Greenwash, moral decoupling, and brand loyalty

Along with the prevalence of green marketing, greenwash has also grown in the past decade. We investigated whether greenwash undermines consumers’ brand loyalty, and how moral decoupling moderates this effect. Data were collected from a survey of 427 consumers, and the hypotheses were tested by regression analysis. The empirical results show that greenwash had a negative effect on consumers’ brand loyalty, the effect of which was stronger at lower levels of moral decoupling. Thus, we recommend that brands eliminate the detrimental greenwash practice and increase the transparency of their environmental performance, and that governments and environmental organizations enhance consumer education to prevent moral decoupling.