Different Shades of Greenwashing: Consumers’ Reactions to Environmental Lies, Half-Lies, and Organizations Taking Credit for Following Legal Obligations

Journal of Business and Technical Communication Jan 2020 Open Access

Different Shades of Greenwashing: Consumers’ Reactions to Environmental Lies, Half-Lies, and Organizations Taking Credit for Following Legal Obligations

Menno D. T. de Jong ; Gabriel Huluba University of Twente ; Ardion D. Beldad

Abstract

Although corporate greenwashing is a widespread phenomenon, few studies have investigated its effects on consumers. In these studies, consumers were exposed to organizations that boldly lied about their green behaviors. Most greenwashing practices in real life, however, do not involve complete lies. This article describes a randomized 3 × 2 experimental study in the cruise industry investigating the effects of various degrees of greenwashing. Six experimental conditions were created based on behavioral-claim greenwashing (an organization telling the truth vs. its telling lies or half-lies) and motive greenwashing (an organization acting on its own initiative vs. its taking credit for following legal obligations). Dependent variables were three corporate reputation constructs: environmental performance, product and service quality, and financial performance. Compared to true green behavior, lies and half-lies had similar negative effects on reputation. Taking credit for following legal obligations had no main effect. Only in the case of true green behavior did undeservedly taking credit affect reputation negatively. Overall, the findings suggest that only true green behavior will have the desired positive effects on reputation.

Journal: Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Published: 2020-01-01
DOI: 10.1177/1050651919874105
Open Access: OA PDF Hybrid
Topics: writing across the curriculum multilingual writers affect and writing

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Cites in this index (1)

Jong et al. (2018)

Making Green Stuff? Effects of Corporate Greenwashing on Consumers

Journal of Business and Technical Communication

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