Perceived Greenwashing: A Study of Attitudes

The purpose of this thesis is to explore how brand attitude relates to perceived greenwashing. Brand attitude is connected to the attitude towards the advertiser and perceived greenwash from consuming green advertisement is directly related to the attitude towards that ad, it becomes relevant to explore how brand attitude influences perceived greenwash. Therefore, this research will take the first steps towards exploring how this relationship looks. Authors applied qualitative interview as the means for data collection and thematic analysis as to data-analysis. The research was conducted under the context of automobile industry and all study participants were selected based on a convenient sampling method. The research concluded that brand attitude had some, but little, influence on if perceived greenwash occurred. However the research uncovered some strong tendencies that a positive brand attitude will defend the brand even when greenwash is perceived, while those with negative attitudes appear to accuse the brands when perceiving greenwash. This study also puts forward several societal concerns with regard to ethical considerations, which provides both consumers and businesses insight into viewing greenwashing