Grey zone in – greenwash out. A review of greenwashing research and implications for the voluntary-mandatory transition of CSR

Over the last decades, companies’ instrumental use of green and social claims has become a central topic in the public debate about corporate social responsibility (CSR). In this context, an increasing number of organizations have been accused of “not walking the talk,” which means their CSR claims on environmental or social issues have not been followed or supported by actual corporate activities (Walker & Wan, 2012). Such divergence between socially responsible communication and practices is commonly known as greenwashing.

Three decades after the conceptualization of the term “greenwashing,” the practice has grown enormously (Walker & Wan, 2012) and is now more sophisticated (Theguardian, 2016).

According to Furlow (2010), the proliferation of environmental disinformation has become so common and is of such a concern, that media discourse on greenwashing has parallel increased. Several non-governmental organizations (NGOs), such as Greenpeace or TerraChoice, assume today the roles of market monitors or “watchdogs.” In addition, the press expresses a growing concern about causes and consequences of greenwashing (Du, 2015). As a result, consumers are increasingly skeptical about the authenticity of corporate environmental claims (Lyon & Montgomery, 2013).

As the public concern over greenwashing has drastically grown in the last two decades, academic research has increased correspondingly, and there is now a substantial body of literature addressing issues related to greenwashing. Indeed, more than 1.315 scholarly articles are currently¹ mentioning the term “greenwashing” or “greenwash”.

Because of the centrality and actuality of the topic in both the public and academic CSR debate, a review of the literature is needed to understand how scholars have conceptualized and discussed the phenomenon. Indeed, different and sometimes contradictory definitions have thus far been provided and more research is needed to categorize the variety of greenwashing discussed in literature as well as its implications and consequences for business and society (Lyon & Montgomery, 2015; Seele & Gatti, 2017). To our knowledge, only one article has reviewed the academic debate around greenwashing. By focusing on the means and ends of greenwashing, the Lyon and Montgomery’s (2015) paper offers valid insights and directions for future research. However, their detailed analysis of the literature needs to be updated, given the fact that it stops in 2013 with a total number of 34 papers. Therefore, by including more than twice as many papers compared to Lyon and Montgomery’s literature review on greenwashing, we aim to expand their analysis in order to identify and discuss new issues in the fields and to provide a structured summary of the empirical and conceptual results presented in existing studies.

Our main finding leading to our theory contribution is the criticism raised in greenwashing literature that a totally voluntary and unregulated CSR approach facilitates the diffusion of greenwashing. Indeed, current predominant voluntary approaches create space for grey zones allowing for misleading communications. However, also an exclusive mandatory approach may favor the establishment of grey zones where companies look for ways around the rules. This is particularly true in the today’s interconnected and globalized world, where globalization makes self-organizing processes necessary to solve the deficit in regulation (Scherer et al. 2006).

Building on the discussion about the legality of greenwashing, our paper links to and advanced the debate about the voluntary versus mandatory nature of CSR through the lens of greenwashing scholars, thereby providing insights into a burgeoning paradigm shift towards an integration of the voluntary and mandatory perspectives in the application of CSR and corporate CSR reporting and communication.

The paper suggests that greenwashing could be better prevented with a combination of voluntary and mandatory aspects designed to promote CSR and regulate its application and communication, (which is currently in the process of being developed in several countries).

The paper proceeds as follows: we summarize the methodology applied to select and analyze the academic articles about greenwashing. In sections 3 and 4 we present the main results of our quantitative and qualitative analysis. We then discuss these results to highlight implications and contributions of the greenwashing literature, as well as trends and progress in the field. In the last section, we finally present the main insights of the paper, particularly the theoretical contribution suggesting a reduction of grey zones and an increase in clarity and credibility, to limit the ‘temptation’ to create misleading green messages, which could open the door to accusations of greenwashing.

To identify trends and progress in the field and provide a synthesis of the main issues discussed in literature, we conducted an extensive review articles of the literature. Indeed, review articles play a role in discovering critical issues relevant to the topic and in synthesizing the main trends and perspectives discussed as well as the main methodologies and research techniques that have been used (Randolph, 2009).

As Randolph (2009) suggested, when conducting a systematic and reliable literature review, the data collection process should begin with an electronic search of academic databases and the Internet. To identify the academic literature on greenwashing, we therefore employed keyword searches using the ABI/Inform Global database, considered the most comprehensive source of information on business research (Lyon & Montgomery, 2015), and Google Scholar. For the ABI/Inform database, we first began with a general search to assess the dimension of literature citing the term greenwashing. Therefore, we applied the keywords “greenwash” or “greenwashing” to all the fields (including the title, abstract, keywords and full text of articles) and selected English articles published in scholarly journals. A total number of 1.273 articles in the period from 1995 to 2018 were retrieved from this search.² Among the different journals publishing articles about greenwashing, the Journal of Business Ethics represents the top journal in terms of published articles (212 papers), followed by the Journal of Cleaner Production (97), and the Social Responsibility Journal (29). Table 1 reports the list of journals publishing more than 10 articles citing “greenwashing” or “greenwash” to identifying the top journal list of greenwashing research.

In order to identify articles with a clear focus on the topic, as opposed to those merely citing the term, we restricted our search to papers that mention the search terms in the title or abstract. This selection process yielded 136 scholarly articles. After a content review, 62 articles were excluded from the analysis. Although they mentioned greenwashing in their title and/or abstract, greenwashing did not represent a central construct or variable in these articles, or they presented an English title and abstract, but the article content was not in English.

The same keyword searches were applied to the Google Scholar search engine to detect relevant articles, which were not retrieved by the ABI/Inform search. Twenty scholarly articles not included in the ABI/Inform list were identified and added to our sample. The other articles returned by the Google Scholar search matched the previous sample or comprised non-academic papers. The final list, comprising 94 academic papers,³ was updated and finalized on December, 2018.

To assess the status and development of the academic literature on greenwashing, we first categorized the 94 academic articles according to a set of variables: year of publication, type of research (empirical research, conceptual paper, literature review), methodological approaches (qualitative, quantitative, mixed method), methodological techniques (case study, content analysis, model development, analysis of secondary data, survey research method, experimental research method, focus group, visual sociology technique), scope of research (accounting, business ethics, corporate communication, economics, finance, law, management, marketing, political economics), focus of research (environmental issues, social issues, environmental and social issues, ethical issues), and theoretical framework (instrumental, political, ethical, integrative).

The coding process involved two different coders categorizing the collected articles separately. For all the variables mentioned above, we calculated the intercoder reliability. Among the various indices proposed in the literature, we employed Cohen’s kappa (k), which is generally considered a valid measure to assess the level of agreement among coders in a content analysis. While there is no objective standard indicating acceptable levels of intercoder agreement for k, Landis and Koch (1977) suggest that values lower than 0.20 indicate slight or no agreement, values between 0.21 and 0.40 correspond to a moderate level of agreement, values between 0.61 to 0.80 indicate a substantial agreement, while values higher 0.81 correspond to an almost perfect agreement. The test of the intercoder agreement for k was performed for the main variables considered in the study. The k was significantly different from zero (at the 0.05 level) with coefficients between 0.67 to 1.00, thus indicating an acceptable level of agreement. The detailed of the tests and their results are reported in Appendix.

The analysis of the years of publication reveals that, in general, publications on greenwashing are increasing in number. Before 2007 there were only one or two publications on the topic per year. Since the 2008 they continue to increase, reaching 13 publications in 2018. This seems to be a sign of the current productive status of greenwashing research and supports the idea that the diffusion of greenwashing practices in business fields has been accompanied by a development of related literature.

In relation to the “type of research,” each paper was classified as either “conceptual,” “empirical” or “literature review.” Following Lyon and Montgomery (2015), the conceptual category included those papers discussing philosophical issues, offering frameworks or models for classifying greenwashing related topics, or those developing theories and hypotheses about greenwashing. Empirical papers included both qualitative and quantitative research studies, and they were analyzed in depth to identify the methodological approach and technique used in each study.

As previously mentioned, we only found one literature review revising greenwashing research, which suggests the necessity of deeper analysis of the literature to see how research about the topic is evolving. We also identified one book review. Among the other articles, 32 studies were categorized as conceptual. The remaining 60 articles comprised empirical papers. While conceptual studies show uniform distribution across the publication time frame (1997–2016), empirical papers seem to increase consistently after 2003.

Empirical research about greenwashing was characterized by both qualitative and quantitative methods and by a number of different techniques. In particular, among the 60 empirical papers, 17 studies were based on a qualitative approach, 37 papers on a quantitative approach, while the remaining 10 studies employed a mixed method. Among the different methodological techniques used by greenwashing scholars, the case study method, the experimental research method, and the survey research method were the most widely employed. Figure 1 summarizes the specific techniques of the empirical studies analyzed in our review.

Table 2 reports the analysis of the scope of research of the 94 articles. The majority of papers (78.7%) discussed greenwashing in the fields of corporate communication, marketing, and management. It is particularly interesting to note that 12.8% of articles are focused on law and legislation.

To better understand how scholars have conceptualized and discussed the phenomenon so far, we also conducted a qualitative content analysis as established in CSR and business ethics research (Seele & Lock, 2015, Lock & Seele, 2016). The main purpose of this analysis was to assess the core findings of empirical and conceptual research. In Table 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 we present the synthesis of our analysis. Therefore, the following tables summarize the main results of greenwashing research and offer a useful instrument for both academics and practitioners to understand what has been discovered so far, and the main trends and progresses in the fields. A more profound reflection on the findings of greenwashing literature is presented in the discussion section.

Our content analysis resulted in the identification of three different themes highly debated in the literature: The meaning of greenwashing, its main consequences, and the recent conceptualization of CSR as a form of regulation to prevent greenwashing practices.

By reviewing existing greenwashing literature, this paper provides an instrument for greenwashing scholars and practitioners to better understand the main implications and characteristics of the phenomenon. Moreover, by presenting and discussing greenwashing literature, it also contributes to the refining of CSR theory by encouraging reflection on the relationship between CSR and regulation.

First, it offers a picture of the current status of research into greenwashing, showing where and how the field is evolving. In particular, our quantitative analysis shows the current flourishing of greenwashing research and the centrality of the theme within the broader CSR debate. It also reports the variety of subjects addressing the topic, the main methodological techniques applied in the field, and the principal theoretical approaches of greenwashing scholars. This analysis reveals the interdisciplinary state of the field, characterized by a mix of methods, frameworks, and approaches.

Secondly, the presentation of results and findings of greenwashing research, especially the tables provided in section 4, offers a summary that can be used by practitioners to evaluate the consequences and implications of corporate engagement in such practices. In particular, although greenwashing may sometimes be successfully used to influence consumers’ perception about the firm’s CSR and deflect attention away from negative behaviors, the risk of negative effects on consumers’ attitudes, and more generally on the firm’s performance, is increasing. This is especially true in the current context, characterized by a high level of scrutiny and skepticism. Therefore, greenwashing may finally backfire on the company and dramatically decrease its corporate reputation, leading to a reduction of corporate legitimacy resulting eventually in a legitimacy crisis.

Thirdly, the paper also contributes to the general debate about the voluntary versus mandatory nature of CSR. Greenwashing research consistently supports the inclusion of mandatory aspects in the conceptualization of CSR, which contradicts the traditional CSR paradigm exclusively based on the principle of voluntarism. Our analysis of the literature, therefore, contributes to the refinement of the theory and conceptualization of CSR because it highlights the implications and consequences of a totally voluntary approach, and strongly supports the inclusion of mandatory solutions proposed by greenwashing scholars, which would favor the implementation of a level playing field and thus, a more credible form of CSR. Understanding CSR “as a form of regulation” (Sheehy, 2015), may effectively increase businesses’ ability to engage in CSR and defend themselves from unwarranted attacks (Sheehy, 2015). Even when CSR regulation is expressed as a private industry self-regulation and not as public law, it can contribute to improving corporate practice. For example, certification (such as the GRI, SA8000, and ISO26000) (defined by the ISO organization as “the provision by an independent body of written assurance (a certificate) that the product service or system in question meets specific requirements”. [ISO organization. Retrived Jan 25 from: http://​www.​iso.​org/​iso/​home/​standards/​certification.​htm).] is an important tool for companies to show their commitment with respect to a specific CSR standard (Knebel & Seele, 2015).

While it is not realistic to think that a new approach to CSR may finally eradicate all the unfair and controversial behaviors, the integration of mandatory and voluntary aspects in the field, as supported by this research, aims at establishing more favorable conditions for the diffusion of good practices and a fair and transparent CSR communication. Indeed, we believe that the inclusion of mandatory aspects in the CSR conceptualization implies a change in the practice. Practitioners in the field of marketing and public relations should prepare to professionalize CSR beyond mere impression management, in favor of a more transparent and controllable practice, subject to different forms of regulations and standards such as GRI (Wagner & Seele, 2017), or the EU directive on mandatory reporting (2014/95/EU), requiring companies with more than 500 employees listed on EU markets to disclose in their annual reports their progresses related to environmental and social issues. The introduction of a legal dimension in the field could in turn decrease skepticism and improve the relationship between organizations and their public. However, it requires the acceptance that the CSR debate is not only a topic in the field of management and corporate communication, but is entering new spheres related to the legal, ethical and political dimensions of business. As recently claimed by Gatti et al. (2018), “this transition asks for theory development in the direction of CSR compliance”. Indeed, especially self-regulatory standards as codes of conducts or private corporate initiatives cannot rely on public sanctions. It is therefore fundamental to identify mechanisms to promote compliance. To this regard, as discussed in the previous chapter, greenwashing scholars contribute to the debate by identify a number of mechanisms and initiatives (such as tripartism, public anti-greenwashing enforcement and certification mark infringement litigation) that decrease greenwashing and ensure a more transparent and fair CSR communication.

This study involves some limitations that open up room for future research. The major limitation is probably linked to the selection of our data set. First, the selection of relevant articles is primarily based on specific keywords (greenwash/greenwashing). One shortcoming of this method is that some relevant articles that use labels other than these keywords are not included in the dataset. In particular, new and less established terms, such as CSR washing, poorwashing, bluewashing or corporate hypocrisy (Janney & Gove, 2011) are slowly spreading among scholars to indicate greenwashing practices dealing with social and humanitarian issues. Another phenomenon very related to greenwashing is indicated by the term symbolic conformity (Jamali, 2010), also known as ceremonial conformity or decoupling of implementation from certification (Aravind & Christmann, 2011; Christmann & Taylor, 2006; Meyer & Rowan, 1977). The concept refers to the phenomenon of obtaining and showing standard certification without continuously complying with the requirements prescribed by the certification (Aravind & Christmann, 2011).

Secondly, in this study, we restricted our selection to papers that mention the search terms in the title or abstract. Although this choice was justified by the intent of identifying those articles with a clear focus on the topic, by narrowing the search in this way we may have excluded some interesting examples or discussions. To extend the analysis of greenwashing research, similar concepts and terms should, therefore, be considered in the selection of greenwashing related literature. In addition, greenwashing-related discussions presented in more general CSR and corporate communication papers should be included in the content analysis.

Future research should try to enlarge the scope of study by also including monographs or book chapters, which were not considered in this review. Additionally, by expanding the analysis to non-English research, future studies may also explore cultural differences in the interpretation and analysis of greenwashing.

In relation to future research, we also suggest maintaining the interdisciplinary character of the field, because the literature may benefit from the variety of approaches and perspectives provided by different subjects and methods and, as this review shows, it may generate original and significant contributions also to the CSR debate and, more generally, to the discussion about the relationship between business and society. Indeed, we recognize that one of the main characteristics and strengths of greenwashing research is that the issue is not limited to a specific framework or approach but is, on the contrary, addressed from different angles. For instance, while marketing scholars have studied the effects of greenwashing on consumers and companies, academics in the field of law have mainly concentrated on the relationship between regulation and CSR, providing practical solutions for reducing greenwashing, while management scholars have offered an interesting analysis of the institutional framework surrounding greenwashing phenomena, which is useful to understand the conditions and the context of greenwashing. In combination, these different contributions have offered a broad picture of the phenomenon and have allowed an understanding of its nature. We, therefore, suggest increasing the interdisciplinary dialogue that characterizes greenwashing literature in order to encourage the production of new and original insights.