Bağımsız Denetçilerin Gözünden Yeşil Aklama: Gizli Sınıf Analizi Bulguları[Greenwashing through the Eyes of Independent Auditors: Evidence from a Latent Class Analysis]

This study examines the heterogeneity in auditors’ perceptions of greenwashing and their evaluations of their professional roles in this context. Based on survey data collected from 216 independent auditors operating in Türkiye, the results of the latent class analysis (LCA) identify three distinct auditor profiles: “low risk perception auditors”, who exhibit a low level of concern regarding greenwashing; “high risk perception auditors”, characterized by high awareness and strong ethical motivation; and “moderate risk perception auditors”, representing the mainstream group with moderate evaluations. The results of the three-stage Bolck-Croon-Hagenaars (BCH) analysis indicate that demographic and occupational characteristics, such as professional experience and educational level, are significant predictors of class membership. Although the age variable indicated a statistically significant difference in univariate analyses, it lost its independent explanatory power in the multivariate model due to the high variance it shared with professional experience and hierarchical position. This finding suggests that the effect of age is shaped through experience and job description rather than acting directly. The findings reveal that auditors’ perceptions of greenwashing do not display a homogeneous structure. This suggests the need to develop targeted training programs and strengthen existing auditing standards to enable more effective detection of misleading environmental disclosures. By empirically identifying and profiling the unobserved heterogeneity within the auditing profession regarding sustainability-related issues, this research contributes to the existing literature.