This study aims to explore the impact of greenwashing behavior on corporate resilience in the context of external shock event and to analyze how government regulation and state ownership moderate this relationship.
Using the COVID-19 epidemic as an external shock event, this study used a sample of 918 annual observations of listed Chinese companies from 2020 to 2022 to conduct empirical tests. The data were analyzed using the ordinary least squares method. Robustness checks include expanded clustering by year, industry and province, alternative generalized least squares regression and a lagged independent variable.
The findings show that greenwashing behavior has a positive impact on corporate resilience but is weakened by government regulation and state ownership to some extent. Analysis of the mechanism indicates that corporate greenwashing behavior enhances corporate resilience by improving corporate reputation.
This study fills a research gap in existing research by providing empirical evidence on the impact of greenwashing behavior on corporate resilience. At the same time, this study examines the moderating role of government regulation and state ownership in this relationship, which is an important consideration because greenwashing is not a positive behavior.
