sustainability Review Green Brand Equity—Empirical Experience from a Systematic Literature Review Hanna Górska-Warsewicz 1, * , Maciej D ˛ ebski 2 , Michal Fabuš 3 and Marián Ková ˇ c 3   Citation: Górska-Warsewicz, H.; D˛ ebski, M.; Fabuš, M.; Kovᡠc, M. Green Brand Equity—Empirical Experience from a Systematic Literature Review. Sustainability 2021, 13, 1130. https://doi.org/10.3390/ su132011130 Academic Editors: María Eugenia Ruíz-Molina, Irene Gil-Saura and Gloria Berenguer-Contrí Received: 12 August 2021 Accepted: 29 September 2021 Published: 9 October 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1 Department of Food Market Research and Consumption, Warsaw University of Life Sciences (SGGW-WULS), 02-787 Warsaw, Poland 2 Department of Marketing and Tourism, Faculty of Management and Security Sciences, University of Social Sciences, 00-842 Warsaw, Poland; mdebski@san.edu.pl 3 School of Economics and Management in Public Administration, Furdekova 16, 851 04 Bratislava, Slovakia; michal.fabus@vsemvs.sk (M.F.); marian.kovac@vsemvs.sk (M.K.) * Correspondence: hanna_gorska_warsewicz@sggw.pl; Tel.: +48-22-59-37-144 Abstract: Our study aims to analyze factors determining the green brand equity (GBE) based on a systematic literature review (SLR) according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) statement. We posed 3 research questions and searched five databases (Scopus, Web of Sciences, Google Scholar, EBSCO, and Elsevier) for studies containing the term ‘green brand equity’ and the combination of two terms: ‘brand equity’ and ‘green’. Additionally, the backward and forward snowballing methods were applied. In our SLR, we included empirical studies published between 2006 and 2021 as peer-reviewed papers in English. Exclusion criteria included studies with theoretical models, studies describing brand equity not related to GBE, Ph.D. thesis, short reports, workshop papers, practice guidelines, book chapters, reviews, and conference publications. Finally, 33 articles were analyzed as part of the SLR in two fields: general information (authorship, year of publication, type of study, research country or location, sample size, and product categories), and research specifications (factors or variables, number and type of hypotheses, scale or measurement items, type of statistical analysis, and selected indicators of statistical methods). Image, trust, value, satisfaction, and loyalty appeared to be the most studied determinants of GBE. Less frequently analyzed were quality, awareness, attributes, particular promotional activities, and the fact of purchase. The results obtained are important in practical terms, showing what to consider when creating GBE in different categories of products and services. Keywords: green brand equity; green brand image; green brand trust; PRISMA method; systematic literature review 1. Introduction Growing environmental threats and increasing consumer awareness cause that green branding, green products, and green brands are the subject of numerous studies in almost every area of the economy [1]. In the 1970s, the term ‘green marketing’ introduced by the American Marketing Association was defined as the positive and negative aspects of marketing activities on environmental pollution, energy depletion, and depletion of non-energy resources [2]. Initially, the focus was only on environmental pollution, but in the 1980s sustainability and clean technologies were included. In the following years, green marketing became the subject of numerous scientific studies and discussions, cov- ering not only the sphere of production but also services and trade [3]. The focus was on building and maintaining sustainable relationships with customers and the social and natural environment. This was possible by minimizing the impact of business activities on the environment in the processes of raw material acquisition, production, sales, consump- tion, and disposal [4]. In this aspect, green marketing takes into account environmental protection requirements in the process of product design, production, and packaging thus Sustainability 2021, 13, 1130. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132011130 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability