Green Marketing and Greenwashing Effects on Consumer Purchase of Electric Cars

Abstract

China promotes electric cars as an effective solution to environmental problems. In this context, green marketing and greenwashing are considered to be important factors that influence consumers to purchase electric cars. Based on the signalling theory, this study analyses the role of consumer trust in the influence of green marketing and greenwashing on consumers' purchase of electric cars and examines the moderating effect of environmental knowledge. 440 electric car owners from Beijing, China participated in a survey, whose results were analysed by the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). The results show that although green marketing demonstrated a positive impact, greenwashing negatively affected Beijing consumers' trust in electric cars. However, environmental knowledge moderates the relationship between consumer trust and purchasing behaviour of electric car.