Journal of Management and Sustainability; Vol. 7, No. 4; 2017 ISSN 1925-4725 E-ISSN 1925-4733 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education Avoiding Greenwashing in Event Marketing: An Exploration of Concepts, Literature and Methods Kai-Michael Griese1, Kim Werner1 & Johannes Hogg2 1 School of Management, University of Applied Science, Osnabrück, Germany 2 School of Management, Fresenius University of Applied Science, Hamburg, Germany Correspondence: Kai-Michael Griese, School of Management, University of Applied Science, Osnabrück, Germany, Caprivistraße 30a, Tel: 49-541-969-3880. E-mail:
[email protected] Received: August 25, 2017 Accepted: September 20, 2017 Online Published: October 25, 2017 doi:10.5539/jms.v7n4p1 URL: http://doi.org/10.5539/jms.v7n4p1 Abstract Greenwashing, defined by the Oxford Dictionary as “disinformation disseminated by an organization so as to present an environmentally responsible public image” can cause multifarious problems for companies. The phenomenon of greenwashing has, however, not attracted much attention in the event marketing literature to date. The purpose of this paper is twofold. It first describes and analyses the specific characteristics and features of greenwashing in event marketing. It then seeks to identify the current fundamental approaches of how to avoid greenwashing in event marketing and to assess their potential. A two-step literature analysis with complementary search approaches served as a methodical framework. First, journals related to event marketing were screened for the keywords “greenwashing” and “greenwash”. Next, the general literature was consulted for the same keywords. The results clearly demonstrate that the subject of greenwashing has been widely neglected in the event literature.