caa a22 4500 60548340X CHVBK 20210128100431.0 cr unu---uuuuu 210128e20150501xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s10551-014-2097-8 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s10551-014-2097-8 The Intentions with Which the Road is Paved: Attitudes to Liberalism as Determinants of Greenwashing [Elektronische Daten] [Thomas Roulet, Samuel Touboul] 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. Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht, 2014 Corporate social actions nationallicence Greenwashing nationallicence Economic liberalism nationallicence Competition nationallicence Individual responsibility nationallicence Country-level institutions nationallicence Roulet Thomas Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, Park End St, OX1 1HP, Oxford, UK aut Touboul Samuel Department of Strategy, IPAG Business School, 184 bd, Saint Germain, 75006, Paris, France aut Journal of Business Ethics Springer Netherlands 128/2(2015-05-01), 305-320 0167-4544 128:2<305 2015 128 10551 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2097-8 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2097-8 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Roulet Thomas Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, Park End St, OX1 1HP, Oxford, UK aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Touboul Samuel Department of Strategy, IPAG Business School, 184 bd, Saint Germain, 75006, Paris, France aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Journal of Business Ethics Springer Netherlands 128/2(2015-05-01), 305-320 0167-4544 128:2<305 2015 128 10551