From resource endowment to governance constraint: how does green intellectual capital influence corporate greenwashing?

Purpose Against the backdrop of the deepening environmental, social and governance, firms' greenwashing has emerged as a critical barrier to the effectiveness of environmental information disclosure and the efficiency of resource allocation. However, as the core integration of firms' green knowledge, human resources, institutions and relational capital, whether green intellectual capital can effectively constrain greenwashing remains lacking in systematic empirical evidence. Therefore, this study explores the impact of green intellectual capital on corporate greenwashing behavior. Design/methodology/approach This study uses Chinese A-share listed firms from 2011 to 2023 to validate a new measurement framework for green intellectual capital, which integrates two key dimensions: value-added efficiency and green knowledge density. The study further employs peer-relative disclosure performance deviation to capture the extent of corporate greenwashing. Findings Green intellectual capital significantly inhibits corporate greenwashing. The governance effectiveness of green intellectual capital is significantly dependent on the internal and external contextual characteristics of firms: managerial myopia significantly weakens its inhibitory effect on greenwashing, whereas analyst attention and environmental regulation can enhance the greenwashing constraining effect of green intellectual capital by strengthening external supervision and increasing the cost of false disclosure. The governance effectiveness of green intellectual capital in curbing greenwashing is more prominent in eastern regions with more improved institutional foundations, as well as in nonpolluting-intensive and nonregulated industries with relatively lower environmental pressure. Originality/value Our study uncovers the interactive effect of firms' green capability foundation, managerial decision-making preferences and external institutional constraints in greenwashing governance, expands the research boundaries of green intellectual capital and corporate environmental behavior, and provides empirical implications for improving the corporate green governance system.