ESG greenwashing and organizational resilience: Exploring sustainable development paths from the perspective of unsystematic risk.

Abstract

Amid accelerating globalization, deepening green transitions, and digital upheavals, corporate organizational resilience has emerged as an essential element for economic resilience, with genuine ESG practices at its core. However, intentional distortions in ESG implementation, particularly pervasive greenwashing, pose major risks by eroding adaptive capacities, distorting market signals, and misallocating resources, ultimately impeding high-quality economic development. This study examines 2012-2022 data from China's A-share listed companies through the dual lenses of unsystematic risk transmission and governance failures, revealing how ESG greenwashing undermines organizational resilience by reducing competitiveness, tightening financing constraints, and stifling innovation. Evidence suggests that green management innovations and analyst attention reduce these effects by optimizing internal risk controls and increasing transparency. Research on organizational heterogeneity reveals that non-SOEs, tech-driven, and growth-stage firms with robust internal controls demonstrate stronger regulatory resistance through structural agility. Paradoxically, rigorous environmental regulations may counterproductively incentivize ESG greenwashing that erode dynamic capabilities. This study provides actionable insights for safeguarding environmental integrity and advancing sustainable development through a risk management framework to counteract compliance circumvention strategies.