IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/corsem/v31y2024i6p6103-6130.html

Unveiling the influence of corporate greenwashing on employees' pro‐environmental behavior: A cross‐cultural study from China, United Kingdom, Republic of Korea, and Japan

Author

Listed:
  • Zhibin Tao
  • Jiaxiao Chao

Abstract

Corporate greenwashing and pro‐environmental behavior of employees have attracted a significant amount of research attention in journals related to corporate governance, green and sustainable development. However, limited research has currently investigated the relationship between the two, especially in today's globalized business environment. To fill this research gap, this study conducts a cross‐cultural validation of connection between the two, covering four countries: China, United Kingdom, Republic of Korea, and Japan. The study uses structural equation model and fsQCA methods for empirical analysis. The empirical results reveal that in China, United Kingdom, Republic of Korea, and Japan: (1) corporate greenwashing suppresses employees' pro‐environmental behavior; (2) corporate greenwashing leads to employees developing perceptions of corporate hypocrisy, negative pro‐environmental attitudes, and organizational cynicism; (3) corporate hypocrisy perception, negative pro‐environmental attitude, and organizational cynicism lead to employees displaying negative pro‐environmental behaviors; (4) corporate hypocrisy perception, negative pro‐environmental attitude, and organizational cynicism significantly mediate the influence of corporate greenwashing on employees' pro‐environmental behavior; (5) the mediating effects of these three variables do not significantly differ across the four countries; (6) the analysis results from the fsQCA method show that in China, there are 6 configurations leading to employees displaying significant (strong) negative pro‐environmental behaviors, while in the United Kingdom there are 5, and in the Republic of Korea and Japan there are 3 and 5, respectively. This cross‐cultural study offers insights for corporate management, aiding in understanding and mitigating the effects of greenwashing on employee pro‐environmental behavior. It also bolsters the creation of efficacious corporate environmental practices policies and serves as a resource for future cross‐cultural environmental preservation and corporate governance research.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhibin Tao & Jiaxiao Chao, 2024. "Unveiling the influence of corporate greenwashing on employees' pro‐environmental behavior: A cross‐cultural study from China, United Kingdom, Republic of Korea, and Japan," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(6), pages 6103-6130, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:corsem:v:31:y:2024:i:6:p:6103-6130
    DOI: 10.1002/csr.2896
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.2896
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/csr.2896?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. Rodrigo Lozano, 2015. "A Holistic Perspective on Corporate Sustainability Drivers," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(1), pages 32-44, January.
    2. Merhi, Mohamed & Hone, Kate & Tarhini, Ali, 2019. "A cross-cultural study of the intention to use mobile banking between Lebanese and British consumers: Extending UTAUT2 with security, privacy and trust," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    3. Kent Walker & Fang Wan, 2012. "The Harm of Symbolic Actions and Green-Washing: Corporate Actions and Communications on Environmental Performance and Their Financial Implications," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 109(2), pages 227-242, August.
    4. Xie, Xuemei & Wang, Hongwei, 2020. "How can open innovation ecosystem modes push product innovation forward? An fsQCA analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 29-41.
    5. repec:osf:osfxxx:5x6sy_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Du, Yunzhou & Kim, Phillip H., 2021. "One size does not fit all: Strategy configurations, complex environments, and new venture performance in emerging economies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 272-285.
    7. Yi Hsu & Thi Hong Gam Bui, 2022. "Consumers’ Perspectives and Behaviors towards Corporate Social Responsibility—A Cross-Cultural Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-23, January.
    8. Federica Balluchi & Arianna Lazzini & Riccardo Torelli, 2020. "CSR and Greenwashing: A Matter of Perception in the Search of Legitimacy," CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance, in: Mara Del Baldo & Jesse Dillard & Maria-Gabriella Baldarelli & Massimo Ciambotti (ed.), Accounting, Accountability and Society, pages 151-166, Springer.
    9. Masaki Sugita & Takuya Takahashi, 2015. "Influence of Corporate Culture on Environmental Management Performance: An Empirical Study of Japanese Firms," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(3), pages 182-192, May.
    10. Lucci, Paula & Bhatkal, Tanvi & Khan, Amina, 2018. "Are we underestimating urban poverty?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 297-310.
    11. Margaret Brunton & Gabriel Eweje & Nazim Taskin, 2017. "Communicating Corporate Social Responsibility to Internal Stakeholders: Walking the Walk or Just Talking the Talk?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(1), pages 31-48, January.
    12. Riccardo Torelli & Federica Balluchi & Arianna Lazzini, 2020. "Greenwashing and environmental communication: Effects on stakeholders' perceptions," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 407-421, February.
    13. Qing Miao & Jun Zhou, 2020. "Corporate Hypocrisy and Counterproductive Work Behavior: A Moderated Mediation Model of Organizational Identification and Perceived Importance of CSR," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-20, March.
    14. Lingli Qing & Ibrahim Alnafrah & Abd Alwahed Dagestani, 2024. "Does green technology innovation benefit corporate financial performance? Investigating the moderating effect of media coverage," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(3), pages 1722-1740, May.
    15. Yu-Shan Chen & Ching-Hsun Chang, 2013. "Greenwash and Green Trust: The Mediation Effects of Green Consumer Confusion and Green Perceived Risk," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 114(3), pages 489-500, May.
    16. Leroy White & Andy Lockett & Graeme Currie & James Hayton, 2021. "Hybrid Context, Management Practices and Organizational Performance: A Configurational Approach," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(3), pages 718-748, May.
    17. Erifili-Christina Chatzopoulou & Dimitris Manolopoulos & Vasia Agapitou, 2022. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Employee Outcomes: Interrelations of External and Internal Orientations with Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 179(3), pages 795-817, September.
    18. Saheli Goswami & Jung Ha-Brookshire & Wes Bonifay, 2018. "Measuring Perceived Corporate Hypocrisy: Scale Development in the Context of U.S. Retail Employees," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-26, December.
    19. Ragin, Charles C., 2006. "Set Relations in Social Research: Evaluating Their Consistency and Coverage," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(3), pages 291-310, July.
    20. Yang, Lei & Manika, Danae & Athanasopoulou, Andromachi, 2020. "Are they sinners or saints? A multi-level investigation of hypocrisy in organisational and employee pro-environmental behaviours," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 336-347.
    21. Nishat Babu & Kenneth de Roeck & Nicolas Raineri, 2020. "Hypocritical organizations: Implications for employee social responsibility," Post-Print hal-03796007, HAL.
    22. Afonso, Carolina & Silva, Graça Miranda & Gonçalves, Helena Martins & Duarte, Margarida, 2018. "The role of motivations and involvement in wine tourists' intention to return: SEM and fsQCA findings," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 313-321.
    23. Esther B. Brio & Rosa M. Hernández-Maestro & Toru Yoshikawa, 2018. "How does interpersonal justice affect outside directors’ governance behavior? A cross-cultural comparison," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 12(3), pages 683-709, July.
    24. Phipps, Marcus & Ozanne, Lucie K. & Luchs, Michael G. & Subrahmanyan, Saroja & Kapitan, Sommer & Catlin, Jesse R. & Gau, Roland & Naylor, Rebecca Walker & Rose, Randall L. & Simpson, Bonnie & Weaver, , 2013. "Understanding the inherent complexity of sustainable consumption: A social cognitive framework," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(8), pages 1227-1234.
    25. Shaham Saleem & Hafsa Bashir, 2024. "Environmental corporate social responsibility and green dynamic capability: The moderating role of slack resources," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(4), pages 3379-3394, July.
    26. Omar Durrah & Monica Chaudhary & Moaz Gharib, 2019. "Organizational Cynicism and Its Impact on Organizational Pride in Industrial Organizations," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-16, April.
    27. Babu, Nishat & De Roeck, Kenneth & Raineri, Nicolas, 2020. "Hypocritical organizations: Implications for employee social responsibility," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 376-384.
    28. Lin, Xudong & Zhu, Hao & Meng, Yiqun, 2023. "ESG greenwashing and equity mispricing: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PD).
    29. Mohamad Abou Houran & Abd Alwahed Dagestani, 2023. "Renewable Rush in Syria Faces Economic Crisis," Financial Economics Letters, Anser Press, vol. 2(2), pages 1-5, October.
    30. Abbasi, Ghazanfar Ali & Sandran, Thiviya & Ganesan, Yuvaraj & Iranmanesh, Mohammad, 2022. "Go cashless! Determinants of continuance intention to use E-wallet apps: A hybrid approach using PLS-SEM and fsQCA," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    31. Jennifer L. Robertson & A. Wren Montgomery & Timur Ozbilir, 2023. "Employees' response to corporate greenwashing," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(7), pages 4015-4027, November.
    32. Mathieu Gomes & Sylvain Marsat & Jonathan Peillex & Guillaume Pijourlet, 2024. "Does religiosity influence corporate greenwashing behavior ?," Post-Print hal-04360447, HAL.
    33. Yue Wu & Kaifu Zhang & Jinhong Xie, 2020. "Bad Greenwashing, Good Greenwashing: Corporate Social Responsibility and Information Transparency," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(7), pages 3095-3112, July.
    34. Magda B. L. Donia & Sigalit Ronen & Carol-Ann Tetrault Sirsly & Silvia Bonaccio, 2019. "CSR by Any Other Name? The Differential Impact of Substantive and Symbolic CSR Attributions on Employee Outcomes," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 157(2), pages 503-523, June.
    35. Qing Tian & Jennifer L. Robertson, 2019. "How and When Does Perceived CSR Affect Employees’ Engagement in Voluntary Pro-environmental Behavior?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 155(2), pages 399-412, March.
    36. Ren, Xiangru & Ren, Yuning, 2024. "Public environmental concern and corporate ESG performance," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    37. Sabrina Scheidler & Laura Marie Edinger-Schons & Jelena Spanjol & Jan Wieseke, 2019. "Scrooge Posing as Mother Teresa: How Hypocritical Social Responsibility Strategies Hurt Employees and Firms," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 157(2), pages 339-358, June.
    38. Vanessa C. Burbano, 2016. "Social Responsibility Messages and Worker Wage Requirements: Field Experimental Evidence from Online Labor Marketplaces," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(4), pages 1010-1028, August.
    39. Thomas P. Lyon & John W. Maxwell, 2011. "Greenwash: Corporate Environmental Disclosure under Threat of Audit," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(1), pages 3-41, March.
    40. repec:ucp:bkecon:9780226316529 is not listed on IDEAS
    41. Balluchi, Federica & Lazzini, Arianna & Torelli, Riccardo, 2020. "CSR and Greenwashing: A Matter of Perception in the Search of Legitimacy," OSF Preprints 5x6sy, Center for Open Science.
    42. Donia, Magda B.L. & Tetrault Sirsly, Carol-Ann, 2016. "Determinants and consequences of employee attributions of corporate social responsibility as substantive or symbolic," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 232-242.
    43. Helna Almeida de Araujo Góes & Ghulam Fatima & Ronaldo de Oliveira Santos Jhunior & João Maurício Gama Boaventura, 2023. "Managing for stakeholders towards corporate environmental sustainability," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(4), pages 1561-1572, July.
    44. Pengyu Chen & Zhongzhu Chu, 2024. "Mere facade? Is greenwashing behaviour lower in low‐carbon corporates?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(5), pages 4162-4174, July.
    45. Bawack, Ransome Epie & Wamba, Samuel Fosso & Carillo, Kevin Daniel André, 2021. "Exploring the role of personality, trust, and privacy in customer experience performance during voice shopping: Evidence from SEM and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    46. Zhongju Liao, 2018. "Corporate culture, environmental innovation and financial performance," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(8), pages 1368-1375, December.
    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. Isabelly Alves Alvares dos Santos & Ana Cláudia de Araújo Moxotó & Edjard de Souza Mota, 2025. "Greenwashing in Brazilian Corporations: A Machine Learning Approach to Unmask the Discourse‐Practice Gap," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(6), pages 8214-8224, November.

    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. Jennifer L. Robertson & A. Wren Montgomery & Timur Ozbilir, 2023. "Employees' response to corporate greenwashing," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(7), pages 4015-4027, November.
    2. Xiang, Yilin & Chen, Lu & Zhang, Zhenya & Sun, Xinyu, 2024. "Does perceived greenwashing promote or inhibit ethical voice? Effects of moral disengagement and perceived competitive pressure," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    3. 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.
    4. Priyanka Aggarwal & Reetesh Kumar Singh, 2022. "Synthesizing the affinity between employees' internal‐external CSR perceptions and work outcomes: A meta‐analytic investigation," Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(4), pages 1053-1101, October.
    5. Renxiang He & Hongtao Chen & Xiang Zhu, 2025. "Corporate hypocrisy and ESG rating divergence," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(1), pages 1122-1146, January.
    6. Jintao Lu & Chunyan Wang & Dima Jamali & Yangyang Gao & Chong Zhang & Mengshang Liang, 2022. "A novel framework to unearth corporate hypocrisy: Connotation, formation mechanism, manifestation, and contagion effect," Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(4), pages 1136-1156, October.
    7. Yasser Yassin & Markus Beckmann, 2025. "CSR and employee outcomes: a systematic literature review," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 75(1), pages 595-641, February.
    8. Tang, Chun & Yang, Guangyi & Liu, Xiaoxing, 2025. "Under the shield: How directors’ and officers’ liability insurance affects corporate greenwashing," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    9. Carmen Castro‐Casal & Guadalupe Vila‐Vázquez & Romina García‐Chas, 2025. "How and when employees' attributions of their employers' CSR activities affect their extra‐role work behavior," Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(4), pages 1399-1411, October.
    10. Silvia Ruiz-Blanco & Silvia Romero & Belen Fernandez-Feijoo, 2022. "Green, blue or black, but washing–What company characteristics determine greenwashing?," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 4024-4045, March.
    11. Cen April Yue & Baobao Song & Weiting Tao & Minjeong Kang, 2024. "Irresponsible to others but responsible to me: Testing employees' responses to external corporate social irresponsibility and internal corporate social responsibility," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(6), pages 5427-5445, November.
    12. Wei Li & Weining Li & Veikko Seppänen & Timo Koivumäki, 2023. "Effects of greenwashing on financial performance: Moderation through local environmental regulation and media coverage," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 820-841, January.
    13. 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.
    14. Gong, Qi & Kong, Zhaoyang & Li, Liang & Dong, Xiucheng & Li, Yang, 2026. "The consequences of hypocrisy: how ESG greenwashing undermines green total factor productivity," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    15. Asif Nawaz & Shuaib Ahmed Soomro & Qurat‐ul‐ain Talpur, 2026. "Environmental Actions and Leadership Integrity: Unpacking Symbolic and Substantive Pro‐Environmental Behavior Impact on Organizational Perception," Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(1), pages 3-16, January.
    16. Zhibin Tao, 2025. "Unsustainable Development Under Greenwashing: Exploring the Impact of Corporate Greenwashing Behavior on Employees' Negative Pro‐Environmental Behavior in China, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, and New Zealand," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(6), pages 7326-7357, November.
    17. Saheli Goswami & Gargi Bhaduri, 2023. "Communicating Moral Responsibility: Stakeholder Capitalism, Types, and Perceptions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-17, March.
    18. Eva Alexandra Jakob & Holger Steinmetz & Marius Claus Wehner & Christina Engelhardt & Rüdiger Kabst, 2022. "Like It or Not: When Corporate Social Responsibility Does Not Attract Potential Applicants," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 178(1), pages 105-127, June.
    19. Yufei Ma & Shuming Zhao & Jiaxi Chen & Chenhong Hu & Jiaojiao Qu, 2025. "Perceived greenwashing and employee green behavior: The roles of green organizational identity and self‐serving leadership," Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(4), pages 1475-1486, October.
    20. Francesca Bernini & Fabio La Rosa, 2024. "Research in the greenwashing field: concepts, theories, and potential impacts on economic and social value," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 28(2), pages 405-444, June.

    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:wly:corsem:v:31:y:2024:i:6:p:6103-6130. 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: https://doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)1535-3966 .

    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.