Green lies and their effect on intention to invest

The article explores the consequences of greenwashing deceptions on intention to invest. It analyses whether the presence of a greenwashing lie to stakeholders is detrimental to intention to invest. When a company greenwashes, it deliberately deceives stakeholders about its environmental commitment. Our results suggest that greenwashing has a greater negative impact on intention to invest than a corporate misbehaviour unrelated to a deceptive communication. In order to understand how different forms of greenwashing may affect intention to invest, we develop a typology of greenwashing deceptions, based on the variety of greenwashing cases that have emerged recently. The results show that individuals are less inclined to invest in a company that falsifies its claims (falsification) and which engages in manipulative business practices (deceptive manipulation), as compared to a company that instrumentally selects which information to disclose (information selection) or tries to obscure misbehaviours through publicizing its good business practices (attention diversion).