International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research

E-ISSN: 2582-2160   •   Impact Factor: 9.24

A Widely Indexed Open Access Peer Reviewed Multidisciplinary Bi-monthly Scholarly International Journal

Call for Paper Volume 8, Issue 4 (July-August 2026) Submit your research before last 3 days of August to publish your research paper in the issue of July-August.
Submit Research Paper Join as a Reviewer

Plagiarism is checked by the leading plagiarism checker TurnItIn

Call for Paper

Volume 8 Issue 4
July-August 2026

Submit your research paper

Indexing Partners
Academia Advanced Sciences Index Bielefeld Academic Search Engine CiteSeer DRJI Google Scholar Independent Search Engine & Directory Network ISI (International Scientific Indexing) Issuu Mendeley Research Networks
RefSeek ResearcherId - Thomson Reuters ResearchGate Scirus Scribd Semantic Scholar UTeM - Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka Wiki for Call for Papers WorldCat Zenodo

From Greenwashing to Green Trust: A Conceptual Review of Consumer Evaluation of Sustainability Claims

Author(s) Ms. Rachna Sidhad
Country India
Abstract Sustainability claims are now an everyday feature of brand messaging. But not every claim sounds true, and faced with a proliferation of such claims, consumers have become increasingly skeptical that many exaggerate, distort, or even fabricate a company's actual environmental performance. This conceptual paper integrates the greenwashing and green trust literatures to develop an integrated explanation of how consumers process an initial exposure to a sustainability claim, through evaluations of perceived greenwashing, green confusion, and green perceived risk, to an eventual judgment of green trust or green distrust. Drawing on signaling theory, information asymmetry, and attribution theory, we argue that green trust is not the simple opposite of greenwashing but a distinct, effortful evaluative outcome shaped by claim specificity, third-party verification, firm environmental track record, and individual consumer skepticism. We develop a conceptual framework that positions perceived greenwashing as the central mediating construct between corporate communication tactics and downstream consumer trust, and we outline boundary conditions under which credible claims fail to generate trust and questionable claims nonetheless succeed. Implications for sustainability marketing practice, ecolabel design, and regulatory policy, together with an agenda for future empirical research, are discussed.
Keywords greenwashing, green trust, green skepticism, sustainability claims, green marketing, signaling theory, consumer evaluation
Field Sociology > Administration / Law / Management
Published In Volume 8, Issue 4, July-August 2026
Published On 2026-07-29
DOI https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i04.84729
View / Download PDF File

Share this



E-ISSN 2582-2160
CrossRef

CrossRef DOI prefix of IJFMR is 10.36948/ijfmr

Downloads
Research Paper Format Copyright Permission Form and Undertaking Form

All research papers published on this website are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, and all rights belong to their respective authors/researchers.

CC-BY-SA Open Access

About IJFMR
Fees & Payment
Current Issue
Publication Archive 		Submit Research Paper
Track Submission Status
Publication Guidelines
Publication Ethics
Peer Review & Plagiarism 		Join as a Reviewer
Editors & Reviewers
Reviewer Referral Program
Get Reviewer Membership Certi. 		Website/Journal Policies
Usage Policy
Content Policies
Privacy Policy
Contact Us +91-9687-828-838 editor@ijfmr.com
Powered by Sky Research Publication and Journals