Tuan Thanh Nguyen

Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
Growing concern over environmental degradation and increasing skepticism toward corporate sustainability claims has heightened interest in how consumers form sustainable consumption decisions in emerging markets. This study examines how internal sustainability orientations and firms’ green marketing practices jointly shape sustainable consumer behavior, and how perceived greenwashing moderates these relationships among Generation Y and adult Generation Z consumers in Vietnam.
Using survey data from 656 urban consumers, the study applies regression, sequential mediation, and moderation analyses. The results show that green consumer identity is the strongest driver of sustainable behavior, with environmental awareness and environmental protection attitude operating indirectly through identity formation. Green purchase willingness serves as a proximal mechanism linking identity to behavior. Green marketing practices have weaker but significant effects, indicating a complementary role alongside internal motivations.
Perceived greenwashing weakens the translation of both identity-based motivation and marketing signals into behavior, but does not affect willingness formation, suggesting a stage-specific credibility effect at the behavioral conversion stage.
The findings highlight an integrated mechanism in which identity-based motivation dominates, external signals complement, and perceived authenticity constrains sustainable consumption in emerging markets.