Can ancient wisdom curb modern greenwash? CEO overconfidence and the moderating power of China's three teachings

IF 6.9 2区经济学 Q1 BUSINESS, FINANCE

Finance Research Letters Pub Date : 2025-09-18 DOI:10.1016/j.frl.2025.108500

Dian Zhang, Zhichao Cheng

引用次数: 0

Abstract

As firms in emerging economies navigate increasing environmental scrutiny, understanding the behavioral and cultural determinants of corporate greenwashing is critical. Using a large panel dataset of Chinese A-share firms from 2008 to 2022 with robust endogeneity controls, we find that CEO overconfidence significantly fuels corporate greenwashing, an effect found to be statistically significant primarily in non-high-tech and non-high-pollution firms, whereas it is insignificant in their high-tech and high-pollution counterparts. Our central finding then demonstrates the contrasting moderating roles of China's traditional 'Three Teachings': Confucianism substantially mitigates this detrimental linkage, Buddhist thought intensifies the effect, while Taoism appears inert. These patterns remain robust across endogeneity controls and sensitivity analyses, underscoring the complex nexus of managerial psychology, cultural heritage, and corporate environmental decision-making in emerging economies.

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古老的智慧能遏制现代的绿色清洗吗？CEO过度自信与中国的调节力三大教理

随着新兴经济体的企业面临越来越多的环境审查，了解企业“漂绿”的行为和文化决定因素至关重要。利用2008年至2022年具有强内生性控制的中国a股公司的大型面板数据集，我们发现CEO过度自信显著推动了企业的“漂绿”，这一效应主要在非高科技和非高污染企业中具有统计学意义，而在高科技和高污染企业中则不显著。然后，我们的中心发现证明了中国传统“三教”的对比调节作用：儒家思想大大减轻了这种有害的联系，佛教思想加剧了这种影响，而道教则显得惰性。这些模式在内生性控制和敏感性分析中保持强劲，强调了新兴经济体中管理心理学、文化遗产和企业环境决策之间的复杂联系。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Finance Research Letters BUSINESS, FINANCE-

CiteScore

11.10

自引率

14.40%

发文量

863

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