EXPLORING THE EFFECTS OF GREEN MARKETING MIX ON GREEN

TRUST IN THE GREEN COSMETIC INDUSTRY

Lappeenranta–Lahti University of Technology LUT

Master’s degree programme in International Marketing Management (MIMM)

SKEMA Business School

Master of Science International Marketing and Business Development

2022

Lisa DUBUC

Examiner(s): Professor Olli Kuivalainen

Professor Peter Spier

ABSTRACT
Author: Dubuc Lisa
Title of the thesis: Exploring the effects of green marketing mix on green trust in the
green cosmetic industry
Faculties: Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology & SKEMA Business School
Master’s Program: International Marketing Management / International Marketing and
Business Development
Year: 2022
Examiners: Professor Olli Kuivalainen
Professor Peter Spier
Keywords: green marketing, green trust, green knowledge, green cosmetics
114 pages, 9 figures, 22 tables and 16 appendices
This research thrives to provide a better understanding of the impact of green marketing on
green trust in the cosmetic industry through the choice of four tools taken from the marketing
mix: availability, efficiency, price and eco-labels. This research also investigates the role of
green knowledge in moderating the relationship between those tools and green trust, and its
direct effect on green trust. An exploration of the previous literature on the green industry
and green marketing was formed beforehand, to have clear background for the research with
a focus on green marketing mix, green trust as well as green knowledge. An empirical
quantitative study was led from the 21st to the 30th of July gathering 236 usable answers from
French consumers in order to ensure generalizability and exploitation of the results.
This research, using factor analysis, correlation analyses, simple and multiple regression
analyses, finds that perception of availability, perception of efficiency and perception of eco-
labels are positively correlated with green trust. Still, most correlation can mainly be
explained by three control variables: gender, frequency of organic cosmetic purchase as well
as the extent to which consumers value organic cosmetic purchase, thus balancing the initial
conclusions that were drawn about the correlations. Theoretically, these findings bring
precisions to the research on the potential drivers of green trust in the organic cosmetic
market. Practically, it means that marketers can use those marketing mix tools without
worrying to worsen the fragile trust that consumers might have in the green features of
organic cosmetics. But more than that: those tools can be incorporated in a global reflection
of brands to enhance consumers’ confidence towards the environmental performance of their
green products. Still, price perception was not found to be correlated with green trust and
comes to balance existing theory on the topic. This could be a sign for companies to focus
on providing a fair price instead of appearing rather cheap or expensive. Finally, this research
gives the reader insights about the effects of subjective -or perceived- Green Knowledge on
Green Trust as they were found to be positively correlated. This study finally reveals that
Perceived Green Knowledge does not play a moderating role in the relationship between the
marketing mix tools and green trust. Those findings reveal a moderate influence of green
knowledge but partly show the place of green knowledge in shaping consumers’ attitudes
towards green products, leading to the conclusion that education of consumers is key in the
reinforcement of green trust. In a word, this thesis aims to provide marketers with concrete
tools as per trust-building strategies for their green cosmetic products.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The thesis experience was by far the most demanding and challenging work I had to
undertake throughout my educational adventure. At the same time, it is the one that taught
me the most, as it made me encounter so many types of emotions from stress to pride through
discouragement and excitement.

I would like to express my gratitude to my two supervisors Professor Spier Peter and
Professor Kuivalainen Olli for their guidance, recommendations and advise for the whole
project. A special thanks to Professor Kuivalainen for its patience during my numerous
moments of doubts as per the directions I was taking. I could not have succeeded without
your support and constructive feedbacks.

I take this opportunity to also thank my family, and more specifically my parents who have
always encouraged me to do the best I can, no matter the field, and who deeply supported
me over my whole academic life. I am also grateful towards my dear friends for being a
pillar not only throughout the thesis process, but also in my life in general. I want to make
an even more specific thanks to Margaux and Quentin who have been my most valuable
support regarding the elaboration of this thesis: I deeply and sincerely am grateful for the
motivation and the courage you gave me almost daily.

Finally, I am thankful to all the respondents of the study who took the time to contribute to
this research and who allowed me to gather the necessary number of responses. This meant
a lot to me.

My academic life has come to an end with the end of this thesis. The past 3 years have been
so full of incredible experiences with international adventures, amazing people, professional
and educational events, of which I will definitely keep the best memories.

September 2022. Paris, France

Lisa DUBUC
Table of content
ABSTRACT
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

1. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 8
1.1. Context ............................................................................................................................... 8
1.2. Objectives......................................................................................................................... 10
1.3. Research questions ........................................................................................................... 11
1.4. Theoretical framework ..................................................................................................... 11
1.5. Definitions and Key concepts .......................................................................................... 12
1.6. Delimitations .................................................................................................................... 14
1.7. Research methodology ..................................................................................................... 14
1.8. Structure of the research................................................................................................... 15
2. GREEN MARKETING ........................................................................................................... 17
2.1. Definition of Green Marketing......................................................................................... 17
2.2. Definition of organic cosmetics ....................................................................................... 21
2.3. Reasons for buying green cosmetics ................................................................................ 22
2.4. Green marketing mix........................................................................................................ 22
2.4.1. Place ......................................................................................................................... 23
2.4.2. Price ......................................................................................................................... 24
2.4.3. Product ..................................................................................................................... 25
2.4.4. Promotion ................................................................................................................. 27
2.5. Green Marketing Strategy ................................................................................................ 28
2.6. Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable Marketing ........................................... 29
3. GREEN TRUST ....................................................................................................................... 30
3.1. Definition of green trust ................................................................................................... 30
3.2. Significance of green trust: a driver of consumer behaviour ........................................... 31
3.3. Green trust opposed to green distrust ............................................................................... 32
3.4. Greenwashing................................................................................................................... 32
3.5. Drivers of green trust ....................................................................................................... 34
4. GREEN KNOWLEDGE .......................................................................................................... 36
4.1. Definition of green knowledge......................................................................................... 36
4.2. Significance of green knowledge ..................................................................................... 36
5. SUMMARY AND GROUND FOR HYPOTHESES .............................................................. 38
6. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY.................................................................... 42
6.1. Research context and case description ............................................................................. 42
 6.2. Research Design ............................................................................................................... 43
6.3. Sampling and Data Collection Method ............................................................................ 44
6.4. Questionnaire design and measurement ........................................................................... 45
6.5. Data analysis method ....................................................................................................... 47
6.6. Validity and reliability ..................................................................................................... 48
7. FINDINGS ............................................................................................................................... 50
7.1. Descriptive statistics......................................................................................................... 50
7.2. Factor analysis.................................................................................................................. 53
7.3. Normality tests ................................................................................................................. 55
7.4. Multicollinearity tests....................................................................................................... 56
7.5. Correlation analyses, Regression analyses and Hypotheses testing ................................. 57
7.6. Moderation effect and hypothesis testing......................................................................... 64
7.7. Multiple Linear Regression .............................................................................................. 65
7.8. Control variables .............................................................................................................. 66
7.9. Revised Multiple Linear Regression ................................................................................ 67
8. DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................. 69
8.1. Summary of the findings .................................................................................................. 69
8.2. Theoretical contributions ................................................................................................. 72
8.3. Managerial implications ................................................................................................... 79
8.4. Limitations ....................................................................................................................... 81
8.5. Suggestions for future research ........................................................................................ 82
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................. 83
APPENDICES ................................................................................................................................. 95
APPENDICES

Appendix 1. Questionnaire from Qualtrics

Appendix 2. MSA (Measure of Sampling Adequacy values)
Appendix 3. Factor analysis
Appendix 4. Normality Histogram and Q-Q plots of variables
Appendix 5. Multicollinearity test
Appendix 6. Correlation analysis – General Green Knowledge and Green Trust
Appendix 7. Correlation analysis – Green Product Knowledge and Green Trust
Appendix 8. Correlation analysis – Perceived Availability and Green Trust
Appendix 9. Correlation analysis – Price Perception and Green Trust
Appendix 10. Correlation analysis – Perceived Efficiency and Green Trust
Appendix 11. Correlation analysis – Perception of Eco-Labels and Green Trust
Appendix 12. Correlation analysis – Spearman’s rho
Appendix 13. Correlation coefficient with moderator effect for each of the 4P tools
Appendix 14. Multiple Linear Regression with the four marketing mix tools and control
variables
Appendix 15. Multiple Linear Regression with each independent variable and green trust
with control variables

LIST OF TABLES
Table 1. The New Green Paradigm (Ottman, 2011, 46)
Table 2. Measures of the variables and sources
Table 3. Internal reliability of the constructs
Table 4. Purchase frequency by gender
Table 5. Importance of buying green cosmetics by age
Table 6. Barlett’s Test of Sphericity
Table 7. Factor Loading Analysis: Rotated Component Matrix
Table 8. Kurtosis and Skewness of the variables
Table 9. Interpretating correlation coefficient (Schober et al., 2017)
Table 10. Regression model with General Green Knowledge and Control variables
Table 11. Results for Hypothesis 1 with General Green Knowledge
Table 12. Regression model with Green Product Knowledge and Control variables
Table 13. Results for Hypothesis 1 with Green Product Knowledge
Table 14. Regression model with perception of Availability and Control variables
Table 15. Results for Hypothesis 2 with Perceived Availability
Table 16. Results for Hypothesis 3 with Price Perception
Table 17. Regression model Perception of Efficiency and Control variables
Table 18. Results for Hypothesis 4 with Perceived Efficiency
Table 19. Regression model Perception of Eco-labels and Control variables
Table 20. Results for Hypothesis 5 with Perception of Eco-labels
Table 21. Multiple Linear Regression
Table 22. Summary of R-square change on the relationship between each of the
independent variables and green trust with control variables

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1. Theoretical framework
Figure 2. Structure of the thesis
Figure 3. Green Marketing Strategy and the Green Marketing Mix (Dangelico and Volcalelli,
2017 adapted from Kotler and Armstrong, 2014)
Figure 4. Theoretical model of the study of Davari and Strutton (2014)
Figure 5. Age distribution of the respondents
Figure 6. Age distribution by gender
Figure 7. Purchase frequency distribution
Figure 8. Green Purchase Importance from 1 to 7 by gender
Figure 9. Importance of organic cosmetic purchase – distribution

ABBREVIATIONS
4Ps: Place, Price, Product, Promotion (Marketing Mix)
MSA: Measures of Sampling Adequacy values
UK: United-Kingdom
 1. INTRODUCTION

1.1. Context

In the last decades and even more the last few years, a massive concern has emerged among
the populations about the future of the planet. Indeed, according to a Eurobarometer survey
conducted by the European Commission (2020a), the protection of the environment is crucial
for more than 90% of the European population. This worry has led to a reflection about
individuals’ own responsibility through their consumption and actions, as the way
individuals consume is mainly at stake in the question of the preservation of the environment.
The United Nations (2022) reminded the involvement of human consumption in degrading
the environment, including: too much consumption, too much packaging, and too many
chemicals.

Consumers cannot alone lead change. The idea that brands should be incorporating
sustainability in their strategy is not new: the concept of green consumer behaviour emerged
in the 70’s (Kordshouli et al., 2015) and a decade ago already it was noted by Nidumolu et
al., (2015) that « sustainability is now the key driver of innovation ». They indeed argue that
incorporating sustainability in firms’ strategies will allow them to create a strong and
valuable competitive advantage and a means for differentiation. Five stages that firms
should aim for in order to pursue sustainability were identified by Nidumolu et al., (2015,
5): 1. “Viewing compliance as opportunity”; 2. “Making value chains sustainable”; 3.
“Designing sustainable products and services”; 4. “developing new business models and
creating next-practice platforms”. Most brands in all industries have now integrated
sustainability and especially environmental issues fully as part of the question of Corporate
Social Responsibility in the way they do business (Liobikienė and Bernatonienė, 2017).

Parallelly, Tukker et al. (2010) concluded regarding all previous research concerning the
environmental impact of companies, that industries themselves cannot alone lead this shift
towards sustainability: consumer behaviour needs to be changed as well. It therefore seems
like the interconnexion is very deep: consumers are calling for companies to be greener, and
companies, through green marketing, try to enlarge the share of green consumers. This is
especially true in the cosmetic industry where green brands, organic products and green lines
have flourished on the market (Amberg and Fogarassy, 2019), along with the fact that 80%
of European consumers are worried about the numerous chemicals that can be found in day-
to-day products (European Commission, 2020b).

Yet, it was noted across various research that a strong gap exists between consumer positive
attitudes towards green products and consumer actual green purchase behaviour (e.g., Tseng
and Hung, 2013). While authors have been studying how to reduce that gap (e.g., Davari and
Strutton, 2014) and what were the reasons of this gap (e.g., Tseng and Hung, 2013), one
element came up frequently as affecting green purchasing behaviour: green trust (e.g.,
Lewandowska et al., 2017).

Trust is crucial in the green industry. Indeed, consumers need to trust that brands and their
organic products are fulfilling their engagements and promises regarding the environment to
buy their green products with full confidence. Moreover, consumers have no other choice
than accepting the uncertainty linked to the quality of the product they decide to buy, and to
trust the environmental characteristics of this chosen product. In both those senses,
consumers need to trust brands and trust that the products they buy do fulfil their
environmental, eco-friendly and organic promises. (Singh and Sirdeshmukh, 2000). It is
therefore clear that green trust, defined by Sharma (2021) quoting Chen (2010, 3) as a desire
“to depend on the product having eco-friendly attributes” is critical in the relationship
between brands selling green products and consumers buying them. The issue is, as
Lewandowska et al. (2017, 3) mention, that « there is a trust crisis » needing to be fixed
regarding green products. Singhal and Malik (2018) in their research also noticed that trust
is one of the two principal barriers of green marketing along with the low level of awareness
about green products.

Green marketing, in its definition, is an excellent tool to design and promote those green
industrial activities, products and services, and therefore meet consumers’ expectations, and
reduce the intention-behaviour gap. The question of the impact of green marketing on green
trust consequently underlies the development of marketing strategies and is inherently
important to tackle the previously mentioned gap.

The cosmetic industry is the category under focus in this research for three dominant reasons.
The first one is linked to the writer’s personal interests for the industry, the second is related
to the growing place of natural and green products in the cosmetic industry (Amberg and
Fogarassy, 2019). Finally, many researchers (e.g., Liobikienė and Bernatonienė, 2017)
called for future research in the green marketing field to be conducted with a focus on a
single industry, as factors affecting consumer behaviour towards organic products might
often depend on the category of product at stake.

1.2. Objectives

To the best knowledge of the writer, no research explores how the perception of specific
tools taken from the green marketing mix affects consumers’ green trust regarding green
products, especially in the cosmetic market. This study therefore investigates what tools, as
part of green marketing, can affect consumers’ green trust in green cosmetics and how they
affect it. The elements of green marketing under scope are found in the green marketing mix
– also referred to as the 4Ps (Place, Price, Promotion, Product)-. The research also explores
the direct role of perceived green knowledge on green trust as well as its role in moderating
the relationship between the chosen marketing mix tools and green trust.

This research has two fundamental objectives regarding the research on green marketing.
First, it seeks to give a concrete comprehension of the effect of the perception of several
marketing mix tools on green trust, in the context of green cosmetics. This can guide
marketers when elaborating strategies for their green products or green lines of products.
Said differently, this study aims to deepen the knowledge about potential drivers of green
trust by focusing on concrete tools taken from green marketing mix. In an even broader way,
it can help marketers in better apprehending consumers’ attitudes towards their green
products, and therefore participate in reducing the attitude behaviour gap that is specific to
the green industry. Secondly, it aims to understand the moderating effect of perceived green
knowledge on this relationship between green marketing mix tools and green trust. Those
findings can be crucial for different parties in discerning how education can affect green trust
and therefore improve attitudes towards the green industry.
 1.3. Research questions

Considering the objectives of the research, and based on the literature review, a main
research question has been formed: How does green marketing mix affect consumers’
green trust in organic cosmetics?

The following sub-questions have been created to better respond to the main research
question as well as to deepen the knowledge about green trust drivers, based on specific
green marketing mix tools (from the 4Ps), and about the direct and indirect role played by
green knowledge.

- Sub-question 1: What is the impact of specific tools taken from the 4Ps on green
trust in organic cosmetics?
- Sub-question 2: How does the level of perceived knowledge of consumers affect
their trust in organic cosmetics?
- Sub-question 3: How does perceived green knowledge impact the relationship
between green marketing mix tools and green trust?

1.4. Theoretical framework

The key notions used in this thesis are green marketing, green marketing mix, green trust
and green knowledge. Those concepts will be further developed later in this thesis.

Green trust is strongly threatened and in crisis, while being an essential factor for green
purchase behaviour. Trust implies a relationship between two parties, and it seems that
brands have a huge role to play in building, maintaining or re-creating trust of consumers
towards their green products. (Lewandowska et al., 2017) It is especially true both in the
cosmetic industry and the green market. Indeed, trust is central in the cosmetic industry due
to the composition of products and their use: it is not only a matter of environment but also
a matter of consumers’ health. (Choi and Lee, 2019)

Trust is indeed even more crucial in the green industry than for conventional business, as
consumers often have to pay a “premium price” to acquire green products (Davari and
Strutton, 2014, 2), but also have been confused by a wide use of greenwashing practices.
(Chen and Chang, 2013) Green marketing is therefore sometimes seen as responsible for the
consumer defiance but also as a strategy that can help fix it by increasing green trust. Indeed,
green marketing offers marketers numerous levers to affect consumer behaviours and
attitudes, and therefore also affect green trust. More specifically, the marketing mix elements
have a crucial role in building consumers attitudes (Davari and Strutton, 2014) as the 4Ps
(Promotion, Price, Product, Place) tackle specific attributes that are in direct contact with
consumers who need or want a product.

The theoretical framework that was elaborated for the purpose of this thesis also includes
perceived green knowledge as it has been found, among numerous research (e.g., Ok Park
and Sohn, 2018), to affect consumers’ attitudes and therefore might play a significant role
in affecting consumers green trust directly or indirectly. The hypotheses developed were also
included in the theoretical framework and will be further explored in the theoretical chapter
of this thesis. Figure 1. presents the theoretical framework developed specifically for this
study, with the goal of schematizing the foundations of the research.

Figure 1. Theoretical framework

1.5. Definitions and Key concepts

Green Marketing: Green marketing is a marketing concept whose definition has evolved
throughout times, along with the evolution of the consideration of environmental issues by
the population. (Peattie, 2001a) There is no universal definition, but Ottman’s definition
(2011, 43) encompasses a holistic point of view as he defines green marketing as the
conception, manufacturing and distribution of goods that tries to best answer consumer’s
needs (regarding “quality, performance, affordability and convenience”) while in the
meantime reduces as much as possible the environmental effect linked with this process.
Green marketing can be split into two main notions: Green Marketing Mix and Green
Marketing Strategy (Dangelico and Volcalelli, 2017)

(Green) Marketing mix: Green marketing mix encompasses different possible levers for
pursuing a green marketing plan and encompasses: Product, Promotion, Place and Pricing
(Dangelico and Volcalelli, 2017).

Green marketing mix tools: In this thesis, green marketing mix tools represent actionable
tools, or strategies, taken from the green marketing mix that could impact consumers’
attitudes towards a product. For example, Promotion is part of green marketing mix, and the
use of Eco-labels is one tool belonging to Promotion; Place is part of the green marketing
mix, and ensuring the availability of green products to consumers is a tool belonging to
Place.

Green Trust: Green trust was characterized very clearly by Chen (2010, 3) as the
“willingness to depend on a product, service, or brand based on the belief or expectation
resulting from its credibility, benevolence, and ability about its environmental performance”.

Green Knowledge: Green knowledge represents “the amount of environmental information

held in one’s memory that affects the way in which consumers interpret and assess available
preferences”. (Tan, 2011) Knowledge can be both subjective and objective. (Carlson et al.,
2009)

Green Cosmetics: In this thesis, the term green cosmetics is used synonymously with
organic cosmetics, and natural cosmetics. Liobikienė and Bernatonienė, (2017, 7) define
green cosmetics as cosmetics whose “ingredients are environmentally-friendly, i.e., grown
without pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, toxic materials, genetically modified organisms or
ionizing radiation”. Moreover, green cosmetics ideally tend to be green through the whole
lifecycle of the product: design, production, distribution and after-use life. (Liobikienė and
Bernatonienė, 2017)
 1.6. Delimitations

It was necessary to structure this research by delimitating its scope and context. Firstly, the
research is limited to French consumers: this decision was taken due to the idea that
preferences and behaviours regarding green products differ depending on country-wise
cultures (Sharma, 2021). There was no limitation in this study regarding the gender and the
research was distributed to persons of legal age (above 18). There was no other limitations
regarding age, although as the questionnaire was distributed online, some limitations can
appear regarding the age of the respondents. Indeed, the older generation might have less
access to online questionnaires than the younger generation (Sarah Mae Sincero, 2019).

Moreover, the cosmetic industry encompasses numerous categories of products: six

categories are defined by Cosmetics Europe (2019) the personal care association,
distinguishing: sun care, skin care, hair care, body care, decorative cosmetics (make-up) and
perfume. This study does not consider a specific category but rather considers the cosmetic
category in its large sense.

Another milestone of this study is the different tools of the marketing mix under study:
indeed, four tools were selected inside the marketing mix. Those four tools are not the only
one belonging to the 4Ps but were chosen for their importance in the green industry.

Finally, the definition and exploration of the marketing mix focuses on what is called the
4Ps: Place, Price, Product, Promotion and does not consider the three additional Ps suggested
by Booms and Bitner (1981) which are People, Process, Physical Evidence. This decision
was taken purposely, as those additional elements are rather attributed to the service sector.
(Booms and Bitner, 1981)

1.7. Research methodology

In order to fulfil the study’s objectives, this thesis is composed of a theoretical part and an
empirical part. The theoretical part is constructed of a literature review elaborated thanks to
articles mainly exploring green consumer behaviour, green marketing, green marketing mix,
green trust, as well as green knowledge. This literature review was used to build a consistent
theoretical framework as well as provide a deeper understanding of each of the concepts that
are essential to this research. Concretely, for this purpose, secondary data were explored
including academic papers, several books, reliable internet sources as well as scientific
articles and scholarly journals. In a sense, green marketing is a topic that has been researched
extensively. Previous literature therefore provides a thoroughgoing view of the subject and
gives ones the keys to understand the ins and outs of what interesting avenues for future
research could be.

The empirical part consists of a quantitative research conducted among French consumers
and aims to test the hypotheses formed in order to find cues to guide answers for the research
question. The research is both deductive and exploratory, this idea will be exposed further
in the section “Research design and Methodology” of this thesis. The hypotheses were tested
through the analysis of a survey from which 236 usable answers were gathered. The data
was analysed thanks to the SPSS software : the analysis helped ensuring validity and
reliability of the questionnaire and gave keys for the conclusion of the study. Then a factor
analysis allowed the researcher to better structure the variables under study with a good
delimitation of each independent variable. Finally, regression and correlation analyses were
employed to test the hypotheses and serve as a ground for discussion.

1.8. Structure of the research

This study includes the following sections: Introduction, Theory, Summary and ground for
hypotheses, Research Design and Methodology, Findings, and Discussions and Conclusions.
The theory chapter is itself structured by three parts: Green Marketing, Green Trust and
Green Knowledge.

In the current section, the introduction takes place to lay the foundations of the research. It
presents the context and objectives of the study, before introducing the theoretical
framework developed to answer the research’s main interrogations. Finally, the
methodology and structure of the research are tackled.

The theoretical part aims to give the reader a comprehensive, synthetic and holistic view of
what is known about the topics of Green Marketing, Green Trust and Green Knowledge. The
chapter about green marketing is separated into two sections: the green marketing mix
presenting the 4Ps, and the green marketing strategy. The chapters tackling green trust and
green knowledge give the reader a complete definition as well as synthesize the previous
research conducted so far on the topic that are of interest for the present research. Finally,
the hypotheses are presented.

Then the empirical section of this thesis starts with a presentation of the methodology used.
In this part, the context of the case is presented, followed by the research design. Reliability
and validity of the questionnaire are also explored plus confirmed. The Findings section
describes the data and presents all the statistical tests that were used to provide material for
the conclusion.

The “Discussion and Conclusion” section is composed of the theoretical contributions of

the research as well as the managerial implications with the view of answering to the research
questions. The limitations of this study follow the discussion, along with future research
ideas. The Figure 2. below summarizes the structure of the thesis with the most important
sections.

5. Summary and
6. Research design 8. Discussion and
1. Introduction 2. Green Marketing 3. Green Trust 4. Green knowledge ground for 7. Findings
and methodology Conclusion
hypotheses

Green Research Descriptive Theoretical

Context
marketing mix context statistics contributions

Objectives and Green

Research Managerial
Research marketing Factor analysis
design implications
Question strategy

Data collection Normality and Limitations and

Theoretical
method and multicollinearit suggestions for
Framework
sampling y tests future research

Definitions Questionnaire
Correlation
Delimitations design and
analyses
Methodology measurement

Structure of the Data analysis Moderation

thesis method analyses

Validity and Linear

reliability regressions

Control
variables

Figure 2. Structure of the thesis

 2. GREEN MARKETING

This chapter aims to deepen the readers’ understanding of green marketing through defining,
delimitating and exploring the concept. It also presents two major approaches that can be
used to pursue a green marketing plan: the green marketing mix and the green strategy
(Dangelico and Volcalleli, 2017).

2.1. Definition of Green Marketing

Green Marketing is absolutely crucial to be understood, explored and deepened by brands

seeking to launch green products or services successfully (Rex and Baumann, 2006). Its
scope is rather broad as it encompasses green marketing mix and green marketing strategy,
which are themselves extensive concepts (Dangelico and Volcalelli, 2017)

Green marketing’s definition evolved throughout times along with the growing concerns
from populations about the environment and more broadly about sustainability (Peattie,
2001a). According to Dangelico and Volcalelli (2017), the first definition was given in 1976
by Hennion and Kinnear who characterized the notion of Ecological marketing as including
“all marketing activities” that aims to participate in addressing and solving environmental
issues. But as just mentioned, definitions evolved throughout times and according to Peattie
(2001a) two main things led to the new era of green marketing (succeeding Ecological
marketing). The first one is the acknowledgment that eco-performance can be a competitive
advantage for companies, meaning that companies who successfully integrate green products
and processes in their business and in the way they do business will take advantage from it
compared to competing companies which fail or are not interested to do so. The second one,
still according to Peattie (2001a), is the realization that environment is part of a broader
concern: sustainability, meaning that acting ethical is not exclusively about acting green
anymore. Companies should indeed also consider other issues that are important to
consumers (e.g., the social issue), and integrate those new issues into their strategy and their
reflection as much as the environmental one. (Peattie, 2001a)
Considering those different dimensions (sustainability and profit), Peattie (1995) finally
described green marketing as “the holistic management process responsible for identifying,
anticipating and satisfying the need of customers and society, in a profitable and sustainable
way”.

It is important to notice that some researchers (e.g., Ghosh, 2011) have argued that Green
Marketing is simply the coherent application of conventional marketing on a green product,
but to-date it has been widely agreed that Green Marketing is not only an adaptation of
conventional marketing but rather an entire evolving concept in itself (e.g., Peattie (2001a)).

The definition of Green Marketing not only is constantly evolving, but also is not universal
at a same period of time (Dangelico and Volcalelli, 2017): researchers have tried to
determine in diverse ways the ins and outs of the term which -depending on the definitions-
encompasses different and numerous concepts. For example, linked to the distinct
dimensions of green marketing, Fuller (1999, 4) [in Peattie, 2001a, 141] tackles the green
marketing mix to define sustainable marketing. He states that it is « the process of planning,
implementing and controlling the development, pricing, promotion, and distribution of
products in a manner that satisfies the following three criteria: (1) customer needs are met,
(2) organizational goals are attained, and (3) the process is compatible with eco-systems ».
The multiple definitions that can be found throughout literature clearly demonstrate how
wide the topic is.
Furthermore, Ottman (2011, 43) states that Green Marketing marked the beginning of a shift
achieved through the design and production of goods or services that « balance consumers’
needs for quality, performance, affordability and convenience with the lowest impact
possible on the environment, and with due concern for social consideration » but also that
« create demand for the resulting brands through credible, values-laden communications that
offer practical benefits while empowering and engaging consumers in meaningful ways
about important environmental issues. ». This definition is supported by the new green
paradigm shaped as below (Ottman, 2011, 46)
Table 1. The New Green Paradigm (Ottman, 2011, 46)

Conventional Marketing Green Marketing

Consumers Consumers with lifestyle People with lives
Products “Cradle to grave” “Cradle to cradle”
Products Services
Globally sourced Locally sourced
One size fits all Regionally tailored
Marketing and Product end-benefits Values
communications Selling Educating and empowering
One-way communication Creating community
Paid advertising Word of mouth
Corporate Secretive Transparent
Reactive Pro-active
Independent and autonomous Interdependent/allied with
stakeholders
Competitive Cooperative
Departmentalized Holistic
Short-term oriented/profit- Long-term oriented/Triple
maximizing Bottom Line

Ottman (2011) here defines four categories that are impacted by green marketing and an
environmental-friendly perspective, showing that conventional marketing should not be
privileged anymore. While describing this new paradigm of marketing, he warns against the
dangers for companies to fall into what is called greenwashing. Companies must indeed
acknowledge that there is a dark side to green marketing when used only for profitable
reasons. (Ottman, 2011) Delmas and Burbano (2011) define greenwashing as a practice
misleading consumers about brands’ ecological performance or about the environmental
benefits of a product. They also state that it plays a huge negative impact on the confidence
consumers have in green products. (Delmas and Burbano, 2011) This is why companies
must, according to Ottman (2011, 15) “play according to the new rules of green marketing”.

Overall, Chen (2010) identified five reasons why companies should use green marketing, as
follows:
 1. Utilizing green opportunities
2. Increasing corporate images
3. Raising product value
4. Enhancing competitive advantages
5. Complying with environmental trends
When thriving to structure Green Marketing and all the related concepts, Dangelico and
Volcalelli (2017) suggested the following Figure (Figure 3.), adapted from Kotler and
Armstrong (2014). This Figure also demonstrate the wideness of the green marketing scope.

Figure 3. Green Marketing Strategy and the Green Marketing Mix (Dangelico and
Volcalelli, 2017 adapted from Kotler and Armstrong, 2014)

This figure firstly opposes green marketing to greenwashing: effective environmental

performance and honest communication allow brands to avoid falling in the trap and scope
of greenwashing. Then it can be observed that green marketing encompasses two main
sections: green marketing mix and green marketing strategy. The green marketing mix
includes the 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion); while green marketing strategy is
composed of positioning, segmentation, targeting and differentiation. Green marketing
strategy is included in the circle of green marketing mix; it can be interpreted as the idea that
green marketing strategies can be applied thanks to the levers offered by the Green
Marketing mix.
 2.2. Definition of organic cosmetics

In order to define organic cosmetics, it is necessary to first agree on what is meant by

cosmetics and what the term encompasses. According to the US F.D.A (Food and drug
administration, 2019), a cosmetic can be defined as follows: “a product intended to be
applied to the human body for cleansing, beautifying, promoting attractiveness, or altering
the appearance”. This product category is therefore rather large and includes products going
from gels, mousses, fragrances to colour or makeup cosmetics and personal care products
(Liobikienė and Bernatonienė, 2017).

The cosmetic industry has a lot of possibilities regarding the greening of its products as the
composition of conventional cosmetics often includes pollutant and unsafe chemicals such
as “parabens, petrochemicals, sodium lauryl sulphate, artificial colours and preservatives”
(Liobikienė and Bernatonienė, 2017, 7). The previously cited elements are today known to
be factors of health issues when used during a prolonged time including “cancer, dermatitis
and allergies”, “skin damage problems” (Liobikienė and Bernatonienė, 2017, 7). The raising
consciousness of consumers regarding the dangers of such chemicals combined with the
concern of the environmental impact of their use has accelerated the demand for green
cosmetics.

Now that the definition of cosmetics is clear, a definition of green cosmetics is imperative
to further deep-dive into the topic: according to Liobikienė and Bernatonienė (2017, 7),
green cosmetics can be called that way when their “ingredients are environmentally-friendly,
i.e., grown without pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, toxic materials, genetically modified
organisms or ionizing radiation”. They are therefore not only better for the environment but
also for consumers’ health, and can be considered as safe. Moreover, green cosmetics aim
to be green from the designing (more ecological packaging, natural ingredients) to the
production, distribution and during the after-life cycle. (Liobikienė and Bernatonienė, 2017)
In conclusion, green cosmetics are cosmetics that aim to preserve consumers’ health and
skin but also the world they live in, compared to traditional cosmetics. One of the main tools
used to differentiate traditional cosmetics from green or organic cosmetics is eco-labels: the
goal of eco-labels is to help consumers determine if a cosmetic can be considered as green
or organic. To cite one of them on the French market, the Cosmebio label in France can be
used on packaging of products composed at least of 95% natural or transformed ingredients
of natural origins, they set different criteria during all steps of the products’ life cycle (raw
materials, transformation, biodegradability…) (www.cosmebio.org, 2017). Ecolabels will
be tackled further in a later part of this thesis.

2.3. Reasons for buying green cosmetics

People buy green cosmetics for personal reasons and environmental reasons: green
cosmetics are expected to have a better impact on peoples’ health and a lower environmental
impact than traditional products while remaining efficient for the purposes they were bought
for. (Lin et al., 2018; Kim and Seock, 2009) Health and environment consciousness are
considered as two major motives for green buying behaviour towards green cosmetics for
two main reasons: the first one is because organic products are often considered as being at
the same time healthy and eco-friendly, but also because most consumers who are health
conscious are also environmentally conscious to a certain extent and vice versa (Kim and
Seock, 2009).

Finally, a crucial point regarding consumers’ expectations when purchasing green products
is performance and efficiency. Indeed, Lin et al. (2018) in their research exploring consumer
attitudes with regard to green cosmetics in the British market found that performance was
one of the major elements they integrated to make their purchase decision. Therefore, green
products must both be green and efficient to fulfil consumers’ expectations.

2.4. Green marketing mix

Green marketing encompasses different types of strategies and levers. One way to proceed
with green marketing is for corporations and brands to launch a profound reflection around
the marketing mix of their products in the green marketing context (Dangelico and
Volcalleli, 2017), leading to the green marketing mix.
Numerous authors, including Davari and Strutton (2014), have looked into how green
marketing, including green marketing mix, could help reduce the attitude-behaviour gap that
is so specific to the green industry.
 2.4.1. Place

In the traditional marketing mix, Place refers to the place where the products should be sold
and displayed, and how they will be delivered on the market. It signifies that place is crucial
in marketing to make sure that the product sold is brought to the eye and attention of the
right consumer.

Green place is referred to as “management of tactics related to distributing green products

from their points of origin to points of consumption” (Davari and Strutton, 2014, 5). Green
place can be explored through different distribution channels: some places where green
products can be distributed are for example green retail stores, or the internet (Dangelico and
Volcalelli, 2017). When looking at Dangelico and Volcalleli’s literature review (2017),
among the four elements of the green marketing mix, “Place” seems to be one of the least
explored. Indeed, product, price and promotion are seen as more important and more flexible
levers to impact consumer behaviour. However, in practice, place is absolutely key: green
products must be available precisely where the consumer shops because if not, most
consumers will not change the place where they shop with the only goal to find a specific
organic product. Therefore, for their own success, organic cosmetic brands must ensure that
their products are available where their consumers shop. (Mishra and Sharma, 2012) This is
the reason why Mishra and Sharma (2012) believe that in general, brands should not choose
distribution strategies that are considered as “niche”. This whole concept can be synthesized
in one: availability. Nguyen et al., (2018) when exploring the factors that might participate
in closing the intention-behaviour gap of the green industry, highlighted the crucial place of
green product availability. Indeed, they confirmed the idea that product availability clearly
impacts green consumption.

To a certain extent, green place is also related to supply chain, logistics and the concrete
process of distribution. Companies seeking to green their distribution processes must start
by creating strategies reducing their carbon footprint to pollute less. (Mahmoud et al., 2017).
Indeed, distribution and overall supply chain have a rather (if not the most) important
environmental impact due to steps such as sourcing, manufacturing or logistics. (Eltayeb et
al., 2011).
 2.4.2. Price

Price is another key instrument in the green marketing mix and in the marketing mix in
general. (Mahmoud et al., 2017) The price of a product must relate to its quality or perceived
quality and the benefits associated with the use of this product to be considered as fair
(Herrmann et al., 2007). Companies use the price in order to make profit, but struggle in
determining the degree of price sensitivity of their consumers, because it usually depends on
the type of product, the products’ attributes or the chosen positioning strategy. Reducing
price sensitivity can be one way to avoid reducing the price while maintaining profit. (Hsu
et al., 2017). In order to change consumers’ perception of price, companies can also use
pricing strategies including for example reductions, promotions or innovations (Kim and
Chung, 2011).

Green pricing is recognized as “the setting [of] prices for green products that balance
consumers’ sensitivity to cost against their willingness to pay more for environmental
safety” (Grove et al., 1996, 2). Moreover, green cosmetics are often accompanied by a
premium price compared to traditional cosmetics, linked to the additional cost of a greener
production. Green price therefore also refers to the premium, the extra cost associated to the
purchase of those products. (Davari and Strutton, 2014)

Although consumers are expecting this premium and are willing to accept it in exchange of
greener products (Henriques and Sadorsky, 1996), the premium price can be a barrier to
consumption. This is true even though consumers have a positive attitude regarding green
products: it is one of the main obstacles to buying green cosmetics. (Kim and Chung, 2011).
Indeed, green consumers are recognized as being cautious buyers, meaning buyers who
really consider the price when making a purchase. (Hsu et al., 2017, Kordshouli et al., 2015)
Companies, when working on setting green prices, must aim to show consumers that it is a
reasonable price considering the associated benefits, or the perceived value of it. Prices
should be perceived as fair in order to be good prices: that’s what green price is about.
(Lewandowska et al., 2017) In other words, the perceived quality must be higher than the
perceived sacrifice created by the cost, in order for customers to judge the price as honest
and fair. (Herrmann et al., 2007) Organic cosmetics are no exception to the rule: price has
been studied as being negatively linked to purchase intention (Hsu et al., 2017). The
strategies mentioned above to change consumers’ perception of price can be efficient to
make the products appear more affordable. (Kim and Chung, 2011)

2.4.3. Product

Consuming is often by itself polluting, at all times of the products’ life cycle: Pieters (1991)
distinguishes the Production, Distribution and Consumption phases. First, production and
distribution are processes for which corporations are responsible, then the consumption
phase belongs to households and encompasses acquisition, use and disposal. (Pieters, 1991)
Consumers wanting to reduce their environmental impact might therefore want to buy green
products. More and more companies are greening their lines of product, creating green lines
of product or launching green brands from scratch to answer the growing demand of
consumers and to create a competitive advantage (Liobikienė and Bernatonienė, 2017).
According to Peattie (1995, 181), a green product can be considered as such “when its
environmental and societal performance, in production, use and disposal, is significantly
improved and improving in comparison to conventional or competitive products offerings”.
Starting from this definition, it can be understood how marketers can design products to be
green. Green products are also often designated with terms such as “eco-friendly”,
“environmentally safe”, “recyclable”, “biodegradable” and “ozone friendly”. (Tan and Lau,
2011)
Ottman (2011, 63) for instance suggests 15 strategies for sustainable product design that
comply with the green marketing definition:
1. Sustainable harvesting and mining practices
2. Recyclable content
3. Sources reduce
4. Organically grown
5. Fair trade
6. Reduce toxicity
7. Think global, grow local
8. Responsible manufacturing practices
9. Energy- and fuel-efficient
10. Water-efficient
 11. Extend product life
12. Reusable and refillable
13. Recyclable
14. Compostable
15. Sale for disposal
Sdrolia and Zarotiadis (2018), made an evaluation of the uses and definitions of the term
“green products” throughout the years. By taking into account the most important variables
necessary to the definition, they suggested the following summarizing definition for green
product: “green [product] is a product (tangible or intangible) that minimizes its
environmental impact (direct and indirect) during its whole life cycle, subject to the present
technological and scientific status”. This definition is rather accurate because it considers
the constant innovation in the field of greening products. (Sdrolia and Zarotiadis, 2018, 15)
As for organic food, the composition of organic cosmetics is a hugely salient product
attribute since it is directly associated with the health of the consumer. Moreover, unlike
food this time, cosmetics have a direct effect on consumers’ appearance as they are used for
this purpose. (Marcoux, 2000)
Kordhsouli et al. (2015) summarized in a literature review the most common attributes used
in academic and scientific research to describe green products:
1. Is made of materials that are recyclable
2. Is more energy-efficient than conventional products
3. Is less pollutant than conventional products
4. Is produced in an environmentally friendly process
5. It contains elements that are not harmful to the environment
Despite those previously mentioned green features, marketers need to focus on another
conventional but necessary variable when designing a green cosmetic: the performance of
the product, and more specifically its efficiency. Indeed, performance is one of the two main
priorities of consumers when choosing cosmetics. This is a feature that must not be taken
lightly, as green cosmetics can be associated with a lack of efficiency. Lin et al., (2018) Kim
and Seock (2009) already mentioned the importance of this feature in their research, stating
that performance was a crucial attribute of cosmetic products for consumers looking to buy
a green cosmetic. For them, performance refers to quality, efficiency and the product being
good for health.
 2.4.4. Promotion

Promotion of Green Products can be done properly after a reflection on what information
should be communicated and how (Polonsky and Rosenberger, 2001) Products might be the
greenest possible, consumers won’t know how green they are without proper promotion of
their organic and environmental-friendly features. (Kordshouli et al., 2015) Hence, brands
must promote those green features and characteristics so that the green consumer is informed
when making his/her purchase decision. (Rex and Baumann, 2006) Promotion has a wide
number of levers regarding environmental features but must be used with caution as some
brands have been accused of proceeding to greenwashing practices. (Polonsky and
Rosenberger, 2001)

One important tool to promote green products is communication (Prothero et al., 1997).
Communication can for example be done through environmental claims which are “claims
included in any labelling advertising, promotional materials and all other forms of
marketing” related to environmental features of the product. (Kordshouli et al., 2015, 4)
Davis (1993) researched the efficiency of green claims and found that the more clear,
specific and detailed the claims are, the more efficient they will be.

Another tool of promotion, linked to policies and regulations, is the use of eco-labels. Eco-
labels are seen as instruments to guide consumers who look specifically for green products
with specific features. Indeed, eco-labels are certifications aiming to inform about the
compliance of organic products to certain criteria regarding the product design, composition
or packaging. The aim of eco-labels is to give concrete keys to consumers to guide them
through their choices: it allows them to be and act as informed consumers. Eco-labels are
also used, thanks to specific criteria and guidelines, to overcome the problem of false or
misleading information provided by some brands. (Rex and Baumann, 2006) Eco-labels can
be issued by different types of parties such as third party (e.g., “controlled by a public or
independent authority”) (Thøgersen, 2000, 22), or private labels; those parties can be more
or less credible to consumers, especially depending on consumers’ knowledge and attention
about those labels. It is indeed to be noticed that ecolabels are inefficient if consumers are
not properly informed and educated about them and their meaning, and mostly if consumers
do not search for them when shopping. It means that they are critical to gain consumer
recognition, understanding and trust, if consumers pay attention to them during the shopping
situation. (Thøgersen, 2000)

Some world organizations were created to control and provide direction for labels and
claims. One of them is the International Organization for Standardization which ranges
labels into three groups: Type I, Type II, type III. Type I labels are referred to as labels that
have clear, defined and official criteria and whose standards have been evaluated by an
unbiased third party. Type II labels are self-declared labels initiated internally by companies.
Finally, Type III labels are environmental labels that tackle specific characteristics of
products and rather give quantitative information to consumers. (International Organization
for Standardization, 2019)

Finally, green promotion also goes through the promotion of a whole lifestyle: behaving
green, acting green, and the benefits associated with pursuing this kind of lifestyle. (Davari
and Strutton, 2014) It also includes the promotion of brands and companies’ engagements
in sustainable actions. (Polonsky and Rosenberger, 2001)

2.5. Green Marketing Strategy

As per Figure 3. Green Marketing Strategy and the Green Marketing Mix (Dangelico and
Volcalelli, 2017 adapted from Kotler and Armstrong, 2014), green marketing can be
separated into two main categories: the green marketing mix and green marketing strategy,
including the following steps: “Positioning”, “Segmenting”, “Targeting” and
“Differentiation”. The green marketing mix was reviewed in the precedent section, now let’s
explore what is behind green marketing strategy.

Positioning and differentiation strategies can be led with the help of the green marketing
mix, which give brands several levers to play with. Indeed, marketers need to think who they
are targeting when designing, producing, positioning and distributing their products.
However, there is quite some debates among researchers regarding how consumers should
be segmented in the green market. (Dangelico and Volcalelli, 2017) Their literature review
indeed shows that a lot of research come to the same conclusion as per the fact that green
segmentation should not be done the way traditional segmentation is done. In practice,
traditional segmentation is indeed not the most suitable for the green market: green
consumers can be segmented regarding many different criteria such as psychographic criteria
-for example altruism or environmental concern- (Straughan and Roberts, 1999) or
behavioural variables separating for example active green activists and passive green
activists (Modi and Patel, 2013). The literature review led by Dangelico and Volcalelli
(2017) shows that there are even more ways of segmenting consumers on the green market.
They also mention the segmentation by purchase habits or purchase characteristics,
categorizing consumers as follows: green consumers and non-green consumers. But for
many authors such as Peattie (2001b), marketing strategies should not distinguish green
customers and non-green customers, and rather look at customers’ needs in general and seek
to answer these needs with a product that incorporates green features, and therefore brands
could enlarge their target as much as possible.

2.6. Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable Marketing

Following the advent of Ecological and Green Marketing, Sustainable Marketing aims to see
wider and to take even more issues into consideration, including for example social matters
such as working condition of employees. Corporate Social Responsibility is about
considering all stakeholders of the firms, and not only the shareholders anymore. This
sustainable vision of firms can be extremely valuable and acts as a competitive advantage
for those firms who succeed in standing out next to others. Sustainable marketing is therefore
seen as the successor of Green Marketing and would concern all industries. (Lewandowska
et al., 2017)
 3. GREEN TRUST

Trust, and by extension green trust, are concepts that often comes up when exploring the
variables affecting consumers’ attitudes towards organic products. It is therefore necessary
to examine its significance as much as its drivers and obstacles.

3.1. Definition of green trust

The concept of Green Trust was introduced by Chen (2010) and was widely reused in later
research. Green Trust can be defined as the “willingness to depend on a product, service, or
brand based on the belief or expectation resulting from its credibility, benevolence, and
ability about its environmental performance” (Chen, 2010, 3).

Having a close look at Singh and Sirdeshmukh (2000, 4&5) definition of trust, it is possible
to deep-dive further in the concept of green trust. They indeed aim to define trust through
the delimitation of two patterns: 1) “The expectation that the exchange partner will act in a
manner that is responsible, evidence integrity, and is not potentially injurious” and 2) “the
intention to rely on the exchange partner while accepting the contextual vulnerability
(uncertainty, risk of being disappointed)”. This definition is interesting in the sense that it
captures the relationship between both parties. Put in the context of green products, it can be
understood that : 1) consumers expect, when buying a product, that brands are acting as they
say they do regarding the environmental engagement – meaning that the product is indeed
organic and that the brand is indeed acting in an environmental-friendly manner and 2)
consumers take a risk when choosing a specific organic product regarding the uncertainty
about its features or the components but will trust the brand when buying it. Green trust is
particularly important because consumers might have to pay a premium -that is, an extra
price- for a green product, and it therefore needs to be worth it (Nuttavuthisit and Thøgersen,
2015).

Wijekoon and Sabri (2021) in an analysis of the factors influencing green product purchase
intention and behaviour, summarized the elements about which consumers often lack trust
when buying a green product: first customers are suspicious of the green attributes of the
product, second, they doubt that consuming those products will have environmental
advantage, third they are sceptical about the veracity of the information displayed on green
packages and eco-labels.

3.2. Significance of green trust: a driver of consumer behaviour

Liobikienė and Bernatonienė, (2017) summarized all the factors throughout academic
research that were mentioned when exploring purchase intentions and behaviour of
consumers towards ecological products. Those factors were namely: environmental concern/
consciousness/knowledge, perception of consequences, perceived consumer effectiveness,
attitude towards green products, health consciousness, values, price, eco-labelling, trust and
accessibility. Trust is considered as a central element influencing intentions and behaviours
towards green products -and green cosmetics by extension-, although this factor is
considered as not being studied enough and would require more studies. (Nuttavuthisit and
Thøgersen, 2015).

Trust is also in the centre of relational successes and therefore specifically in the green
marketing field. (Davari and Strutton, 2014) Singh and Sirdeshmukh (2000) use the social
exchange theory to underline the direct influence of trust on customers’ dedication to a
specific brand, strengthening their relationship, especially in the post-purchase situation.
According to Davari and Strutton (2014, 6), the place of trust is even more crucial “in
situations where consumers are required to make decisions under conditions of uncertainty”.
When buying green products, consumers most of the time cannot verify the environmental
claims or the brands’ engagements. They are therefore in a situation of uncertainty where
they need to trust the product/the brand in order to make the purchase. Then, the influence
of brand trust, and by extension green trust, is at its paroxysm. In their article focusing on
how trust was impacting consumer buying behaviour for organic food, Nuttavuthisit and
Thøgersen (2015) found that because consumers most of the time do not have the tools to
verify the claims and to compare the components of conventional and green products, trust
in the product is central in affecting the green buying behaviour.

Increasing Green Trust is crucial in order to increase the acquirement of green goods by
consumers and to reduce the attitude-behaviour gap specific to the green market. (Chen and
Chen, 2019) Several means can be used to increase green trust, Punyatoya (2015) suggests
for instance that improving quality and perceived benefits of the products are two efficient
ways to do so. The significance of trust related to the green market has been developed, but
it can be noticed that trust is crucial in all industries as it tackles directly the relationship
between the brand, the company and the consumers. In the cosmetic industry, trust has a
really specific place, as cosmetics are also linked to consumers’ health due to the presence
of chemicals that are in direct contact with consumers’ skin. (Choi and Lee, 2019)
Consumers for example struggle to trust the ingredients present in the cosmetic products
(i.e., to trust that those will not harm them or affect their health) (Choi and Lee, 2019)

3.3. Green trust opposed to green distrust

Lewandowska et al., (2017) warned about the “trust crisis” among consumers towards green
products. It shows that the concept of trust is important not only because it is an advantage
for brands, but also because its antonym, distrust, can be particularly harmful for them.

This trust crisis is linked to the fear of consumers of being misled and given false, inaccurate
or incomplete information. Indeed, green marketing’s detractors have accused it and certain
brands of overexaggerating environmental benefits of the advertised products, strongly
damaging customers’ trust regarding green brands or green products. (Sharma, 2021;
Lewandowska et al., 2017) Lewandowska et al., (2017, 3) give the tone in their article: “the
lack of consumer trust in companies’ environmental information communication is the main
problem with today’s green marketing, according to numerous research”. Indeed, lack of
trust can be seen as a major barrier to consumption (Chen and Chang, 2013). This is
especially true as the green market’s products are often accompanied with premium price or
are considered as “credence goods” (Nuttavuthisit and Thogersen, 2015)

3.4. Greenwashing

As developed in the previous section, green distrust has been created or reinforced by the
tendency of certain brands to “greenwash”. Indeed, some brands, in addition to
overexaggerating environmental claims, are also accused of manipulating environmental
information (Lewandoswka et al., 2017; Ottman, 2011, 163) leading to the deception and
suspicion of consumers. Chen and Chang (2013) have researched the link between trust and
greenwashing and found that greenwash is negatively correlated with green trust: it even
slows the progress of sustainable development down.

Greenwashing exists when one of those seven sins is committed (UL, 2019):

1. Sin of the hidden trade-off

2. Sin of no proof
3. Sin of vagueness
4. Sin of worshipping false labels
5. Sin of irrelevance
6. Sin of lesser of two evils
7. Sin of fibbing

As per the list above, the scope of greenwashing is rather broad and goes through the lack
of information to misleading information. It can for example be linked to the use of blurred
or inaccurate terms such as “ecological”, “bio”, “eco-friendly” without saying what is behind
those words. This is considered as “informational asymmetry” and leads to a loss of trust
and dissatisfaction from consumers. (Lewandowska et al., 2017) In 2012, Mishra and
Sharma stated that 5% only of environmental claims from green campaigns were completely
true: this shows how wide the scope of greenwashing is in the green industry.

With the aim of increasing green trust, corporations need to work on reducing the use of
greenwashing, as it undermines the green market. Companies must be as honest as possible
for consumers to believe in their claims. (Chen and Chang, 2013) Hameed et al., (2021)
found that green brand image, green brand love and green brand loyalty were positively
affecting green trust, and that environmental claims were negatively related to green trust.
At the same time, this poses an issue for green marketing managers as environmental claims
are clearly one of the main tools for promoting green products’ green features.

Related to greenwashing, some other practices tend to discredit green products, and therefore
green trust: customer confusion and green perceived risk. Chen and Chang (2013) remind
the definition of Turnbull et al. (2000) of green consumer confusion as the inability of some
customers to clearly process the environmental characteristics of a green product when they
face the information available, meaning they have hard time differentiating the different
environmental features of similar products. This green confusion was found to have a
mediative effect on the negative correlation between greenwash and green trust. Green
perceived risk plays the same mediative effect than green confusion; it represents the
possible risk that negative environmental consequences will arise when purchasing a green
product. (Chen and Chang, 2013)

3.5. Drivers of green trust

In order to find new ways to increase green trust, it is critical to understand what the drivers
of trust are, and more specifically the ones of green trust. As mentioned previously, trust and
purchase behaviour are strongly linked, as trust has a positive effect on the purchase
behaviour and intention. (Nuttavuthisit and Thøgersen, 2015)
Davari and Strutton (2014) suggested the following framework to study the effect of the
marketing mix elements on green trust, but also brand loyalty, perceived brand quality, and
brand association, with a focus on organic food:

Figure 4. Theoretical model of the study of Davari and Strutton (2014)

They found that green price and green product were the only elements connected to brand
trust. This result is quite interesting as green promotion has been studied as being quite
important in creating trust among consumers, (e.g., through eco-labels). According to their
research, green price and brand trust are negatively related.
Indeed, some contradictory research have found that green advertising, including
specifically eco-labelling can be used to increase trust (Juwaheer et al., 2012) even if those
eco-labels need themselves to be trusted in order to be used (Thøgersen, 2000): one way is
for brands to strive to only display eco-labels that are certified by a public authority (Janssen
and Hamm 2012).
Chen and Chang (2013) stated the hypothesis that green perceived quality is an antecedent
of green trust in a research based on Taiwan’s consumers of information and electronic
products. This hypothesis was verified, showing that raising green perceived quality and
reducing green perceived risk are important ways to increase brand trust. Peattie (1992)
suggests that “companies should provide reliable information for their consumers in order
to reduce customers’ perceived risk”. The studies of Chen et al., (2015) and Chen (2010)
have shown that green brand image was also an important antecedent of green trust, and that
consumers environmental friendliness, green satisfaction and green perceived quality were
important factors to increase green trust. Also, trust is boosted when consumers see brands
as transparent and honest (Doney and Cannon, 1997).
Finally, trust is also partly cultural as Sharma (2021) summarizes in his literature review
citing Herbes et al. (2020) and Rahbar and Abdul Wahid (2011) who found that people, trust
more information when they are placed on specific areas depending on their nationality.
Indeed, they state that while some consumers from European countries rather trust
information given on the labelling, French people tend to trust more the appearance of the
packaging.
 4. GREEN KNOWLEDGE

This section will start by defining Green Knowledge with a distinction between objective
and subjective knowledge. Then the significance of this concept for the green market will be
tackled.

4.1. Definition of green knowledge

Green knowledge is an importantly mentioned factor in research tackling green purchases

(Liobikienė and Bernatonienė, 2017). Consumer-wise, it is defined as the “amount of
environmental information held in one’s memory that affects the way in which consumers
interpret and assess available preferences” (Tan, 2011). According to Kumar et al., (2017),
green knowledge is a factor that is often studied for its mediative and moderating effects of
variables on attitudes or behaviour (e.g., in Mahmoud et al., 2017).

Researchers tend to differentiate two kinds of knowledge: abstract knowledge and concrete
knowledge. Abstract knowledge, also referred to as subjective knowledge, alludes to the
perception of consumers about their own knowledge on a topic while concrete knowledge,
or objective knowledge, refers to the actual knowledge of consumers about one topic.
(Carlson et al., 2009)

4.2. Significance of green knowledge

In a literature review led by Sharma (2021) identifying the different factors studied as
affecting green purchase, green consciousness, green knowledge, green awareness and
situational factors have been found to be the variables with the most important impact. Still
according to Sharma (2021), green knowledge allows consumers to make informed green
purchase decisions. He states that lack of environmental knowledge is partly responsible for
the attitude-behaviour gap of consumers towards green products. Green knowledge is
therefore crucial when it comes to making informed and conscious decisions during a green
purchase situation (Ok Park and Sohn, 2018), and it might be even more true, as information
provided by companies (whether on-pack or in promotional advertising) are often considered
as unclear or uncomplete. (Lewandowska et al., 2017) This is partly linked, according to
Lewandowska et al., (2017, 4), to the large number of existing eco-labels, among which
some are created by the companies themselves, or depend on the type of product, losing the
consumer, especially when he does not know how to differentiate the labels. For
Lewandowska et al. (2017), this complexity “adds to the information chaos”.
Yet, the significance of green knowledge is controversial as research have either
demonstrated its strong effect on green purchase behaviour: Chen and Chang (2013) for
example demonstrated its positive impact on consumers’ intentions of green product
purchase. According to Huang et al., (2014), Hines et al. (1987) stated that environmental
knowledge was even the most “significant antecedent when predicting environmental
behaviour”. In the contrary, others have found that green knowledge had no or low effect on
the latter. (Wolsink, 2007) Green knowledge is therefore often researched for its impact on
consumer pro-environmental behaviour, but not only: it was found to also affect consumers
attitudes. (Taufique et al., 2017)
Among those who demonstrated the importance of green knowledge, a lot of researchers
separated objective and subjective knowledge in their research and called future researchers
to do the same. (Schahn and Holzer, 1990; Ok Park and Sohn, 2018) Ok Park and Sohn
(2018) found that subjective and objective knowledge both have a considerable positive
direct and indirect impact on green attitude, but subjective knowledge was found to have the
most significant effect. Tanner and Kast (2003, 4) had earlier already came to the same
conclusion that “action-related knowledge” is more important in green purchase behaviour
than “fact-related knowledge”. It can be concluded that there is a need to teach consumers
through the “provision of related information” to raise their level of knowledge, as well as
to increase their self-confidence in the process of purchasing green products. (Ok Park and
Sohn, 2018, 13)
 5. SUMMARY AND GROUND FOR HYPOTHESES

In this section, the context leading to the formation of each hypothesis is explained, serving
as a summary of the hypotheses formed:

The literature review suggested that green knowledge could play a consequent role in
influencing consumers’ behaviour (e.g., Sharma, 2021; Ok Park and Sohn, 2018) but also
attitudes. (Taufique et al., 2017) More precisely, it was argued that subjective knowledge
plays the most significant impact on green attitude. (Ok Park and Sohn, 2018). Ok Park and
Sohn (2018) believe that it is necessary to provide consumers with more information and
raise their green knowledge in order to raise their self-confidence when purchasing products
and therefore reduce the attitude-behaviour gap. However, there is not much research as per
how green knowledge directly affects green trust, especially in the cosmetic industry. It can
be assumed based on Ok Park and Sohn’s research (2018) that consumers who perceive
themselves as more knowledgeable will be more confident about their purchase choices.
Informed consumers could therefore be seen as confident consumers regarding the green
market, green products and their green features. Moreover, numerous researchers
demonstrated the positive effects of environmental knowledge on attitudes towards green
purchase (Taufique et al., 2017; Hossain et al., 2022) Hossain et al., (2022) tested very
recently the hypothesis that environmental knowledge positively affects consumers’ green
trust regarding energy-efficient household appliances. Thus, following these ideas, and
based on previous theories the hypothesis H1 was constructed:

➔ H1: The more consumers perceive themselves as knowledgeable about green

cosmetics, the more trustful they are about the green cosmetics’ environmental
features

H2, H3, H4 and H5 were formed in the light of the research sub-question which interrogated
the impact of green marketing mix tools on green trust. Therefore, four marketing mix tools
were selected, and their impact on green trust will be further explored in the analysis. The
following sections aim to explain the choice of each marketing mix tool and the hypotheses
built consequently.
When deep diving in the Place section of green marketing mix, it has become clear in the
green industry that the question of availability of green products is crucial for consumers to
make green purchasing choices (Kim et al, 2012; Nguyen et al., 2018). Indeed, some
consumers are not ready to change the place where they shop in order to find specific green
cosmetics. (Mishra and Sharma, 2012) Availability is absolutely key and necessary on the
green market according to many researchers. At least, put another way, lack of availability
is a large barrier to green product consumption (Aertsens et al., 2009) In the same time,
product availability affecting green purchase behaviour does not mean that product
availability, and perceived availability contributes to increasing green trust. The effect of
perceived availability has, to the best of the writer’s knowledge, not been researched for its
effects on green trust in the cosmetic industry. Therefore, considering the importance of
availability for the green market, it is consistent with the objective of this research to
investigate if availability is positively correlated to green trust.

➔ H2 (place): The more organic cosmetics are available to consumers, the more
trustful they are about green cosmetics’ environmental features.

Inside the price section of the green marketing mix, a crucial tool can rapidly be chosen: the
price itself, or the perception of the price. Indeed, price is absolutely crucial in the cosmetic
industry and also in the green cosmetic industry (Lin et al., 2018). As mentionned earlier,
some researchers have conflicting results regarding the effect of price on trust: while for
example Davari and Strutton’s research (2014) showed that, opposed to what their
hypothesis stated, green price is negatively related to brand trust. In the contrary, Amberg
and Fogarassy (2019) affirm that price is positively related to green trust. Of course, green
trust and brand trust do not hold the same definition and their different results could be
explained by this distinction. Still, it raises a doubt regarding the concrete effect of price
perception on consumers’ green trust in the cosmetic industry. As it was found that
consumers expect to pay a premium price when buying green cosmetics, related notably to
higher cost of production, (Davari and Strutton, 2014) it can be assumed that consumers will
expect a higher price for green cosmetics and therefore be more confident regarding green
cosmetics environmental features when they perceive the price as higher. Therefore, the
following hypothesis was formed:
 ➔ H3 (price): The more consumers have a high price perception of green cosmetics,
the more trustful they are about green products

Regarding the Product section of green marketing mix, many possibilities exist in terms of
greening products: reusability, recyclability, natural ingredients, water efficiency…(Ottman,
2011, 63). Indeed, consumers are more and more looking for products that have natural
ingredients or that are developed sustainably… but one of the main characteristics that
consumers consider when choosing a cosmetic (and therefore by extension a green cosmetic)
is the performance and efficiency of the product for the function that it was bought for. This
is indeed what was highlighted in Lin et al., (2018) qualitative study regarding consumer
attitudes toward green cosmetics: the performance of the cosmetics was required, before the
green characteristics of the product. The interviews they had seem to infer that consumers
can be suspicious of green products’ efficiency because of the natural ingredients and lack
of technology. It would therefore be interesting for the present study to explore if perceived
efficiency of green cosmetics -meaning, the most (or one of the most) important product
feature- is affecting consumers green trust towards those products. Meaning, is the
perception of efficiency of those type of products positively linked to the level of green trust
of consumers?

➔ H4 (product) The perception of green cosmetic efficiency is correlated to

consumers’ green trust in green cosmetics.

Regarding the Promotion category from the 4P in the green marketing mix, eco-labelling has
long been considered as one of the main tools used to promote green products. Ecolabels
are indeed seen as instruments to guide consumers and help them differentiate green products
from non-green products. It is also a useful tool when it comes to find green products that
comply with certain criteria regarding the design, the composition or the packaging… (Rex
and Baumann, 2006) Eco-labels’ logos and claims are therefore unavoidable communication
elements regarding the green performance of products. However, according to Thøgersen
(2000), eco-labels are inefficient if consumers are not properly educated about their
meaning, and it appears that consumers might feel confused about eco-labels. (Thøgersen,
2000) It would be therefore interesting to ensure that the more consumers perceive eco-labels
as useful tools to distinguish green cosmetics from conventional cosmetics, the more they
tend to be trustful about those products’ environmental features. Therefore, the following
hypothesis was formed:

➔ H5 (promotion): The more consumers perceive eco-labels as important tools to

distinguish green from conventional cosmetics, the stronger the green trust

Finally, as mentioned in the section detailing the first hypothesis, the perception of green
knowledge, or subjective green knowledge, is really important in affecting consumer
attitudes towards green products. (Ok Park and Sohn, 2018) Consumers with a better
perceived knowledge act as informed consumers (Ok Park and Sohn, 2018) and might
therefore perceive differently marketing mix tools. Mahmoud et al. (2017) found in his study
focusing on Sudanese consumers that environmental knowledge moderates the relationship
between green marketing mix and purchase intention. Chan (1999) postulates that the more
consumers own environmental knowledge, the weaker the risk of a poor purchase decision,
the more trust they would feel towards brands and products’ environmental performance.
This idea, and the idea that consumers with different level of perceived knowledge have a
different purchase behaviour (Huang et al., 2014), led to the assumption that consumers with
a different level of perceived knowledge will react differently to the marketing mix elements
previously mentioned. It can therefore be expected that level of perceived knowledge will
have an indirect (moderating) effect on the relationship between the perception of the
marketing tools and green trust. The following hypothesis was formed to test this idea:
➔ H6: Perception of own green knowledge moderates the relationship between Place,
Price, Promotion and Product’s concrete green marketing tools and green trust
 6. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY

The purpose of this thesis is to inspect the effects of green marketing on green trust through
a focus on four concrete tools taken from the green marketing mix. The research also seeks
to understand the role of perceived green knowledge in the framework. In the following
section, the methodology used to conduct the empirical research will be discussed. This
research will use a deductive approach to quantitative research, attempting to validate the
hypotheses that were elaborated thanks to a complete theoretical background. The role of
the writer is as objective as possible with a systematic approach regarding the data and the
interpretation of the data. The following chapter describes the research context and design
used for this research. The data collection method and analysis are developed; finally, the
reliability and validity of the study are discussed.

6.1. Research context and case description

Purposefully, this research was contextualized, aiming to have specific results for a specific
industry. The context chosen here is the cosmetic industry: three main reasons brought the
writer to choose this industry. To begin with, the cosmetic industry is closely linked to the
writer’s personal interests since a few years. Another reason is due to the increasing place of
green and natural cosmetics among cosmetics in the shelves and online (Amberg and
Fogarassy, 2019), making it necessary for marketers to have a good comprehension of the
usable levers to increase green trust. Indeed, according to a report constructed by Statista
(2022a), the cosmetic industry grows by more than 3,6% every year since 2010. The highest
growth was found in 2021 with +8% annual growth rate. Statista (2022a) Statista (2022b)
also underlines the growing interest of consumers towards organic cosmetics: around 33%
of women purchased green cosmetics in 2010 against 58% in 2018, and it keeps raising. In
terms of value, the green cosmetic markets is worth more than 920 million euros in Europe,
and has doubled since 2015 (Duponchel, 2021). Finally, the third reason is because many
researchers (e.g., Liobikienė and Bernatonienė, 2017) insisted on the importance of making
research focusing on a single industry as determinants and outcomes of consumer behaviour
in the green market might differ depending on the category of product under study.
This research is also contextualized regarding the ethnicity of the population under study:
indeed, only French respondents were able to fill-in the survey. This choice is due to the
potential existing differences among each country as per the attitudes that the population has
towards the green market (Hameed et al., 2021).

6.2. Research Design

As a reminder, the main research question was “How does green marketing mix affects
consumers’ green trust towards green cosmetics?”. Three research sub-questions were
developed to guide answers for this question: 1. What is the impact of specific tools taken
from the 4Ps on green trust in organic cosmetics? 2. How does the level of perceived
knowledge of consumers affects their trust in organic cosmetics? 3. How does perceived
green knowledge impact the effects of green marketing mix tools on green trust?

The research design chosen to conduct this study is deductive. Indeed, according to Siah
Hwee Ang (2014), it is common to classify research depending on whether they are inductive
or deductive. He defines deductive approach as observing the following pattern: Theory →
Hypotheses → Observations. The hypotheses that were formed previously are deductive
because they were built from the literature review and previous research. In order to test
those hypotheses and answer the research questions, a quantitative study seem to be the
most effective method. Quantitative research “explains phenomena by collecting numerical
data that are analysed using mathematically based methods”. (Creswell, 1994) Indeed, it is
a great tool to explore the correlation between different variables (in this study, the
perception of four green marketing mix tools and green trust) and is a mean to generalize
findings thanks to the utilization of large samples. (Siah Hwee Ang, 2014) To summarize,
according to Siah Hwee Ang (2014, 99), a “quantitative approach is desirable when:

- Large amounts of data are available and accessible

- Theories are well established in the area / Existing theories can be used to
explain the phenomenon to be investigated
- Generalizability is an important outcome”

Theory is well developed on the field of Green Marketing, although some gaps remain, for
example regarding Green Trust in the area. Moreover, this research aims to find out how
green marketing mix tools affect green trust in all contexts of the green cosmetic industry.
The long-term goals would be to help brands, managers and companies develop adequate
strategies of trust creation. Therefore, generalizability is a crucial outcome of the present
research. Finally, large amounts of data can be reached through an online survey.

6.3. Sampling and Data Collection Method

This research consisted in a survey distributed online for 9 days in July. The data was
gathered under non-probability sampling: more specifically, the way the questionnaire was
distributed is through convenience sampling. Convenience sampling is a type of sampling
that is based on criteria related to the convenience to reach the respondents. (Dörnyei, 2007)
Indeed, in this case, the criteria of accessibility and willingness to participate were used, as
the questionnaire was shared to acquaintances through social media and word of mouth. To
go further in the funnel of sampling, one type of convenience sample is called “self-selected
sampling” and this type of sampling was used for the present study. Indeed, sampling is
called that way when “people self-identify with the desired population criteria and select
themselves to participate in the study”. (Wilson, 2014, 2) The present study was interested
in all types of consumers, as long as they were French and aged more than 18 years old,
therefore most people could answer the questionnaire.

When distributing or sending questionnaires, respondents answered regarding their own

experience and perception of the concepts, and it can therefore be considered as “self-
reported data”. This is very convenient for consumers and eases the process of answering
but the answers might lack of objectivity. (Siah Hwee Ang, 2014) For the present study, still,
the dimension of perception is quite interesting, as the aim is to measure the perceived
knowledge, the perceived green trust, as well as the vision of consumers on some instruments
of the green marketing mix.

The data was collected through a questionnaire constructed on the online platform Qualtrics
and posted for 9 days from the 21st to the 30th of July 2022 on several social media platforms
(Instagram and Facebook) owned by the writer, as well as transmitted to acquaintances from
the writer. The aim of this short period of collection is to ensure that everyone answered
within the same context and economic period. At the same time, attention was paid to
gathering responses from contrasting segments of organic cosmetic users, but also all
genders and ages. The survey first introduced the topic to inform the respondents about the
purpose of the research.

There were only two limitations regarding the population that was allowed to answer: having
the French nationality and being older than 18 years old. Collecting quantitative data from
French consumers is consistent with the research’ purpose as it was seen that consumers’
attitudes towards green products can depend on their culture (Sharma, 2021). The
questionnaire was shared in French, so it helped in selecting the right population. In total,
259 answers were gathered, among which 236 were usable for the purpose of this study.

Qualtrics was a rather convenient platform because it allows to directly code variables
numerically. Both the statistic softwares SPSS and Excel were used to analyse the collected
data.

6.4. Questionnaire design and measurement

The questionnaire is divided into five parts: Introduction, Demographics, Control Variables
and Measures of the six constructs. The questionnaire can be found in Appendix 1. Before
distributing the questionnaire, a pre-testing was operated on three persons of different ages
and genders to ensure a good understandability of the questionnaire.

The first part of the questionnaire consists of an introduction to the context of the study.
Indeed, the writer and her educational status are presented along with the purpose of the
study. Then, the respondents are informed that around 5 minutes are required to complete
the questionnaire and are given an overview of what can be considered as cosmetics. In the
present study, cosmetics are products included in the following categories: make-up, body
care, skin care, sun care and hair care products. Finally, the consent of the respondents
regarding the use of their answers (anonymously) is collected. If a respondent does not give
his/her consent, the questionnaire ends. Then, demographics of the respondents are explored:
this includes the confirmation of the French nationality, age and gender. The control
variables aimed to measure the frequency of organic cosmetics purchases as well as the
importance the respondents give to the purchase of organic cosmetics. Finally, six variables
are measured: subjective green knowledge, green trust towards green cosmetics, price
perception, perception of green cosmetics’ efficiency, perception of the availability of the
green cosmetics, perception of the eco-labels. Each of the six above mentioned constructs
are measured through several questions. Most questions use a Likert Scale and require
consumers to rate their perceptions of the different elements under study. A Likert scale is,
as defined by Siah Hwee Ang (2014, 136), a question whose answer requires “respondents
to rate their perception of some issues on a scale”. The ones used in questionnaire are ranged
from 1 to 7, from I strongly disagree to I strongly agree.

Table 2. below presents the questions used to measure each of the constructs, as well as the
sources from which the questions were taken or adapted. These questions were translated
into French for the purpose of the study. If a blank is present in the Source column, this
means that the question was added and created by the writer.

Table 2. Measures of the variables and sources

Variable Name Measure Questions Source
Measurement of GK_1 - I am very knowledgeable about environmental Joshi and Rahman
(2016)
perceived/subjective issues
green knowledge GK_2 - I am well aware of the current environmental Adapted from Joshi
and Rahman (2016)
matters
GK – 7 items GK_3 - I know a lot about recycling Adapted from Joshi
and Rahman (2016)

GK_4 - I understand the environmental Adapted from Joshi

and Rahman (2016)
labels/symbols/logos that are on the organic cosmetics
packaging
GK 5 - I know a lot about organic products

GK 6 - My knowledge about organic products is better

relative to the people that I know
GK_7 - I always have up-to-date knowledge about Uddin and Khan
(2018)
environmentally friendly products
Measure of trust in GT_1 - Organic cosmetic’s environmental reputation is Adapted from Chen
(2010)
Organic cosmetics generally reliable
GT – 5 items GT_2 - Organic cosmetics’ environmental performance is Adapted from Chen
(2010)
generally dependable
GT_3 - Environmental claims on pack are generally Adapted from Joshi
and Rahman (2016)
trustworthy
GT_4 - I trust that those selling organic cosmetics are Cachero-Martinez
(2021), adapted from
honest about the organic nature of their products. Voon et al. (2011)

GT_5 - I trust the organic certification logos on organic Cachero-Martinez

(2021), adapted from
cosmetic labels Voon et al. (2011)
 Measure of perceived GA_1 - I know where to find organic cosmetics Adapted from Nguyen
et al. (2018)
availability/accessibility
GA_2 - I can easily find the organic cosmetics I need. Adapted from Nguyen
GA – 4 items and easy access of
et al. (2018)
green products
GA_3 - I can find the organic cosmetics I need close to Adapted from Nguyen
et al. (2018)
where I live
GA_4 - I can find the organic cosmetics easily in the place
where I usually shop
Measure of Price GP_1 - Brands usually charge more for their Adapted from Davari
and Strutton (2014)
perception environmentally friendly products
GP – 3 items GP_2 - Green products are often more expensive than the Adapted from Davari
and Strutton (2014)
same non-green alternatives
GP_3 - I must pay more to purchase environmentally Adapted from Davari
and Strutton (2014)
friendly products
Measure of perception GE_1 - Green cosmetics ingredients are efficient
of green products
GE_2 - Green cosmetics have a level of performance that Adapted from
GE – 4 items efficiency
Sweeney and Soutar
is adapted to my need (2001)

GE_3 - Green cosmetics are efficient and performant

regarding the function I am buying them to fulfill

GE_4 - Green cosmetics have a good standard of quality Adapted from

Sweeney and Soutar
(2001)

GE_5 - Green products are good for health Adapted from Kim
and Seock (2009)

Measure of consumers’ GEL_1 - Eco-labels give me more information about the

perception of eco-labels greenness of a cosmetic
GEL – 4 items GEL_2 - I purchase green products if they are certified by Adapted from Joshi
and Rahman (2016)
environmental organizations
GEL_3 - I generally check the eco-label of the cosmetic
product I buy
GEL_4 - Eco-labels are easy-to-use to me

6.5. Data analysis method

The research questions and hypotheses will be answered and tested through quantitative
analysis. The first step after data collection through Qualtrics and Export to Excel was the
formatting of the data: non-French respondents and respondents who did not give their
consent for data collection were deleted from the data. After this first cleaning, the data set
goes from 259 answers to 248. Then, some people did not go through the whole
questionnaire. As it represents a small minority, those answers were simply deleted.
Therefore, in total, 236 usable answers were kept and analyzed thanks to Excel and SPSS.
The data was first processed for a descriptive analysis, and a check for validity and
reliability. The data was then tested for normal distribution, multicollinearity, variance and
independence in order to pursue with parametrical tests. Factor analysis was then used to
clarify construct measurement items and to delimitate each of the six constructs fully.
Finally, correlation analyses and linear regressions were done to test the hypotheses and give
cues for research questions’ answers.

6.6. Validity and reliability

When proceeding to a quantitative study, a requirement for the instruments to be analysed

properly is to make sure of the validity and the reliability of the questionnaire and, by extent,
of the constructs. Validity and Reliability ensure the integrity of the research results. (Siah
Hwee Ang, 2014)

Validity shows how accurately a construct is evaluated in a study (Heale and Twycross,
2015). There are numerous types of validity that can be explored. The main ones, and the
ones that are therefore explored in this research are content validity, construct validity and
criterion (or predictive) validity. Content validity defines the degree to which the questions
or items evaluate all the aspects of the construct (Heale and Twycross, 2015). In the
questionnaire, green trust, green knowledge, green marketing mix tools perceptions are
evaluated with several questions (more than three), attempting to encompass the whole
perspectives about the topic, and therefore increasing content validity. Content validity can
also be explored through “face validity”, which is verified when the questionnaire appears
clear and easy to use in style, format or language. (Taherdoost, 2016) The fact that the
questionnaire of this study is based on existing questionnaires from academic writers on
close topics increases both content validity and face validity. Criterion validity or predictive
validity “is the extent to which a measure is related to an outcome”. (Taherdoost, 2016, 5) It
was explored thanks to correlation analyses that are presented later in the chapter. (Heale
and Twycross, 2015) Then, construct validity “refers to whether you can draw inferences
about test scores related to the concept being studied” (Heale and Twycross, 2015, 2).
Construct validity was explored through a factor analysis on the items included in GK (green
knowledge), GT (green trust), GA (green availability), GP (green price), GE (green
efficiency) and GEL (green eco-labels). The factor analysis used in the next section led to
the deletion of two questions from the questionnaire and the split of the variable GK (Green
Knowledge) into two new factors: General Green Knowledge (GGK) and Green Product
Knowledge (GPK). This allowed to ensure construct validity. The following new variables
were created and gather the items related to the constructs (the items of each construct were
added under a single variable): tGGK, tGPK, tGT, tGPA, tPP, tGPE, and tEL,

Reliability, according to Siah Hwee Ang (2014, 176), is “the degree to which measures are
free from error and therefore yield consistent results”. Reliability is positively linked to
generalizability (Siah Hwee Ang, 2014) which is an important outcome of the present study.
Reliability is often measured through Cronbach’s alpha. (Heale and Twycross, 2015) This is
why reliability was tested on the new variables created after the factor analysis: tGGK,
tGPK, tGT, tPP, tGPE, tGPA and tEL. The Cronbach alphas of each of the constructs was
superior to 0,77, which testifies of an excellent internal consistency and reliability (Heale
and Twycross, 2015): the questions are strongly consistent with each other inside each
construct. The Cronbach alphas of each of the constructs are presented below:

Table 3. Internal reliability of the constructs

Construct Cronbach Alpha

Total General Green Knowledge (tGGK) 0,77
Total Green product knowledge (tGPK) 0,869
Total Green Trsut (tGT) 0,905
Total Price perception (tPP) 0,886
Total Green Product Efficient (tGPE) 0,916
Total Green Product Availability (tGPA) 0,879
Total Eco-labels perception (tEL) 0,834

Therefore, we can say that the questionnaire is rather reliable and valid, and results are likely
to be trusted and generalized.
 7. FINDINGS

This section presents the results obtained by the exploration and analysis of the dataset
composed of the 236 usable answers. The aim is to give the writer the tools to answer the
research questions with concrete mathematic and statistical grounds.

7.1. Descriptive statistics

The questionnaire was shared regardless of the gender of the respondents and in total, 71%
of the respondents were women and 29% of men. In the sample, 100% of the respondents
have the French nationality. Regarding ages of the respondents, the questionnaire could be
answered only by people aged at least of 18 years old. The ages of the respondents therefore
go from 18 to 77 years old. On Figure 5., it can be observed that the large majority of the
respondents can be found in the 18-24 years old range (representing 64% of the sample).
Only 16% of the respondents are older than 40 years old.

70% 64%
60%
50%
40%
30%
19%
20% 13%
10% 3%
0%
18-24 25-40 41-60 >60

Figure 5. Age distribution of the respondents

Figure 6. shows the proportion of genders with regards to the distribution of ages. It can be
visually inferred from Figure 6. that both genders are distributed across all age groups.
Figure 6. Age distribution by gender

The frequency of purchase was also explored: most respondents buy organic cosmetics
sometimes or rarely (75%), this can be interesting for this study, as it was previously said
that a barrier to purchase could be green trust. Hence, incorporating respondents who are not
strong buyers of organic cosmetics could bring value to the research. All in all, below on
Figure 7., the distribution of the respondents’ frequency of purchase is displayed.

50%
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Often Sometimes Rarely Never

Figure 7. Purchase frequency distribution

Table 4 representing the purchase frequency by gender shows that only 7% of women
answered that they never buy green cosmetics while 33% of men responded they never buy
green cosmetics. Overall, looking at the percentages, it can be inferred that women buy more
cosmetics than men, and that a third of men never buy green cosmetics.
Table 4. Purchase Frequency by Gender

Female Male
Often 13% 1%
From time to time 36% 25%
Rarely 45% 41%
Never 7% 33%

From Figure 8., it can be inferred that in average, buying green cosmetics is more important
for women than it is for men. The graph is visually skewed to the right, meaning that in
average, it is rather important for consumers to buy green cosmetics.

35%

30%

25%

20%

15%

10%

5%

0%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Female Male

Figure 8. Green Purchase Importance from 1 to 7 by gender

Finally, it was also interesting to figure out how important it is for respondents to buy organic
cosmetics (Figure 9.). The data shows that this is more or less important for most of the
respondents: 58% somewhat agreed, agreed or strongly agreed. Only 20% of the respondents
(somewhat/strongly) disagreed.
 30%

25%

20%

15%

10%

5%

0%
Strongly Disagree Somewhat Neutral Somewhat Agree Strongly
disagree disagree agree agree

Figure 9. Importance of organic cosmetic purchase distribution

According to Table 5, it is more important to younger people to buy green cosmetics than it
is to older people. For all age groups, more than 50% of the respondents believe that it is
important to buy green cosmetics. Consumers aged from 25 to 40 years old are the most
sensitive to the importance of buying green cosmetics. The youngest and the oldest age
categories are the ones with the most important share of respondents thinking buying green
cosmetics is not important (respectively 21% and 22%)

Table 5. Importance of buying green cosmetics by age

Not important Neutral Important

18-24 21% 20% 59%
25-40 15% 24% 61%
41-60 19% 29% 52%
>60 22% 22% 56%

7.2. Factor analysis

A factor analysis was processed to explore the construct validity and to ensure good factor
loading. All items -questions- measuring the dependent and independent variables were
added to the analysis. The Barlett’s Test of Sphericity firstly aimed to ensure that all the
items can be used for the factor analysis. It indeed states the hypothesis that there is no
correlation between the items. As shown on the Table 6. below, the significance is <0,05
signifying that the hypothesis can be rejected: there are relationships between the variables.
This shows that it is possible to proceed to a factor analysis. (Hair et al., 2014, 107)

Table 6. Barlett’s Test of Sphericity

KMO and Bartlett's Test

Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy. ,885
Bartlett's Test of Sphericity Approx. Chi-Square 4405,903
df 378

Sig. ,000

Then, it is consistent to explore the Measures of Sampling Adequacy values (MSA): those
MSA values must be superior to 0,5 in the anti-image correlation matrix. The test was done
on the software SPSS, and this was the case for all items of the present questionnaire
(Appendix 2). Having more than 0,5 tells that for those specific items, there is enough
variation and enough correlation with other variables to allow their inclusion in the factor
analysis. (Hair et al., 2014, 108) All the requirements are therefore satisfied to proceed to
the factor analysis.

The factor analysis was done using the Varimax rotational approach, which allows a very
precise approach of factor loading and separation. A threshold coefficient of 0,37 was chosen
based on the sample size of 236 answers (Hair et al., 2014, 120). The results of the factor
analysis (Appendix 3) confirm that the chosen items load fine into each construct: the
loadings were assessed through practical significance. Indeed, according to Hair et al., (2014,
141), loadings between 0,3 and 0,4 represent the minimum accepted level for interpretation,
and loadings >0,5 are accepted as practically significant, the results are summarized in the
Table 7. below. The new and final variables (tGGK, tGPK, tGT, tGPA, tPP, tGPE, tEL) are
created by computing the items that loads together and divide the sum by the number of
items inside each variable.
Table 7. Factor Loading analysis: Rotated Component Matrix
GK -> Six items under Green Knowledge seem to load well into two distinct
tGGK + factors. It was therefore decided to create two new variables encompassing
tGPK 3 items each: tGGK (total General Green Knowledge) and tGPK (total
Green Product Knowledge). Item GK_4 was deleted as overlapping with
the two new factors. (Appendix 3)
GT -> tGT The five items are >0,7 and load well into the same factor. The new variable
created is tGT (total Green Trust) and gathers the five items (Appendix 3)
GA -> Four items are >0,69 and therefore load well into the same factor, now
tGPA called tGPA (total Green Product Availability) (Appendix 3)
GP -> tPP Four items are >0,7 and therefore load well into the same factor, now called
tPP (total Price Perception) (Appendix 3)
GE -> tGPE Four items are >0,7 and one is <0,5 so the latter was excluded and deleted.
The new variable created is tGPE (total Green Product Efficiency
perception) and gathers the four remaining items (Appendix 3)
GEL -> tEL Four items are >0,619 and therefore load well into the same factor, now
called tEL (total Eco-Label Perception) (Appendix 3)

7.3. Normality tests

In order to use multivariate analysis and parametric tests, one requirement is the normality
of the variables. In this section, a normality test is therefore applied to all dependent and
independent variables. Kurtosis and skewness z-values are observed.
Table 8. Kurtosis and Skewness of the variables
Variable Kurtosis Kurtosis Skewness Skewness
z-value z-value
tGGK 0,365 1,15 -0,809 -5,12
tGPK -0,487 -1,54 -0,235 -1,49
tGT -0,379 -1,19 -0,112 -0,71
tPP 0,287 0,9 -0,690 -4,37
tGPE 0,806 2,55 -0,327 -2,06
tGPA -0,117 -0,37 -0,5 -3,16
tEL -0,111 -0,35 -0,118 -0,74

For a normal distribution, the threshold z-values for both Kurtosis and Skewness are ± 1,96
for a 0,05-error level or ± 2,58 for a 0,01-significance level. (Hair et al., 2014, 76) From that
perspective, it can be said that tGPA, tPP and tGGK’s normalities are questionable. Other
variables can be considered as normally distributed: although little skewed and kurtotic, they
are close to normality.
Looking to the histograms and Q-Q plots (normal probability plot) in Appendix 4 for each
variable, it can be inferred visually that variables are rather normally distributed. Finally, the
sample size must be considered when looking at normality: indeed, large samples reduce the
probability of error and “increase statistical power”. Therefore, for sample that contains
more than 200 respondents, normality might not be as important as for small samples. (Hair
et al., 2014, 80) It means that, although not perfectly distributed, the variables can be used
for parametric tests.

7.4. Multicollinearity tests

When too high multicollinearity stands between the independent variables, the relationships
between those independent variables and the dependent variable are more complex, and even
sometimes impossible to understand and to predict. Multicollinearity was tested through
observation of the VIF (Variance Inflation Factor) and Tolerance values. The threshold for
not having multicollinearity is to have VIF below 10 and Tolerance values above 0,1 which
is verified (Appendix 5) There is no multicollinearity issue so the correlation coefficients
can consequently be trusted. (Hair et al., 2014)
For the next section, correlation analyses and linear regressions will be employed. In order
to interpret the results, the below table from Schober et al. (2017) was used.

Table 9. Interpretating correlation coefficient (Schober et al., 2017)

Correlation coefficient Possible interpretation

0 – 0,10 Negligible correlation
0,10 – 0,39 Week correlation
0,40 – 0,69 Moderate correlation
0,70 – 0,89 Strong correlation
0,90 – 1,00 Very strong correlation

7.5. Correlation analyses, Regression analyses and Hypotheses testing

The first tested hypothesis is H1, looking at the correlation between Green Knowledge and
Green Trust. This hypothesis was tested by distinguishing two types of Green Knowledge
as per the new factors created by the factor analysis: General Green Knowledge and Green
Product Knowledge. Correlation coefficients were consequently calculated to test this
hypothesis. The Pearson Correlation coefficient of General Green Knowledge on Green
Trust is 0.306 (Appendix 6a), which is very slightly above 0.3, and can therefore be
interpreted as a small correlation. The standardized residuals were observed in order to
ensure that no outliers would alter the outcome of the analysis: a threshold value of absolute
3 was chosen (The Pennsylvania State University, 2018) to be compared to. The standard
residual statistics maximum and minimum are inside the threshold absolute value (Appendix
6b), validating the result. The significance of this correlation is strong and trustworthy as the
p-value is <0.05; this was verified through an ANOVA (Appendix 6c). The Spearman’s rho
was used to validate the correlation analysis. General Green Knowledge and Green trust
have a correlation coefficient of 0.228 with a high statistical significance since the p-value
is <0.05 (Appendix 12).

Finally a Linear Regression analysis is used to give further information about the relationship
between the two variables, the results can be found in Table 10.
Table 10. Regression model with General Green Knowledge and Control variables

The Beta coefficient of General Green Knowledge with the control variables in the model is
0,185 with a t-value of 3,012 with a high statistical significance (p-value <0,01). The t-value
is considered as statistically significant when it is superior to absolute 2. (AllBusiness.com,
2022)

All those analyses confirm a small correlation. Results for H1 with general green knowledge
are summarised in Table 11. below:

Table 11 – Results for Hypothesis 1 with General Green Knowledge

Pearson Correlation 0,306 Appendix 6a

Significance of the <0,05 Appendix 6c
correlation analysis
Standardized residuals Min and Max included in Appendix 6b
the threshold value | 3 |
Spearman’s rho 0,228 Appendix 12
Beta coefficient 0,187 Table 11
t-value 3,012 (>2.00) Table 11
Significance of the <0,01 Table 11
regression model
Now looking at the relationship between Green Product Knowledge and Green trust. The
Pearson Correlation coefficient of Green Product Knowledge and Green trust equals 0.330
which can be transcribed as a week positive correlation (Appendix 7a). The standard residual
statistics maximum and minimum are inside the threshold absolute value (Appendix 7b),
validating the result. The significance of the correlation is strong and trustworthy as the p-
value is <0.05; this was verified through an ANOVA test (Appendix 7c). The Spearman’s
rho was used to validate the correlation analysis. Green Product Knowledge and Green trust
have a correlation coefficient of 0.304 with a high statistical significance since the p-value
is <0.05 (Appendix 12). Finally a regression analysis is used to give more material to the
analysis, and can be observed with Table 12.

Table 12. Regression model with Green Product Knowledge and Control variables

The Beta coefficient of General Product Knowledge with the control variables in the model
is 0,134 with a t-value of 1,965 with a low statistical significance (p-value >0,05 but still
very close to 0,05). The t-value is considered as statistically significant when it is superior
to absolute 2, in this case the t-value is <2 but , again, very close to 2. (AllBusiness.com,
2022) All in all, this confirms that there is a week correlation between both variables with a
rather low significance. Results for H1 with Green Product Knowledge are summarized in
Table 13 below:
Table 13. Results for Hypothesis 1 with Green Product Knowledge

Pearson Correlation 0.330 Appendix 7a

Significance <0.05 Appendix 7c
Standardized residuals Min and Max included in Appendix 7b
the threshold value | 3 |
Spearman’s rho 0.304 Appendix 12
Beta coefficient 0,134 Table 12
t-value 1,965 Table 12
Significance 0,51 Table 12

The second tested hypothesis (H2) is exploring the correlation between Green Product
Availability and Green Trust. Correlation coefficients were therefore calculated between
tGPA and tGT. The Pearson Correlation coefficient equals 0.397 which is close to 0.4
showing a moderate correlation. (Appendix 8a) The standard residual statistics maximum
and minimum are inside the threshold absolute value (Appendix 8b), validating the result.
An ANOVA test confirms that the correlation is statistically significant as the p-value is
<0.05 (Appendix 8c). The Spearman’s rho was used to validate the correlation analysis, with
a correlation coefficient of 0.381 with high statistical significance (p-value <0.05)
confirming a small to moderate correlation. (Appendix 12) To go further, a regression
analysis was used and is presented in Table 14:

Table 14. Regression model with Perception of Availability and Control variables
The Beta coefficient equals 0,241 with a t-value of 4,007 at a significant statistical level.
This confirms a small to moderate correlation. The results for hypothesis 2 are summarized
below in Table 15.

Table 15. Results for Hypothesis 2 with Perceived Availability

Pearson Correlation 0.397 Appendix 8a

Significance <0.05 Appendix 8c
Standardized residuals Min and Max included in Appendix 8b
the threshold value | 3 |
Spearman’s rho 0.381 Appendix 12
Beta coefficient 0,241 Table 15
T-value 4,007 (>2.00) Table 15
Significance <0,001 Table 15

Then the third hypothesis was tested (H3) through the computation of correlation
coefficients between Price Perception and Green Trust. The Pearson Correlation coefficient
is equal to 0,159 which is considered as a week correlation. (Appendix 9) The significance
was measured through an ANOVA test and is strong as the p-value is <0.05 showing that
the correlation is statistically significant (Appendix 9c). The Spearman’s rho was used to
confirm the correlation analysis’ result, especially because normality was not obvious for
the independent variable price perception. Price perception and green trust have a rho
coefficient of 0.125 with a low statistical significance since p-value is >0.05. (Appendix 12)

No regression analysis was used as this result already gives sufficient cues for validating or
refuting the hypothesis.

Table 16. Results for Hypothesis 3 with Price Perception

Pearson Correlation 0.159 Appendix 9a

Significance <0.05 Appendix 9c
Standardized residuals Min and Max included in Appendix 9b
the threshold value | 3 |
Spearman’s rho 0.125 with no statistical Appendix 12
significance
H4 was analysed through a focus on correlation coefficients in order to examine the
correlation between Green cosmetics Efficiency and Green Trust. The Pearson Correlation
coefficient is equal to 0.440 which is above 0.3 showing a moderate correlation. (Appendix
10) The standard residual statistics maximum and minimum are not inside the threshold
absolute value (Appendix 10b), but only two outliers were identified and therefore it does
not invalidate the result. The significance is strong as the p-value is <0.05 (Appendix 10c).
The Spearman’s rho was used to validate the correlation analysis. The Spearman rho value
is 0.429 showing a moderate correlation with a high statistical significance since the p-value
is <0.05. (Appendix 12) A regression analysis was used to verify and deepen the results. The
regression’s results are displayed in table 17 below:

Table 17. Regression model Perception of Efficiency and Control variables

The Beta coefficients equals 0,309 with a high statistical significance. The t-value is 3,684.
All those results tend to validate the idea of a moderate correlation between perception of
efficiency and green trust. The results for hypothesis 4 are summarized in the Table 18.
below.
Table 18. Results for Hypothesis 4 with Perceived Efficiency

Pearson Correlation 0.440 Appendix 10a

Significance <0.05 Appendix 10c
Standardized residuals Minimum and Maximum Appendix 10b
not fully included in the
threshold value | 3 | - but
only 2 outliers
Spearman’s rho 0.429 Appendix 12
Beta coefficient 0,309 Table 19
t-value 3,684 (>2.00) Table 19
Significance <0,001 Table 19

H5 was also tested through a correlation analysis, to explore the correlation between
Perception of eco-labels and green trust. The Pearson Correlation coefficient is equal to
0.568 which is above 0.5 showing a moderate correlation, and the strongest among all the
variables. (Appendix 11a) The standard residual statistics’ maximum and minimum are
inside the threshold absolute value (Appendix 11b), validating the result. The significance is
strong as the p-value is <0.05, measured through an ANOVA test (Appendix 11c). The
Spearman’s rho was used to validate the correlation analysis. The Spearman rho coefficient
equals 0.523 and has a high statistical significance (p-value <0.05) confirming a moderate
correlation. (Appendix 12) Further deep-diving led to the use of a regression analysis. The
results can be observed in Table 19.

Table 19. Regression model Perception of Eco-labels and Control variables

This analysis confirms the previously found results as the Beta coefficient is of 0,465 and a
t-value at 7,841 with a high statistical significance. Results for Hypothesis 5 are summarized
in Table 20.

Table 20. Results for Hypothesis 5 with Perception of Eco-labels

Pearson Correlation 0.568 Appendix 11a

Significance <0.05 Appendix 11c
Standardized residuals Min and Max included in Appendix 11b
the threshold value | 3 |
Spearman’s rho 0.523 Appendix 12
Beta coefficient 0,465 Table 21
t-value 7,841 (>2.00) Table 21
Significance <0,001 Table 21

7.6. Moderation effect and hypothesis testing

In order to test the last hypothesis (H6), stating that Green Knowledge has a moderating
effect on the relationship between the marketing mix tools and green trust, the first step
required to ensure that there is not a high multicollinearity, which was already tested and
confirmed earlier. Still, to ensure the least multicollinearity possible, the variables are all
standardized -at the exception of tPP, as price perception was found to not be correlated with
green trust-. The standardization formed the following independent variables: ztGGK,
ztGPA, ztGPE, ztEL. Then, it was necessary to multiply the potential moderating variable
with each of the independent variables, which led to the creation of three new variables:
moderationavailability (ztGGK*ztGPA), moderationefficiency (ztGGK*ztGPE),
moderationecolabels (ztGGK*ztEL). (Hair et al., 2014, 181) Then, two multiple linear
regressions are used to test the moderation effect of General Green Knowledge on each of
the marketing tools: one including both the moderator and the initial independent variable
as independent variables, and then another with the moderator, the initial dependent variable,
and the product created. (Frazier et al., 2004)

Regarding the first marketing mix tool, perception of availability: first, multiple linear
regression is made with green trust as a dependent variable, general green knowledge and
perceived availability as independent variables. Both are statistically significantly correlated
with green trust (it was found when testing H1 and H2). Moderation effect is first
interpretated based on the significance of the correlation coefficient of the product term on
green trust. Regarding the correlation coefficient of the standardized product
(moderationavailability) on green trust, the significance is of 0.778 which is >0.05
(Appendix 13a), demonstrating a very low statistical significance. This stops the research
for a moderation effect here. (Perret, 2020)

The same process was used to determine the moderation effect of General Green Knowledge
on the relationship between the green marketing mix tools and Green Trust (Perception of
Efficiency and Perception of Eco-labels). No moderation effect was found to statistically
affect the mentioned relationships. Indeed, the significance of the correlation of
moderationefficiency and moderationecolabels with green trust were respectfully 0.256
(>0.05) and 0.478 (>0.05). (Appendix 13b, Appendix 13c). (Perret, 2020)

7.7. Multiple Linear Regression

According to Hair et al., (2014, 165), multiple regressions have two main objectives. The
first one allows to go further in the analysis by determining the “overall predictive power of
the independent variables”. A multiple linear regression was therefore employed to
determinate to what extent the four marketing mix tools and green knowledge used together
positively affect green trust. The result shows (Appendix 14) that the R-square value is 0.39.
Regarding the sample size of this quantitative research, it can be said that this R-Square
value is statistically significant. (Hair et al., 2014)

Moreover, the multiple regression analysis gives indicators about the power of each of the
independent variables in predicting the dependent variable, meaning that it classifies the
most powerful independent variables and detect the least powerful variables. All in all, it
allows to compare the strength of the predictive power of each independent variable. (Hair
et al., 2014, 165) A multiple regression was used, including in a first bloc the control
variables: gender, frequency of purchase and value of green cosmetic purchases, and in a
second bloc the four marketing mix tools. Tolerance and multicollinearity were checked
beforehand and therefore the multiple regression can be used.
Table 21. Multiple Linear Regression

Coefficientsa

Standardized
Non-standardized Coefficients Coefficients

Model B Standard Error Bêta t Sig.

1 (Constante) 3,745 ,521 7,185 <,001

Sex -,194 ,148 -,080 -1,310 ,192

Frequency -,170 ,106 -,122 -1,607 ,110

Importance ,247 ,056 ,334 4,403 <,001

2 (Constante) 1,073 ,606 1,770 ,078

Sex -,074 ,132 -,031 -,561 ,576

Frequency -,092 ,096 -,066 -,964 ,336

Importance ,074 ,056 ,100 1,319 ,188

tPP ,045 ,055 ,044 ,817 ,415

tGPE ,106 ,082 ,093 1,305 ,193

tGPA ,110 ,058 ,115 1,882 ,061

tEL ,403 ,063 ,398 6,424 <,001

a. Dependent variable : tGT

Based on Table 21., it can be said that when all independent variables are observed together
for their predictive power on Green Trust, only perception of Eco-labels seems to have a
strong predictive power with statistical significance (p-value <0,001). Perception of
Efficiency and of Availability have a weak predictive power without being statistically
significant. This table shows, again, the weak or absence of effect of price perception.

7.8. Control variables

Although three of the marketing mix tools and green knowledge were found to be positively
correlated with green trust; other variables -called here control variables- can partly explain
these correlations and would therefore come to balance the results. In order to be able to
conclude for a true correlation, or even a kind of causation, the strength of control variables’
effects must be verified. H1, H2, H4 and H5 were therefore investigated further with equal
perimeters thanks to multiple linear regression analyses including the following control
variables: gender, frequency of organic purchase as well as importance for respondents of
buying green products. The change in R-square was observed when looking at the
correlations between each of the marketing tools and green trust, in order to determine if the
correlation is strongly linked to the control variables or not. (www.stathelp.se, 2016)

Table 22. Summary of R-square change on the relationship between each of the
independent variables and green trust with control variables

R-square R-square p-value Change in R-square

Control variables 0,202 <0,05
Control variables + 0,232 <0,05 0,03
tGGK
Control variables + 0,215 <0,05 0,013
tGPK
Control variables + 0,254 <0,05 0,052
tGPA
Control variables + 0,246 <0,05 0,044
tGPE
Control variables + 0,370 <0,05 0,168
tEL
(Appendix 15)

First, all p-values are <0,05 so all results are statistically significant. The change in R-square
is really negligeable for all variables except for the one exploring the relationship between
perception of Eco-Labels and green trust (change in R-Square=0,168).

7.9. Revised Multiple Linear Regression

Now that the strength of the control variables is known, it is interesting to reuse a multiple
linear regression to observe the impact of the marketing mix tools on green trust, with the
control variables in the model. The results can be found in Appendix 14. When looking at
the R-Square of the control variables in the regression model, the coefficient is 0,202, while
the one when all variables are included is 0,39. The R-square change is therefore of 0,19.
 8. DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

This chapter aims to summarize the results and draw conclusions applied to the theoretical
and managerial fields in order to complete the study. For this purpose, the present chapter
thrives to answer the research question that was posed in the beginning of the study with the
help of the research sub-questions. Finally, the limitations of the study are tackled and
grounds for future research are suggested.

8.1. Summary of the findings

The main research question of this study was formed as follows: “How does green
marketing mix affect consumers’ green trust in organic cosmetics?”. In order to guide
the answer for this question, three sub-questions were formed.

The first one asked “What is the impact of specific tools taken from the 4Ps on green trust
in organic cosmetics?”. Four hypotheses (H2, H3, H4 and H5) were constructed to
investigate this question, a first interpretation of the findings will be exposed under each
hypothesis.

H2: The more organic cosmetics are available to consumers, the more trustful they are about
green cosmetics’ environmental features. This hypothesis was explored through a
correlation analysis as well as a linear regression. The correlation analysis computed a
Pearson correlation of 0,397, suggesting that there is a small to moderate positive correlation
between the perception of availability and green trust. This result was found to be statistically
significant. This means that the hypothesis is supported and indeed infer that the more
organic cosmetics are available to consumers, the more trustful they are about green
cosmetics’ environmental features. Finally, the Linear Regression confirms those initial
findings with the Beta coefficient of 0,241 inferring that for a 1-unit increase in perception
of availability, green trust will increase by around 0,24 (Statistics Solutions, 2022). Still the
findings identified that this correlated relationship can mainly be explained by three other
independent variables which are namely: gender, frequency of organic cosmetic purchase
and the extent to which consumers value cosmetic purchases that are green. Indeed, the
multiple linear regression showed that the R-Square change between the two multiple linear
regressions was only 0.03, meaning that the three previously mentioned variables are mainly
responsible for the found correlation. This comes to balance the findings for this hypothesis.
Hypothesis 2 is evidenced by the data.

H3: The more consumers have a high price perception of green cosmetics, the more trustful
they are about green products. The same process was used as for H2. The Pearson
correlation coefficient suggests a week positive correlation that is statistically significant.
Still, as the price perception construct was not normally distributed, the Spearman coefficient
was chosen for the interpretation of the results instead of Pearson’s. Hence, as the Spearman
coefficient was found to be 0,125 but at a low statistical significance, it can be interpretated
that there is no correlation between price perception and green trust at a statistically
significant level. Hypothesis 3 is therefore rejected.

H4: The perception of green cosmetic efficiency is correlated to consumers’ green trust in
green cosmetics. As for Hypothesis 2, a correlation analysis as well as linear regression was
used to test the hypothesis. The calculated Pearson correlation coefficient is 0,44 which
demonstrate a positive moderate correlation; this result was validated at a statistically
significant level. This infers that the hypothesis is supported, and it can be concluded that
the perception of green cosmetic efficiency is correlated to consumers’ green trust in green
cosmetics. To go even further, it shows us that the correlation is positive meaning that the
more consumers perceive green cosmetics as efficient, the more they trust green cosmetics’
environmental features. . Finally, the Linear Regression confirms those findings with the
Beta coefficient of 0,31 inferring that for a 1-unit increase in perception of efficiency, green
trust will increase by around 0,31 (Statistics Solutions, 2022). Yet, the results need to be
taken cautiously as a linear regression’s test incorporating control variables come to explain
this correlation: indeed, when gender, frequency of organic cosmetic purchase and value of
organic cosmetic purchase are added to the regression model, the change in R-Square is only
of 0,044. Hence, it can be concluded that the correlated relationship is not causal, as those
three variables are great instruments to explain the correlationHypothesis 4 is evidenced by
the data.

H5: The more consumers perceive eco-labels as important tools to distinguish green from
conventional cosmetics, the stronger the green trust. This hypothesis was likewise tested
through correlation analysis and linear regression. The results identify between perception
of eco-labels and green trust a moderate correlation as the Pearson coefficient equals 0,568.
Moreover, the Linear Regression confirms those findings with a Beta coefficient of 0,47
inferring that for a 1-unit increase in perception of eco-labels, green trust will increase by
around 0,47 (Statistics Solutions, 2022). When added to the regression model, the control
variables were found to partly explain this found correlation. Indeed, the change in R-Square
is of 0,168. It can be derived from this result that perceiving eco-labels as important tools to
differentiate green from conventional cosmetics really affect green trust. Therefore,
Hypothesis 5 is evidenced by the data.

Additional analyses were used to better apprehend the effects of all independent constructs
on green trust. A multiple linear regression was initially used to compute the R-Square of all
independent variables versus the dependent variable (green trust) (Appendix 14). The result
of 0,39 can be interpreted as follows: around 39% of the variation of the dependent variable
can be explained by the independent variables. This result is quite important and shows that
the selection of tools from green marketing mix was rather consistent, as those tools have a
significant impact on Green Trust. (Hair et al., 2014)
However, considering the impact of the control variable on each of the independent
variables, this multiple linear regression was observed again in the light of this finding. The
result show that the R-Square difference between the regression model with the control
variable and the regression model with the four marketing tools is 0,19 which can be
interpretated as 19% of the variation of the variance of the dependent variable green trust
can be explained by the independent variables meaning: perception of availability, price
perception, perception of efficiency and perception of eco-labels. This means that the
independent variables can truly explain 19% of the variation of the variance of green trust,
instead of 39% as previously stated. Still, this shows that the dependent variables’ effect on
green trust, although mainly explained by the control variables, still a significant influence
on green trust.

The second and third research sub-questions are deeply connected as they both investigate
the role of green knowledge in the theoretical model that was formed. They were formed as
follows: “How does the level of perceived knowledge of consumers affect their trust in
organic cosmetics?” and “How does perceived green knowledge impact the effects of green
marketing mix tools on green trust?”. Hypothesis 1 was constructed to guide answers to the
first sub-question while Hypothesis 6 explore the latter research sub-question.

H1: The more consumers perceive themselves as knowledgeable about green cosmetics, the
more trustful they are about the green cosmetics’ environmental features. Two independent
variables were created to answer this question: general green knowledge, or perceived
general knowledge about the environment, and green product knowledge, or perceived
knowledge about organic cosmetics in general. Two correlation analyses showed that there
is indeed a positive, small, correlation between both variables and green trust at a statistically
significant level. The Pearson correlation coefficients were indeed respectively 0,306 and
0,33. Finally, the Linear Regression confirms those findings for General green knowledge:
with the Beta coefficient of 0,19 inferring that for a 1-unit increase in perception of general
green knowledge, green trust will increase by around 0,2 (Statistics Solutions, 2022).
Similarly as for other variables, both perceived green knowledges were tested in the presence
of the control variables: the results show that those control variables have a strong power in
explaining the found correlation as both R-square changes are negligeable. This means that
the interpretation of the correlation should be done carefully. The results support
Hypothesis 1.

Finally, H6: Perception of own green knowledge moderates the relationship between Place,
Price, Promotion and Product’s concrete green marketing tools and green trust. This
hypothesis was tested through different linear regressions including regressions that
involved the product of the variables: perceived general green knowledge and each of the
three marketing mix tools that were correlated with green trust. The results show that there
is no statistically significant evidence of a moderative effect of green knowledge, as the p-
values were all superior to 0,05. This hypothesis 6 is therefore rejected as not supported
by the data.

8.2. Theoretical contributions

The previous section explained how the quantitative study’s results were interpretated to
either support or reject the hypotheses, the present section will aim to interpretate the results
in the light of previous exiting theories and therefore sketch out answers to the research
questions.

What is the impact of specific tools taken from the 4Ps on green trust in organic
cosmetics? It is rather complex to apprehend the effects of the whole marketing mix on
green trust, due to the complexity and the variety of green marketing mix strategies and
levers. Hence, four tools from the marketing mix were selected for their importance in the
consumer purchasing behaviour and attitudes in the green market: green product availability,
green product efficiency, green product price and green product eco-labels. Regarding the
first tool found in PLACE, that is availability -or perceived availability-, previous literature
had suggested its crucial role in enhancing green purchase behaviour: Mishra and Sharma
(2012) had shown that consumers were not ready to change their usual shopping place with
the only goal to find organic cosmetics. Additionally, product availability clearly impacts
green purchase behaviour positively due to its moderating role in the relationship between
green consumption intention and actual behaviour. (Nguyen et al., 2018). The present study
shows that this perception of availability also impacts green trust in organic cosmetics,
meaning that in average, consumers who know where the green cosmetics can be found, and
if it is close to the place where they usually shop, tend to trust more than others that the
environmental performance of organic cosmetics is reliable. Although no other study
explores the effects of perceived availability in the organic cosmetic market on green trust,
this study’s results are consistent with the results of different researchers regarding the
effects of perceived availability on consumer purchase behaviour (Nguyen et al., 2018;
Aertsens et al., 2009). Perceived availability indeed makes it easier for people to reach those
products and to consume and use them as part of their daily life and therefore might be the
reason why their trust towards green products’ environmental features is increased. This is
consistent with the idea that control variables, including specifically frequency of purchase,
partly explain the relationship between perception of availability and green trust. Davari and
Strutton (2014) when exploring the effects of green marketing on brand trust had found that
green place and brand trust were not related. The different results between their study and
the present study is first linked to what is meant behind green place: they indeed measured
green place by asking consumers to rate their perception of the reseller of specific green
cosmetics (e.g., whether the place where the green products are sold are themselves
environmentally friendly). Secondly, their study focused on brand trust rather than green
trust; although both are rather close, it is not surprising to have different results. What can
be retained from those dissimilarities is the idea that not all marketing mix tools have similar
effects on trust.

The second tool investigated in this study is the price perception under the PRICE section of
the 4Ps. Price is a variable that is widely discussed in scientific papers tackling the green
industry not only about its effect on green trust but also on green purchase behaviour in
general. (e.g., Lin et al., 2018; Davari and Strutton, 2014) As regards to trust, researchers
seem to have conflicting results about the impact of price perception: Davari and Strutton
(2014) found that price is negatively related to brand trust regarding green products, meaning
that the more expensive the green product, the more consumers’ trust in the brand is likely
to decrease in the green industry, this result was rather unexpected by the writers. Amberg
and Fogarassy (2019) found in the contrary that price is positively related to green trust
regarding green cosmetics because those are considered as hygiene products that are part of
the daily life and must be qualitative, meaning that the more people perceive green cosmetics
as expensive, the more they tend to trust green products. Similarly, Wang et al (2019, 2)
assert that the price being “an expression of product value” and “an important factor affecting
consumers purchase behaviour”, price perception positively affects green trust. The present
study does not support either party, as it finds that Price perception is not correlated with
green trust at a significant level. These conflicting results can be explained by the ambivalent
effects of price on consumers. Indeed, higher prices can be linked with higher perceived
quality -in a more or less strong relationship depending on several other variables- (Erickson
and Johansson, 1985); moreover, consumers are ready to pay an extra price (the green
premium, the green price) to buy green cosmetics (Dangelico and Volcalleli, 2017). These
two mentioned findings could show that consumers expect green and organic cosmetics to
be more expensive than conventional products and therefore a high price perception would
be correlated with a higher trust in those cosmetics. But at the same time, greenwashing
practices such as green harvesting -which is, according to Jain and Kaur (2004), a practice
consisting in selling products at a premium price because they are green, although the
company succeeded in decreasing its costs thanks to sustainable practices-, might have led
to a distrust towards expensive green products. Because of those multiple conflicting effects
of price on consumers, and since researchers had contrasting results on the topic, the
outcome of this study is not surprising and could be expected. It could be understood that
the effect of price on green trust is strongly (more than for other marketing mix tools)
dependent on the context (perception of greenwashing, type of products, industry…), and
the reasons that led to a high or low-price perception (e.g., consumer values).

The PRODUCT category of the 4Ps was investigated through the question of product
efficiency. Product efficiency is one of the main factors that push consumers to choose a
conventional cosmetics over a green cosmetics: Lin et al. (2018) found through their
qualitative study among UK (United-Kingdom) consumers, that the priority was given both
to price and performance when choosing cosmetics and that those priorities pushed
consumers to choose normal cosmetics over green ones. Their study seems to infer that
consumers can be wary of green products’ efficiency compared to conventional products
because of natural ingredients and potential lack of advanced technology. This would mean
that consumers do not all associate easily green products with performance and might doubt
of green products’ efficiency and performance. While increasing perceived performance is
therefore a way to influence consumer purchase behaviour, it poses the question of green
trust: can green cosmetics at the same time be trusted for their efficiency and their
environmental performance? The hypothesis constructed to answer this question is more
exploratory than others as only few research investigated the topic. The data analysis
validated this hypothesis. To go even further, the correlation is positive and rather strong,
meaning that the more consumers associate green products with performance or efficiency,
the more they tend to trust green cosmetics’ environmental features. Kim and Seock (2009)
had found that performance of cosmetics referred to quality, efficiency and positive impact
on health. One possible explanation for the result of the present study is the idea that when
a green cosmetic is considered as efficient, there is an association to performance, and
therefore quality and good impact on health. The idea that green products are efficient and
qualitative could therefore be associated with the environmental performance of the product.
The results should still be observed as what they are: it was found that the following control
variables (gender, frequency of purchase and importance of the green purchase) were
significantly responsible for the observed correlation. It means that the effect of perception
of efficiency on green trust is mainly related to the gender, the frequency of purchase and
how consumers value organic cosmetic purchases, balancing the initial result. Consumers’
values and gender are indeed the main reasons why the two variables are correlated. This
does make sense, as it can be expected that consumers who buy organic cosmetics frequently
do trust them and believe in their efficiency, hence the purchase decision.
The last marketing tool that was researched can be found in the PROMOTION category of
the 4Ps: eco-labels. Eco-labelling is one of the main promotional tools that is very specific
to the green industry. Eco-labels were found to clearly influence consumers’ choices in the
green industry by helping them distinguish green products and conventional products. (Rex
and Baumann, 2006) At the same time, despite the wide use by brands of eco-labels,
consumers feel confused about eco-labels. The extensive use of eco-labels by brands might
even be one of the reasons for consumers’ confusion: consumers are not well educated about
eco-labels in general, but also many different labels do exist, making it hard to interpret the
information they aim to transmit. (Thøgersen, 2000). This study investigated if the more
people were using those eco-labels to differentiate non-green and green cosmetics, the more
those people tended to trust green cosmetics’ features in general. The data validated this
hypothesis, meaning that consumers who believe that eco-labels are concrete useful tools to
differentiate green products, actually trust more green products. It might be linked to the idea
that those consumers who use eco-labels regularly have faith in their ability to make the right
choice towards green products as they are given the right tools, and therefore tend to be
trustful about their green purchase in general and by extent about the green products’
environmental features. Surprisingly, Davari and Strutton (2014) had not found a significant
correlation between Green Promotion and Brand Trust; their variable Green Promotion
encompassed the level of information provided by a company on a product and the frequency
of confrontation with advertising, promotions, discounts of a brand. Once again, although
the present study and Davari and Strutton’s study (2014) are dissimilar in many points (e.g.,
their dependent variable is brand trust, while in this study it is green trust; the choice of
industry; the green marketing tools under focus…), the different results show that the choice
of the green marketing mix tool inside each of the 4P can deeply influence the results and
the observed effects on trust. The control variables were, this time, found to explain the
correlation only partly, as the change in R-square remained significant when incorporating
those control variables in the regression analysis. It can be concluded that the perception of
eco-labels by itself do affect green trust and that the initial conclusion drawn is valid.

Now focusing on the role of green knowledge and deep diving into the two other research
sub-questions: How does the level of perceived knowledge of consumers affect their trust
in organic cosmetics? How does perceived green knowledge impact the relationship
between green marketing mix tools and green trust?
Sub questions 2 and 3 are deeply connected as they were formed following the understanding
that green knowledge has an impact on green purchase intentions (Sharma, 2021) and even
more specifically subjective green knowledge compared to objective green knowledge
according to some researchers (e.g., Ok Park and Sohn, 2018; Tanner and Kast, 2003). As
mentioned earlier, two constructs were formed to guide the answer to the questions:
perceived general green knowledge and green product knowledge, which were found to both
be positively correlated with green trust. First, Green Product Knowledge’s effects on green
Trust had already been researched by Wang et al., (2019) who focused on Chinese
Consumers and found that Green Product Knowledge had a positive impact on green trust.
This means that the more they have knowledge about green products, the more they tend to
believe that green products have an actual positive impact on the environment and therefore
the more positive impact on green trust. The present study goes in the same direction and
confirms those findings.

Secondly, regarding general green knowledge, Ok Park and Sohn (2018) had found that
subjective general green knowledge participated in forming positive attitudes of consumers
towards green products among Korean consumers. Similarly, Hossain et al. (2022) found in
a really recent study that environmental knowledge is positively correlated with green trust
in the light of energy-efficient household appliances. The present research confirms this idea
in the specific field of green cosmetics among French consumers and shows that subjective
knowledge is an important factor in improving consumers attitude towards green cosmetics
and more specifically: green trust.

For both those knowledges (general green knowledge and green product knowledge), the
strength and the effects of the control variables were investigated: the results infer that
gender, frequency of organic cosmetic purchase as well as the value the respondents put in
organic purchase are the main factor that create the previously mentioned correlation. This
is rather surprising, for general knowledge, as it was not expected that gender, frequency and
value of green purchase could explain its relationship with green trust. However, this
findings was more expected for green product knowledge, as the frequency of purchase
logically affects product knowledge: the more a product is used, the more consumers know
about this product.

As this study focused on different marketing mix tools’ effects on green trust, one important
aspect was to explore the moderating role of green knowledge in this relationship. Green
knowledge indeed allows consumers to act as informed buyers (Ok Park and Sohn, 2018)
and it therefore changes their attitudes on several aspects such as trust (Chan, 1999). In this
study, it was investigated whether the level of green knowledge of consumers interfered in
the relationship between the green marketing mix tools and green trust. Indeed, it could be
inferred that the more consumers are self-aware about the environment or the more they own
subjective knowledge of the environment, the stronger the correlation between the marketing
mix tools and green trust. The analysis was led only with the construct “General Green
Knowledge” as this variable was the one initially forecasted in the theoretical framework.
No moderating effect of General Green Knowledge was found to affect the relationship
between any of the green marketing mix tools and Green Trust, meaning that subjective
knowledge does not moderate the relationship found between three of the 4Ps’ tools and
Green Trust. This result is rather surprising as Mahmoud et al. (2017) had found that
environmental knowledge moderates the relationship between green marketing mix and
purchase intention. It would have therefore been expected to find an effect of green
knowledge on the relationship between marketing mix and green trust.

Those research sub-questions guided the answer to the main research question which was
“How does green marketing mix affects consumers’ green trust in organic cosmetics?”.
All in all, it can be said that green marketing mix does have an impact on consumers’ green
trust in the cosmetic industry, with different strength and significance depending on the tools.
Indeed, the results showed that three out of the four chosen tools are correlated with Green
Trust. To go even further, it can be said thanks to the multiple linear regression analysis
(Appendix 14) that those marketing mix tools are responsible for more than one third of the
variation of Green Trust, testifying of the importance of green marketing in affecting Green
Trust. This study also discovers the strength of the gender, the extent to which consumers
value organic cosmetic purchases and the frequency of organic cosmetic purchases, in the
previous correlations. They indeed alone explain around 20 points out of the 39% of the
variation of green trust. It can also be said that green marketing affects consumers’ green
trust differently depending on the tools under focus, as Davari and Strutton (2014) found
different correlations with their own interpretation of green marketing mix.

Concretely, this study theoretically contributes to a better understanding of green trust’s

potential drivers and the effects of marketing mix perception on green trust. Indeed, no
research seemed to focus on the concrete effect of green marketing mix tools on green trust
in the specific cosmetic industry. Researching factors affecting green trust is crucial in order
to help closing step by step the gap between consumers attitudes and consumers’ behaviour,
as lack of green trust is partly responsible for this gap. (Lewandowska et al., 2017) This
study brings a new perspective on green marketing mix effects on green trust and aims to
partly complete Davari and Strutton’s study with a different lens. Finally, it aims to partly
fill-in the gap regarding green knowledge’s effects on green trust in the green cosmetic
industry.

8.3. Managerial implications

Understanding consumer behaviour regarding green purchase is a topic that has created a lot
of interest among researchers. One of the grey areas around the matter is the gap existing
between purchase intentions and actual behaviour. (Tseng and Hung, 2013) Parallelly, one
element appeared to matter more than many others in the relationship consumers have with
green products: green trust. Customers indeed tend to lack of trust towards the green industry
while it is a key element for the success of the industry, some researchers even talk about
“trust crisis” (Lewandowska et al., 2017). The cosmetic industry was particularly interesting
for this research as it is an always growing market (Amberg and Fogarassy, 2019) weighting
for 920 million euros in Europe in 2021 (Duponchel, 2021)

Exploring the effects of green marketing mix on green trust have concrete applications to
the managerial field. Indeed, when creating their strategies, brands need to select the right
levers to sell their green products by enhancing both positive attitudes and actual behaviour.
Brands should bear in mind that they need to increase green trust in order to spread green
cosmetics even more and avoid any perception of greenwashing. (Lewandowska et al., 2017)

This research thrives to give keys to marketers regarding four specific marketing mix tools.
First, perceived availability and green trust were correlated. In other words, consumers who
believe that green products are easily available and accessible tend to trust more green
cosmetics’ environmental features. Although the weight of other variables need to be taken
into account, this does not prevent managers to work globally in making green cosmetics as
available as possible in order to push consumers towards green purchase behaviour (Nguyen
et al., 2018) without risking to damage green trust: it can even go further and participate in
increasing green trust. In the long run, with the growth of the green cosmetic industry, it can
be expected that green cosmetics will be so widely spread in shops that availability in
consumers’ mind will be more automatically reached.

Then, as the price is a crucial element in the cosmetic industry (Amberg and Fogarassy,
2019), the perception of price was the chosen marketing mix tool in the Price category. This
study identified that there is no correlation in the green cosmetic industry between price
perception and green trust. Yet, as different studies came to different conclusions, it could
be assumed that price perception’s effects are really dependent on various factors. Therefore,
with inconsistent results regarding the matter, the best managerial solution seems for
marketers to rather aim on setting fair prices, that relate to the quality offered. Indeed,
according to Xia et al., (2004, 3) price fairness is the idea that the price is perceived as fair
depending on consumers’ emotions of whether the difference between two products is
“reasonable, acceptable, or justifiable”, this is according to Dekhili and Akli Achabou (2012)
even more true in the green market as the idea of justice is strongly involved.

Product efficiency was found to be a crucial element of the purchase decision in the cosmetic
industry (Lin et al., 2018), the quantitative study of this research infers that perceived product
efficiency is positively correlated with green trust. Managerial implications are first that
marketers can emphasise in their promotion and communication the efficiency of their green
cosmetic without altering the trust that consumers have in the green features of the product,
and that efficiency can be linked to natural ingredients and ecological performance in the
green cosmetic sector. The second managerial implication is that brands should not only
focus on greening their ingredients but also making sure that their green products are
efficient to improve consumers green trust.

Finally, this study finds that perceiving eco-labels as useful tools to differentiate green
products from conventional products is positively related to green trust. In the managerial
perspective it implies two things: the use of eco-labels is strongly advised for green brands
because consumers who use them tend to be more trustful towards the environmental
features of the product, meaning that this is a tool that needs to be widely spread. Moreover,
this signifies that brands, and the green industry in general, should work on educating
consumers towards those eco-labels, so that they can use them to distinguish green cosmetics
over conventional ones. This can for example be done through indications under the eco-
labels to underline the meaning, but also aiming to use validated and country-wide
recognized labels. The government also has a role here in regulating the use of eco-labels to
avoid confusion and create a common population knowledge around the topic, maybe
through advertising or education towards differentiating those labels.

On another scale, this research found that general green knowledge and green product
knowledge are positively correlated to green trust. This research participates in completing
the research on the effect of green knowledge on green trust. Increasing general green
knowledge should be a common effort led by the government, brands as well as consumers
themselves. Educating consumers, and more globally consumers, about the environment and
green products could be a way to shape them into educated consumers who make confident
purchase and therefore increase their trust in their green products purchase.

8.4. Limitations

In this section, the limitations of the present research are exposed and discussed. This
research indeed presents a few limitations as per the validity of the results as well as per the
qualification of the results to provide answers to the research question. Regarding the
validity of the data, two limitations arise from the chosen sampling method: firstly, self-
selected samples can indeed limit the reliability of a quantitative study due to the imperfect
representativity of the global population. Indeed, as can be seen in section 7.1. Descriptive
Statistics, the data used in this study was not perfectly distributed in age and gender. Self-
selected sampling was however selected for the possibility to gather large samples and
therefore increase the potential generalizability of the results, which was an important
outcome for the purpose of this study. Secondly this quantitative study collects self-reported
attitudes and feelings of respondents which can represent a limitation for the objectivity of
the data: consumers respond with their own perceptions (Siah Hwee Ang, 2014). At the same
time, observing self-reported attitudes was a deliberate choice as the study allows the writer
to find more out about the perception of consumers of each marketing element.

Other limitations arise as per the fit of the data to perfectly answer the research questions.
As a matter of fact, this research focused on four specific tools taken from the green
marketing mix while marketing strategies contain almost an unlimited number of actionable
tools. Still, the four selected tools were selected for their importance in the cosmetic industry
in general and are therefore rather consistent with the topic. Moreover, the decision to focus
only on four tools was taken intentionally in order to be as precise as possible regarding the
conclusions for managerial implications, as the goal of the study was to give managers
concrete tools for trust-building strategies.

Finally, another limit of this study is linked to the fact that correlations between variables
are investigated but this does not mandatorily imply causation, so the results must be
interpretated as what they are. Combined qualitative research could have been conducted in
order to help explain and understand the identified correlations. It would probably have
participated in clarifying the conclusion with more specific tracks for interpretating the data.

8.5. Suggestions for future research

Based on the previous section tackling limitations, and on the gaps that were identified when
drawing the conclusions, future research avenues are suggested in this section. First,
regarding the reliability of the data, similar research could be led on more specific types of
consumers (e.g., frequent organic cosmetic buyers, non-buyers of organic cosmetics) with a
better distribution of ages and gender. Another way to explore the effects of the chosen
marketing mix tools could in the future be to suggest respondents two types of products with
different features, prices, packaging, and ask them to select the ones they trust more.

In order to have a complete set of results, a qualitative study could be led focusing on the
drivers of green trust in the cosmetic industry: it would be a good way to observe if
unexpected variables are mentioned that did not came out of the literature review and to have
suggestions of explanations for the correlations found in this study. Still with the idea of
completing the conclusion that was drawn earlier, other marketing mix tools could be studied
similarly as in this research for their impact on green trust. Those tools should be selected
based on their place in the organic cosmetic industry or in the cosmetic industry in general.
Other tools that could be investigated are for example: packaging for promotion, discounts
for price, supply chain’s greenness for place and consistence for product.

Finally in order to build on this study, future research could, based on the conclusion that
was drawn about price perception, aim to identify the effects of the perception of fair price
on green trust in order to ensure that fair prices really are correlated with green trust.
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APPENDICES

Appendix 1. Questionnaire from Qualtrics

Appendix 2. MSA (Measures of Sampling Adequacy values)

a. Measures of Sampling Adequacy (MSA)

Appendix 3. Factor analysis

Rotated Component Matrixa

Component
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
GT_3 ,855
GT_1 ,822
GT_4 ,788
GT_2 ,779
GT_5 ,700
GE_2 ,879
GE_3 ,868
GE_1 ,783
GE_4 ,745
GE_5 ,467
GA_2 ,846
GA_3 ,829
GA_4 ,777
GA_1 ,692
GEL_3 ,814
GEL_2 ,794
GEL_4 ,664
GEL_1 ,619
GK_6 ,837
GK_5 ,825
GK_7 ,727
GP_2 ,914
GP_3 ,907
GP_1 ,841
GK_2 ,798
GK_1 ,742
GK_3 ,666
GK_4 ,435 ,498
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.
Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization.
a. Rotation converged in 6 iterations.

Appendix 4. Normality Histogram and Q-Q plots of variables

1. tGGK (total General Green Knowledge)

2. tGPK (Total Green Product Knowledge)

3. tGT (total Green Trust)

4. tGPA (total Green Product Availability)

5. Tpp (total Price Perception)

6. tGPE (total Green Product Efficiency)

7. tEL (Total Eco-Label Perception)

Appendix 5. Multicollinearity test

Coefficientsa
Correlations Collinearity Statistics
Model Zero-order Partial Part Tolerance VIF
1 tGGK ,306 -,001 -,001 ,607 1,647
tGPK ,330 ,035 ,027 ,604 1,656
tPP ,159 ,041 ,032 ,906 1,103
tGPE ,440 ,162 ,129 ,647 1,545
tGPA ,397 ,146 ,116 ,710 1,409
tEL ,568 ,393 ,337 ,662 1,511
a. Dependent Variable: tGT

Appendix 6. Correlation analysis - General Green Knowledge and Green Trust

a. Pearson Correlation
Correlations
tGT tGGK
Pearson Correlation tGT 1,000 ,306
tGGK ,306 1,000
Sig. (1-tailed) tGT . ,000
tGGK ,000 .
N tGT 236 236
tGGK 236 236

b. Residual statistics
 Residuals Statisticsa
Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation N
Predicted Value 3,0691 4,7188 4,1932 ,36137 236
Std. Predicted Value -3,111 1,454 ,000 1,000 236
Standard Error of Predicted ,073 ,240 ,099 ,031 236
Value
Adjusted Predicted Value 3,1200 4,7526 4,1943 ,35965 236
Residual -2,80948 2,69362 ,00000 1,12568 236
Std. Residual -2,490 2,388 ,000 ,998 236
Stud. Residual -2,498 2,393 ,000 1,002 236
Deleted Residual -2,82576 2,70622 -,00105 1,13577 236
Stud. Deleted Residual -2,526 2,418 -,001 1,006 236
Mahal. Distance ,001 9,676 ,996 1,524 236
Cook's Distance ,000 ,046 ,004 ,007 236
Centered Leverage Value ,000 ,041 ,004 ,006 236
a. Dependent Variable: tGT

c. ANOVA

ANOVAa
Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
1 Regression 30,689 1 30,689 24,116 ,000b
Residual 297,780 234 1,273
Total 328,469 235
a. Dependent Variable: tGT
b. Predictors: (Constant), tGGK

Appendix 7. Correlation analysis – Green Product Knowledge and Green Trust

a. Pearson Correlation
Correlations
tGT tGPK
Pearson Correlation tGT 1,000 ,330
tGPK ,330 1,000
Sig. (1-tailed) tGT . ,000
tGPK ,000 .
N tGT 236 236
tGPK 236 236
 b. Residuals Statistics

Residuals Statisticsa
Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation N
Predicted Value 3,2978 5,0127 4,1932 ,39003 236
Std. Predicted Value -2,296 2,101 ,000 1,000 236
Standard Error of ,073 ,183 ,099 ,028 236
Predicted Value
Adjusted Predicted Value 3,2786 5,0790 4,1931 ,39015 236
Residual -2,81273 2,54000 ,00000 1,11607 236
Std. Residual -2,515 2,271 ,000 ,998 236
Stud. Residual -2,544 2,276 ,000 1,002 236
Deleted Residual -2,87901 2,55208 ,00014 1,12602 236
Stud. Deleted Residual -2,575 2,297 ,000 1,006 236
Mahal. Distance ,009 5,270 ,996 1,221 236
Cook's Distance ,000 ,076 ,004 ,008 236
Centered Leverage Value ,000 ,022 ,004 ,005 236
a. Dependent Variable: tGT

c. ANOVA

ANOVAa
Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
1 Regression 35,750 1 35,750 28,578 ,000b
Residual 292,719 234 1,251
Total 328,469 235
a. Dependent Variable: tGT
b. Predictors: (Constant), tGPK
Appendix 8. Correlation analysis –Perceived Availability and Green Trust

a. Pearson Correlation

Correlations
tGT tGPA
Pearson Correlation tGT 1,000 ,397
tGPA ,397 1,000
Sig. (1-tailed) tGT . ,000
tGPA ,000 .
N tGT 236 236
tGPA 236 236

b. Residual statistics

Residuals Statisticsa
Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation N
Predicted Value 2,8272 4,9126 4,1932 ,46966 236
Std. Predicted Value -2,909 1,532 ,000 1,000 236
Standard Error of Predicted ,071 ,218 ,096 ,028 236
Value
Adjusted Predicted Value 2,8451 4,9344 4,1932 ,46898 236
Residual -2,93342 2,65616 ,00000 1,08497 236
Std. Residual -2,698 2,443 ,000 ,998 236
Stud. Residual -2,707 2,449 ,000 1,002 236
Deleted Residual -2,95252 2,66864 ,00003 1,09346 236
Stud. Deleted Residual -2,744 2,475 ,000 1,006 236
Mahal. Distance ,007 8,460 ,996 1,361 236
Cook's Distance ,000 ,036 ,004 ,006 236
Centered Leverage Value ,000 ,036 ,004 ,006 236
a. Dependent Variable: tGT
b. Predictors : (Constant), tGPA

c. ANOVA

ANOVAa
Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
1 Regression 51,837 1 51,837 43,848 ,000b
Residual 276,632 234 1,182
Total 328,469 235
a. Dependent Variable: tGT
c. Predictors: (Constant), tGPA

Appendix 9. Correlation analysis – Price Perception and Green Trust

a. Pearson Correlation
Correlations
tGT tPP
Pearson Correlation tGT 1,000 ,159
tPP ,159 1,000
Sig. (1-tailed) tGT . ,007
tPP ,007 .
N tGT 236 236
tPP 236 236

b. Residual statistics

Minimum Maximum Moyenne Ecart type N

Valeur prédite 3,5343 4,4471 4,1932 ,18760 236
de Student -2,84714 2,66025 ,00000 1,16728 236

Valeur prédite standard -3,512 1,353 ,000 1,000 236

Résidus standard -2,434 2,274 ,000 ,998 236

a. Variable dépendante : tGT

c. ANOVA
ANOVAa
Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
1 Regression 8,271 1 8,271 6,044 ,015b
Residual 320,198 234 1,368
Total 328,469 235
a. Dependent Variable: tGT
b. Predictors: (Constant), tPP
Appendix 10. Correlation analysis – Perceived Efficiency and Green Trust

a. Pearson Correlation

Correlations
tGT tGPE
Pearson Correlation tGT 1,000 ,440
tGPE ,440 1,000
Sig. (1-tailed) tGT . ,000
tGPE ,000 .
N tGT 236 236
tGPE 236 236

b. Residual statistics

c. ANOVA

ANOVAa
Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
1 Regression 63,573 1 63,573 56,158 ,000b
Residual 264,896 234 1,132
Total 328,469 235
a. Dependent Variable: tGT
b. Predictors: (Constant), tGPE
Appendix 11. Correlation analysis – Perception of Eco-Labels and Green Trust

a. Pearson Correlation

Correlations
tGT tEL
Pearson Correlation tGT 1,000 ,568
tEL ,568 1,000
Sig. (1-tailed) tGT . ,000
tEL ,000 .
N tGT 236 236
tEL 236 236

b. Residual statistics

Residuals Statisticsa
Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation N
Predicted Value 2,5002 5,6610 4,1932 ,67129 236
Std. Predicted Value -2,522 2,187 ,000 1,000 236
Standard Error of Predicted ,064 ,173 ,086 ,026 236
Value
Adjusted Predicted Value 2,5099 5,6676 4,1929 ,67066 236
Residual -2,54265 2,66308 ,00000 ,97320 236
Std. Residual -2,607 2,731 ,000 ,998 236
Stud. Residual -2,620 2,737 ,000 1,002 236
Deleted Residual -2,56714 2,67608 ,00029 ,98112 236
Stud. Deleted Residual -2,653 2,776 ,000 1,006 236
Mahal. Distance ,002 6,361 ,996 1,363 236
Cook's Distance ,000 ,033 ,004 ,006 236
Centered Leverage Value ,000 ,027 ,004 ,006 236
a. Dependent Variable: tGT

c. ANOVA
ANOVAa
Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
1 Regression 105,897 1 105,897 111,334 ,000b
Residual 222,572 234 ,951
Total 328,469 235
a. Dependent Variable: tGT
b. Predictors: (Constant), tEL

Appendix 12. Correlation analysis - Spearman’s rho

Correlations
tGT tGGK tGPK tPP tGPE tGPA tEL
Spearman's tGT Correlation 1,000 ,228** ,304** ,125 ,429** ,381** ,523**
rho Coefficient
Sig. (2-tailed) . ,000 ,000 ,055 ,000 ,000 ,000

N 236 236 236 236 236 236 236

tGGK Correlation ,228** 1,000 ,553** ,125 ,345** ,369** ,335**

Coefficient
Sig. (2-tailed) ,000 . ,000 ,055 ,000 ,000 ,000

N 236 236 236 236 236 236 236

tGPK Correlation ,304** ,553** 1,000 ,013 ,415** ,343** ,430**

Coefficient
Sig. (2-tailed) ,000 ,000 . ,839 ,000 ,000 ,000

N 236 236 236 236 236 236 236

tPP Correlation ,125 ,125 ,013 1,000 ,115 ,139* ,089

Coefficient
Sig. (2-tailed) ,055 ,055 ,839 . ,079 ,033 ,175

N 236 236 236 236 236 236 236

tGPE Correlation ,429** ,345** ,415** ,115 1,000 ,364** ,450**

Coefficient
Sig. (2-tailed) ,000 ,000 ,000 ,079 . ,000 ,000

N 236 236 236 236 236 236 236

tGPA Correlation ,381** ,369** ,343** ,139* ,364** 1,000 ,392**

Coefficient
Sig. (2-tailed) ,000 ,000 ,000 ,033 ,000 . ,000

N 236 236 236 236 236 236 236

tEL Correlation ,523** ,335** ,430** ,089 ,450** ,392** 1,000

Coefficient
Sig. (2-tailed) ,000 ,000 ,000 ,175 ,000 ,000 .

N 236 236 236 236 236 236 236

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
Appendix 13. Correlation coefficient with moderator effect for three of the 4P tools
a. Perception of Availability

b. Perception of Efficiency

c. Perception of Eco-Labels

Appendix 14. Multiple Linear Regression with the four marketing mix tools and control
variables
Appendix 15. Multiple Linear Regression with each independent variable and green trust
with control variables
a. General green Knowledge

b. Green Product Knowledge

c. Perception of availability

d. Perception of efficiency
e. Perception of eco-labels