IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/bstrat/v34y2025i2p2012-2034.html

Executive Green Cognition on Corporate Greenwashing Behavior: Evidence From A‐Share Listed Companies in China

Author

Listed:
  • Xiaoli Hao
  • Erxiang Miao
  • Shufang Wen
  • Haitao Wu
  • Yan Xue

Abstract

Greenwashing has become a strategy for companies to comply with environmental regulations, while also projecting an eco‐friendly image. This study examined how executives' green cognition affected the corporate greenwashing using both fixed effect and moderated mediation models. The findings indicated that the executives' green cognition significantly reduced the greenwashing behavior, whereas its effectiveness decreased with the increasing financial constraints. Additionally, the executives' green cognition helped mitigate the greenwashing by promoting innovation in green management, while this effect was limited by financial constraints. Furthermore, in highly competitive industries and with substantial ownership stakes among senior executives, the impact of green cognition on greenwashing was constrained. However, when the roles of the chairman and general manager were separate, senior executives' green cognition effectively avoided the greenwashing. Moreover, after the COVID‐19 pandemic, the inhibitory effect of executives' green cognition on greenwashing became more pronounced. This study could offer valuable insights into reducing corporate greenwashing and enhancing environmental credibility.

Suggested Citation

  • Xiaoli Hao & Erxiang Miao & Shufang Wen & Haitao Wu & Yan Xue, 2025. "Executive Green Cognition on Corporate Greenwashing Behavior: Evidence From A‐Share Listed Companies in China," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(2), pages 2012-2034, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:34:y:2025:i:2:p:2012-2034
    DOI: 10.1002/bse.4095
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.4095
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/bse.4095?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jie Zhou & Shanyue Jin, 2023. "Corporate Environmental Protection Behavior and Sustainable Development: The Moderating Role of Green Investors and Green Executive Cognition," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-18, February.
    2. Dejan Glavas & Gilles Grolleau & Naoufel Mzoughi, 2023. "Greening the greenwashers – How to push greenwashers towards more sustainable trajectories," Post-Print hal-03908838, HAL.
    3. Grolleau, Gilles & Mzoughi, Naoufel & Peterson, Deborah & Tendero, Marjorie, 2022. "Changing the world with words? Euphemisms in climate change issues," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    4. Campello, Murillo & Graham, John R. & Harvey, Campbell R., 2010. "The real effects of financial constraints: Evidence from a financial crisis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(3), pages 470-487, September.
    5. He, Lerong & Huang, Liying & Yang, Guangqing, 2021. "Invest in Innovation or Not? How Managerial Cognition and Attention Allocation Shape Corporate Responses to Performance Shortfalls," Management and Organization Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 17(4), pages 815-850, October.
    6. Xuhui Peng & Jingduan Li & Qingliang Tang & Yi‐Chen Lan & Xinjian Cui, 2024. "Do environmental scores become multinational corporations' strategic “greenwashing” tool for window‐dressing carbon reduction? A cross‐cultural analysis," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(3), pages 2084-2115, March.
    7. Nickell, Stephen J, 1996. "Competition and Corporate Performance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(4), pages 724-746, August.
    8. Adam Lindgreen & Valérie Swaen & Wesley Johnston, 2009. "Corporate Social Responsibility: An Empirical Investigation of U.S. Organizations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 85(2), pages 303-323, April.
    9. Wu, Hui & Wang, Yu, 2024. "Digital transformation and corporate risk taking: Evidence from China," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    10. Magali A. Delmas & Michael W. Toffel, 2008. "Organizational responses to environmental demands: opening the black box," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(10), pages 1027-1055, October.
    11. Wei Li & Weining Li & Veikko Seppänen & Timo Koivumäki, 2022. "How and when does perceived greenwashing affect employees' job performance? Evidence from China," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(5), pages 1722-1735, September.
    12. Jin, Yousen & Li, He & Lu, Juan, 2024. "How does energy policy uncertainty perception affect corporate greenwashing behaviors? Evidence from China's energy companies," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 306(C).
    13. Chen, Xing & Wu, Chongfeng, 2022. "Retail investor attention and information asymmetry: Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    14. Hu, Shuo & Wang, Ailun & Du, Kerui, 2023. "Environmental tax reform and greenwashing: Evidence from Chinese listed companies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    15. Christopher Marquis & Michael W. Toffel & Yanhua Zhou, 2016. "Scrutiny, Norms, and Selective Disclosure: A Global Study of Greenwashing," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(2), pages 483-504, April.
    16. Arthur Lewbel, 1997. "Constructing Instruments for Regressions with Measurement Error when no Additional Data are Available, with an Application to Patents and R&D," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(5), pages 1201-1214, September.
    17. Xin Li & Fei Guo & Jiaqi Wang, 2024. "A path towards enterprise environmental performance improvement: How does CEO green experience matter?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 820-838, February.
    18. Chengli Shu & Kevin Z. Zhou & Yazhen Xiao & Shanxing Gao, 2016. "How Green Management Influences Product Innovation in China: The Role of Institutional Benefits," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 133(3), pages 471-485, February.
    19. Zhang, Dongyang, 2022. "Environmental regulation and firm product quality improvement: How does the greenwashing response?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    20. Nabila Abid & Michael Dowling & Federica Ceci & Junaid Aftab, 2023. "Does resource bricolage foster SMEs' competitive advantage and financial performance? A resource‐based perspective," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(8), pages 5833-5853, December.
    21. Lin, Hsing-Er & Yu, Andy & Stambaugh, Jeff & Tsao, Chiung-Wen & Wang, Rebecca Jen-Hui & Hsu, I-Chieh, 2023. "Family CEO duality and research and development intensity in public family enterprises: Temporality as a model boundary," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    22. Yu-Shu Peng & Shing-Shiuan Lin, 2008. "Local Responsiveness Pressure, Subsidiary Resources, Green Management Adoption and Subsidiary’s Performance: Evidence from Taiwanese Manufactures," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 79(1), pages 199-212, April.
    23. Yanlei Zhang, 2021. "Greasing Dirty Machines: Evidence of Pollution-Driven Bribery in China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 170(1), pages 53-74, April.
    24. Byrd, John W. & Hickman, Kent A., 1992. "Do outside directors monitor managers? *1: Evidence from tender offer bids," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 195-221, October.
    25. J. P. Eggers & Sarah Kaplan, 2009. "Cognition and Renewal: Comparing CEO and Organizational Effects on Incumbent Adaptation to Technical Change," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 20(2), pages 461-477, April.
    26. Zhongju Liao & Jincai Dong & Chen Weng & Chen Shen, 2019. "CEOs' religious beliefs and the environmental innovation of private enterprises: The moderating role of political ties," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(4), pages 972-980, July.
    27. Yuming Zhai & Zhenghuan Cai & Han Lin & Ming Yuan & Ye Mao & Mingchuan Yu, 2022. "Does better environmental, social, and governance induce better corporate green innovation: The mediating role of financing constraints," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(5), pages 1513-1526, September.
    28. Li, Xin & Shao, Xuefeng & Chang, Tsangyao & Albu, Lucian Liviu, 2022. "Does digital finance promote the green innovation of China's listed companies?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    29. Hao, Xiaoli & Sun, Qingyu & Li, Ke & Li, Peilun & Wu, Haitao, 2024. "Does environmental decentralisation improve ESG performance? Evidence from listed companies in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    30. Zhang, Dongyang, 2023. "Subsidy expiration and greenwashing decision: Is there a role of bankruptcy risk?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    31. Huang, Xiaohong & Kabir, Rezaul & Thijssen, Maximiliaan Willem Pierre, 2024. "Powerful female CEOs and the capital structure of firms," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    32. Charles J. Hadlock & Joshua R. Pierce, 2010. "New Evidence on Measuring Financial Constraints: Moving Beyond the KZ Index," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(5), pages 1909-1940.
    33. Christopher S. Tuggle & David G. Sirmon & Christopher R. Reutzel & Leonard Bierman, 2010. "Commanding board of director attention: investigating how organizational performance and CEO duality affect board members' attention to monitoring," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(9), pages 946-968, September.
    34. Steven R. Grenadier, 2002. "Option Exercise Games: An Application to the Equilibrium Investment Strategies of Firms," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 15(3), pages 691-721.
    35. Khaddage-Soboh, Nada & Yunis, Manal & Imran, Muhammad & Zeb, Faheem, 2024. "Sustainable practices in Malaysian manufacturing: The influence of CSR, transformational leadership, and green organizational culture on environmental performance," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 753-768.
    36. Jieyu Ren & Peng Wu & Liya Hou, 2024. "Social media attention and corporate greenwashing: Evidence from China," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(6), pages 5446-5465, November.
    37. Hao, Xiaoli & Li, Ke & Ren, Siyu & Sun, Qingyu & Hu, Weitao & Xue, Yan, 2024. "How green investment significantly relieves resource curse? A new perspective from fiscal decentralization," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    38. Yogesh Bhatt & Karminder Ghuman, 2022. "Managerial cognition and environmental behavioral intentions: A behavioral reasoning theory perspective," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(5), pages 1315-1329, September.
    39. Zhongju Liao & Siying Long, 2018. "CEOs' regulatory focus, slack resources and firms' environmental innovation," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(5), pages 981-990, September.
    40. Zhao, Meiyu & Zhang, Bo, 2023. "Credit corruption, financial constraint and corporate innovation: Evidence on China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    41. Kun Luo & Ke Zhang, 2024. "Executive's environmental background and sustainable development: Evidence from substantial green innovation," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(5), pages 4812-4828, October.
    42. Michele Fabrizi & Christine Mallin & Giovanna Michelon, 2014. "The Role of CEO’s Personal Incentives in Driving Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 124(2), pages 311-326, October.
    43. Zhang, Dongyang, 2023. "Does green finance really inhibit extreme hypocritical ESG risk? A greenwashing perspective exploration," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    44. Xia, Han, 2014. "Can investor-paid credit rating agencies improve the information quality of issuer-paid rating agencies?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(2), pages 450-468.
    45. Ganter, Alois & Hecker, Achim, 2013. "Deciphering antecedents of organizational innovation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(5), pages 575-584.
    46. Sun, Yabin, 2024. "Bank competition and firm greenwashing: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    47. A. Lindgreen & V. Swaen & W. Johnston, 2009. "Corporate social responsibility : an empirical investigation of U.S. organizations," Post-Print hal-00575825, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhang, Zixuan & Jia, Shanming & Liu, Pengzhen & Liu, Le, 2025. "The green shield: Intellectual property protection and corporate greenwashing in environmental, social, and governance," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 352-376.
    2. Xiang Guo & Ligang Xu & Yuan Pan & Zhengfang Zhong, 2025. "Research on the Path of Green Total Factor Productivity Improvement in Resource-Based Enterprises—Empirical Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(16), pages 1-21, August.
    3. Xingwei Li & Jiekuo Hao & Zuoyi Ding & Jie Yang & Yuhong Yao, 2025. "Unveiling the driving mechanism of greenwashing behaviors: an agent-based modeling approach integrating new institutionalism and halo effect theories," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-16, December.
    4. Liang, Qianxu & Wang, Chaonan & Li, Yongping, 2025. "How does green finance influence enterprise greenwashing tendencies? Theoretical and empirical evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    5. Luo, Haotian & Yu, Jinlei & Mu, Tong & Zhou, Peng, 2025. "Spillover effects of enterprise digital transformation on supply chain carbon emissions: Evidence from China," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 606-617.
    6. Li, Ruitao & Malik, Ihtisham & Xiong, Zhengling & Guo, Shijun, 2025. "Do IPOs affect green innovation? Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    7. Wang, Ren & Wang, Weihai, 2025. "Chinese corporate greenwashing index," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 85(PB).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yin, Lei & Yang, Yuanyuan, 2024. "How does digital finance influence corporate greenwashing behavior?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 93(PB), pages 359-373.
    2. Song, Zenglu & Lu, Jinjing & Xu, Xinkuo, 2025. "Virtue over Deception: Confucian Culture and Corporate Greenwashing Behavior," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 1569-1591.
    3. Zhang, Hua & Lai, Jie & Guo, Zheng, 2025. "When greenwashing meets ESG: Exploring the role of third-party ESG ratings in corporate greenwashing behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    4. Xiong, Jiacai & Yang, Zelin & Wang, Qing Sophie, 2025. "Can non-punitive regulation curb corporate greenwashing?Evidence from a word embedding model," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    5. Nazari, Jamal A. & Poursoleyman, Ehsan, 2025. "Corporate social responsibility signalling under external transparency demands," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    6. Zhao, Jiyang & Wang, Xiaohong, 2025. "Managerial myopia, technological innovation, and greenwashing: Moderating roles of financing constraints and environmental uncertainty," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 218(C).
    7. Zhen Huang & Yanxuan Shi & Ming Jia, 2025. "Greenwashing: A systematic literature review," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 65(1), pages 857-882, March.
    8. Huang, Xiaowu & Li, Renzhi & Chen, Xingyu, 2025. "Does the green finance policy motivate firms to greenwash? A quasi-natural experiment based on the "Green finance reform innovation pilot zones"," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    9. Zhong, Ma & Niu, Zhuangzhuang & Zhu, Yunfu & Li, Ruiqian, 2025. "Government green subsidies and corporate ESG greenwashing: Evidence from China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 1321-1346.
    10. Sneideriene, Agne & Legenzova, Renata, 2025. "Greenwashing prevention in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosures: A bibliometric analysis," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    11. Liu, Yuanhong & Li, Bin, 2026. "Barriers to combating corporate greenwashing: Evidence from systematic literature review, NCA, econometric models and machine learning," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 344(C).
    12. Hao, Xiaoli & Sun, Qingyu & Li, Ke & Li, Peilun & Wu, Haitao, 2024. "Does environmental decentralisation improve ESG performance? Evidence from listed companies in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    13. Bhullar, Pritpal Singh & Joshi, Mahesh & Sharma, Sharad & Kaur, Amanpreet & Phan, Duc, 2025. "Greenwashing and ESG: Bibliometric analysis and future research agenda," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    14. Pi, Tianlei & Jiao, Linke & Zhou, Yuhan & Shi, Jin, 2026. "Biodiversity risk and corporate greenwashing: Evidence from China," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    15. Jintao Lu & Dan Rong & Gabriel Eweje & Xiaolin Yuan & Malin Song & Cory Searcy, 2025. "Effective environmental strategy or illusory tactics? Corporate greenwashing and innovation willingness," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(1), pages 1338-1356, January.
    16. Hanwen Chen & Siyi Liu & Di Zhang & Lei Zhang, 2025. "Corporate ESG Washing and ESG Rating Divergence: Evidence From China," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(7), pages 8390-8428, November.
    17. Xue, Kunkun & Chen, Xiaoxiao & Sun, Peipei & Li, Yongqing, 2024. "Supply chain network centrality and corporate greenwashing behavior," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    18. Jiacai Xiong & Linghong Chen & Yushu Zhu & Thomas Maak, 2026. "Social Trust and Corporate Greenwashing: Insights from China's Pilot Social Credit Systems," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 204(4), pages 855-883, April.
    19. Yue, Tong & Tong, Jian & Wen, Xinyi & Chu, Chengjun, 2026. "Distrust and disclosure: Greenwashing governance and the neglected incentive withdrawal signals of environmental subsidies," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    20. Li, Weiping & Mao, Zhuowei & Ren, Xiaohang & Liang, Jing, 2025. "Retail investor attention: Guardian of corporate ESG integrity or catalyst for greenwashing?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:34:y:2025:i:2:p:2012-2034. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-0836 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.