Serial mediation of brand credibility and perceived value in the effects of green brand image and greenwashing on green purchase intention in the indonesian electric motorbike market

Abstract Greenwashing and green brand image are widely recognized as opposing environmental stimuli, yet the internal cognitive sequence through which they reach purchase behavior remains underspecified in stimulus-organism-response (SOR) research. Prior studies treat brand credibility and perceived value as parallel organismic mediators, leaving open whether credibility logically precedes value formation in the cognitive cascade. This study addresses that gap by proposing and testing a serial mediation architecture within the SOR framework, using data from 508 digitally engaged electric motorbike early adopters in Indonesia. Partial least squares structural equation modeling with 5000-subsample bias-corrected and accelerated (BCa) bootstrapping was applied to test seven hypotheses covering direct and serial indirect paths. All seven were supported. Greenwashing operationalized as perceived misleading environmental communication significantly reduced brand credibility and perceived value, while green brand image significantly strengthened both. Brand credibility positively influenced perceived value, which in turn was the strongest direct predictor of green purchase intention. Critically, both serial mediation pathways were significant: greenwashing and green brand image each transmitted their effects on green purchase intention sequentially through brand credibility and then perceived value, with neither exogenous stimulus exerting a significant direct effect on the behavioral outcome. These results reconceptualize the SOR organism as a sequential cognitive-evaluative process rather than a parallel one, offering to the best of the authors’ knowledge the first explicit empirical test of a serial credibility–value sequence within an SOR framework in the green electric vehicle context. The findings carry practical implications for electric motorbike brands operating in Indonesia’s nascent green-certification environment and align with the SDG 9, SDG 12, and SDG 13 agenda by identifying the credibility conditions under which sustainable transport adoption can be accelerated.