The effect of environmental concern on conscious green consumption of post-millennials: the moderating role of greenwashing perceptions

Purpose This study aims to demonstrate how greenwashing perceptions shape the effect of environmental concern on post-millennials purchasing behavior. Design/methodology/approach Based on 174 responses gathered through a street survey method from 5 different universities in Turkey, data are analyzed using the statistical package for social sciences software (SPSS 16.0). Principal component analysis is performed to assess the differentiation in factors. Multiple regression analysis is used to examine the effects of the items on the post-millennials purchasing and recommendation behavior. Findings The main findings revealed that the environmental concern trait of post-millennials triggers their green purchasing behavior. When the concern on green products is high, the awareness of perceiving that “if the product is actually green or pretending to be green” is high. When the post-millennials take the greenwashing perception into account, their environmental concern has lower effects on their green behavior. The moderating role of greenwashing between environmental concern and green purchasing is apparent. Greenwashing perception decreases the effects of environmental concern on green behavior. Originality/value The research raises the concept of greenwashing perception that moderates the relationship between environmental concern and post-millennials purchasing behavior. This study also demonstrates that greenwashing awareness has a critical role in creating a purchasing behavior of post-millennials that have environmental concerns.