Consumers' social media responses to the greenwashing of fashion industries: A quantitative research on how social media behavior is influenced by greenwashing and trust

Ethical consumption and responsible consumerism are on the rise in the last decades. Consumers demand green, sustainable products that do not have a hazardous impact on the environment and social life. Some industries managed to respond to this new need by holistic changing their business model and implementing green manufacturing procedures. However, some industries, such as fashion companies, claim to be green by using eco-labels and selling their “sustainable” products for premium prices while engaging in misleading green marketing techniques. The overuse of sustainability buzzwords such as “eco-friendly” and “organic” led to consumer confusion and skepticism around green products. Skepticism may diminish trust and make consumers hesitant to purchase green products. The rise of social media and online communities gave consumers the power to express their feelings and experiences about a brand or a product. Consumers started to seek information about a product from valuable members of their online community to avoid being victims of greenwashing. This research explores the relationship of greenwashing with consumers’ eWOM intentions and its relation to trust. Based on these findings, the following research question was formed: To what extent do fashion companies' greenwashing efforts impact consumers' intentions to engage in positive or negative eWOM? To answer the research question, an online experiment has been conducted with a unifactorial design with three conditions (non-greenwashing condition, greenwashing condition, and a control condition). The sample consisted of 287 respondents. The results showed that greenwashing is not significantly related to positive eWOM but is significantly related to negative eWOM. However, non-greenwashing has a significant relationship with positive eWOM. This means that non-greenwashing behavior can lead to positive eWOM, and greenwashing behavior can lead to negative eWOM. Furthermore, a full mediation of trust was found in the relationship between non-greenwashing and positive eWOM. Only a partial mediation of trust was found on the relationship between greenwashing and negative eWOM. The findings of this research provide insights for marketers and the fashion industry into how their engagement in greenwashing behavior negatively influences the messages posted about them by a third party. More research will be necessary to fully explore the relationship between greenwashing, trust, and eWOM.