Problems of the Sustainability Reporting: Greenwashing and the Perceptions of the Public

With the popularity of the sustainability reporting, there are many controversies and issues. This study takes the problems of greenwashing as an entry point, explores existing research and related systems, analyzes the types and patterns of corporate greenwashing behaviors, and empirically studies the perception of the public toward greenwashing phenomenon.

While earlier literature explored the definition, types, and implementation of greenwashing, recent literature has focused on analyzing the motivations of corporate greenwashing and the factors that influence corporate sustainable behavior and reporting. This study, through literature investigation and the analysis of corporate greenwashing, first investigates the greenwashing cases impeached by U.S. regulatory agencies SEC, FTC, and Australian regulatory agency ASIC, then proposes a theoretical framework on corporate sustainable behavior and greenwashing, and lastly empirically test the theoretical framework from the perspective of the consumers’ perception of greenwashing.

The empirical study sets various hypothetical conditions to evaluate the impact of various factors on the public’s perception through situational questions. Combining nine influencing factors of the proposed model’s three major aspects of corporate characteristics and a general situation without hypothetical conditions, a total of ten hypotheses are empirically evaluated on the factors influencing the public's trust in corporations’ sustainable behavior and sustainability reporting.

The research results show that corporate size, reputation, visibility, and the industry’s environmental and social impacts have statistically significant impact on the public’s perception of the credibility of corporate sustainability reporting. Except for the government regulation, other factors such as third-party assurance, ESG scoring, and the issuance of sustainability reports are shown to affect the public's trust in the sustainability reporting. Therefore, this study also finds the moderating effect of the public's green consumption and ESG knowledge on other influencing factors. By exploring the factors that influence corporations’ sustainable or greenwashing behavior, we may obtain a deeper understanding of greenwashing and derive the strategies for mitigating the greenwashing.