Government digitalization and corporate greenwashing

Reducing the “greenwashing” behavior implemented by enterprises through methods such as whitewashing environmental information is a vital part of government environmental governance. The study treats the government digitization implementation as an exogenous shock. It utilizes data from Chinese listed companies between 2016 and 2021 to establish a difference-in-differences model, aiming to discern the causal impact of government digitization on corporate greenwashing behavior. The findings confirm that government digitization advancement substantially curtails corporate greenwashing behavior, exhibiting a comparable inhibitory impact to green finance policies on greenwashing behavior. The test results of the mechanism confirm that government digitization effectively curbs corporate greenwashing by optimizing the regional business environment and enhancing environmental regulatory capabilities. Moreover, in-depth analysis reveals that government digitization has a stronger inhibitory impact on the greening behavior of heavily polluting enterprises, state-owned enterprises, and those facing high environmental uncertainty. The research findings presented in this article contribute to a better understanding of the internal mechanism linking government digitization and corporate greening behavior. They are significant in expanding the micro-environmental governance effects of government digitalization and identifying the factors influencing corporate greening behavior.