Trust on Green Advertisement: Mediating Role of Environmental Involvement

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has heightened public interest and awareness of the importance of living sustainably while sparked interest in businesses that make good use of their green marketing campaign. This research sought to investigate how the green advertising environmental claims affects consumers' trust on green advertisement. The mediating role of involvement was examined. Data from 185 respondents in Malaysia were collected and analysed using SPSS. Adapted scales were used to measure environmental claims, environmental involvement, and trust. Relationships were tested using PROCESS macro and SPSS. The findings revealed that environmental claims had significant direct relationship as well as indirect effect on consumers' trust via environmental involvement. Environmental involvement partially mediated the relationship between environmental claims and consumers' trust toward green advertisement. Results indicate that environmental claims did enhance consumers' trust in green advertisements. Moreover, consumers who had high environmental concern had higher trust on green advertisement if the advertising (environmental) claims include relevant facts and executed correctly. Implications of study findings are discussed, along with limitations and future research directions.