THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA CONSUMER ENGAGEMENT AND GREENWASHING ON GREEN PRODUCT PURCHASE BEHAVIOR

Social media platforms provide companies with the opportunity to engage directly with consumers, address their environmental concerns, and foster trust through transparency. Interactive features, such as polls, Q&A sessions, and user-generated content, further enhance this engagement, thereby increasing the appeal of green products. Conversely, greenwashing constitutes a deceptive marketing strategy in which a company or organization falsely claims to be environmentally friendly or exaggerates its sustainability efforts. Given the pivotal role of social media in modern marketing and business practices, alongside the growing emphasis on sustainability as a business imperative, this paper aims to examine the impact of social media consumer engagement (comprising cognitive, emotional, and behavioral components) and greenwashing on consumer behavior regarding the purchase of green products. To achieve this aim, relevant hypotheses were formulated, and empirical research was conducted utilizing the survey method. A total of 317 questionnaires were collected, and statistical analysis was performed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) through IBM SPSS and AMOS to test the hypotheses. The research findings indicate that social media consumer engagement and greenwashing significantly influence consumers’ attitudes and intentions towards purchasing green products. Given that sustainability and green marketing practices are more prevalent in developed countries, this issue warrants further investigation in developing contexts, such as Serbia. The primary contribution of this research lies in its potential to offer guidelines for companies in these regions, particularly in understanding consumer behavior regarding green products.