Factors affecting greenwashing in eco-lodges of Isfahan Province

Introduction: The contrast of the organization's environmental performance with the green image presented is an example of greenwashing. Greenwashing in eco-lodges (which were created with the aim of developing sustainable tourism), has wide consequences for the environment, industry, tourists and other stakeholders. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the factors affecting greenwashing in these eco-lodges in order to control the problem. According to previous research, factors affecting can be divided greenwashing into three categories: 1. Causal factors (motivation to take advantage of the short-term benefits of green including image improvement, increasing market share, attracting capital, winning the trust of stakeholders, economic efficiency and competitive advantage); 2. Background (weakness of the internal environment (individual psychological triggers), the weakness of environmental knowledge) and the weakness of the external environment (weakness of informing relevant departments, the weakness of supervision)); 3. The moderator (tourist's environmental feedback); But due to the limited resources, in order to plan more precisely and control greenwashing, a quantitative test of these relationships is necessary. Therefore, in the current research, the effect of the mentioned factors on greenwashing in the eco-lodges of Isfahan Province was tested.Material and methods: The research has a comparative approach, practical orientation, philosophical foundations of positivism, quantitative methodology and survey strategy. Data collection was done in the field and through a closed questionnaire. The formal and content validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by experts. Internal and external validity, and reliability (Cronbach's alpha, composite reliability and factor loadings) of the measuring instrument were also calculated and confirmed. Sampling was also done by a simple random method from the statistical population of managers of eco-lodges in Isfahan Province and the data was analyzed using partial least squares structural equations.Results and discussion: The findings of the research showed that background factors have a direct positive effect and environmental feedback has a direct and indirect negative effect (due to background factors) on greenwashing, but the effect of causal factors and the moderating effect of environmental feedback (on the effect of causal factors on greenwashing) is not significant. Therefore, it is necessary to try