The Effects of Greenwasing in Food Advertising on Green WOM and Green Purchase Behavioral Intention: Focusing on the Moderated Mediation Effect by Corporate Trust

Greenwashing is known to have a serious impact on consumers" emotion and attitude, ultimately affecting negatively food purchase behavior and word-of-mouth intentions. In the context of food service industry, we examined the structural relationships between greenwashing, green word-of-mouth, and green purchase behavioral intention focusing on the moderated mediation of unfairness perception and green risk perception by corporate trust. For this study, the survey was conducted to those who had experienced greenwashing in food advertising and 317 valid questionnaires were returned. As a result of the study, firstly, greenwashing was found to have a negative effect on consumers" WOM and green purchase behavior intention and increase their unfairness perception and green risk perception. Secondly, both unfairness perception and green risk perception also negatively affect WOM and green purchase behavior intention. Lastly, corporate trust was found to moderate the mediation effects of unfairness perception and green risk perception in the relationships between greenwashing and WOM and green purchase behavior intention. Many implications for food companies were presented regarding the negative effects of greenwashing.