Background: The emergence and growth of the green economy has prompted companies to take more steps towards becoming environmentally conscious, but this is not always done in an honest way, from which cases of greenwashing has emerged. Cases of greenwashing can be recognized in all areas of business, and most of the research at the moment only recognizes the effect of a greenwashing case on consumer behavior, missing the link of consumer perceptions. The existing case study research also focuses on the attitudes after the fact, not investigating how a consumer reacts to the information during the revelation of a company’s misconduct. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the connection between the concept of greenwashing and consumer perceptions, and thus the decisions consumers take based on the level of information they possess. Method: The research is conducted as an interpretivist qualitative case study based on a single imaginary case, where the data is gathered through triangulation of previous existing literature and observations from semi-structured interviews, analyzed through abductive reasoning. Conclusion: The research found that when a consumer is presented with information about a company and their initiatives, the perceptions that the consumer has change accordingly. The perceptions are dependent on the level of interest the consumer has in sustainability issues. Some findings that were not expected considered the partial effect of the sustainability initiatives, showing that consumers are only interested in green initiatives up to their personal constraints or preferences. The consumers largely see the motivations of a company to be attributed to profits, however, some more optimistic consumers seem to be less affected by greenwashing.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:hj-49145 |
| Date | January 2020 |
| Creators | Åkerblom, Ida, Forsell, Filip |
| Publisher | Internationella Handelshögskolan, Jönköping University, IHH, Företagsekonomi, Internationella Handelshögskolan, Jönköping University, IHH, Företagsekonomi |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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