Dissertation, Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg, 2026

This thesis aimed to address two central questions: 1) How are perceived eco-friendly products defined and conceptualized?, 2) What are the relationships between perceived eco-friendliness and perceived quality? To this aim, working definitions have been established first, followed by a systematic review of the existing literature. The author conducted an interview-based qualitative study using grounded theory and quantitatively evaluated the resulting model using structural equation modelling. Among its key contributions, the thesis introduces a novel multidimensional conceptualization of perceived eco-friendliness, provides a synthesis of the relationships between perceived eco-friendliness and perceived quality, and proposes additional influencing constructs. Finally, the limitations of this work are discussed, avenues for future research are outlined, and the theoretical and managerial implications are presented.