Green Brands: An Avenue to the Creation of Economic Value?

Green Brands: An Avenue to the Creation of Economic Value? Abstract The research undertaken here attempts to test what in some quarters has become conventional wisdom that investment in green or sustainability branding necessarily leads to the creation of shareholder value, even though statistical evidence of such an a relationship has proven elusive. Here GreenBiz/Interbrand's 2012-2013 best global green brands data base was used to conduct a step-wise multiple regression analysis, where the rankings and selected financial metrics of Interbrand's top 50 global green brands were regressed on the market-to-book multiples of each brand in order to determine whether being a leading global green brand is indeed a statistically significant avenue to the creation of shareholder value. This is important research because of the attention GreenBiz/Interbrand's Best Global Green Brands attract and because of the potential such findings have for influencing the actions of private sector management, investors, government officials and researchers engaged in the study of branding.