Consumer attitudes towards greenwashing scandals

: the moderating effect of gender and personality

Abstract

This study aims to investigate how gender and the five personality traits affect the link between Greenwashing, Brand Trust, Word-of-Mouth, and Purchase Intention. Two groups, an experimental group and a control group, were selected as the study's subject.A before-and-after metric were also created in order to more accurately assess the impact of greenwashing controversy. In order to test the study hypotheses, data from 222 individuals were gathered using a survey approach. As a result, it was discovered that when faced with a greenwashing scandal, there is a negative impact on Brand Trust, Word-of-Mouth, and Purchase Intention. Furthermore, when faced with a sustainabilitylabel, the respondents showed higher sensitivity to the Greenwashing Scandal. Regarding personalities, no personality fully moderated the relationship between the Greenwashing Information and the dependent variables. Gender moderates the relationship on the twodependent variables, Brand Trust and Purchase Intention.Studies from the past define greenwashing and looked at how it affects business success. To the best of the author's knowledge, this study is the first to investigate the moderating effect of personality and gender. Managers need to be aware that brand relationships suffer as a result of greenwashing, which also has a negative impact on consumers' intentions to make purchases.Limitations and implications are discussed, as well as future research directions.

Date of Award	25 Jan 2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Daniel Fernandes (Supervisor)