Regulatory Environmental Awareness and Corporate Greenwashing: The Contingent Roles of Political and Economic Stakeholder Claims
研究监管环境意识如何影响企业漂绿行为，发现环境治理的具体性和执法强度能减少漂绿，而经济上的不公正待遇则会加剧漂绿，对政策制定和企业运营有启示。
ABSTRACT Greenwashing presents a significant ethical challenge to sustainable development and operational transparency. Prior research on corporate greenwashing presents mixed findings regarding whether firms adopt such practices in response to regulatory environmental awareness. To address these inconsistencies, we investigate how regulatory environmental awareness influences corporate greenwashing, focusing on the interplay between political and economic stakeholders. We propose that this influence depends on two factors: the regulatory claim (the concreteness and enforcement intensity of environmental governance) and the shareholder claim (economic mistreatment and environmental advocacy). Analyzing data from Chinese listed firms (2008–2021), we find that a high level of regulatory concreteness and enforcement intensity reduces greenwashing behaviors responding to regulatory environmental awareness, while increased economic mistreatment exerts a promoting effect. This research contributes to the literature on greenwashing by shedding light on the dynamics of stakeholder influence and provides important implications for policy‐making and corporate operations in the sustainable field.