamese consumers.

Suggested Citation

  • Minh-Tri Ha, 2022. "Greenwash and green brand equity: The mediating role of green brand image, green satisfaction, and green trust, and the moderating role of green concern," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(11), pages 1-24, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0277421
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0277421
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0277421
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0277421&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0277421?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. Michael Spence, 2002. "Signaling in Retrospect and the Informational Structure of Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(3), pages 434-459, June.
    2. Minh-Tri Ha, 2021. "Optimizing Green Brand Equity: The Integrated Branding and Behavioral Perspectives," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(3), pages 21582440211, July.
    3. Hao Yang & Laura Le Luo & Asit Bhattacharyya, 2021. "Mandatory Environmental Reporting in Australia: An In‐depth Analysis of Quantity and Quality," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 57(4), pages 737-779, December.
    4. Utkal Khandelwal & Kushagra Kulshreshtha & Vikas Tripathi, 2019. "Importance of Consumer-based Green Brand Equity: Empirical Evidence," Paradigm, , vol. 23(1), pages 83-97, June.
    5. Guido Palazzo & Andreas Scherer, 2006. "Corporate Legitimacy as Deliberation: A Communicative Framework," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 66(1), pages 71-88, June.
    6. Christina W.Y. Wong & Kee‐Hung Lai & Kuo‐Chung Shang & Chin‐Shan Lu, 2014. "Uncovering the Value of Green Advertising for Environmental Management Practices," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(2), pages 117-130, February.
    7. Tamer A. Awad & Sahar Mohsen, 2017. "Increasing the Brand Equity of Private Label Brands," International Journal of Customer Relationship Marketing and Management (IJCRMM), IGI Global, vol. 8(4), pages 32-50, October.
    8. Yu-Shan Chen & Ke-Chiun Chang, 2013. "The nonlinear effect of green innovation on the corporate competitive advantage," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 47(1), pages 271-286, January.
    9. Yu-Shan Chen & Chang-Liang Lin & Ching-Hsun Chang, 2014. "The influence of greenwash on green word-of-mouth (green WOM): the mediation effects of green perceived quality and green satisfaction," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 48(5), pages 2411-2425, September.
    10. Thi Thu Huong Nguyen & Zhi Yang & Ninh Nguyen & Lester W. Johnson & Tuan Khanh Cao, 2019. "Greenwash and Green Purchase Intention: The Mediating Role of Green Skepticism," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-16, May.
    11. Yu‐Shan Chen, 2013. "Towards green loyalty: driving from green perceived value, green satisfaction, and green trust," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(5), pages 294-308, September.
    12. Gricelda Juárez-Luis & Patricia S. Sánchez-Medina & René Díaz-Pichardo, 2018. "Institutional Pressures and Green Practices in Small Agricultural Businesses in Mexico: The Mediating Effect of Farmers’ Environmental Concern," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-18, November.
    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. Habib, Muhammad Danish & Attri, Rekha & Salam, Mohammad Asif & Yaqub, Muhammad Zafar, 2025. "Bright and dark sides of green consumerism: An in-depth qualitative investigation in retailing context," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    2. Srisathan, Wutthiya Aekthanate & Naruetharadhol, Phaninee, 2025. "Exploring moral hazard and adverse selection in the context of greenwashing and organic product consumption," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 84(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. 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.
    2. Oanh Thi Thuy Thai & Tho Alang, 2025. "Greenwash and green purchase intentions among Vietnamese consumers: The mediating roles of green skepticism, environmental concern and knowledge," HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE - ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION, HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY, vol. 15(4), pages 109-135.
    3. Jose Antonio Román-Augusto & Camila Garrido-Lecca-Vera & Manuel Luis Lodeiros-Zubiria & Martin Mauricio-Andia, 2023. "How to Reach Green Word of Mouth through Green Trust, Green Perceived Value and Green Satisfaction," Data, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-8, January.
    4. Shichang Liang & Min Zhang & Yuxuan Chu & Lingling He, 2022. "Should “Green” Be Precise? The Effect of Information Presentation on Purchasing Intention of Green Products," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-16, August.
    5. Syed Abdul Rehman Khan & Adnan Ahmed Sheikh & Mubeen Ashraf & Zhang Yu, 2022. "Improving Consumer-Based Green Brand Equity: The Role of Healthy Green Practices, Green Brand Attachment, and Green Skepticism," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-17, September.
    6. Irfan Hameed & Zeeshan Hyder & Muhammad Imran & Kashif Shafiq, 2021. "Greenwash and green purchase behavior: an environmentally sustainable perspective," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(9), pages 13113-13134, September.
    7. Shih-Wei Wu & Pei-Yun Chiang, 2023. "Exploring the Mediating Effects of the Theory of Planned Behavior on the Relationships between Environmental Awareness, Green Advocacy, and Green Self-Efficacy on the Green Word-of-Mouth Intention," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-27, August.
    8. Elizabeth Emperatriz García-Salirrosas & Rafael Fernando Rondon-Eusebio, 2022. "Green Marketing Practices Related to Key Variables of Consumer Purchasing Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-19, July.
    9. Civilai Leckie & Daniel Rayne & Lester W. Johnson, 2021. "Promoting Customer Engagement Behavior for Green Brands," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-22, July.
    10. Kara, Karahan & Yalçın, Galip Cihan & Akagün Ergin, Elif & Simic, Vladimir & Pamucar, Dragan, 2024. "A neutrosophic WENSLO-ARLON model for measuring sustainable brand equity performance," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    11. Pankaj Tiwari, 2023. "Influence of the Green Brand Image on the Green Word of Mouth of Millennials: a Mediation Study on Banks," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 59-78, March.
    12. Wesley Friske & Seth A. Hoelscher & Atanas Nik Nikolov, 2023. "The impact of voluntary sustainability reporting on firm value: Insights from signaling theory," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 51(2), pages 372-392, March.
    13. Camelia Grădinaru & Daniel-Rareș Obadă & Ioan-Alexandru Grădinaru & Dan-Cristian Dabija, 2022. "Enhancing Sustainable Cosmetics Brand Purchase: A Comprehensive Approach Based on the SOR Model and the Triple Bottom Line," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-22, October.
    14. Yu-Shan Chen & Ching-Ying Lin & Chia-Sui Weng, 2015. "The Influence of Environmental Friendliness on Green Trust: The Mediation Effects of Green Satisfaction and Green Perceived Quality," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(8), pages 1-18, July.
    15. Jose Antonio Román-Augusto & Camila Garrido-Lecca-Vera & Manuel Luis Lodeiros-Zubiria & Martin Mauricio-Andia, 2022. "Green Marketing: Drivers in the Process of Buying Green Products—The Role of Green Satisfaction, Green Trust, Green WOM and Green Perceived Value," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-17, August.
    16. Célia Santos & Arnaldo Coelho & Alzira Marques, 2024. "A systematic literature review on greenwashing and its relationship to stakeholders: state of art and future research agenda," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 74(3), pages 1397-1421, September.
    17. Xuguang Zhu & Yihan Zhang & Zeyu Wu, 2025. "Familiar Yet New: How Design-Driven Innovation and Brand Image Affect Green Agricultural Product Purchase Intentions in the Live Streaming Environment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(2), pages 1-15, January.
    18. Ferdinand Thies & Sören Wallbach & Michael Wessel & Markus Besler & Alexander Benlian, 2022. "Initial coin offerings and the cryptocurrency hype - the moderating role of exogenous and endogenous signals," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 32(3), pages 1691-1705, September.
    19. Vitaliy Roud & Thomas Wolfgang Thurner, 2018. "The Influence of State‐Ownership on Eco‐Innovations in Russian Manufacturing Firms," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 22(5), pages 1213-1227, October.
    20. Chen, Xuchang & Wu, Changqi & Xie, Xuanli, 2025. "Foreign ownership and corporate litigation risk," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 189(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:plo:pone00:0277421. 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: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    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.