Although environmental action is regarded as a public relations strategy aiming to manifest a corporate green stance, this not always the case. Many consumers tend to be skeptical of corporate real environmental efforts, especially firms in traditionally dirty industries. However, few studies have focused on this issue. To shed light on such a phenomenon, the present study aims to provide a comprehensive multiple-step multiple-mediator model based on the social intuitionist model and cognitive-affective system theory of personality(CAPS) to examine how corporate environmental actions (substantive vs. symbolic) affect consumer positive word-of-mouth (WOM) and to investigate the cognitive and affective processes of greenwashing perception and other-condemning emotions. Findings from an online Chinese consumer panel of 130 adults indicate that consumers are prone to have more positive WOM for substantive actions compared with symbolic actions; this effect is not only mediated by other-condemning emotions but serially mediated by, firstly, greenwashing perception and, secondly, other-condemning emotions. The current study is conducive to explaining the link between corporate environmental actions and consumer positive WOM from a theoretical argument and empirical evidence, and thus providing suggestions for advertisers and marketers in green marketing about environmental information disclosure.

Understanding why consumers behave unethically has gained scholarly attention; many studies have examined it from psychological or social environmental perspectives. However, few studies provide the link between internal and external factors associated with unethical behaviours, and few studies explain why consumers ‘behave unethically knowingly’ in a China-specific context. Based on moral disengagement theory, the current research aims to provide a comprehensive developmental model to investigate how group norms and self-interest motivation affect consumers’ unethical behavioural intentions and to analyse the mechanism of ‘behaving unethically knowingly’. Findings from online surveys of 360 participants indicate that group recognition and an egoism motivation have positive effects on consumers’ unethical behavioural intentions, while group veto and an altruistic motivation have negative effects on unethical behavioural intentions; moral disengagement mediates the relationship between group recognition, group veto, egoism motivation, altruistic motivation and unethical behavioural intentions; moral identity negatively moderates the relationship between group recognition, altruistic motivation and unethical behavioural intentions. The theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.