Title: Greenwashing and brand perception - a consumer sentiment analysis on organisations accused of greenwashing

Authors: Katherine Baxter; Rajab Ghandour; Wendy Histon

Addresses: Liverpool Hope University, Hope Park, Taggart Avenue, Liverpool L16 9JD, UK ' University of Westminster, 309 Regent St., London W1B 2HW, UK ' University of Westminster, 309 Regent St., London W1B 2HW, UK

Abstract: This study analyses public sentiment from data mining twitter posts, both before and after greenwashing accusations were proven against eight established, well-known brands. The purpose of the exploration is to discover the extent to which greenwashing practice has a detrimental effect upon the consumer brand relationship. This effect is measured through customer comments via sentiment analysis. Applying data scraping techniques, data mining and sentiment analysis the authors measured the differences in consumer sentiment and positioning towards brands before and after the greenwashing scandals. Findings revealed that most brands showed a reduction in the number of Tweets directly after the greenwashing ruling. We apply brand transgression theory to explain our findings, which could be interpreted as consumer avoidance, in short, less engagement with the brand is evident, demonstrating consumer disapproval. Negative sentiment increased in the Tweets analysed, post greenwashing ruling for all brands, however, surprisingly, consumer trust with the brands was not altered and actually increased in the majority of cases.

Keywords: greenwashing; advertisement; consumer; social media; twitter; data mining; sentiment analysis; brand transgression.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIMA.2024.140452

International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising, 2024 Vol.21 No.1/2, pp.149 - 179

Received: 01 Nov 2022
Accepted: 22 Jun 2023
Published online: 19 Aug 2024 *

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