This slide is based on my research paper presented at International Symposium on Business and Management, Kuala Lumpur-Malaysia (2015)

1. The Extended Consequences of Greenwashing: Perceived
Consumer Skepticism and Switching Intention
International Symposium on Business and Management
1-3 April 2015, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Universitas Gadjah Mada
Master of Science and Doctorate Program
Hendy Mustiko Aji

2. Quick Overview
Universitas Gadjah Mada
Faculty of Economics and Business - Master of Science and Doctorate Program
 Green Marketing
 Greenwashing
• What it is.
• Why it happens.
• Implications to customers and marketers?
 Perceived consumer skepticism and switching intention as the
extended consequences
 Result
 Implication

3. Research Gap and Problem
Universitas Gadjah Mada
Faculty of Economics and Business - Master of Science and Doctorate Program
 Empirically
The study of greenwashing is still limited in Indonesia
 Theoretically
 Not many researchers considered consumer skepticism as the
consequences of greenwashing
 Most existing researches stopped at green trust
 Switching Intention as the final consequences of greenwashing

4. Why this topic is important and interesting?
Universitas Gadjah Mada
Faculty of Economics and Business - Master of Science and Doctorate Program
 Consumers are becoming more and more aware of environmental
issues (Chen, 2008)
 Yet, over 1000 self-declared green products reviewed, all but one
exhibited some form of greenwash
 It has driven consumer to negatively intent to purchase the products
or services (McGrath, 1992; Newell et al, 1998)
 It could increase consumer confusion, skepticism, and risk
associated with green products.
 Therefore, those problems will likely encourage customers to
switch to non-green products.

5. Perceived Consumer Skepticism
Universitas Gadjah Mada
Faculty of Economics and Business - Master of Science and Doctorate Program
 Skepticism is dealing with disbelief of stated claims.
 In compare with any other forms of communication, consumers are
more skeptical toward advertising (Obermiller et al, 2005)
 They don’t have the expertise or ability to verify green products’
environmental and consumer values, creating misperceptions and
skepticism (Ottman et al, 2006).
 Indeed, ad skepticism often refers to the consumer's lack of trust in
advertising (Boush et al., 1993, 1994)
 Consumers tend to distrust green ads (Wonnerberger, 2014)

6. Switching Intention
Universitas Gadjah Mada
Faculty of Economics and Business - Master of Science and Doctorate Program
 If consumer perceives they are confused, they may abandon their
purchase decision (Mitchell and Papavassiliou, 1999; Chen and
Chang, 2012)
 Therefore, will later resulted on disloyalty (Walsh et al, 2007) or
switching to another product.
 Skepticism influences negatively to purchase intention (Albayrak et
al, 2011)
 Items questioned by Albayrak et al, 2011):
 “over the next one month, I plan to switch to a green version of a product”
 “over the next one month, I will consider switching to other brands for
ecological reasons”

7. Research Model
Universitas Gadjah Mada
Faculty of Economics and Business - Master of Science and Doctorate Program
Greenwashing
Green
consumer
confusion
Perceived
consumer
skepticism
Green
Perceived
Risk
Green Trust
Switching
Intention
H1
H2
H3
H4
H5
H6
H7
H8
H9
H10

8. Research Method
Universitas Gadjah Mada
Faculty of Economics and Business - Master of Science and Doctorate Program
 Conducted in Yogyakarta, Indonesia
 Purposive Sampling Technique
 Back translation questionnaire
 Structural Equation Modeling
 Measurement
Greenwashing : Laufer (2003)
Green Consumer Confusion : Wash et al (2007), Wash and Mitchel (2010)
Green Perceived Risk : Mohr (1998)
Perceived Consumer Skepticism : Matthers and Wonneberger (2014)
Green Trust : Chen and Chang (2012)
Switching Intention : Burhnam et al (2003)

9. Result
Universitas Gadjah Mada
Faculty of Economics and Business - Master of Science and Doctorate Program
Hypotheses
Proposed
effect
Estimate Results
H1 PCS <--- Greenwashing + 0,757 ** H1 is supported
H2 GCC <--- Greenwashing + 0,503 ** H2 is supported
H3 GPR <--- Greenwashing + 0,564 ** H3 is supported
H4 GTrust <--- GCC - -0,212 * H4 is supported
H5 GTrust <--- PCS - -0,613 ** H5 is supported
H6 GTrust <--- GPR - -0,065 H6 is not supported
H7 SwitchInt <--- GCC + 0,009 H7 is not supported
H8 SwitchInt <--- PCS + 0,127 H8 is not supported
H9 SwitchInt <--- GPR + 0,123 H9 is not supported
H10 SwitchInt <--- GTrust - -0,432 * H10 is supported
Note: **p < 0.01, *p < 0.05

10. Implication
Universitas Gadjah Mada
Faculty of Economics and Business - Master of Science and Doctorate Program
 First, marketers must stop all deceptive advertisements and claims with
respect to environmental protection.
 Second, marketers must also enhance their green trust to hold customer to
switch to other products (non-green products).
 The market for green products is still potential as long as they avoid
advertising deceptive and vague ads.

11. Universitas Gadjah Mada
Faculty of Economics and Business - Master of Science and Doctorate Program
Thank You