AccScience Publishing / AJWEP / Volume 22 / Issue 4 / DOI: 10.36922/AJWEP025280219
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

Corporate environmental, social, and governance greenwashing behavior under Central Environmental Protection Inspection: An executive attention perspective

Chen Lv1 ,  Jian Wang1 ,  Qi Zhao1 ,  Yuanyuan Xu1 ,  Yunjiao Xu1*
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1 Department of Business Management, School of Economics and Management, Tianjin Chengjian University, Tianjin, China
AJWEP 2025, 22(4), 219–239; https://doi.org/10.36922/AJWEP025280219
Received: 20 June 2025 | Revised: 22 July 2025 | Accepted: 25 July 2025 | Published online: 20 August 2025
© 2025 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
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Abstract

The Central Environmental Protection Inspection (CEPI) program is an important strategic deployment of China’s reform in the field of environmental protection that has attracted the attention of academia. However, with respect to the impact of CEPI on corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) greenwashing (Gws) behavior, particularly from the perspective of executive attention, the specific manifestations and strategic adjustments of corporate executives remain to be explored in greater depth. Based on the panel data of A-share–listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2013 to 2022, this paper employed the difference-in-differences model, with fixed year and industry effects, to examine the impact of CEPI on ESG Gws of enterprises. Empirically, it is found that CEPI can effectively inhibit corporate ESG Gws after one lagged period. For mechanistic analysis, financial slack (Fs) can positively moderate the effect of CEPI on corporate ESG Gws. In terms of the heterogeneity test, enterprises characterized by chief executive officer (CEO) duality, as well as those with executives possessing postgraduate education and financial backgrounds, exhibit a more pronounced effectiveness in curbing Gws practices. Moreover, further analysis revealed that high-powered CEOs are more actively utilizing Fs to cater to policy requirements. This research reveals the key factors in regulating enterprises’ environmental behaviors and curbing ESG Gws, while expanding the application scope of attention theory in enterprise management practices. It offers distinct implications for central regulators, local governments, and individual enterprises and provides new theories and ideas for the harmonious development of economies and the environment across various countries.

Keywords
Central Environmental Protection Inspection
Financial slack
ESG greenwashing
Executive attention
Funding
This study is funded by National Education Science Planning Project: Research on Multidimensional Identification of “Internationalization at Home” Learning Needs for College Students and Corresponding Teaching Mode Design (DIA220368).
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
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Asian Journal of Water, Environment and Pollution, Electronic ISSN: 1875-8568 Print ISSN: 0972-9860, Published by AccScience Publishing
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