Exploring Additional Factors Including Greenwashing And Green Skeptism To The Green Brand Equity In Context Of Green Beauty Products In Vietnam

Abstract

The increasing demand for environmentally-friendly business strategies and pressure from corporate social responsibility have led to the concept of "brownwashing" and "greenwashing" as firms perceive environmental improvements as costly and not always a win-win relationship. This idea has been supported by Polonsky in 1994 and Marquis C, Toffel M, Zhou Y in 2016. The growing demand for green consumption in various industries motivates firms to conduct green marketing strategies to show consumers the corporate social responsibility. However, green communication can be regarded as greenwashing, defined as misleading communication when consumers believe firms promise more environmental benefit than they deliver. Additionally, there is growing consumer skepticism towards companies that take opportunistic advantage of the green movement, using greenwashing to promote environment-friendly behavior without fully divulging destructive information. This study focuses on the dimensions contributing to green brand equity in the emerging market, Vietnam. Existing research has mainly focused on the construct, practice, and antecedents of greenwashing behaviors in developed economies, but there is still little research on the greenwashing and correlation of greenwashing and green equity that affect purchasing behavior in the context of the emerging market. Therefore, this study aims to fulfill this gap by conducting the quantitative research in Vietnam in context of green beauty products