Managerial myopia, technological innovation, and greenwashing: Moderating roles of financing constraints and environmental uncertainty

With growing concerns about the issue of greenwashing, it has been increasingly deemed critical to investigate the antecedents of greenwashing. This study employs the management discussion and analysis (MD&A) to construct managerial myopia and examine its effect on greenwashing as well as the influence mechanism by using a dataset with 7428 observations from 2012 to 2022. This study demonstrates that firms exhibiting a higher level of managerial myopia are more inclined to engage in greenwashing practices, which can be mediated by technological innovation. In addition, this study also corroborates that financing constraints and environmental uncertainty can reinforce the positive influences of managerial myopia on greenwashing. The results also indicate that the effects of managerial myopia on greenwashing are more pronounced among firms in recession stage and those with high levels of pollution. These findings can help identify the antecedents of greenwashing and inhibit firms from engaging in such practices.