Impact of firms’ Greenwashing practices on customer green trust and green brand attachment: Pakistan`s home appliances consumers’ perspective

The usage of green products has increased dramatically in the recent decade. The compelling reason behind this behavioral change is the consumer understanding of climate change and its negative impact on the planet. However, firms’ engagement in greenwashing is causing a detrimental impact on this green cause, and it is leading customers to disbelieve the environmental claims of the firms. This study investigates the impact of firms’ greenwashing practices on consumer green trust and green brand attachment. Moreover, it examines the intermediation factors of green perceived risk, green perceived value, green confusion, and green brand image. This study follows a quantitative research design and deductive approach. Data was collected from the home appliances consumers through an online and in-person survey questionnaire. Respondents were contacted by using the non-probability sampling technique and a sample of 330 valid responses was used to analyze the data. Confirmatory Factor Analysis was used to test the reliability of the variables and Structural Equation Modeling to test the nine hypotheses that were proposed in this study. The findings suggest that Greenwashing negatively affects Green Perceived Value (GPV) and GPV positively affects Green Trust (GT). GT showed a positive impact on Green Brand Attachment (GBA). Hence, it is proved that greenwashing may reduce the trust and Brand Attachment of the consumers with the green product. Greenwashing has a positive impact on Green Confusion and a negative impact on Green Brand Image. These findings augment the existing knowledge on the relationship between greenwashing and green brand attachment. It is suggested that if organizations want to increase consumers` green trust and green brand attachment, they must refrain from greenwashing. Green brand trust is a significant driver of the relationship-building process and organizations should strive to build it by furnishing real green values to the consumers, thus it will result in increasing the market share of the companies.