The Intentions with Which the Road is Paved: Attitudes to Liberalism as Determinants of Greenwashing

Verfasser / Beitragende:
[Thomas Roulet, Samuel Touboul]
Ort, Verlag, Jahr:
2015
Enthalten in:
Journal of Business Ethics, 128/2(2015-05-01), 305-320
Format:
Artikel (online)
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024 7 0 |a 10.1007/s10551-014-2097-8  |2 doi 
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245 0 4 |a The Intentions with Which the Road is Paved: Attitudes to Liberalism as Determinants of Greenwashing  |h [Elektronische Daten]  |c [Thomas Roulet, Samuel Touboul] 
520 3 |a Previous literature has shown contradictory results regarding the relationship between economic liberalism at the country level and firms' engagement in corporate social action (CSA). Because liberalism is associated with individualism, it is often assumed that firms will engage in mostly symbolic rather than substantive social and environmental actions; in other words, they will practice "greenwashing.” To understand how cultural beliefs in the virtues of liberalism affect the likelihood of greenwashing, we disentangle the effects of the distinct and co-existing beliefs in the virtues of economic liberalism. We begin by conducting an exploratory qualitative analysis of managers' sentiments on this matter, based on a focus group methodology. We then use these investigative elements to articulate a comparison of the conflicting theoretical arguments: in liberal contexts, are firms, as social entities, inherently selfish or pro-active when it comes to CSA? We empirically test our hypotheses on a large-scale dataset. Finally, we show paradoxically that in countries where beliefs in the virtues of competition are strong, firms are more likely to greenwash, while in countries where beliefs in the virtues of individual responsibility are prominent, firms are more likely to focus on concrete actions. These findings suggest that in contexts where weak governments are seen as ideal, firms might feel the need to step into fill institutional voids, in contexts in which competitive mindsets dominate, this tendency is counterbalanced. 
540 |a Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht, 2014 
690 7 |a Corporate social actions  |2 nationallicence 
690 7 |a Greenwashing  |2 nationallicence 
690 7 |a Economic liberalism  |2 nationallicence 
690 7 |a Competition  |2 nationallicence 
690 7 |a Individual responsibility  |2 nationallicence 
690 7 |a Country-level institutions  |2 nationallicence 
700 1 |a Roulet  |D Thomas  |u Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, Park End St, OX1 1HP, Oxford, UK  |4 aut 
700 1 |a Touboul  |D Samuel  |u Department of Strategy, IPAG Business School, 184 bd, Saint Germain, 75006, Paris, France  |4 aut 
773 0 |t Journal of Business Ethics  |d Springer Netherlands  |g 128/2(2015-05-01), 305-320  |x 0167-4544  |q 128:2<305  |1 2015  |2 128  |o 10551 
856 4 0 |u https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2097-8  |q text/html  |z Onlinezugriff via DOI 
898 |a BK010053  |b XK010053  |c XK010000 
900 7 |a Metadata rights reserved  |b Springer special CC-BY-NC licence  |2 nationallicence 
908 |D 1  |a research-article  |2 jats 
949 |B NATIONALLICENCE  |F NATIONALLICENCE  |b NL-springer 
950 |B NATIONALLICENCE  |P 856  |E 40  |u https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2097-8  |q text/html  |z Onlinezugriff via DOI 
950 |B NATIONALLICENCE  |P 700  |E 1-  |a Roulet  |D Thomas  |u Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, Park End St, OX1 1HP, Oxford, UK  |4 aut 
950 |B NATIONALLICENCE  |P 700  |E 1-  |a Touboul  |D Samuel  |u Department of Strategy, IPAG Business School, 184 bd, Saint Germain, 75006, Paris, France  |4 aut 
950 |B NATIONALLICENCE  |P 773  |E 0-  |t Journal of Business Ethics  |d Springer Netherlands  |g 128/2(2015-05-01), 305-320  |x 0167-4544  |q 128:2<305  |1 2015  |2 128  |o 10551