Sustainability, Journal Year: 2025, Volume and Issue: 17(8), P. 3540 - 3540

Published: April 15, 2025

Firms frequently face a tradeoff between the advantages of upholding sustainability and ESG performance expenses associated with participating in initiatives. This tension leads to an increase greenwashing practices, which ultimately undermines genuine efforts misleads stakeholders. Motivated by this trend, our study examines influence macro-level factor, specifically local city-level governments’ GDP manipulation, on extent firms’ greenwashing, highlighting how government behavior can distort sustainable business practices. Using data publicly traded Chinese manufacturing companies during period 2007–2019, we find positive significant relationship firms engage manipulation. Additional analysis reveals that financial constraints external monitoring are channels through governments greenwashing. In addition, finding association firm manipulation is more pronounced regions less developed marketization index, periods before China’s anti-corruption campaign, state-owned firms, at life cycle mature stage. Our addresses gap literature demonstrating economic interventions performance.

Language: Английский