The impact of digital transformation on corporate greenwashing: a meta-analysis

Purpose This study synthesizes the emerging empirical literature on the relationship between digital transformation and corporate greenwashing. It estimates the average association between digital transformation and greenwashing and examines whether this association varies according to construct operationalization, empirical design, and firm size. Design/methodology/approach The meta-analysis draws on 24 empirical effect-size estimates covering 269,857 firm-year observations. The evidence base is concentrated in Chinese listed firms. Random-effects models were used to estimate the pooled association. Moderator analyses examined differences by greenwashing measure, digital transformation measure, technology-family classification, empirical analysis type, and sample-group composition. Publication-bias and robustness checks included funnel-plot inspection, Duval and Tweedie's trim-and-fill procedure, Egger's regression test, leave-one-out diagnostics, and influence-based exclusion tests. Findings The results show a statistically significant but small negative association between digital transformation and greenwashing. Firms with higher levels of digital transformation tend, on average, to report lower levels of greenwashing. However, the relationship is highly heterogeneous. Moderator analyses indicate that the estimated association differs by greenwashing measure, technology-family classification, empirical analysis type, and sample-group composition, whereas the simple distinction between direct and indirect digital transformation measures does not significantly explain between-study variation. Robustness checks indicate that the pooled association remains negative across estimator-restricted sensitivity analyses and leave-one-out diagnostics. Originality/value This study provides one of the first meta-analytic syntheses of the digital transformation-greenwashing relationship. Its contribution lies less in establishing a universal anti-greenwashing effect of digital transformation and more in clarifying that the observed association is small, heterogeneous, measurement-sensitive, and currently grounded mainly in China-based firm-level evidence.