Exploring the Nexus between Corporate Greenwashing, Pay Disparities, and Fixed Asset Ratios in Chinese Firms amidst Emerging ESG Frameworks

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-811-0_97How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Greenwashing; Pay Disparities; ESG Practices; Fixed Asset

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between corporate greenwashing behaviors and salary disparities within Chinese A-share listed companies, utilizing panel regression models for empirical analysis on data spanning from 2012 to 2023. Furthermore, it examines how the nature of enterprises, industry characteristics, and shareholder ownership ratios influence this relationship, while also exploring the moderating role of fixed asset ratios. The findings reveal that greenwashing significantly exacerbates the salary gap, particularly within state-owned enterprises and those with low ownership concentration among major shareholders. Conversely, in heavily polluting industries, the impact of greenwashing on the salary gap is not statistically significant. Rigorous oversight and control by major shareholders with substantial ownership stakes can effectively mitigate the adverse effects of greenwashing on salary disparities. Moreover, the proportion of fixed assets exerts a negative moderating influence on the correlation between greenwashing and the salary gap, suggesting that firms with high fixed asset ratios adopt a more prudent approach to long-term resource allocation. This research contributes to the academic literature by addressing the influence of corporate greenwashing on employee salary disparities, elucidating the heterogeneous effects of greenwashing across different enterprise types, and providing empirical support for enhancing China's environmental governance legal framework and developing a multidimensional ESG evaluation system to foster sustainable corporate development.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Borui Hu
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/08/14
TI  - Exploring the Nexus between Corporate Greenwashing, Pay Disparities, and Fixed Asset Ratios in Chinese Firms amidst Emerging ESG Frameworks
BT  - Proceedings of the 2025 5th International Conference on Enterprise Management and Economic Development (ICEMED 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 886
EP  - 900
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-811-0_97
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-811-0_97
ID  - Hu2025
ER  -