Search

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to offer some reflection on the abuse of consumer trust and the importance of control of information in the digital market and the green market. The role of the consumer as the arbiter of the market is fundamental. The abuse of consumer confidence depends, in fact, on the spread of stereotyped messages and vague and generic formulas aimed at hiding a dangerous vacuum of protection. In both markets, it is a question of giving the consumer the necessary tools to monitor the transparency of the criteria used by the trader to classify a product according to its characteristics. Design/methodology/approach: Based on the analysis of an Italian case law and the European programme, the author shows how in Italy there is a dangerous lack of consumer protection. The problem is that the green consumer, as well as the online consumer, is not able to immediately verify the accuracy of the product requirements and must be able to count on the seriousness of the professional. For this reason, the European and national authorities have provided specific rules for both markets. The new proposal of directive introduces specific rules to target unfair commercial practices that mislead consumers away from sustainable consumption choices and introduced many innovations, such as the ban on greenwashing. Findings: This work aims to identify the tools necessary to make the information on the products offered in the digital market and those related to green products more reliable but above all to create a common methodology on which to base them. High is the risk that sustainability will become a simple marketing strategy for companies. The difficulty consists in the absence of certain and verifiable parameters by the consumer to really measure the characteristics and the quality of a product characteristic of a product compared to competing ones. Originality/value: This work examines the problem of consumer protection in the digital and green market from a new perspective, comparing the information asymmetries with respect to the professionals in the two markets. Starting from the cases of greenwashing and analysing new European remedies, the author suggests for both markets, specific answers different from those required for advertising in general. The problem here is not only the truth of the message but also the vagueness and genericity. The consumer must be in a position to control the criteria used by the professional to classify products, both in the green and the digital market. To the best of the author's knowledge, this paper is the original work of the author and has not been submitted elsewhere for publication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to offer some reflection on the importance of reliable green claims to encourage sustainable production. The role of market is fundamental. Businesses and consumers are both involved in achieving environmental protection objectives. There is the real risk of the phenomenon of so-called green washing or misleading marketing. The problem arises of verifying the reliability of green claims to prevent competitive elements from become distorting factors of competition. Design/methodology/approach: Based on the analysis of a European programme, the author shows how in Italy there is a dangerous lack of consumer protection. For this reason the European and national authorities have provided that green claims must be true, reliable, verifiable and comparable, but it is necessary that consumers be protected, through a certification system that makes it possible to certify the veracity of green claims. The problem is that a number of certification systems have been adopted in Europe which undermine the competitiveness of the market for green products. Findings: This work aims to identify the tools necessary to make green indications more reliable, but above all to create a common methodology on which to base them. In this direction, companies wishing to advertise the ecological characteristics of their products should be required to provide the supporting demonstrations on the basis of a standard methodology assessing their actual environmental impact. Originality/value: This work will examine the problem of green washing and the importance of reliable green claims for environmental protection. To the best of the author's knowledge, this paper is the original work of the author and has not been submitted elsewhere for publication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Museums and art galleries may benefit from creating an image of environmentally responsible organizations using green marketing messages. However, the effectiveness of these messages often depends on how they are framed, an aspect that may impact message recipients' perception of and intentions toward such organizations. The present research addresses this issue with an experiment that assessed how recipients react to a negatively- versus positively-framed message from the Italian National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Arts. We found that using a positively-framed green marketing message may adversely impact the gallery's perceived reputation. However, reputation exerts a positive effect on the intention to spread positive word of mouth about such an organization. Notably, the effect of message framing on reputation holds only for recipients who are less concerned about the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper moves from the relevance that greenwashing has assumed in recent years and aims to investigate whether the environmental claims made by companies truly reflect their actions. Specifically, it analyzes the relationship between environmental claims and strategic intentionality toward environmental sustainability, proxied by the use and weight of incentives linked to environmental targets in executive compensation plans. By adopting this approach, the study offers a more nuanced perspective on greenwashing, addressing the limitations of the prevalent performance-based view. Based on the analysis of the companies listed on the FTSE Italia All-share index 2021, the paper highlights that companies that draft sustainability plans and declare carbon neutrality goals tend to include environmental targets in their executive compensation plans more frequently and with greater weights compared to other companies. Conversely, merely reporting environmental performance in sustainability (or integrated) reports is not associated with the use of environmental targets in executive compensation plans, suggesting the potential existence of greenwashing practices. The study emphasizes the relevance of considering the executive compensation structure when examining potential signs of greenwashing. It also provides evidence of the need for standardized and transparent corporate compensation disclosure as a significant implication. [Display omitted] • Greenwashing is measured comparing corporate intentionality and environmental claims. • Intentionality is proxied by executive compensation linked to environmental targets. • The diffusion of environmental targets in executive compensation is still limited. • Sustainability plans and carbon neutrality goals signal corporate intentionality. • Nonfinancial reporting alone is not associated with corporate intentionality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the economic crisis triggered in 2008, the presence of "green discourse" in politics and business has been growing steadily. As far as Italy is concerned, the growing presence of English to promote sustainable and environment-friendly activities is evident when observing well-known companies such as Lifegate, Slow Food or Eataly, which have chosen to use English even for their name. The aim of this paper is to explore the way English is employed to promote environment-friendly Italian activities, focusing on the use of Anglicisms on their Italian websites, and what the effects could be of this Anglicisation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advertising is a key-tool for marketing communication and is able to strongly affect consumer choices. The aim of this study is to analyse the dissemination and characteristics of green advertising in Italian newspapers between 2007 and the first half of 2008. The article focuses on the identification and assessment of different ways to emphasise environmental issues in advertisement, and to qualify the different characteristics of a 'green message'. In addition, a cluster analysis is applied on the collected data, classifying messages into four 'categories' that are associated with a different green communication strategy. The results show that the use of environmental information in advertising has increased quantitatively and qualitatively when compared with similar previous studies carried out in Italy. Several suggestions for the setting of a green marketing strategy clearly emerge from the analysis of our clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]