Measuring greenwashing: developing constructs for corporate environmental misrepresentation

This study addresses the growing issue of greenwashing, where companies falsely claim environmental responsibility without substantive action, by developing and validating constructs to measure corporate environmental misrepresentation. Focusing on key dimensions—misleading environmental claims, selective disclosure, symbolic corporate environmentalism, ESG metric manipulation, and digital greenwashing, a multi-dimensional scale was developed through rigorous empirical methods, including item generation, survey validation, and statistical analysis. Data were collected from industry participants to test and refine the constructs, ensuring theoretical robustness and practical applicability across different sectors. The validated constructs provide a comprehensive model for detecting and mitigating greenwashing practices. The study reveals that greenwashing significantly undermines consumer trust, investor decision-making, and corporate reputation. The findings offer practical tools for stakeholders—including regulators, investors, and consumers—to identify and address greenwashing. The validated constructs provide an actionable framework that can be used to enhance transparency in corporate environmental claims and promote genuine sustainability practices. This study fills a critical gap in the literature by offering a validated, multi-dimensional framework to measure greenwashing across various industries. It contributes to theoretical advancements in corporate responsibility and provides practical mechanisms for enforcing environmental integrity, making it a valuable tool for researchers and practitioners.