Green-Proofing as a Credible Sustainability Signal Driving Consumer Trust and Purchase Intention under Digital Literacy and Cultural–Institutional Environments

Abstract

Despite the increasing emphasis on sustainability marketing and concerns regarding greenwashing, relatively few studies have systematically examined the role of digitally enabled transparency mechanisms in consumer-oriented sustainability communication. Guided by a positivist research philosophy, this study employed a quantitative cross-sectional survey design. Data were collected from 753 respondents using a quota sampling technique. The findings indicate that, within the context of this study, green-proofing was positively and significantly associated with consumer trust and consumer purchase intention. These results suggest that consumers in the sampled population responded favourably to transparent and digitally verifiable sustainability practices. Furthermore, the relationships between green-proofing and the two consumer outcomes were not significantly moderated by consumer digital literacy or the cultural–institutional environment. This finding suggests that, in the present research context, the positive associations observed were relatively consistent across respondents with different levels of digital literacy and perceptions of institutional and cultural conditions. However, these findings should be interpreted within the specific context of this study and should not be regarded as evidence of universal effectiveness or causal influence. The study contributes to the sustainability marketing literature by providing empirical evidence that green-proofing is positively associated with consumer trust and purchase intention and by conceptualizing green-proofing as a strategic sustainability signaling capability that integrates transparency, verification, and authenticated environmental information. Additionally, the non-significant moderating effects refine existing theoretical understanding by suggesting that the influence of consumer digital literacy and cultural–institutional environments may depend on contextual conditions, thereby identifying important avenues for future research. From a practical perspective, the findings suggest that organizations may benefit from improving the visibility, transparency, and verifiability of their sustainability initiatives through practices such as eco-labeling, sustainability certifications, digital traceability, and transparent environmental communication. While these practices were positively associated with consumer trust and purchase intention among the respondents surveyed, future studies employing longitudinal, experimental, and cross-country research designs are needed to determine whether these relationships are generalizable across different industries, markets, and institutional contexts