Greenwashing versus Genuine Sustainability: Consumer Responses to ESG Marketing Strategies

This systematic literature review addresses consumer differentiation between greenwashing and sustainability in ESG marketing. Integrating studies on greenwashing, sustainability communication, consumer trust, green scepticism, purchase intention and corporate accountability, the review draws upon signaling theory, attribution theory, persuasion knowledge, stakeholder theory and legitimacy theory to reveal six mechanisms of consumer response: claim specificity, evidence visibility, source credibility, perceived corporate motive, consumer environmental literacy and institutional accountability. ESG marketing builds trust through claims which are specific, proportionate, credible and matched with firm performance. On the other hand, greenwashing provokes scepticism, uncertainty, moral backlash, reduced purchase intention and negative spillover effects on the company as a whole and on unrelated products. A Consumer Trust-Accountability Framework is developed to connect consumer psychology with corporate governance and guide managers in ethical ESG marketing.