Superstitious Beliefs to Mitigate Misfortune by Avoiding Unethical Practices: Zodiac Year Beliefs and Greenwashing

The extant research has attached increasing importance to the role of nonstandard managerial beliefs in affecting the decision-making process of firms. This study takes Zodiac year beliefs as an example of nonstandard managerial beliefs and investigates their influence on greenwashing, as well as the corresponding influence mechanism. The analysis is grounded in a dataset of A-share listed companies in China from 2009 to 2023. The results demonstrate that Zodiac year beliefs can inhibit firms from engaging in greenwashing. In addition, it is corroborated that Zodiac year beliefs can reduce the risk-taking level of firms, which in turn further mitigates the intention to engage in greenwashing. Finally, we also demonstrate that Confucianism can reinforce the negative influences of Zodiac year beliefs on greenwashing and risk-taking levels. The findings of this study provide some insights into how nonstandard managerial beliefs shape corporate unethical behaviour.