Patient Capital and Corporate Greenwashing

In the ESG investment wave, capital markets are highly concerned about corporate environmental performance. However, this creates a significant paradox with the increasingly covert and technological upgrading of corporate "greenwashing" behavior. This paper takes non-financial listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share markets in China from 2014 to 2023 as samples, constructs indicators of greenwashing and patient capital, and combines empirical methods such as the two-way fixed effects model to deeply explore the impact of patient capital on corporate greenwashing and its mechanism of action. The study found that patient capital can effectively curb corporate greenwashing behavior. The action pathways mainly include correcting the short-termism tendencies of management, enhancing the degree of green innovation of enterprises, and improving the transparency of information. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the effect varies under different financial conditions, governance structures, and institutional environments. This study reveals new mechanisms to curb corporate greenwashing from the perspective of the capital supply side, providing important theoretical and empirical evidence for investment institutions to optimize ESG strategies, enterprises to introduce long-term capital to drive real transformation, and regulators to build long-term governance mechanisms.