Social Accountability and Corporate Greenwashing

Laufer, William S.·2003·Journal of Business Ethics

DOI 10.1023/a:1022962719299

Open this paper in CoChat — free account

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1023/a:1022962719299

Cites

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

The New Political Role of Business in a Globalized World: A Review of a New Perspective on CSR and its Implications for the Firm, Governance, and Democracy
Scherer, A. G., & Palazzo, G. (2011) · Journal of Management Studies · doi:10.1111/j.1467-6486.2010.00950.x · Cited by 2,131
Stakeholder influence capacity and the variability of financial returns to corporate social responsibility
Barnett, M. L. (2007) · Academy of Management Review · doi:10.5465/amr.2007.25275520 · Cited by 2,060
Determinants of sustainability reporting: a review of results, trends, theory, and opportunities in an expanding field of research
Hahn, R., & Kühnen, M. (2013) · Journal of Cleaner Production · doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2013.07.005 · Cited by 1,775
Greenwash: Corporate Environmental Disclosure under Threat of Audit
Lyon, T. P., & Maxwell, J. W. (2011) · Journal of Economics & Management Strategy · doi:10.1111/j.1530-9134.2010.00282.x · Cited by 1,569
The Means and End of Greenwash
Lyon, T. P., & Montgomery, A. W. (2015) · Organization & Environment · doi:10.1177/1086026615575332 · Cited by 1,636
Greenwash and Green Trust: The Mediation Effects of Green Consumer Confusion and Green Perceived Risk
Chen, Y.-S., & Chang, C.-H. (2013) · Journal of Business Ethics · doi:10.1007/s10551-012-1360-0 · Cited by 1,281
Greenwashing Revisited: In Search of a Typology and Accusation‐Based Definition Incorporating Legitimacy Strategies
Seele, P., & Gatti, L. (2017) · Business Strategy and the Environment · doi:10.1002/bse.1912 · Cited by 693
CSR as aspirational talk
Christensen, L. T., Morsing, M., & Thyssen, O. (2013) · Organization · doi:10.1177/1350508413478310 · Cited by 591
Gray Shades of Green: Causes and Consequences of Green Skepticism
Leonidou, C. N., & Skarmeas, D. (2017) · Journal of Business Ethics · doi:10.1007/s10551-015-2829-4 · Cited by 589
The quality of sustainability reports and impression management: A stakeholder perspective
Diouf, D., & Boiral, O. (2017) · Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal · doi:10.1108/aaaj-04-2015-2044 · Cited by 429
Sustainability Reporting and Assurance: A Historical Analysis on a World-Wide Phenomenon
Junior, R. M., Best, P. J., & Cotter, J. (2014) · Journal of Business Ethics · doi:10.1007/s10551-013-1637-y · Cited by 383
Can evoking nature in advertising mislead consumers? The power of ‘executional greenwashing'
Parguel, B., Benoit-Moreau, F., & Russell, C. A. (2015) · International Journal of Advertising · doi:10.1080/02650487.2014.996116 · Cited by 364
The Construction of Corporate Social Responsibility in Network Societies: A Communication View
Schultz, F., Castelló, I., & Morsing, M. (2013) · Journal of Business Ethics · doi:10.1007/s10551-013-1826-8 · Cited by 300
A systematic literature review on greenwashing and its relationship to stakeholders: state of art and future research agenda
Santos, C., Coelho, A., & Marques, A. (2024) · Management Review Quarterly · doi:10.1007/s11301-023-00337-5 · Cited by 235
Formative Perspectives on the Relation Between CSR Communication and CSR Practices: Pathways for Walking, Talking, and T(w)alking
Schoeneborn, D., Morsing, M., & Crane, A. (2020) · Business & Society · doi:10.1177/0007650319845091 · Cited by 230
The Influence of Environmental Friendliness on Green Trust: The Mediation Effects of Green Satisfaction and Green Perceived Quality
Chen, Y.-S., Lin, C.-Y., & Weng, C.-S. (2015) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su70810135 · Cited by 207
Mandatory Nonfinancial Disclosure and Its Consequences on the Sustainability Reporting Quality of Italian and German Companies
Mion, G., & Loza Adaui, C. R. (2019) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su11174612 · Cited by 180
Transcending transmission: Towards a constitutive perspective on CSR communication
Schoeneborn, D., & Trittin, H. (2013) · Corporate Communications: An International Journal · doi:10.1108/13563281311319481 · Cited by 170
Two Dimensions of Corporate Sustainability Assessment: Towards a Comprehensive Framework
Schneider, A., & Meins, E. (2012) · Business Strategy and the Environment · doi:10.1002/bse.726 · Cited by 155
Theory Assessment and Agenda Setting in Political CSR: A Critical Theory Perspective
Scherer, A. G. (2018) · International Journal of Management Reviews · doi:10.1111/ijmr.12137 · Cited by 149
Constructing a Corporate Social Responsibility Reputation Using Corporate Image Advertising
Pomering, A., & Johnson, L. W. (2009) · Australasian Marketing Journal · doi:10.1016/j.ausmj.2009.05.006 · Cited by 144
True transparency or mere decoupling? The study of selective disclosure in sustainability reporting
Roszkowska-Menkes, M., Aluchna, M., & Kamiński, B. (2024) · Critical Perspectives on Accounting · doi:10.1016/j.cpa.2023.102700 · Cited by 125
Is the European Union (EU) Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) effective in shaping sustainability objectives? An analysis of investment funds' behaviour
Cremasco, C., & Boni, L. (2024) · Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment · doi:10.1080/20430795.2022.2124838 · Cited by 88
“Actors accused of greenwash-ing face the threats of bad reputation with respect to the general audience, a condition that may lead to market exclusion, sanctions, and entering lawsuits (Laufer 2003; Torelli, Balluchi, and Lazzini 2020).”
“It’s Not Easy Being Green”: The Greenwashing of Environmental Discourses in Advertising
Budinsky, J., & Bryant, S. (2013) · Canadian Journal of Communication · doi:10.22230/cjc.2013v38n2a2628 · Cited by 53
Greenwashing in Sustainability Reporting: A Systematic Literature Review of Strategic Typologies and Content-Analysis-Based Measurement Approaches
Janik, A., & Ryszko, A. (2025) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su18010017 · Cited by 28
Effects of Perceived Luxury Value and Use of Sustainable Polyester on Brand Trust, Perceived Quality Risk, and Consumers’ Brand Evaluation
Kumagai, K., & Nagasawa, S. (2023) · Journal of Global Fashion Marketing · doi:10.1080/20932685.2022.2085594 · Cited by 18
Pseudo green players and their greenwashing practices: a differentiating strategy for real green firms of personal care category
Jog, D., & Singhal, D. (2019) · Strategic Direction · doi:10.1108/sd-07-2019-0143 · Cited by 17
CSR in BuyerrSeller Markets: The Impact of Assurance of Sustainability Reports and Incentives for CSR Investments
De Meyst, K., Cardinaels, E., & Van den Abbeele, A. G. H. L. (2017) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.2645965 · Cited by 5
Addressing the Accountability Gap in Greenwashing: The Limits of Regulation on Commercial Communication at the European Level
İpekel Kayalı, F., & Solak, E. (2026) · Journal of Consumer Policy · doi:10.1007/s10603-026-09615-7
Decoding Digital Greenwashing: A Quantitative Analysis of Signaling Theory, Brand Trust, and Purchase Intention among Generation Z Consumers in the Fast-Fashion Sector
Zhao, B., & Abu Bakar, A. (2026) · Social Reports · doi:10.66638/eg0dpq69

Authors: Laufer, W. S.
Venue: Journal of Business Ethics
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published: 2003-03
Volume: 43
Issue: 3
Pages: 253-261
ISSN: 0167-4544 (ISSN-L)
1573-0697
DOI: 10.1023/a:1022962719299
OpenAlex: W1988763630
Cited by: 1,366
References: 0
FWCI: 14.12
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: closed

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review